Greek cabinet discusses public sector cuts

Greek cabinet discusses public sector cuts-Greece's cabinet met Thursday to discuss how to implement a new round of austerity measures despite a surge in unemployment and a punishing recession, hoping to make sure the debt-strapped nation keeps receiving rescue loans and staves off a default.

The meeting came a day after the leaders of Germany, France and Greece insisted in an emergency teleconference that Greece remains an "integral" part of the eurozone, but stressed the country must meet its reform pledges.The outcome of the talks between German Chancellor Angela Merkel, French President Nicolas Sarkozy and Greek Prime Minister George Papandreou calmed markets after days of turmoil sparked by fears Greece was heading rapidly for a catastrophic default or leaving the 17-nation eurozone.

"We are still in a scenario where Greece is facing immense difficulties and the markets feel Greece's debt can't be resolved," said Benoit de Broissia, an analyst at KBL Richelieu in Paris.


"So markets are still speculating on Greece's bankruptcy although short-term the 'troika' is expected to release funds for Greece," he said, referring to the name for Greece's debt inspectors: the International Monetary Fund, European Central Bank and European Commission.

The main fear of a Greek bankruptcy is that it could destabilize other financially troubled European countries such as Portugal, Ireland, Spain or Italy. It would also affect banks, many of which are large holders of Greek government bonds. Moody's on Wednesday downgraded the credit ratings of two French banks.

Greece relies on funds from its bailout loans from other eurozone countries and the IMF, but that money depends on Greece meeting debt reduction targets and passing quarterly reviews.

On the table in Thursday's cabinet meeting was restructuring public television, merging state entities and toughening the civil service disciplinary code. Public television and radio workers planned a four-hour work stoppage and a demonstration outside parliament to protest plans to shut down a state television channel.

Greece, heavily in debt and in its third year of recession, responded to pressure from rescue creditors by imposing a new round of taxes expected to worsen hardship already facing wage-earners: an additional tax levy and emergency property tax to be raised through household electricity bills.

The cuts come as unemployment has surged, reaching 16.3 percent in the second quarter of 2011 compared to 11.8 for the same period a year ago, the country's Statistics Authority said Thursday.

The eurozone's finance ministers are to discuss the measures Friday at a meeting in Poland also attended by U.S. Treasury chief Timothy Geithner.

The troika suspended its review of Greece's reforms earlier this month, and is due back in Athens in the coming days to complete its recommendation as to whether the country should receive the next batch of bailout loans, worth euro8 billion ($11 billion). Without it, Greece only has enough cash to see it through mid-October.

After the review's suspension, the government announced it would impose an additional tax on all property owners. The Finance Ministry said late Wednesday the new tax would be on a sliding scale according to neighborhood and the age of the building.

"The ball in now in the Greek court," EU economic and monetary affairs commissioner Olli Rehn said in Brussels. "Over the last weekend the Greek government took very important decisions that go a long way towards meeting the fiscal target for this year."

Rehn said the review mission should conclude work by the end of September, "again on the condition that Greece will meet all the conditions."

In Frankfurt, Merkel stressed that it was "worth every effort to solve our central problem today — the debt crisis of individual euro countries."

"The euro is far more than a currency — it is a symbol of our common economic success and it is a symbol of our European unity," she said in a speech opening the Frankfurt Auto Show.

"The euro provides for economic growth, it provides for jobs and so for prosperity in Germany," Merkel said. "So it is completely clear that Germany — in our own deepest interest, and at the same time as Europe's biggest economy — has a duty and responsibility to make its contribution to securing the euro's future and strengthening Europe."

Merkel said turning the 17-nation eurozone into a stable union "won't happen overnight or with any one-time thunderbolt — it will only work in a controlled process of steps that follow on from each other."

Greece's international creditors have become increasingly frustrated with the slow pace of reforms and Athens' failure to meet some of its fiscal targets. Although the Socialist government has passed several rounds of austerity measures, including cutting public sector pay and pensions and increasing taxes, it has struggled to meet revenue targets. Athens has blamed a deeper recession than originally predicted, with the economy forecast to contract by more than 5 percent this year, instead of the earlier expected 3.8 percent.

No more dancing around issues in feminine hygiene

No more dancing around issues in feminine hygiene-Celebrities are gabbing about it openly. A growing number of grooming products cater to it. And a recent TV commercial hails it as "the cradle of life" and "the center of civilization."The vagina is becoming big business.

A generation that grew up with more graphic language and sexual images in the media is forgoing the decades-old practice of tiptoeing around female genitalia in favor of more open dialogue about it. To reach digital-age 20- and 30-somethings, who also have shortened attention spans, marketers are using ads that are edgier, more frank and sometimes downright shocking.

"Gen Y people are more relaxed about their bodies, so there's more attention to products that people would have been embarrassed to talk about before," says Deborah Mitchell, executive director for the Center for Brand and Product Management at the University of Wisconsin School of Business. "It's part of this trend of women saying, 'Hey, we're not embarrassed to talk about this."


The new freedom to talk about the vagina comes as marketers spend more to get women to buy products for the area. Ad spending for feminine hygiene products, including tampons, panty liners and cleansers, was up nearly 30 percent to $218.9 million in 2010 from two years ago, according to Kantar Media.

Pop culture also has a lot to do with Americans' — and companies' — increased comfort with women's nether regions. The term "vajayjay" became popular after media mogul Oprah Winfrey began using it on TV in 2007. Last month, actress Olivia Wilde, who stars on the Fox TV series "House," described her favorite vagina tattoo on TBS's "Conan.""I am about to pass out," Conan said.

The openness has spawned an industry of products and services. "Vajazzling" — gluing on sparkly gems such as Swarovski crystals to jazz up a bikini wax — became a phenomenon last year when actress Jennifer Love Hewitt mentioned it on the former TBS talk show "Lopez Tonight." It's now a popular service offered by some salons across the country. For instance, the Brazil Bronze Glow Bar spa in New York, charges $25 for house designs like a butterfly, dragon and heart, and up to $100 for custom-made designs.

Bettybeauty Inc., which makes pubic hair dye, was started by Nancy Jarecki in 2006 and sells its products at salons and beauty stores. The $14.99 product works like normal hair dye but is formulated to be safe for the pubic area. The colors run from basics like black, brown and blonde to hot pink, turquoise and purple.

Jarecki said sales have tripled since the line was introduced, although she declined to give figures. Some women are looking to cover gray hair, while others just want a fun color, she says. "When I came out with it, there was this kind of burst of 'Oh my god, you solved our problem. I didn't realize how much gray hair was down there,'" she said.

Big consumer products companies also are rolling out products for the vagina and using frank-talking ad campaigns to pitch them.Energizer Inc. in 2009 introduced the Schick Quattro Trimstyle Razor, which has a bikini trimmer on one side. An ad for the product, which first aired in Europe and shows women dancing to a catchy song called "Mow the Lawn" as they trim hedges, became a viral hit online. A toned down U.S. version of the ad shows shrubs shrinking into various designs as women walk by them — an allusion to trimming the bikini line.

Kimberly-Clark makes fun of stereotypically touchy-feely feminine products ads in its campaign for a new line of pads and tampons introduced last year and put them in brightly colored packaging. In the TV commercial, a woman says, "I want to hold really soft things, like my cat" and "sometimes I just want to run on the beach, I like to twirl, maybe in slow motion." The commercial then closes with the line: "Why are tampon ads so ridiculous?"

In July, the company introduced a designer series that includes pads with flowers, polka dots and stripes printed on them and a limited edition pad and tampon carrying case designed by "Sex and the City" TV series stylist Patricia Field. An accompanying online campaign called "BantheBland.com," allows users to design their own pads using bright colors and patterns; winning patterns will be manufactured and sold for a limited time."There's a lot of pressure these days for ads to go viral," said Brian Steinberg, TV editor at trade publication Advertising Age. "If you want a viral pickup you have to be a little eyebrow raising."

Some companies have stumbled over the line between provocative and offensive. In July, Fleet Laboratories, which makes the Summer's Eve feminine products, has had mixed success with its "Hail to the V" campaign to market its cleansing products.

One 60-second TV ad touts the "power of the 'V.'" It shows men throughout history battling each other while a voiceover says, "Over the ages and throughout the world, men have fought for it" and "it's the center of civilization." The ad then cuts to a modern day woman standing next to a shopping aisle of Summer's Eve products and the voiceover says, "So ladies, show it a little love."

But another series of ads, which showed people of different races' hands as puppets appearing to talk as though they were a vagina, was deemed racially insensitive and pulled from the air. The company apologized.

Rhonda Zahnen, a principal at The Richards Group, which created the ads, said despite the controversy, the company was pleased with the overall reaction to the campaign. She noted that about 25,000 have correctly completed its Summer's Eve's online "ID the V" body awareness quiz. And Stephen Colbert even did a parody of the talking-hands ads on Comedy Central's "The Colbert Report."

"We're really excited about having that kind of publicity and coverage. A month ago nobody was talking about feminine hygiene," says Zahnen, who added that Summer's Eve learned through research that women were ready to have frank discussions about their bodies. "We just wanted to be sure that the conversation is focused on celebrating and empowering women."

Palestinian bid for UN to be submitted on Sept. 23

Palestinian bid for UN to be submitted on Sept. 23-The Palestinian request for a full membership would be submitted to the United Nations Security Council after Palestinian National Authority President Mahmoud Abbas addresses the international organization on Sept. 23, the Palestinian Foreign Minister said Thursday.

After Abbas' address, he will go to the UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon to present him with the Palestinian request, said Foreign Minister Riad al-Maliki in an interview with official Palestinian news agency Wafa.Abbas' speech would be delivered to the UN General Assembly in New York, but the request to be a member of the UN would be given to the Security Council so the Palestinian would get full membership, al-Maliki added.The United States hinted at using veto to block the Palestinian bid, saying that the Palestinian state should come through a negotiated agreement with Israel.


Al-Maliki said the Palestinian would go to the Security Council despite the possible U.S. veto, noting that the Palestinians appreciate support from Arab countries, the Organization of Islamic Cooperation, the Non-Aligned Movement, most of South American states and the African Union.

But the Palestinians still do not know the position of the European Union, Al-Maliki said, adding that the EU foreign policy Chief Catherine Ashton was leading an effort to put proposals and visions to prevent any crisis or tension among the parties at the United Nations.

He affirmed that the Palestinians are determined to turn to the UN, regardless any compromise or offers.

Palaces of the deposed rulers

So it was the residence of Saddam Hussein al-Makar Tartarus Tartarus at the lake, so it was with the family homes across the Gaddafi of Libya. When the rebels occupy these buildings, they are the first who was called to life the leaders.

Poverty hits record number of Americans

Poverty hits record number of Americans-A RECORD 46 million Americans were living in poverty last year, pushing the US poverty rate to its highest level since 1993, according to a government report on unemployment.The US Census Bureau said the poverty rate rose for a third consecutive year to hit 15.1 percent.The number in poverty was the largest since the government first began publishing estimates in 1959.

The report comes as the economic straits of ordinary Americans are at the forefront of next year's election campaign.President Barack Obama is suffering low approval ratings on the economy, and evidence of rising poverty could give popular momentum to the US$450 billion job-creation program he unveiled last week.

The US now has the highest poverty rate among developed countries, according to the Paris-based Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development.The poverty line for a US family of four, two adults and two children, is defined as an income US$22,113 a year.


In a sign of decline for middle-income Americans, the figures showed continued decline in the number of Americans with employer-provided health insurance, while the ranks of the un-insured hovered just below 50 million in a population of just over 300 million.Underlying the census data was a rate of economic growth too meager to compensate for the loss of hundreds of thousands of jobs during last year as the recession officially ended but the jobless rate rose from 9.3 percent to 9.6 percent.

Heidi Shierholz, an economist at the Economic Policy Institute, said: "The deterioration in the labor market caused incomes to drop, poverty to rise and people to lose their health insurance."One of the immediately obvious issues this brings up is that there is no relief in sight."

The numbers would have been worse, analysts said, but for government assistance programs, including extended unemployment compensation, stimulus spending and health reforms, which reduced the number of uninsured young adults.In Obama's hometown of Chicago, Salvation Army Major David Harvey knows well the effects of grinding poverty on the city's south side, where he attended a food giveaway on Tuesday.

"There are more families falling into poverty," he said. "That is multi-plied on the south side of Chicago where there are pockets with 20 percent, or more, unemployment.

"There are people crying for jobs. They move out of state to get jobs because employers are leaving because of the tax increases here."Blacks and Hispanics together accounted for 54 percent of those in poverty, whites 9.9 percent and Asians 12.1 percent.

Kabul siege ends but militants give reminder of their strength

Kabul siege ends but militants give reminder of their strength-A MARATHON siege in Kabul's diplomatic enclave ended yesterday with the death of the last two of a group of gunmen who had held off Western and Afghan security forces for nearly 20 hours, showering rockets on Western embassies in a dramatic show of insurgent strength.It was the longest and most audacious militant attack on the Afghan capital in the decade since the Taliban were ousted from power and a stark reminder of insurgents' resources and reach as Western forces start to return home.At least 11 civilians were killed, three of them children, NATO-led foreign forces said. The Ministry of the Interior said four policemen died, and that toll was likely to rise.

US Ambassador Ryan Crocker said around six or seven rockets had hit inside the embassy perimeter during the early hours of the attack, launched early on Tuesday afternoon, but said the range meant they had not posed a serious threat.


"They were firing from at least 800 meters away and with an RPG (rocket-propelled grenade). That's harassment. That's not an attack," he said.

The insurgents had holed up in a multi-story building under construction and launched their attack by firing rockets toward the US and other embassies and the headquarters of NATO-led foreign forces.

Three suicide bombers also targeted police buildings in other parts of the city, but the embassy district assault was the most spectacular.Afghan security forces backed by NATO and Afghan attack helicopters fought floor-by-floor in the 13-story building, which the six insurgents appeared to have booby-trapped.

They had arrived disguised as women in burqas, in a car packed with explosives, and entered the high-rise after shooting a security guard."As our country is traditional and Islamic, there is a special respect for women and the enemies exploited this to get to the building," Kabul Police Chief Ayoub Salangi said.

The gunmen hid from helicopters and government and foreign troops in lift shafts and a maze of small rooms.

The group was armed with rocket-propelled grenade launchers, AK-47 assault rifles and bomb vests, a Taliban spokesman said, but the time they held out prompted speculation they had hidden weapons in the building."There was almost certainly either a breakdown in security among the Afghans with responsibility for Kabul or an intelligence failure," said Andrew Exum, fellow at the Center for a New American Security.

Embassies and restaurants frequented by foreigners were on lock-down on Tuesday evening. The US and British embassies and the NATO-led coalition said staff were safe.Ambassador Crocker said he believed the Haqqani network was behind the attack.Violence is at its worst since US-backed Afghan forces toppled the Taliban government in late 2001.

Nurse's killer used military technique, court told

Nurse's killer used military technique, court told-A FORMER US marine murdered the nurse manager Michelle Beets using a technique that he learnt during his military training to kill an enemy sentry, a NSW Supreme Court jury was told yesterday.

Walter Ciaran Marsh, 50, came up behind Ms Beets as she arrived at her Chatswood home, slit her throat and stabbed her eight times in the chest using a flick knife, the Crown Prosecutor, Mark Tedeschi, QC, said.Mr Marsh hated Ms Beets because she did not extend his contract as a nurse in the emergency department of Royal North Shore Hospital and he believed she was giving him ''bad references'' to prospective employers, Mr Tedeschi said.On the night of the murder, Mr Marsh allegedly told his Vietnamese wife, Samantha, that he killed Ms Beets and their lives would improve as the bad references would no longer prevent him from getting work.


He also told her ''important details that he couldn't possibly know unless he was the killer'', Mr Tedeschi said. He had cut electricity to the house to disable the sensor light and had broken a window to make the murder look like a robbery gone wrong.

Mr Tedeschi said approaching a victim from behind and grabbing their chin is ''a technique that every single marine is taught at boot camp''.

''[It's] how to be a marine 101 - how to kill an enemy sentry with minimal opportunity from them to call out and alert other people.''

Mrs Marsh is expected to tell the jury that her husband practised the technique on her and her brother, who cannot be named for legal reasons, in the weeks before Ms Beets's murder.

Outside the court, Ms Beets's partner, David Grant, said he continues to grieve her ''tragic and deeply distressing'' death.

''The trial presents the opportunity for justice. It will also be a testing time for all of us,'' he said.

Mr Marsh, a US citizen, was desperate to get work as a nurse because, without employment in that field, his 457 visa would become invalid.

The couple could not live in the US as Mrs Marsh had been denied entry to the country.