Burnishing the bailout plan for European debt crisis
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REPORTING FROM LONDON –- European leaders are closing in on an agreement to fight the region’s debt crisis by making their bailout fund worth more than $1.4 trillion, partly through public and private investments they hope will come from fast-growing countries such as China and Brazil, German officials said Monday.
Leading members of Germany’s parliament, who were briefed by Chancellor Angela Merkel, told reporters that the bailout fund was likely to be leveraged to more than twice its present size of $600 billion.
The boost would come through a combination of using the emergency backstop to insure holders of Eurozone public debt against a portion of their potential losses and by setting up a fund that could attract such outside investors as the government of China. Both options would multiply the power of the bailout fund without demanding more money to be pitched in by the Eurozone governments themselves, which are leery of inciting taxpayer ire.
Increasing the firepower of the bailout fund – formally known as the European Financial Stability Facility, or EFSF -– is considered crucial in the battle against the debt crisis because its current size is too small to prop up major economies such as Italy and Spain if they come under attack from the markets. Greece, Ireland and Portugal have already received emergency aid, depleting the amount of money available to help other Eurozone countries.
‘There will be a leveraging of the EFSF,’ Juergen Trittin, a leader of Germany’s Green Party, told reporters in Berlin on Monday. He said the amount was likely to exceed a trillion euros, or about $1.4 trillion.
Trittin’s comments, and those of other German lawmakers, came a day after European Union leaders met in Brussels to hammer out the details of a ‘grand plan’ to contain the gravest challenge to face the euro since it was launched nine years ago.
European officials are expected to unveil their strategy at a summit Wednesday in what could prove a make-or-break moment in the debt crisis, which has intensified far more quickly than leaders have been able to mount a credible response.
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Egypt to free Israeli American as part of prisoner swap
October 24, 2011 | 12:55 pm
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REPORTING FROM JERUSALEM -- Israel and Egypt announced a prisoner swap Monday that will free American Israeli citizen Ilan Grapel, who was arrested four months ago in Cairo on suspicion that he spied for Israel and incited antigovernment unrest.
New York-born Grapel, who obtained Israeli citizenship in 2005, will be exchanged for 25 Egyptians being held in Israeli jails, according to a statement from Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Israeli officials, as well as Grapel’s friends and family, denied that the 27-year-old worked for Israel’s Mossad intelligence agency. They described the Emory University law school student as an idealistic, sometimes naive, adventure seeker with a keen interest in Arabic language and culture.
Egyptian media said he entered the country illegally, posing as a journalist. His mother told Israeli media that he arrived in May for a temporary stint with St. Andrew’s Refugee Services, a nonprofit refugee assistance agency. On his Facebook page, Grapel posted pictures of himself holding protest signs at Cairo demonstrations called to demand a quicker transition to democracy.
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James Murdoch’s 2nd date with phone-hacking panel set for Nov. 10
October 24, 2011 | 12:25 pm
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REPORTING FROM LONDON — British lawmakers have set a date for James Murdoch, son of media tycoon Rupert Murdoch, to again be grilled about how much he knew about alleged phone-hacking practices at the now-defunct British tabloid News of the World and what practices he allowed, a parliamentary committee announced Monday.
The junior Murdoch, who is chairman of News International, a British unit of News Corp. that owned the tabloid, will be questioned by the committee Nov. 10. He will be called to address allegations by a former editor and former legal advisor of the paper that he was more aware of the wide use of phone-hacking by the publication’s reporters than he has previously acknowledged, and allegedly authorized the payoff of at least one celebrity victim of the practice. James Murdoch last faced the inquiry panel in July, along with his 80-year-old father.
Meanwhile, in his first appearance before the panel since the tabloid’s forced closure, News International executive Les Hinton on Monday offered little new insight into alleged phone-hacking under his stewardship of the company. What stood out in Hinton’s appearance was a string of ‘I don’t remember’ responses.
Public outrage triggered the News of the World’s closure in July after revelations that the paper’s reporters had hacked into messages on the mobile phone of murdered teenager Milly Dowler, raising hopes that the missing student might still be alive. Police chiefs and News International executives and staff have resigned in the wake of the scandal.
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Rupert Murdoch appearing before a parliamentary committee July 19. Credit: Parbul TV / Reuters
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Turkey declines Israeli assistance in earthquake recovery
October 24, 2011 | 10:44 am
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REPORTING FROM JERUSALEM -- The massive earthquake that shook eastern Turkey on Sunday was felt across the Mediterranean and rattled skyscrapers as far away as Tel-Aviv and other cities in Israel, once a close strategic ally of Turkey.
Israeli diplomatic, defense, and emergency authorities spoke with their Turkish counterparts and expressed their condolences. They offered assistance and Israel’s army has put its rescue and recovery teams on call. But for now Turkey has politely declined help from Israel and other nations, saying it hoped to tackle the crisis on its own. Turkish officials stressed that the decision was not politically motivated.
Relations with Turkey soured during Israel’s military assault on the Gaza Strip nearly two years ago and might have recovered had it not been for the ill-fated raid on May 2010 by the Israeli military on the Turkish ship Mavi Marmara, which was leading an aid flotilla to Gaza. Nine passengers were killed during Israel’s naval interception of the boats.
Ties between the two nations sank to a new low in September when Israel refused to apologize, prompting Turkey to expel Israel’s ambassador and partially suspend defense and trade ties.
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