GREECE
Athens gets two more years
According to the Munich daily, Greece's eurozone partners are to grant it an extra two years in order to balance its budget. Athens now has until 2016, instead of 2014, to get its deficit below 3% of GDP. It will also have to apply sweeping reforms in matters of energy policy and the labour market, as well as selling off public companies and state-owned land. Original article in Süddeutsche Zeitung de
BELGIUM
Fear of the axe
Car-maker Ford has announced that it will close its plant in the north-eastern city of Genk in 2014. Production will be phased out in 2013. "With the closure of Ford Genk, the province of Limburg lose its industrial motor," writes the Brussels daily, noting that the factory employs about 10,000 people in this important industrial region.Original article in De Standaard nl
DE STANDAARD BRUSSELS
HUNGARY
Two worlds face to face
Two giant demonstrations took place in Budapest yesterday to commemorate the anti-Soviet uprising of 1956. Supporters of Prime Minister Viktor Orbán took part in a "peace march" while between 50,000 to 100,000 anti-government protestors hailed former Prime Minister Gordon Bajnai. Bajnai, who recently founded an electoral alliance, formally announced his return to the political scene. He is considered a serious rival to Orbán ahead of the 2014 election. Original article in Népszabadság hu
NÉPSZABADSÁG BUDAPEST
GERMANY
70 years later
A memorial to Sinti and Roma gypsies murdered by the Nazi regime was inaugurated in Berlin on Wednesday. The Berlin alternative daily publishes a poem called "Auschwitz", by Italian Roma musician Santino Spinelli, which is engraved on the monument: "Hollow face - Eyes extinguished - Cold lips - Silence - A torn heart - No breathing - Wordless - No tears." Original article in Die Tageszeitung de
DIE TAGESZEITUNG BERLIN
SPAIN
Catalan polticians ask EU to prevent Spanish “military intervention”
Three Catalan MEPs have written a letter to European Commission Vice-President Viviane Reding, in which they assert that Spanish troops are "already preparing for a possible military intervention" in Catalonia if the region tries to secede. They call on Reding, who is also Commissioner for Justice, Fundamental Rights and Citizenship to examine whether to suspend Spain's European Council voting rights in such a case. The conservative Madrid daily lambasts the letter as "unprecedented in Spanish democracy" and a symptom "of nationalism's persecution mania." Original article in El Mundo es
EL MUNDO MADRID
PORTUGAL
Portugal has world’s second largest gold reserves
At a time when Portugal is experiencing a period of severe austerity in order to regain the confidence of the market, the World Gold Council — an association of the world's top gold mining companies — has suggested that it could use its gold reserves, accumulated during the authoritarian 1933-1974 Estado Novo (“New State) period, to guarantee its debt issues. Such a measure could reduce by half the interest rates on state bonds, the Lisbon daily reports. The value of the Bank of Portugal’s gold reserves have risen 9% since the beginning of the year and are worth over €1.4 billion euros. Original article in Diário económico pt
DIÁRIO ECONÓMICO LISBON
UNITED KINGDOM
BBC boss is accused of blocking Savile exposé
Helen Boaden, Director of BBC News, is accused of having sought to prevent the broadcast of an exposé revealing that Jimmy Savile, one of Britain’s most popular TV presenters, was a pedophile. The revelations about Savile, who died in 2011, and the attempts of the BBC hierarchy to kill the story, are currently rocking the entire institution. Original article in The Times en
THE TIMES LONDON
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