Εξοικονομώντας Χρήματα για την Υγεία

Αν κάθε νοσοκομείο της Ελλάδας επανεπεξεργαζόταν το 20% των ιατρικού εξοπλισμού που χαρακτηρίζεται ως μιας χρήσης, το σύστημα της υγειονομικής περίθαλψης και κοινωνικής ασφάλισης θα εξοικονομούσε περισσότερο από διακόσια εκατομμύρια ευρώ ετησίως. Τα χρήματα αυτά θα μπορούσε να διατεθούν στην αγορά φαρμάκων, την ενίσχυση ταμείων, την εξυγίανση των οικονομικών των νοσοκομείων.

Μπαν Κι-μουν: «Ανησυχητική» η ανακοίνωση της Β. Κορέας για πυραύλους ικανούς να πλήξουν τις ΗΠΑ

Ο Γενικός Γραμματέας του ΟΗΕ Μπαν Κι-μουν κατήγγειλε σήμερα την «ανησυχητική δήλωση» της Βόρειας Κορέας ότι έχει στην κατοχή της στρατηγικούς πυραύλους ικανούς να πλήξουν το έδαφος των Ηνωμένων Πολιτειών.

«Είναι μια ανησυχητική δήλωση η οποία θα αυξήσει τις εντάσεις», δήλωσε στο Γαλλικό Πρακτορείο ο Μπαν, ο οποίος πάντως αναγνώρισε ότι δεν έχει πληροφορίες για να κρίνει την αξιοπιστία αυτής της απειλής. Η Βόρεια Κορέα «καυχήθηκε» σήμερα ότι έχει στρατηγικούς πυραύλους ικανούς να πλήξουν το έδαφος των Ηνωμένων Πολιτειών, μια κίνηση «μπλόφας», σύμφωνα με πολλούς ειδικούς, που αποτελεί απάντηση στη συμφωνία που επιτεύχθηκε την Κυριακή μεταξύ της Ουάσιγκτον και της Σεούλ για την αύξηση του βεληνεκούς των πυραύλων της Νότιας Κορέας.

CNBC: Euro Zone, IMF Mull 2-Year Extension for Greek Bailout

International lenders are considering giving Greece two more years to reach its budget deficit reduction targets, and the extra time could be financed without more money from the euro zone, Greek Finance Minster Yannis Stournaras said.

"It is now on the table by all members of the troika," Stournaras told reporters of the two-year extension. "All the exercises that we are doing now they assume that the program will last up to 2016, that ... 4.5 percent of (gross domestic product for the budget deficit) will be achieved in 2016 rather than in 2014."

He added: "The implicit assumption is that the program will be extended despite the fact that it remains extremely frontloaded."

FRANCE 24: Merkel pledges support for Greece on Athens visit

German Chancellor Angela Merkel said at a meeting with Greek Prime Minister Antonis Samaras in Athens on Tuesday that the “tough path” of punishing spending cuts will pay off, while thousands took to the streets to protest her visit.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel told Greece on Tuesday that the "tough path" of painful spending cuts will pay off, as tens of thousands of protesters massed in the capital in a show of anger against her visit to the eurozone's most indebted nation.

CNN: Protesters rally as Merkel voices support for austerity-hit Greece

Athens, Greece (CNN) -- German Chancellor Angela Merkel expressed solidarity with Greece Tuesday on a trip to Athens, even as tens of thousands of Greeks rallied to show their anger toward her over the hardship their country is suffering.

Critics see Merkel as the main enforcer of the European Union-imposed austerity measures that have left a large number of Greeks unemployed and streaming to soup kitchens for a hot meal.

Police estimated that as many as 25,000 people turned out to demonstrate in central Athens, despite a ban on protests in certain areas amid beefed-up security for Merkel's six-hour stay.

Pakistani girl shot over activism in Swat valley, claims Taliban

Malala Yousafzai receives the National Youth Peace Prize from Pakistan's prime minister, Yousuf Raza Gilani. Photograph: EPA

A 14-year old Pakistani activist who championed education for girls has been shot in the head by a Taliban gunman.

The attack on Malala Yousafzai, who became famous for highlighting Taliban atrocities, happened as she sat in a bus preparing to leave the school grounds in Mingora, the main city in the Swat valley which was the scene of intense fighting between the army and the Taliban in 2009.

At least one other girl was also hurt in the attack on Tuesday that a Taliban spokesman, Ehsanullah Ehsan, quickly claimed the group was responsible for.

The Guardian:Greek anti-fascist protesters 'tortured by police' after Golden Dawn clash

Fifteen anti-fascist protesters arrested in Athens during a clash with supporters of the neo-Nazi party Golden Dawn have said they were tortured in the Attica General Police Directorate (GADA) – the Athens equivalent of Scotland Yard – and subjected to what their lawyer describes as an Abu Ghraib-style humiliation.

Members of a second group of 25 who were arrested after demonstrating in support of their fellow anti-fascists the next day said they were beaten and made to strip naked and bend over in front of officers and other protesters inside the same police station.

A protester shows his injuries

Several of the protesters arrested after the first demonstration on Sunday 30 September told the Guardian they were slapped and hit by a police officer while five or six others watched, were spat on and "used as ashtrays" because they "stank", and were kept awake all night with torches and lasers being shone in their eyes.

Bruising on the protester's leg

Some said they were burned on the arms with a cigarette lighter, and they said police officers videoed them on their mobile phones and threatened to post the pictures on the internet and give their home addresses to Golden Dawn, which has a track record of political violence.

Golden Dawn's popularity has surged since the June election, when it won 18 seats in parliament; it recently came third in several opinion polls, behind the conservative New Democracy and the leftwing party Syriza.

BBC: Merkel pledges support for Greece in Athens visit

German Chancellor Angela Merkel has pledged her country's continuing support to Greece, during her first visit to Athens since the eurozone crisis erupted nearly three years ago.

Mrs Merkel said Greece had made good progress in dealing with its vast debt but that it was on a "difficult path".

Thousands of people who blame Germany for forcing painful austerity measures on Greece are protesting in Athens.

Police have used teargas and stun grenades against demonstrators.

Der Spiegel: 'We Are Partners and We Are Friends'

In her first visit to Greece since 2007, Angela Merkel offered verbal support for Athens, saying "there is progress every day." The German chancellor also announced two Berlin-funded development projects focusing on health care and regional administration. She was greeted by some 50,000 demonstrators in Athens protesting her tough demands for economic reforms.

They didn't necesarily represent the majority, but the message they brought with them was a bitter one. Some of the estimated 50,000 protesters on the streets of Athens greeted the German chancellor on Tuesday with swastikas, signs with epithets like "Out with the Fourth Reich" and placards depicting her face and a painted-on Hitler mustache.

Ο ΠΡΩΘΥΠΟΥΡΓΟΣ ΤΟΥ ΙΡΑΚ ΕΠΙΒΕΒΑΙΩΝΕΙ ΣΥΜΦΩΝΙΑ $ 4 ΔΙΣ. ΜΕ ΤΗ ΡΩΣΙΑ ΓΙΑ ΑΓΟΡΑ ΟΠΛΩΝ

Η Ρωσία θα παραδώσει επιθετικά ελικόπτερα και κινητά συστήματα αεράμυνας στο Ιράκ, συμφωνία όπλων αξίας $ 4.2 δις. που υπεγράφη νωρίτερα αυτό το έτος, αποκάλυψη που έγινε σήμερα κατά τη διάρκεια της επίσκεψης του Ιρακινού πρωθυπουργού στη Μόσχα Nuri al-Maliki, ο οποίος συναντήθηκε με τον ομόλογο του Dmitry Medvedev.

Η Μόσχα θα παράσχει 30 Mil Mi-28NE επιθετικά ελικόπτερα παντός καιρού, και 50 Pantsir-S1 συστήματα αεράμυνας πυραύλων μικρού βεληνεκούς. Οι συμβάσεις, μεταξύ των μεγαλύτερων που έχουν συναφθεί από τις δύο χώρες, υπεγράφησαν τον Απρίλιο, τον Ιούλιο και τον Αύγουστο από τον υπουργό Αμύνης του Ιράκ, σύμφωνα με έγραφα που δημοσιοποιήθηκαν την Τρίτη κατά τη διάρκεια της επίσκεψης του al-Maliki.