Merkel speaks up for embattled German president

Merkel speaks up for embattled German president
Chancellor Angela Merkel defended the beleaguered President Christiancheap wholesale jewelryWulff on Monday, as the head of state is struggling with a deepening loan scandal.
"The president is doing a great job and the things that have been brought up are being explained by him personally," said Merkel during her visit in Kosovo. "He has my full support."
Criticism intensified over the weekend as Wulff admitted to having failed to disclose a half-million-euro (650,000 U.S. dollars) private home loan on favorable terms he received while serving as the state premier of the northern German state of Lower Saxony betweenjewelry stores 2003 and 2010.
The president said he should have acknowledged the home loan sooner despite having nothing to hide because the matterdiscount fashion jewelry was private, saying he regrets that his handling of the issue may have created the "wrong impression."
Wulff has served as president for 18 months after his predecessor Horst Koehler resigned over heavy criticism about undiplomatic comments he made on Germany'scheap silver jewelry military role in the world.

Egypt ends first day of key parliamentary vote with high turnout

Egypt ends first day of key parliamentary vote with high turnout
Polling stations in nine provinces across Egypt closed at 9 p.m. on Monday after a two-hour extension wholesale fashion jewelrydue to the high turnout in the first stage of the country's historic parliamentary elections.
At the start of the vote at 8 a.m. local time (0600 GMT), voters queued up at polling stations in Cairo. The turnout was high. "Today, nearly 1,000 voters cast their votes here," said a judge at a polling station specially for women in downtown Cairo on Monday evening. "No violations were reported."
By Monday evening, many electoral workers were still busy receiving voters despite a slight decline in the turnout. Abdel Ibrahim, chairman of the High Judicialcheap jewelry Elections Commission, told reporters late Monday that the voting was smooth except that three polling stations were closed due to clashes.
About 17 million eligible voters are expected to go to 3,809 polling stations in the ninewholesale jewelrygovernorates in the first stage. Around 2,357 independent candidates will contest 57 seats, while 1, 452 party candidates will compete for 112 seats.
The People's Assembly polls are held over three stages, each with a run-off one week after the vote. The whole vote will be finished on Jan. 10 and the final results will befashion jewelry announced by Jan. 13.

Greek PM backs off idea of Europe bailout vote

Greek PM backs off idea of Europe bailout vote

PRIME Minister George Papandreou said yesterday that he would scrap a referendum on Greece's bailout lifeline if the conservative opposition agreed to back the package in parliament.

Events in Athens gathered speed a day after Papandreou held a bruising meeting in France with German and French leaders, who told him Athens would not receive a cent more in aid until it voted to meet its commitments under the bailout deal.

"I will be glad even if we don't go to a referendum, which was never a purpose in itself. I'm glad that all this discussion has at least brought a lot of people back to their senses," he said in a speech to his cabinet. "If the opposition comes to the table to back the bailout, a referendum is not needed."

The conservative opposition and some lawmakers within Papandreou's socialist party PASOK demanded some kind of unity government which would push through parliament the 130 billion-euro rescue,,cheap adidas shoes, Greece's last financial lifeline.

Under intense pressure at home and from the leaders of Germany and France, Papandreou softened his insistence that the Greek people should decide in a referendum whether to accept the bailout, which demands yet more austerity.

Conservative leader Antonis Samaras led calls for a new government.

"I'm asking for the formation of a temporary, transitional government with an exclusive mandate to immediately hold elections," Samaras said in a statement. "And the ratification of the bailout deal from the current parliament."

Papandreou responded by welcoming the decision by Samaras to drop his previous opposition to the bailout package, which eurozone leaders nailed down only last week as they tried to prevent the bloc's debt crisis from running out of control. Papandreou reiterated that Greece's eurozone membership was not in question and that heading to elections immediately would entail a big risk of the country going bankrupt.

Greeks have fiercely opposed the spending cuts, tax hikes and job losses that have been the price of financial aid from the IMF and EU to tackle its huge debt and budget deficit.Moncler women's jackets This has led to a wave of strikes and outbreaks of violence on the streets of Athens.

A spokesman for the New Democracy Party said a transitional government should not be composed of party politicians. He declined to elaborate. However,discounted designer handbags the idea appeared to be gaining ground within Papandreou's own party.

A small group of senior PASOK lawmakers are preparing a proposal for a coalition government headed by former European Central Bank Vice President Lucas Papademos, a Greek.

Officials said Papandreou, who also called a vote of confidence in his government today, was not resigning and would await the result of the talks with New Democracy.,Moncler men jackets, "There is no resignation by the prime minister," one official said.

Finance Minister Evangelos Venizelos broke ranks with Papandreou, coming out against holding the referendum after the meeting with the German and French leaders.

Chaos over Greece's role in the eurozone swept financial markets with early losses in stocks and the euro turning to gains on hopes Athens might ditch its referendum plans. The Greek stock exchange rose 5 percent on speculation the referendum would be abandoned, with the index of bank shares soaring 15 percent. World stocks gained 0.9 percent after earlier being sharply lower.

China's Vice FM to attend SAARC conference

China's Vice FM to attend SAARC conference

Vice Foreign Minister Zhang Zhijun will attend the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) Conference in the Maldives next week.

Zhang will lead the Chinese delegation to the 17th SAARC summit scheduled for Nov.10 to 11, Foreign Ministry spokesman Hong Lei said at the daily press briefing.

Founded in 1985, the SAARC is an organization of eight South Asian nations, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, the Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Afghanistan.Wholesale Monster Headphones

As the most important regional cooperation organization in South Asia, the SAARC has played a positive part in promoting inter-member cooperation and boosting regional economic and social development,Christian Louboutin shoes Hong said.Replica Rolex watches

"China wishes the upcoming summit a success and expects the SAARC to make new progress and contribute more to peace, stability and development in South Asia," Hong said.

Since China became an observer of the SAARC in 2005, China has sent senior delegations to SAARC summits and expanded cooperation with the organization in all fields, Hong said.

China will continue to carry out friendly exchanges and pragmatic cooperation with the SAARC and play a constructive role in promoting regional peace,Lions jerseys authentic stability and prosperity, Hong said.

Protesters set to tell G20 to put people first

Protesters set to tell G20 to put people first

THOUSANDS of protesters were converging yesterday on the French Riviera to urge the Group of 20 leading economies to focus on spreading global largesse more equitably instead of saving banks and pleasing financial markets.

Scores of French and international activist groups with a range of missions - from a tax on financial transactions to better environmental protection and fairer labor laws - are organizing protests around the summit of G-20 leaders in Cannes tomorrow and Friday.

Their biggest march was planned for yesterday in Nice, under the slogan "People First, Not Finance."

Later they will march on nearby Monaco, known for its friendly tax laws, to urge an end to tax havens.

While some of their goals overlap with that of the Occupy Wall Street movement that has spread to cities around North America and Europe, the protesters in Nice have not latched onto the Occupy name. The protesters planned their actions many months ago and are pushing agendas they have long championed.

Security concern

Security is a major concern for this week's protests. More than 12,000 police and other security officers are being deployed to maintain order,Demeco Ryans white jerseys with police speedboats stationed in front of luxury yachts in the Riviera harbors and parts of the famed Boulevard de la Croisette in Cannes closed to the public with steel fences.

"We have had a complicated year on the international level what with the death of Osama bin Laden,Sanyo Projector Lamp interventions notably in Libya with an intense and charged situation there. So the terrorist threat level is heightened to a reinforced code red," French Interior Ministry spokesman Pierre-Henry Brandet said.,Cheap authentic nfl jerseys,

"Even if the public and the demonstration organizers want the protest to be a peaceful one and to take place in the best possible way,,cheap adidas shoes, there is nonetheless the risk that on the margins of this demonstration there could be small groups that could infiltrate the demonstration with no other desire than to cause trouble and we're particularly wary of that," he said.

Police in France, where protests and strikes are a common form of public debate and can occasionally degenerate into violence, are well-versed in crowd control and not shy about using tear gas to disperse rowdy demonstrators.

Organizers are expecting between 5,000 and 15,000 people for the protests. Among their leading causes is a push for a small tax on all international financial transactions that would be used for development aid to poorer nations.

But the leaders at the summit are primarily focused on keeping Greece from defaulting and helping Europe overcome its debt crises, which have threatened the global recovery and rocked financial markets.

Citigroup to pay $285 mln to settle SEC charges

Citigroup to pay $285 mln to settle SEC charges

U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) announced Wednesday that Citigroup agreed to pay 285 million U.S. dollars to settle charges by SEC against its principal U.S. broker-dealer subsidiary for misleading investors about a one-billion-dollar collateralized debt obligation (CDO).

Under the settlement, Citigroup was required to pay 160 million dollars in disgorgement plus 30 million dollars in pre-judgement interest and a 95-million-dollar penalty for a total of 285 million dollars that would be returned to investors, said the SEC.Super Bowl jerseys

The SEC alleged that Citigroup Global Markets structured and marketed a CDO, which was tied to the U.S. housing market in which Citigroup bet against investors as the housing market showed signs of distress. The CDO defaulted within months, leaving investors with losses while Citigroup made 160 million dollars in fees and trading profits.

"Investors were not informed that Citigroup had decided to bet against them and had helped choose the assets that would determine who won or lost,There are a number of different types of NFL jerseys. Authentic NFL jerseys are generally the most expensive and can be the most sought after, nfl jerseys but will be of good quality." said Robert Khuzami, director of the SEC division of enforcement.Broncos JerseysVikings Jerseys

The settlement also required remedial action by Citigroup in its review and approval of offerings of certain mortgage-related securities, the SEC added.

Thailand Takes a Risk to Ease Flood

Thailand Takes a Risk to Ease Flood
Thai officials beat a retreat in their bid to prevent floodwaters from pouring into Bangkok on Thursday, instead adopting a potentially risky new plan for a controlled release of the waters through the city's wholesale silk tiecanals and eastern suburbs.
With massive amounts of water bearing down on the city and worries driving down stock prices in Bangkok and Japan—the biggest foreign investor in polo ralph lauren T-shirtThailand—Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra told reporters there was no option left but to let some floodwater drain through parts of the capital to help free up a flood-stricken industrial belt north of the city.
"We must allow the water to flow through," Ms. Yingluck said. "Very little has been driven to the sea."
Bangkok Gov. Sukhumbhand Paribatra, from the rival Democrat Party, signed off on the radical solution to the worst floods the country has seen in half a century, which have killed at least 320 people since late July. Mr. Sukhumbhand earlier challenged statements from the national government's flood-response team, urging Bangkoklacoste t-shirts residents to listen to him instead. Relations between city and national leaders have been fraught since a hard-fought election battle brought Ms. Yingluck to power in July.
Bangkok isjuicy couture suits wholesale still mostly dry, but some suburbs are submerged and threaten to inundate the capital.
If the plan works, it could provide some respite for hundreds of businesses affected by the floods, many of them Japanese. Sony Corp. Thursday joinedwholesale abercrombie jackets a lengthening list of big-name Japanese manufacturers like Honda Motor Co. and Toyota Motor Corp. in saying Thailand's extreme flooding has derailed production, closing down either plants or key parts suppliers in recent days.