How did Namal come to own CSN?

 

NUSHKA NAFEEL-Thursday, August 6, 2015

Former MP Nalin Bandara questioned how MP Namal Rajapaksa come to own the CSN Television Channel and Govers Cooperate Pvt Ltd., being an ordinary Parliamentarian. How is it possible for an ordinary MP to own these companies considering his financial earnings asked Bandara at Helidharawwa at Sirikotha yesterday.

MP Namal Rajapaksa is the owner of the CSN channel and the Govers Cooperate Pvt Ltd. It is a registered company. It was in 2012 that he purchased another company named Hello Cope company for Rs 120 million.

"There is no way that an ordinary Parliamentarian could afford such a huge amount of money to buy companies of his own", said MP Bandara.

Having queried as to how MP Namal Rajapaksa came by such large amounts of money,he invited him for a live debate on this topic.

"h the Rajapaksas should be held responsible,the Rajapaksas lived in the lap of luxury," he added.

MP Bandara explained that Rajapaka launched a communication satellite in Sri Lanka investing a huge amount money. The satellite that was owned by the country is no more. Therefore who is the real owner of it? The details about the satellite should be disclosed.

"All the above facts are being investigated by the FCID after receiving an order from the court," he added. 

Weerawansa Misused Public Money To Help His Journo And Monk Buddies

August 6, 2015

An Audit report shows how former Minister for Housing Wimal Weerawansa misused public money to help his buddies namely Iththekande Saddhatissa Thero of “Ravana Balaya” organization and Journalist at “Lankadeepa” Prasanna Sanjeeva Tennekoon.

Weerawansa shamelessly had taken steps to provide two vehicles, which were obtained by the Housing Ministry on rent to his above two buddies who did not do anything for the Ministry in an official capacity.

The Ministry has paid a monthly rent of Rs.38,000 for the vehicle bearing the number KK-8941 which the Minister had given to Prasanna Sanjeeva for his personal use.

The vehicle PD – 2563 has been given to Saddhatissa for which the ministry has paid a monthly rent of Rs.69,000.

Those who misused public funds and those who have aided such activities can be brought before the law on criminal charges.

It is reported that Sanjeeva has enjoyed perks give to him by various politicians and this has been done with the knowledge and consent of his Director Editorial Siri Ranasinghe.

UPFA Galle district MP Sajin de Vass Gunawardena and the former monitoring MP for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs had been arrested a few months ago by the police Criminal Investigation Department on charges of misusing the vehicles belonging to the Presidential Secretariat.Read More

Minor explosion injures one in Chilaw

2015-08-06
A locally made small bomb went off inside a compartment of a train parked at the Chilaw railway yard, a short while ago causing minor injuries to a railway worker, police said.

Police said that the bomb had exploded when the worker was cleaning the compartment after the train had been parked inside the railway yard.

The hand grenade was one and half inches long and was wrapped inside a grocery bag and kept under a seat of a second class compartment.  The incident was reported at 7.10 pm.

The injured person was admitted to the Chilaw hospital. (Chaturanga Pradeep) - See more at: http://www.dailymirror.lk/82553/minor-explosion-injures-one-in-chilaw#sthash.mRsGADdj.dpuf

Three PSD officers involved in Thajudeen’s murder, says Rajitha

August 6, 2015

Cabinet Spokesperson Rajitha Senaratne on Thursday (06) charged that three officials attached to the Presidential Security Division (PSD) have allegedly involved in the murder of former Sri Lankan Rugby player, Wasim Thajudeen, who had died under suspicious circumstances.

The observation was made at a press conference held at the Government Information Department.

The Cabinet Spokesperson also dined allegations that the new government is about to privatise the water resources of the country.

Gaza explosion: four dead and 40 injured in Rafah

Armed men from Hamas’s military wing blocking access to site of blast, as interior ministry says investigation under way

Hazem Balousha in Rafah-Thursday 6 August 2015

Four people have been killed and more than 40 injured in a huge explosion in Rafah, which was one of the most heavily bombarded areas of Gaza during last summer’s war with Israel.

About 10 houses were damaged in the blast, the cause of which was unclear.

The four dead were adult men – including a father and son – from the Abu Naqira family, which is closely associated with Hamas. One of the injured, Ayman Abu Naquira, worked in the Damascus office of the exiled Hamas leader, Khaled Meshaal.

Early reports suggested the blast was caused by unexploded ordnance (UXO) left from last summer’s 50-day war between Israel and Gaza. Swaths of Rafah were almost obliterated during weeks of shelling from air, sea and land. Ashraf al-Qidra, a spokesman for the Gaza ministry of health, said the dead men had been clearing rubble from a house that was destroyed during the war. The home was hit in an Israeli air strike on 9 July last year.

However, masked and armed men from Al-Qassam Brigades, Hamas’s military wing, blocked access to the area, fuelling suspicions that the house or a nearby property may have been used to store explosives or rockets. Some locals said the area was a weapons base for Al-Qassam Brigades; others said Israeli unexploded ordnance was the cause of the blast.

A spokesman for Gaza’s interior ministry said: “We can’t give a clear reason for what happened.” An investigation was under way, he added.

At the nearby Abu Yousef al-Najjar hospital, scenes in the immediate aftermath of the explosion mirrored those of a year ago, as the dead and injured were ferried in. Women and children were among the injured, and four were in a critical condition.

Taysir Siam, 36, was returning from the market when he saw a fire in a house. “The neighbours said there was an old woman trapped inside. I tried to rescue her, but within a few minutes there was a big explosion, which threw me about a metre. I lost consciousness and found myself in hospital.” He had injuries to his foot, head, arm and back.

A woman who declined to give her name said she was inside her home “when suddenly I heard a big explosion, and glass and rubble started falling on me”. She sustained injuries to her face and hands.

The dead men were named as Bakr Abu Naqira, Abdul-Rahmen Abu Naqira, Ahmad Abu Naqira and Hassan Abu Naqira.

Israel says that Gaza militants routinely store weapons in and under civilian homes in an attempt to shield them from Israeli bombardment. Rafah, which sits on the border between Gaza and Egypt and was the base for an extensive underground smuggling industry, is a centre of militant activity – not only for Hamas, but also other organisations including extremist Salafist groups.

But Israeli UXO could be the cause of Thursday’s explosion. According to the United Nations, about 7,000 UXO items were left in Gaza at the end of the 50-day war, about one third of which have been cleared.

More than 70 Palestinians have been killed or injured by UXO since the war ended. On 13 August 2014, two weeks before a lasting ceasefire was implemented, Rahed Taysir al-Ham, the head of the Palestinian bomb disposal unit in northern Gaza, was killed, along with three colleagues and two journalists, when a 500kg bomb he was trying to defuse exploded.

Deadly suicide blast strikes Saudi security forces at mosque near Yemen

An image taken from Saudi al-Ekhbaria TV footage shows security forces inspecting the site of the suicide blast in the southern Asir region. (Al-Ekhbaria via AFP/Getty Images)

By Hugh Naylor-August 6

BEIRUT — A suicide bomber struck Thursday at a Saudi mosque used by security forces near the border with war-battered Yemen, officials said, killing more than a dozen people.

The Islamic State asserted responsibility for the attack, according to the Site Intelligence Group, which tracks online activities of militant groups. The attack follows a spate of suicide bombings in Saudi Arabia claimed by the Islamic State.

It also comes as Saudi Arabia and its allies have escalated their four-month-old war against rebel forces in Yemen.

The official Saudi Press Agency said at least 10 security personnel and three workers were killed in the mosque blast, which occurred in the southern Asir region.

[In Yemen, plenty of bombs but shrinking water supplies]

 

Earlier, the state-owned al-Ekhbariya news channel reported that 17 people were killed. The reason for the conflicting death tolls was not clear.

Fragments of a belt apparently packed with explosives were found at the site, according to the SPA report.

Saudi authorities have arrested hundreds of people in recent weeks on suspicion of links to the Islamic State, an enemy of the oil-rich kingdom’s Western-allied monarchy.

Saudi officials said the sweeping detentions foiled plots for additional attacks after two suicide bombings in May that targeted Shiite mosques in the eastern part of the country. The Islamic State asserted responsibility for those attacks, which left more than two dozen people dead.

[Saudi-led coalition plans ground attacks in Yemen after taking key city]

Analysts say the Islamic State wants to foment sectarian unrest by targeting Saudi Arabia’s minority Shiite community. Saudi Arabia and the militant group espouse similarly conservative views of Sunni Islam that deem Shiites as apostates, but Saudi officials permit Shiite worship and rites.

Analysts and Saudi officials say that many Saudis are drawn to the Islamic State’s puritanical interpretation of Islam and have joined the group in Iraq and Syria.

 

Thursday’s bombing, however, did not bear any much resemblance to the May attacks. The mosque in Asir is a Sunni one, although Islamic State also opposes Saudi security personnel.

Witnesses posted pictures on Twitter purporting to show the aftermath, including the mosque’s charred carpet floors.

The attack comes after the start of ground operations in Yemen last month by a Saudi-led coalition, which began carrying out airstrikes in March against Yemeni rebels. The rebels, known as Houthis, toppled the Saudi-backed government in February.

Yemeni forces allied with the embattled government and armed and trained by the Saudi-led coalition captured the southern port city of Aden from the Houthis and have advanced northward. An unspecified number of soldiers from Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, a coalition member, also are operating in southern Yemen, according to Yemeni fighters in Aden.

Across Yemen’s northern border with Saudi Arabia, Houthi rebels also have fired mortar rounds and rockets. The strikes have killed dozens of Saudi troops, according to rebels and analysts.

Houthi militants and their allies in Yemen have vowed more attacks on Saudi soil.

Saudi Arabia portrays the Houthis, who follow a branch of Shiite Islam, as tools of its main regional enemy, Iran, a Shiite nation. Iran denies that it gives direct backing to the rebels, but it has denounced the Saudi-led attacks.

Read more:

Yemen conflict’s risk for Saudis: ‘Their Vietnam’

Why Yemen’s peace talks failed

 

Hugh Naylor is a Beirut-based correspondent for The Post. He has reported from over a dozen countries in the Middle East for such publications as The National, an Abu Dhabi-based newspaper, and The New York Times.

ISIS - The Face of Evil - Sumaiyya Ahamed

- Aug 05, 2015

The Terror Organization describing themselves as IS – Islamic State is very emphatically a misnomer.  It has nothing to do with anything Islamic or even a decent state. It is an organization using trickery, chicanery and guile so as to deceive the gullible, the ignorant and the psychopathic killer factions to support their evil and devilish ways.  These killer blood-thirsty psychotic predators do nothing but kill.  They have very stealthily infiltrated into the rank and file of the unsuspecting youth and have slowly permeated into our society, which is indeed cause for concern, anxiety and unhappiness for the people of Sri Lanka both Muslims and Non-Muslims alike.

The magic words The Terror organizations are chanting is - that they want  “everything according Shariah”.

The Muslims have been lulled into thinking that “Shari’ah” means divine law, then, the word must be found it in a number of places in the Holy Quran like the words, Jihad (strenuous effort), ‘Adl (Justice), Zakat (Right of the Poor), Salaah (Prayer) etc.  But what we see is that we find the actual word Shari’ah in just one place in the Holy Quran – vis-à-vis  Chapter 45 Verse 18 where the actual word “Shari’ah” is used – It states
“Then we put you on the Right way.” 
Shari’ah meaning ‘right way’
Etymology of this word revealed that it has never ever been used to specify it as Divine Law or any law, by the Prophet of Islam during his life time or even during the time of the Caliphs.

Strictly speaking the word “Shari’ah” for Islamic Law is not a Quranic concept.  The word Shari’ah is an innovation.

I  would like to quote a para from my article which was published in the Asian Tribune on 24th January 2013 – Is Shari’ah a Divine Law?

Quote: “However, over Two Centuries later, after the demise of the Holy Prophet during the Abbasid Caliphate attempts were being made to codify the Islamic law and the word Shari’ah was introduced.  Here the Arab Custom has been brought largely into play.  Custom is not accredited as a source of Islamic Law in the Holy Quran, but here; it served as an essential component in shaping what is called today as “Islamic Law” – Therefore it could be rightly described as an innovation – Bid’ah – something that was done over 200 years after the demise of the Prophet of Islam.” Unquote.
So when the ISIS Terrorist Organization say, that their aim is to establish Shari’ah law, what it means is that ,  they want to establish “Dhalalah”  (Arabic) – meaning - deviation, error, perversity, delusion and deception.

Which is what is exactly happening.

In Sri Lanka, the Jamiathul-Ulama is supposed to be the official representative of Muslims.  Their duty, under such circumstances is not just to make statements to the media denouncing the ISIS terror; but it is their incumbent duty to mobilize the Muslim Masses to show their resentment and hatred towards and against this Barbaric devilish cult, at least, by having a peaceful sit-in protest after every Friday Prayer outside each and every mosque.
 
This ISIS curse is fast spreading all over the world permeating into every nook and corner of each and every country, where You can also see the ungrateful attitude of some of those people to whom sanctuary had been given, three or four generations ago when they were been decimated in their own countries by their very own people.  These suffering people were accepted with both hands, by the host countries and they were given refuge, permission was granted to have their own businesses, children were given the privilege to enroll into schools and whatnots.  Today, three or four generations later, after having prospered financially and educationally, they had forgotten all the privileges and facilities conferred upon them and they turn against their own benefactors. These are thankless wretches, miscreants and reprobates and they should be shipped back and dumped in their own countries.  If they have any grudge against anyone, it should be against those who massacred their ancestors and chased them away from their birth-places and domiciles; not against those people who granted them asylum, shelter and refuge.
 
Even after nearly four generations if these people still continue to support terrorism their permanent residence visas and every other facility should be cancelled forthwith and should be sent back to their home countries.  Every country, without exception, should enact proper legislation to this effect without any delay.  It is quite certain, that the outcome will be well and truly dramatic. But in the end peace will prevail. 
 
It is very sad to see that that the Muslims in general have totally forgotten or are wilfully ignoring the prophetic words:

“Be a good human being before you become a good Muslim.”

Kosovo parliament approves special war crimes court

Some Kosovo Albanians, who hold former KLA commanders in high regard, have protested against the new court

Some Kosovo Albanians, who hold former KLA commanders in high regard, have protested against the new court

4 August 2015

Parliament in Kosovo has amended the constitution to allow the creation of a special court to investigate alleged war crimes committed by ethnic Albanian fighters during the war in the 1990s.

The now-disbanded Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) has been accused of various war crimes, including organ-harvesting from murdered Serb captives.

Opposition politicians boycotted the vote on the establishment of a court.

But the prime minister said the issue was a "challenge we have to deal with".

The United States and the European Union have pressed Kosovo to address the accusations.

'Finding the truth'

The constitutional changes were backed by 82 deputies in the 120-seat parliament on Monday.

Former KLA rebels who have become politicians were among those in parliament who opposed the vote. Ex-KLA fighters are held in high regard by many in Kosovo's majority Albanian population.

But PM Isa Mustaf told legislators before the vote: "Finding the truth about some allegations from during and after the war is a challenge that we have to deal with."

This 1998 photograph show Kosovo Albanians civilians who were driven from their homes after Serb forces launched a crackdown on rebels

In May EU judges in Kosovo convicted 11 former Kosovo Albanian guerrillas over their role in the conflict. Among those sentenced to prison was Sylejman Selimi, Kosovo's ambassador to neighbouring Albania.

The new tribunal will be part of Kosovo's judicial system, but proceedings will be handled abroad, with reports they may be held in the Netherlands.

Kosovo's ethnic Albanian majority fought an insurgency against Serb forces in the late 1990s, in which more than 10,000 people were killed and hundreds of thousands driven from their homes.

Nato bombed Serb positions to halt the persecution of civilians and, in June 1999, Kosovo was placed under UN administration.

Kosovo formally declared independence from Serbia in 2008, a move that was opposed by Belgrade. The international community is split over recognition.

Tongue-Thai’ed – With ‘love’ from Bangkok to Beijing

China’s Foreign Minister Wang Yi (right) and his No. 1 fan, Thai junta foreign minister Gen. Thanasak Patimapakorn. Pic: AP.

“If I were a woman I will fall in love with his excellency” – Thai Foreign Minister Thanasak Patimapakorn
_____________________________

By Saksith Saiyasombut & Siam Voices Aug 06, 2015 

This is part XXXI of “Tongue-Thai’ed!”, an ongoing series where we collect the most baffling, ridiculous, confusing, outrageous and appalling quotes from Thai politicians and other public figures. Check out all past entries here.

It is no big secret that ever since Thailand’s military seized power in a hostile takeover with the coup of May 2014, the military junta would face big challenges – among them, on the diplomatic world stage. Thailand just narrowly avoided becoming a pariah state among Western countries (we reported) only because it is still a (geo-)strategically important stakeholder in Southeast Asia. But all the rather soft and symbolic sanctions still couldn’t avert Bangkok’s diplomatic pivot towards Russia and especially towards China.

We reported back in December:

(…) it did not come as a surprise when then-army chief and still-to-this-day-junta leader General Prayuth Chan-ocha greeted Chinese businessmen as his first guests shortly after the coup of May 22 in an effort to woo investors back to the country and help jump start Thailand’s struggling economy. That was shortly followed by a visit of Thai military commanders to China.

Other bilateral meetings between Prayuth and Chinese leaders took place during the Asia-Europe Meeting in October, where he met China’s premier Li Keqiang and a month later at the APEC Conference hosted in Beijing with president Xi Jingping. The latter would welcomePrayuth again to the Chinese capital last week, where both countries signed a memorandum of understanding to develop and build a “medium-speed” rail network linking the countries.

“Thai junta seeks deeper ‘China pivot’, lauds Beijing’s leadership style“, Siam Voices, December 29, 2014

Since then, the Thai military government has made more advances towards Beijing by fulfilling the navy’s long-held dream of buying submarines from China worth $1bn – even though the purchase is on hold for now – while around the same time controversiallydeporting around 100 Uighur muslims to China.

But what’s strikes a bigger chord with the Thai generals is China’s authoritarian one-party rule in exchange for economic propensity.

So, it came to no surprise when the Thai military’s Foreign Minister General Thanasak Patimaprakorn was full of praise for China again, as expressed earlier this week at an ASEAN forum in Kuala Lumpur…

At a joint press conference in Kuala Lumpur on Wednesday, Foreign Minister General Tanasak Patimapragorn made a surprise declaration while standing on a podium with his Chinese counterpart Wang Yi.

“If I were a woman I will fall in love with his excellency,” he told reporters in English, much to the surprise of China’s top foreign envoy who appeared somewhat unsure how to respond. (…)

“Let’s say we are so close, we are more than friends, just say we are cousins with a long history together,” he said.

“We don’t talk diplomatic talk, we talks like personal, like family, like friend,” he added.

“Thai junta envoy admits crush on China“, AFP, August 5, 2015

Well, that got awkward pretty quickly…

Also, why the need to change gender to express your love? There’s no need to be ashamed of expressing one’s man crush. And even if the probably biggest one-sided declaration of bromance on the diplomatic stage has been so far not reciprocated, this will most likely not the last we hear of it.

________________________
About the author:
Saksith Saiyasombut blogs extensively about Thai politics and current affairs since 2010 and works as an international freelance broadcast journalist. Read his full bio on about.me/saksith.

Exclusive - India seeks to step up scrutiny of offshore wealth managers - sources

An employee counts Indian currency notes at a cash counter inside a bank in Mumbai June 21, 2010.-REUTERS/RUPAK DE CHOWDHURI/FILES

 BY SUMEET CHATTERJEE AND HIMANK SHARMA-Thu Aug 6, 2015

Seeking to root out undeclared wealth, India's market regulator has sent letters to some large wealth managers operating out of low-tax centres like Hong Kong and Singapore to try and bring them under its remit, people with knowledge of the matter said.

India's government is cracking down on tax evasion as a means of boosting revenues, and in October said the state was prosecuting several individuals on suspicion of having undeclared assets outside the country.

In a significant new move by Prime Minister Narendra Modi's government, the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) has recently started to reach out to international private banks, asking them to register their offshore units with the Indian watchdog if they are soliciting business in India, five people with direct knowledge of the matter told Reuters.

By registering with SEBI, some private banks would have to admit that they are managing funds of wealthy Indian clients outside the country. That in turn could prompt further requests from SEBI to share information about Indian individuals.

"There are banks which do below-the-radar private banking in India to hunt for offshore assets," said a banker with direct knowledge of the matter. "For them SEBI's message is clear - you should be transparent and therefore you must register with us."

An estimated $344 billion has been illegally removed from the Indian economy between 2002 and 2011, data from the U.S. think-thank Global Financial Integrity show, depriving the country of an important source of tax revenues.

As well as affecting wealthy individuals, SEBI's moves could make private bankers think twice about building their business in India, even though Indian private wealth is expected to show double-digit growth.

PERSONAL WEALTH SOARS

Attracted by a growing number of Indian millionaires, foreign banks including Barclays Plc, BNP Paribas SA and Standard Chartered Plc are offering onshore wealth management services in India under the regulatory supervision of local watchdogs.

Other players, including JPMorgan Chase & Co and UBS Group AG, have, however, either stayed away or shut down local operations due to high costs and thin margins, preferring to focus on their overseas operations.

JPMorgan, UBS, BNP Paribas, Barclays and Standard Chartered all declined to comment when asked about SEBI's approach to some banks.

In its letters, the regulator did not mention what actions it might take against those not willing to comply, sources said, but it is a sign that India is becoming more aggressive in pursuing citizens who illegally park funds abroad.

"We have been steadily putting in place effective checks and balances of funds that come and go out of India and we will continue to do that without disrupting (the) market," SEBI board member S. Raman told Reuters on Thursday, referring to concerns raised in last month's government report on black money.

He declined, however, to comment on notices being sent out to wealth managers. A SEBI spokesman did not respond to request for comment.

The SEBI directive has not yet been sent to all wealth management players, said the sources, who declined to be named because of the sensitivity of the matter. Some banks were told about the request in meetings that took place last month.

"With regulators all across the world tightening rules for movement of individual wealth across borders, many large banks have pared their focus on offshore advisory business," said a Mumbai-based wealth manager at a European bank.

"On top of that, if a country decides to put in an additional regulatory layer, not many would be willing to accept that process," he said. "I would expect most of the offshore players to simply wind up their business in India."

Some boutique private banks in centres such as Singapore have been trying to tap wealthy Indians and manage their foreign assets without having operations in the country and without informing local regulators, several private banking executives said.

The business opportunity to advise on and manage overseas assets of resident Indians is, however, not very big and not worth the effort of adding another regulatory layer by registering with SEBI, two private bankers said.

Under Indian rules, a resident Indian can remit up to $250,000 per year outside the country. Once the money is moved abroad, authorities lose oversight of the funds.

"I don't think it is abnormal that a country's regulator would try to keep some sort of an oversight over the investment products being marketed in their jurisdiction," said Indian law firm BMR & Associates LLP partner Bobby Parikh.

(Editing by Lisa Jucca and Mike Collett-White)

What’s Next for Greece?

Athens and its creditors are close to a final agreement on the latest bailout. But no one is addressing the issues at the heart of Greece's economic problems.

BY PAOLA SUBACCHI-AUGUST 6, 2015

There is no respite for Greece. July was a most dramatic month: Greeks rejected the terms of a new bailout, then the government signed off on a new proposal with similar — perhaps even more onerous — terms. As Greece and its creditors near a final deal, it feels like we’re back to square one. In fact the third bailout package doesn’t address the country’s key problems of solvency and competitiveness — both critical to being a solid member of the eurozone. The latest bailout should provide a means, albeit only temporarily, to address the former, but what about the latter?

Greece remains the least competitive country in the eurozone. The country’s gross domestic product per capita (adjusted for inflation) has dropped by 5,000 euros to about 17,000 euros since 2008, and the unemployment rate is 25 percent. Growth in total factor productivity, a measure of the economy’s overall economic know-how, has been lower than the median rate in the eurozone countries since 1980, and it was negative from 2000 to 2014. Labor productivity, in turn, is low, especially in comparison with other crisis-hit countries, such as Ireland and Spain — and it’s not growing.

Low productivity is a huge problem for Greece because it affects the country’s competitiveness vis-à-vis the other members of Europe’s currency union. To be competitive in a fixed exchange rate system where countries mainly trade with each other, like the eurozone, what matters is how many foreign goods can be exchanged per unit of domestic goods. If a day’s work in a given industry produces less in Greece than in other countries, Greece will be more likely to become an importer in that industry — unless Greek workers accept lower wages. Yet if letting incomes fall is the only way to increase exports, the overall effect may not feel much like a recovery for many Greeks.

Greece has gone through a severe, but still incomplete fiscal adjustment, which has left the economy depleted and the population angry. And it has not achieved the adjustment necessary to make its goods as competitive as those produced in other countries in the eurozone. Fiscal adjustment — as required in the bailout — without making the economy more competitive means that Greece will continue to consume more than it produces. For years this has been reflected in the large current account deficit that abated only in 2013 and 2014 as a result of the crisis. Supply-side structural reforms — such as, for example, opening up of closed professions and trades, modernizing collective bargaining in the labor market, reforming the public administration, and removing red tape — should improve the functioning of the economy and so spur productivity growth. But reforms take time to deliver the expected impact, and Greece, and its creditors, are in a hurry. (The alternative is to slash prices and wages, but it would be impossible for both political and economic reasons.)

In the meantime, the short-term outlook continues to be bleak. Public opinion remains deeply divided on the terms of the bailout, which includes more austerity measures and the additional privatization — under European Union supervision — of 50 billion euros in state assets. For many, as a result of the agreement, Greece has turned into a colony of Germany. Syriza is split and support for Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras has eroded; the bailout only made it through parliament thanks to the votes of the opposition parties. At this rate, a return to the polls in the autumn can’t be ruled out.

The International Monetary Fund’s board has not yet signed on to grant a third bailout to Greece, though the country paid its arrears to the fund on July 20. Allegedly, this is because of Greece’s high debt levels and poor record in implementing reforms. A lack of support for a new bailout, even if most of it will come from the European Stability Mechanism (ESM) would put the squeeze on Greece again, since another 3.2 billion euros must be repaid to the European Central Bank on Aug. 20. As a result, Greece might need another bridge loan outside the ESM, but Britain opposes offering one. With Greece again unable to pay and with a bailout slow in coming, arguments that it should leave the euro – especially those coming from Germany — will surely become louder.

The road to the Greece’s third bailout, thus, is fraught with hurdles, and these add to the difficulties that have been created in the months before the agreement. It is hugely dispiriting to recognize the enormous waste of resources — from destruction of political capital to loss of output and damaged confidence — that this agreement has entailed. And it is even more dispiriting to witness how often the threat of exit from Europe’s monetary union has been waved as a way to enforce fiscal and political discipline. Greece has come out from this blame game in tatters, and so has the European project.

So, what is next for Greece? The most likely path is also the least desirable: pretending that the latest bailout will solve Greece’s problems. It is now clear that another bailout will only temporarily patch up the current emergency, but it looks as though this is what European leaders would prefer to do. A second-best solution is to temporarily suspend Greece from the monetary union in order to acquire some degree of flexibility and so to allow a longer and potentially less painful process of adjustment once the straitjacket of fixed exchange rates has been removed. This is an option that has gained significant traction, especially in Germany, but it presents many practical problems in its implementation and could lead Greece into economic and political chaos.

The best-case scenario would include some debt restructuring — specifically, maturity extension and a haircut for creditors — coupled with a fiscal-stimulus package and a comprehensive plan for structural reforms that would trigger growth in the short term and help generate political support for reforms. Specifically, the European Commission should focus on bringing forward the 35 billion euros in support for job creation that are mentioned in the last paragraph in the Euro Summit statement of July 12.

Let’s hope that the fatigue of dealing with Greece — no matter how difficult its government has been in the past months — does not make the rest of Europe think that the second-best solution of suspending Greece from the monetary union would be easier and therefore preferable to helping the country deal with its twin problem of solvency and competitiveness. Stabilizing EU-member state in a sensitive region is surely preferable to kicking a country out of the eurozone — no matter how well the authorities think they could manage that process.

Image credit: Milos Bicanski/Getty Images

The Truth About Canned Soup: You’ve Been Poisoning Yourself for Years 

Posted by Ryan on August 2, 2015
Any clue what’s really in your canned soup? You might not know it but it’s loaded with toxic, hormone interrupting, and dangerous chemicals. Some of the ingredients have been genetically engineered, are packed full of MSG, and have loads of additives and salts. Additionally, many of the manufacturers still package the soup with cans that have BPA (bisphenol-A) in the inside.

The Journal of the American Medical Association published a recent article about people who ate canned soup for lunch daily for a week compared to those who ate homemade soup instead. The ones who had canned soup had BPA in their urine. There’s numerous reasons to NOT consume canned soup. - See more at: http://www.healthyfoodteam.com/the-truth-about-canned-soup-youve-been-poisoning-yourself-for-years/#sthash.rRWxEyQK.dpuf

1.MSG (Monosodium Glutamate)

This food additive is used a lot to enhance flavor. It often goes by numerous aliases on the ingredient list such as yeast extract, hydrolyzed vegetable protein, vegetable protein extract, hydrolyzed plant protein, sodium caseinate, glutamate, glutamic acid, soy protein isolates, textured protein, calcium caseinate, barley malt, and malt extract.

Studies conducted on animals have indicated that MSG is very toxic to the body’s brain. Scientists think there is a link between MSG and migraines because MSG dilates the blood vessels and also adversely effects the brain’s nerve cells.

According to Reuters, in the latest research conducted on 10,000 adults in China for about 5 ½ years, researchers measured the amount of MSG participants consumed based on weight of the before and after products. One example was soy sauce, just to see how much MSG people consumed. Both men and women who consumed the most MSG at about 5 grams per day on average, were 30% more likely to being overweight by the time the study concluded. MSG consumption has also been linked to neurological conditions such as encephalitis, stroke, Alzheimer’s disease, Lou Gehrig’s disease, Parkinson’s disease, and infections in the brain.

2.Canola or Soybean Vegetable Oils

These vegetable oils are dense in polyunsaturated fats. Our bodies require fat to renew and build fat but we don’t want to consume the unnatural and unhealthy fats like these. Instead, our body is made primarily of 97% monounsaturated fat and saturated fat. Vegetable oils are not healthy at all and once they are subjected to heat, they become oxidized which causes free radicals to be created. This contributes to an increase of disease and even premature aging.

4.Aluminum

Even in small amounts, aluminum is very dangerous to the body and can leak into the canned soup. After the aluminum accumulates in the body over time, it can cause autism, dementia, and Parkinson’s disease. It also gathers in the tissues of the body including the thyroid, liver, brain, kidneys, and lungs which can then cause severe damage. The central nervous system can become damaged and there is also a link between breast cancer and aluminum.

In 2013, the Journal of Inorganic Biochemistry published a study that found that patients with breast cancer had a much higher level of aluminum in the body, particularly in the nipple aspirate fluids in comparison to women who were healthy and did not have breast cancer.

4.BPA

Used since the 1960s, BPA is an industrial chemical that has been used to make resins and plastics. BPA is dangerous because it successfully mimics estrogen hormones in the body and bind to the exact receptors as a female’s natural hormones which can create damage. BPA disrupts the endocrine system and interferes with all hormones in the body and has albso been linked to diabetes, cancer, infertility, and obesity in animal studies. When the United States Center for Disease Control conducted a study in 2004, 93% of urine samples they took had traces of BPA.

It is very common that everyone has dangerous chemicals in the body. However, it should be something people should be mindful of and try to dodge as much as possible.