Helsinki Times

Round one to radical left, round two to Europe?

The recent elections in Greece saw many voters turn to left-wing parties as a means to protest the previous government’s harsh austerity measures, but will EU pressure force Greece to honour their bailout promises regardless?

THIS week’s failure by Greece’s PASOK leader Evangelos Venizelos to unite the country’s parliamentary parties to form a national salvation government, means the nation must return to the polls again next month.

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‘Indignados’ take to the streets of Spain again

The ‘indignados’, or indignants, occupied squares of major Spanish cities in mass protests for the second time last weekend.

A FILTHY vacant lot is now sprouting strawberries, tomatoes and carrots. This small community garden in the centre of the southern Spanish city of Málaga was created by the indignados protest movement, which celebrated its first anniversary last Saturday by taking to the streets across the country.

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EU Feels Force of Israeli Demolitions

BRUSSELS, May 16, 2012 (IPS) - All 27 foreign ministers of the European Union have strongly spoken out against Israeli demolitions in Area C of the West Bank. Since the beginning of 2011 not less than 60 EU-funded projects have been demolished while 110 others are currently at risk. Several analysts claim the Israeli authorities are specifically targeting EU-funded projects.

Area C comprises about 60 percent of the West Bank and is under full Israeli military and civilian control under the Oslo Accords. The EU's focus on this area is a consequence of alarming reports that show an increase in Israeli demolitions of Palestinian homes and infrastructure, including projects paid for with European taxpayer money.

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Tunisia's Revolution is Just Beginning

GENEVA, May 9, 2012 (IPS) - Lingering violence, intolerance and oppression in Tunisia, following the ousting of former dictator Zine el-Abidine Ben Ali in January 2011, tells the revolutionaries who sparked the Arab Spring that their work is just beginning.

Most believe that the revolution never ended, and that a second wave of protest is not far off.

Islamic fundamentalists represented by Salafists have presented themselves as the biggest challenge to Tunisian democracy.

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Greek, French elections sound death knell for austerity

IN France, the Socialist presidential candidate François Hollande, a champion of government-led economic growth and employment strategies, accomplished a comfortable victory over the incumbent president Nicolas Sarkozy – the man often seen as the poster child of the austerity programmes in practice all over Europe.

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Calls mount for stronger US stance as Bahrain resists reform

WHILE the administration of President Barack Obama has repeatedly called on the al-Khalifa monarchy to follow through on reform recommendations made by an international commission last November, it has been reluctant to take stronger steps for fear of alienating Saudi Arabia, Bahrain’s much larger neighbour, according to analysts here.

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Mubarak Still Has His Billions

CAIRO, May 8, 2012 (IPS) - More than a year since president Hosni Mubarak was removed from power, the money he allegedly syphoned from Egypt during his 29-year rule remains beyond the reach of authorities attempting to recover it.

Mubarak amassed a fortune by carving up Egypt as if it were his own private estate. The dictator and his family are believed to have accumulated anywhere from 2 billion to 70 billion dollars in illicit wealth, much of it tied up in secret offshore accounts as well as lavish estates in London, Madrid, New York and across Egypt.

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French and Greek elections throw fiscal pact into jeopardy

VOTERS in France and Greece have sent strong messages that their patience with fiscal austerity is ending. In France, voters elected as their next president François Hollande, who has attacked the new EU treaty on austerity. In Greek parliamentary elections the parties which had negotiated the bailouts lost seats to those parties opposed to the current bailout terms.

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Peace lost in the Libyan desert

The recent outbreak of violence between the largely segregated Zwai and Tabu tribes in Libya’s remote, Saharan town of Kufra shattered the uneasy calm that held since last February’s clashes, resulting in more than 100 deaths. The clashes illustrate the challenges in building a new state.

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Fragmented protests rise in Jordan

On a Friday afternoon, police cars blocked the roads around the Al Husseini mosque, where hundreds of men were kneeling for the noon prayers. At the end of the service, the crowds rose and marched in a protest behind a car bearing a banner for the Islamic Action Front (IAF), the Jordanian branch of the Muslim Brotherhood.

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