blog assignment#35/Foreign News

Here are some foreign news aricles

1.Anger in Syria over crackdown. Middle East. Around 20,000 syrians chanting freedom slogans marched on Thursday at the funerals of nine protesters who were killed by security gaurds. The nine were among at least  25 people shot dead by security forces on Wednesday. A witness told Al Jazeera that more than 100 people were shot.

2.Libya Live Blog - March 24. Detained government soldiers and suspected mercenaries are kept in a former military prison near Benghazi, now taken over by rebels. Some of the men admit to serving with Gaddafi's forces, but say they had no other choice, but to fire at rebels and civilians during battles for cities in the east of the country. One of the men said that anyone objected they would be killed or burned alive.

3. French jet 'shoots down Libyan plane' . A French fighter jet has reportedly attacked and destroyed a Libyan plane identified as a trainer aircraft near Misurata, a US official has said.
The AP news agency cited an official as saying the Libyan plane may have been landing when it was attacked by a French Rafael fighter jet enforcing the UN-backed no-fly zone over Libya on Thursday.The incident, which if confirmed would be the first of its kind since the no-fly zone was set up, is still under investigation, the source added.

1.Olympiakos wins 38th league title . Olympiakos clinched its 38th Greek league championship on Sunday by thrashing Aek 6-0 after scoring three goals in each half in front of a delirious home crowd of 33,000. 

Rafik Djebbour, who joined Olympiakos from Aek in January after falling out with coach Manolo Jimenez, scored twice with Olof Mellberg, David Fuster, Kevin Mirallas and Iosif Holebas adding a goal apiece in Olympiakos' biggest victory of the season. 

 

2. Secrets & Lies.

A Greek proverb informs us that “Devil has many legs”. So does the truth. As for the accusers of the international campaign against Gaddafi, they are of many stripes.

Yet, despite belonging to totally different corners of the political and ideological spectrum, they do have something in common: the belief that the West acts as a criminal for sending in airplanes against the mercenaries employed by the Libyan regime.

 

3. Rainfall 'has gone mad'. The absence of water resource management practices and excessive consumption are, according to experts, the main problems in Greece, as the world prepares to celebrate Water Day.

More than 2.8 billion people worldwide face daily problems of quality water availability, while climate change has caused a variety of repercussions on the planet's water reserves. March 28 has been designated by the United Nations as the World Day for Water, and despite the policies applied for conservation and qualitative upgrading of water resources, the outlook remains gloomy.

 

1.

Landsvirkjun and the European Investment Bank sign a new loan agreement

Read more: http://www.icenews.is/#ixzz1HXC31Dit.

Landsvirkjun, one of Europe’s leading renewable energy companies, signed a new loan agreement amounting to EUR 70 million (11.3 billion ISK) with the European Investment Bank (EIB) yesterday (March 23^rd 2011). The loan is an important milestone in the overall funding of the Budarhals Hydro Electric Project in Iceland.
The loan has a Maturity Date in 2031 and a favourable margin over Euribor. Included in the loan agreement is a provision requiring a minimum credit rating for the Republic of Iceland.

2. Icelandic parliament passes constitutional change bill.

A parliamentary resolution on the forming of a constitutional council has passed Iceland’s Althingi parliament. The council will be held instead of a constitutional parliament, because the public election result was voided by the Supreme Court.

The resolution was passed with 31 votes for, 21 against and seven no-votes, Visir.is reports.

Instead of the 25-member constitutional parliament the public voted on last year, parliament will now appoint the same 25 people who were elected on to a constitutional council. The election was voided on technical grounds and there was no suggestion that the 25 people elected did not represent the will of the people.

 

3.

Former Icelandic PM’s emails to be handed over to prosecutor.

A request for the electronic communications of former Icelandic Prime Minister Geir H. Haarde has been upheld in the case against him for negligence before and during the banking crash.

The Landsdomur High Court, which has been specially assembled to try the former PM, granted the prosecutor’s wish to see Haarde’s work emails and hopes to receive thousands of pages which Haarde sent and received while in office, in the coming days. It is thought formal charges will be lodged with the High Court before Easter.