World www.guardianonline.co.nz
Saturday, July 18, 2015
Ashburton Guardian 31
■ GREECE
Merkel urges mandate for Greek bailout Chancellor Angela Merkel asked German lawmakers yesterday to clear the way for negotiations on a new, third bailout package for Greece, arguing that it would be negligent not to try for a deal. After a preliminary agreement on Monday, Germany’s government has to get a parliamentary mandate for potentially difficult talks on details of the three-year bailout expected to be worth 85 billion euros ($93 billion). Germany was the largest single contributor to Greece’s previous two bailouts, and has taken a hard line against the country, insisting on stringent
spending cuts and tax hikes in return. Merkel told a special session of Parliament that lawmakers faced “a decision for a strong Europe and a strong eurozone.” Bailing out Greece isn’t popular among Merkel’s conservatives and the chancellor acknowledged concerns over the chances of a successful bailout. Merkel stressed there will be strict monitoring of Greece’s reform efforts and that “simple declarations of intent are not enough.” She said that she could recommend opening negotiations “with full conviction”. “The principle ... of respon-
An elderly couple leaves the central fish market in Athens after Greece won vital pledges of support from bailout lenders needed to keep its economy from collapsing. PHOTO AP
sibility and solidarity that has guided us since the beginning of the European debt crisis marks the entire result from Monday,” she said. “And secondly, the alternative to this agreement would not be a timeout from the euro that would be orderly – because it was wanted by Greece and shaped by everyone together – but predictable chaos.” “I know that many have doubts and concerns about whether this road will be successful, about whether Greece will have the strength to take it in the long term, and no one can brush aside these concerns,” she said. “But I am firmly convinced of one thing: we would be grossly negligent if we did not at least try this road.” In Athens, Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras was widely expected to reshuffle his Cabinet, following a rebellion within his party over a parliament vote to approve painful austerity measures demanded for new bailout talks to start. Earlier, 38 of Tsipras’ 149 radical-left Syriza party lawmakers dissented, with 32 voting against him outright and the other six abstaining. The dissenters included two cabinet members – the energy and welfare ministers – as well as the parliament speaker and the former finance minister, Yanis Varoufakis. - AP
■ UKRAINE
Victims’ kin mark MH17 downing Residents of the Ukrainian village where a Malaysian airliner was shot down with 298 people aboard a year ago joined a procession to the crash site yesterday, while Australia’s prime minister remembered the “savagery” of the disaster as he unveiled a plaque in Canberra that’s set in soil from where the wreckage fell. The two ceremonies come amid a sharp dispute over who was responsible for downing Malaysia Airlines Flight 17, which was heading from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur on July 17, 2014. Ukrainian and Western authorities say the plane was downed by a missile fired either by rebels or Russian troops who allegedly back them. The rebels and Moscow say it was hit by a Ukrainian warplane or a Ukrainian-fired missile. In Hrabove, about 200 residents carrying flowers gathered in a church for a memorial ser-
vice and procession to nearby fields organised by local leaders and the Russia-backed separatist rebels who control the area. The procession mainly consisted of women and children, who carried icons and chanted Orthodox liturgical music. The perimeter of the procession was guarded by men in Soviet military uniforms. About 100 people carried the flags of the countries of the victims as well as the separatist flags stood by a small stone at the crash site which bore a plaque saying: “To the memory of 298 dead, innocent victims of the civil war.” Some of the mourners held banners, accusing the Kiev government of waging a war on them and likening the MH17 victims to those killed in indiscriminate shelling in the past year and a half. “They killed you, but our people still get killed,” one banner said. Speaking in Kiev, Ukrain-
ian President Petro Poroshenko said the flight was the victim of a “terrorist attack launched from the territory occupied by Russian-backed militants in the east of Ukraine”. “The advanced weapon with which (the) aircraft was shot down could have come to the hands of terrorists only from Russia,” he said in a late night address on local television. In Canberra, Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott unveiled a plaque, set in soil that a police officer brought back from Ukraine, listing 40 victims “who called Australia home”. “He knew that the place where MH17 came to rest was sacred and that a piece of it should come back to Australia,” Abbott said. Abbott and his wife laid a wreath at the base of the plaque. Dozens of family members of the victims followed, many in tears as they added their flowers alongside the wreath. - AP
Caleb Medley who was shot and injured in the 2012 Aurora, Colorado, theatre massacre, emerges from Arapahoe County Courthouse after jurors convicted shooter James Holmes. PHOTO AP
■ UNITED STATES
Jury quickly convicts theatre gunman Colorado theatre shooter James Holmes was convicted yesterday in the chilling 2012 attack on defenceless movie-goers at a midnight Batman premiere after jurors swiftly rejected defence arguments that the former graduate student was insane and driven to murder by delusions. He faces a possible death sentence. The 27-year-old Holmes, who had been working toward his Ph.D. in neuroscience, could get the death penalty for the massacre that left 12 people dead and dozens of others wounded. The initial phase of Holmes’ trial took 11 weeks, but jurors needed only about 12 hours over a day and a half to find him guilty on all 165 counts. The same panel must now decide whether Holmes should pay with his life. Starting Wednesday, they will hear what is expected to be a month’s worth of testimony over whether Holmes deserves the death penalty. For almost an hour, Judge Carlos A. Samour Jr. read charge after charge, reciting the name of the victim, the offence and the word “guilty”. Dressed in a blue shirt and khakis and flanked by his public defenders, Holmes stood impassively with his hands in his pockets the whole time. The rest of the courtroom was bursting with emotion. Even before the verdict was read, jurors passed around a box of tissues and dabbed their eyes. The foreman attended Columbine High School during the 1999 shooting there that left 13 dead. When Samour read the first finding – that Holmes
was guilty of first-degree murder for killing 26-yearold Jonathan Blunk, a father of two who died throwing himself in front of his girlfriend to shield her from the barrage – numerous victims’ families burst into sobs, trying to stifle the noise by pressing tissues to their noses and mouths. “As soon as you heard the first guilty, we knew all the dominoes were about to fall,” said Tom Sullivan, whose son Alex was killed. When Samour read the name of another murder victim, Jessica Ghawi, her mother, Sandy Phillips, silently mouthed “yes,” and her husband wrapped his arm around her to pull her close. “We’re very happy this animal, this monster, will never see the light of day,” Phillips said later outside court. “It feels good to have this weight off our backs.” Holmes’ parents, Arlene and Robert, sat silently holding hands throughout the verdicts. After the final count was read, Arlene buried her face in Robert’s shoulder. The verdict came almost three years after Holmes, dressed head to toe in body armour, slipped through the emergency exit of the darkened theatre in suburban Denver and replaced the Hollywood violence of the movie The Dark Knight Rises with real human carnage. His victims included two active-duty servicemen, a single mum, a man celebrating his 27th birthday and an aspiring broadcaster who had survived a mall shooting in Toronto. Several died shielding friends or loved ones. - AP