Politics

University students continue their opposition to a new law, proposed by the Greek government, through organizing new rallies in Athens and Thessaloniki as well as through the persistent occupancy of many departments in the two biggest Universities of Greece, the University of Athens and the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki. Students are opposing the law—proposed by the Minister of Education Marietta Yannakou—which has to do with the foundation of private universities in Greece as well as other aspects of the academic organization. The st

The National Party has gone over its allocated funding for the past election, because of a communication mixup that resulted in the party booking $900,000 plus Goods and Services Tax (GST) of advertising, rather than the $900,000 including GST they were allowed to spend. It should be noted that advertising is invariably quoted exclusive of GST in New Zealand, resulting in the mixup. Because of this the National Party tried to get a bill passed so they could get a one off exemption that would allow them to pay the money owed to TVNZ, TV3, Prime,

South Korean Foreign Minister Ban Ki-moon says that North Korea is prepared to test an intercontinental ballistic missile with an estimated range of 3,500 miles. The missile, Taepodong 2, could with such a range reach the United States mainland. On Tuesday, Lee Tae-sik, South Korea's ambassador to the United States, confirmed the reports saying, "preparations did appear to be under way." "If North Korea fires a missile now while the six-party talks remain off and questions are being raised in the international community about the effectivene

The Icelandic Prime Minister, Halldór Ásgrímsson, announced his resignation on June 5 after the governing Progress Party suffered losses in recent local elections. Ásgrímsson's successor will be Minister of Foreign Affairs Geir Haarde. Haarde is leader of Ásgrímsson's coalition partner, the conservative Independence Party.

President George W. Bush has made a surprise visit to Iraq hoping to bolster some support. He also went to meet their new Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki and talk about next steps in the war. Even al-Maliki didn't know that Bush was coming until five minutes before he arrived. The trip comes as over 70,000 mostly Iraqi citizens prepare to deploy into Baghdad to try and bring security to the capital. It was a very dramatic move by the president to travel to a violence crazed area in Baghdad less than a week after the death of al-Zarqawi. Bush m

Police dispersed a group of activists who had gathered at the Haft-e Tir square in Tehran on Monday, reportedly using pepper spray and beating up some of the protestors. The group was staging a demonstration calling for equal treatment for women under the Iranian law and better protection of their rights. The Iranian Justice minister Jamal Karimirad later said that 70 people were detained in connection with the event, of whom 42 were women. He also said that the reports of police beating up the protestors were being reviewed. The activists

Tony Blair has been asked to speak out on behalf of a British artist, Michael Dickinson, who has been charged in Turkey with "insulting the (Turkish) prime minister's dignity". This carries a sentence of up to 3 years in jail. The case was brought after Dickinson displayed a collage showing Tayyip Erdogan, the Turkish Prime Minister, as a dog, being awarded a rosette by President Bush in a pet show. Source

The Lower Saxony, Germany tax authority is migrating 12,000 desktops to use SuSE Linux with KDE as the desktop environment. The systems are being migrated from Sun's Solaris x86 version 8, which has been in use at the organization since 2002. According to Eva Brucherseifer, president of the KDE community in Germany and managing director of basysKom, the migration process in its "peak phase" and is porting 300 systems every day. The company basysKom is configuring the desktops. Brucherseifer said "The decision made by the Regional Tax Office

The Tamil Nadu Government on Sunday said it would forego sales tax on the incremental component of the recent diesel price and yet maintain bus fares of State Transport Undertakings (STUs) at existing levels. Announcing this, Chief Minister M. Karunanidhi said following the decision, the incremental retail price, inclusive of the sales tax component, would come down from Rs. 2.23 a litre to Rs. 1.78. As a result, the price of diesel, that increased from Rs.33.72 a litre to Rs.35.95 on Tuesday, would come down to Rs. 35.50. But, by foregoing the

Australia's justice minister, Chris Ellison has said that the Australian federal cabinet did not consider security issues when it decided to setup an inquiry into nuclear power. Speaking to the Nine Network, Senator Ellison said when considering energy, security concerns are not an issue. "When you look at sources of energy you don't look at any potential terrorist threat," he said. The justice minister said that cabinet discussed measures for protecting crucial infrastructure but denies that a nuclear power station is any more of a target th

A Yemeni man linked to the September 11, 2001 attacks in the United States has been deported from New Zealand, only the second time that Section 72 of the Immigration Act is used to deport someone. Consent of the Governor-General was required and there is no right of appeal. Rayed Abdullah, a United States-qualified pilot, arrived in New Zealand in February under a variation of his name. Immigration Minister David Cunliffe says “The government considered that the man's continued presence in New Zealand posed a threat to national security beca

The Grolier Poetry Bookshop in Cambridge, Massachusetts, has a new owner, Nigerian Poet and Wellesley College Philosophy Professor Ifeanyi Menkiti. Menkiti purchased the bookstore from longtime owner Louisa Solano. Publisher's Weekly and the Boston Globe have reported that he plans to maintain the readings and other events that the store has long been famous for, expand the selection of international writers and maintain more regular hours. Grolier is one of only two all-poetry bookstores in the United States, and had been in danger of clos