Page 10 - ARUBA TODAY

A10 WORLD NEWS
Tuesday 25 april 2017
Greece, creditors resuming talks in Athens, seek swift deal

reaching an agreement about 3.6 billion euros
“as soon as possible.” ($3.85 billion).
That would clear the way Schinas also noted that Eu-
for further talks on easing rostat, the European Union
Greece’s debt burden, statistical authority, has
currently at 179 percent of confirmed Greece’s 2016
GDP. budget figures, which far
Following long delays in exceeded forecasts.
the negotiations, Greece The primary budget surplus
has already agreed to fur- — which excludes debt ser-
ther slash pensions in 2019 vicing costs — reached 3.9
and drastically expand the percent of annual output,
tax base in 2020 by reduc- according to the system
ing the current tax-free of calculations used by
threshold. Greece’s statistical author-
Greece is also under pres- ity. According to the terms
sure to speed up the sale of the country’s bailout, the
of infrastructure and utili- surplus was 4.2 percent. Ei-
ties. And the country’s ther way, it far overshot the
privatization agency an- initial target of 0.5 percent
nounced Monday that a of GDP. Schinas said the
consortium led by private surplus, which is subject to
German investor Deutsche final verification, “confirms
Invest Equity Partners has the trends which we at the
been named the highest Commission have been
A courier with his bicycle passes graffiti on a wall in Athens, Friday, April 21, 2017. Representa- bidder for a 67-percent reporting for a while,” and
tives of Greece’s bailout creditors are due in Athens to restart talks on further cutbacks, European stake in the Port of Thessa- expressed confidence the
officials said Monday. loniki, in northern Greece, country can meet its bud-
(AP Photo/Thanassis Stavrakis) offering 231.9 million euros get targets in 2017 and
NICHOLAS PAPHITIS restart talks on further cut- European Commission ($252 million). 2018.
Associated Press backs, European officials spokesman Margaritis Schi- The forthcoming bailout Greeks have suffered sev-
ATHENS, Greece (AP) said Monday, as they con- nas said the negotiations talks are expected to fo- en years of repeated in-
— Representatives of firmed that the country last are expected to start Tues- cus on the final details of come cuts and tax hikes
Greece’s bailout credi- year far exceeded its bud- day and should last several the next round of austerity after the public finances
tors are due in Athens to get targets. days, with the objective of measures, set to be worth imploded in 2010, forcing
the country to rely on inter-
Philippines lawyer alleges Duterte link to deaths national bailouts.
To secure the rescue loans,
governments
successive
imposed harsh cutbacks,
MIKE CORDER against humanity against preliminary investigations recent testimony of two amid a rapidly shrinking
Associated Press President Rodrigo Duterte based on them. However, men, Edgardo Matobato
THE HAGUE, Netherlands and senior officials in his Sabio’s filing comes af- and Arturo Lascanas, to economy that has lost a
quarter of its pre-crisis val-
(AP) — A Filipino lawyer on government,” lawyer Jude ter ICC Prosecutor Fatou a Philippine Senate inquiry. ue, and record-high un-
Monday presented docu- Sabio told The Associated Bensouda said last year Lascanas, a retired police employment. The current,
ments to the International Press outside the court af- that she was “deeply con- officer, has claimed that third bailout signed by the
Criminal Court which he ter presenting to prosecu- cerned” by reports of kill- Duterte was linked to hun- left-led government in 2015
said contain evidence of tors a 77-page file outlin- ings in the Philippines, dreds of extrajudicial kill- runs until mid-2018 — after
ings when he was mayor
the alleged involvement of ing the allegations. The adding that statements by of Davao City in the south- which the country is ex-
President Rodrigo Duterte court receives many such “high officials” in the Asian ern Philippines. Lascanas pected to be in a position
in extrajudicial killings of communications about al- nation “seem to condone told The AP last month that to start borrowing again
suspected drug dealers leged crimes from around such killings.” Sabio said the he’s ready to testify in do- from international bond
and other crime suspects. the world and prosecutors documents he filed were mestic and international markets.q
“It is a case for crimes are not obliged to open based in large part on the courts.q