Page 8 - aruba-today-20190709

A8 WORLD NEWS
Tuesday 9 July 2019

Greece creditors say no changes in bailout terms for new PM

By DEREK GATOPOULOS “We will make the start to-
ELENA BECATOROS day with hard work, with
RAF CASERT full confidence in our ability
Associated Press to respond to the circum-
ATHENS, Greece (AP) — stances.”
Greece’s bailout creditors Hundreds of conservative
on Monday bluntly reject- supporters braved the sum-
ed calls from the country’s mer heat to greet him out-
new conservative govern- side the prime minister’s of-
ment to ease draconian ficial residence, chanting:
budget conditions agreed “There his is! There he is! The
as part of its rescue pro- Prime Minister!”
gram. He replaced Alexis Tsipras,
Conservative party lead- whose left-wing Syriza party
er Kyriakos Mitsotakis was got 31.5% of the vote. Tsip-
sworn in as Greece’s new ras became the latest in
prime minister Monday, a a series of Greek political
day after his resounding leaders to suffer election
election victory on cam- defeat after implementing
paign pledges to cut taxes tough policies prescribed
and negotiate new terms by bailout creditors from
with international lenders. the euro area and Interna-
Euro area finance ministers Greek opposition New Democracy conservative party leader Kyriakos Mitsotakis centre, walks tional Monetary Fund since
meeting hours later in Brus- with his wife Mareva, right in Athens, Monday, July 8, 2019. 2010.
sels said key targets already Associated Press The extreme right Golden
agreed with Athens would in Athens were forced to “It’s very hard to see how 180% of GDP and banks Dawn party, the third larg-
not be changed. make spending cuts in re- debt sustainability can be saddled 45% of their loans est in parliament at the
“Commitments are com- turn for the rescue loans. achieved without it,” he unpaid or in trouble. height of the financial crisis,
mitments, and if we break As part of those agree- said. “The 3.5% surplus is Analysts said Mitsotakis failed to make the 3% vote
them, credibility is the first ments, Greece has a cornerstone of the pro- would be able to pursue threshold needed to get
thing to fall apart. That pledged to achieve gov- gram. It was a cornerstone growth-friendly policies de- seats in parliament.
brings about a lack of con- ernment budget surplus- of the program from the spite the bailout constraints Mitsotakis’ new Cabinet will
fidence and investment,” es, before debt costs, of beginning.” and financial challenges. rely heavily on experienced
Mario Centeno, the Euro- 3.5% of GDP for the com- Mitsotakis, whose late In the election, Mitsotakis’ politicians who served in
group president, told re- ing years. That condition father, Constantine Mit- center-right New Democ- previous conservative gov-
porters after the meeting. has shackled government sotakis, was a conserva- racy party won 39.8% of the ernments. The finance min-
Greece ended its third spending and, critics say, tive prime minister in the votes and 158 seats in the ister will be Christos Staik-
consecutive international stifled the country’s recov- early 1990s, has promised 300-member parliament, a ouras, an engineer and
bailout last summer — pro- ery. to make Greece more comfortable majority. economist who previously
grams that rescued the Klaus Regling, head of the business-friendly by lower- “The people gave us a served as deputy minister.
country’s euro membership euro area rescue fund and ing taxes and cutting red strong mandate to change Nikos Dendias, the new for-
and staved off bankruptcy lead Greek bailout credi- tape. But his new govern- Greece, and we will hon- eign minister, held previous
but also deepened pov- tor, said the high surplus ment faces pressing finan- or that commandment in Cabinet posts at the minis-
erty and unemployment target would remain a key cial challenges, including a full,” Mitsotakis said after tries of public order, devel-
as successive governments condition. national debt that exceeds his swearing-in ceremony. opment, and defense.q

Heather Mills gets UK phone hacking apology, payout

By GREGORY KATZ of the world’s most power- a “substantial settlement”
Associated Press ful media groups,” she said. hasn’t been revealed.
LONDON (AP) — Heather Mills is one of a number of The Mills’ lawyer, David
Mills, the former wife of Paul celebrities who have re- Sherborne, said the sisters
McCartney, and her sister ceived settlements in the had been subjected to
have received an apol- prolonged phone hacking “sustained and repeated
ogy and a settlement from scandal, which closed the invasions of privacy” by
Britain’s defunct News of Rupert Murdoch-owned people working for the
the World tabloid over the News of the World in 2011. newspaper.
hacking of their phones. The paper was found to “The claimants believe that
Heather Mills and her sister have hacked into the the publication of articles
Fiona Mills both received a voicemail of many promi- in the defendant’s news-
formal apology in Britain’s nent Britons in a gross viola- papers had a seriously cor-
High Court on Monday. In a tion of privacy. rosive effect on (their) rela-
statement read outside the A representative of the tionships with their friends
court, she said she felt “joy tabloid said it apologized and family, some of which
and vindication” at the set- Heather Mills speaks outside Rolls Building at the end of her to the Mills sisters for “the can never be repaired,” he
tlement. legal phone-hacking claim against News Group Newspapers, distress caused to them by said.
“My motivation to win in London, Monday July 8, 2019. the invasion of their privacy Mills and McCartney di-
this decade-long fight Associated Press by individuals working for vorced in 2008 after a pro-
stemmed from a desire to myself, but for the thou- me, have suffered similar or on behalf of the News of longed court clash over the
obtain justice, not only for sands of innocent mem- ignominious, criminal treat- the World.” size of the settlement she
my family, my charities and bers of the public who, like ment at the hands of one The size of what was called would receive.q