Heute hat Angela Mutti Merkel versucht, ihrem griechischen Volk ein Referendum zu geben.. Leider gab es da ein kleines Mißverständnis. Dabei will sie nur ständig das Beste. Und zwar mit Zinsen.

„Es ist wahr“, sagte Regierungssprecher Dimitris Tsiodras. Alle griechischen Parteien seien informiert worden. (…)
Die griechischen Parteien reagierten empört auf die Mitteilung. (…)
Griechische Verfassungsexperten nannten den angeblichen Vorschlag Merkels „absurd“.

„(Merkel) relayed to the President (Karolos Papoulias)thoughts about holding a referendum in parallel with the elections on the question whether Greek citizens wish to remain in the euro zone,“ Greek government spokesman Dimitris Tsiodras said in a statement.

The reports came as US and French leaders ended talks in Washington focusing on the economy.

Merkel raised the issue in a telephone conversation with Greek caretaker Prime Minister Panagiotis Pikrammenos, according to a statement from the prime minister‘s office Friday.

Merkel habe dies im Gespräch mit dem griechischen Staatspräsidenten Karolos Papoulias getan.

So the anthem now goes something like this: C‘mon, baby don‘t you wanna go/back to that same old place/sweet home ring of steel Chicago.

Sehr schönes Statement auch von Konstantin Wecker, als er sagt, ihm sei ja noch nie irgendwo das Singen verboten worden, nicht mal in der DDR.

A few weeks ago Mohammed Wadeia, a young Egyptian army captain being held in solitary confinement in a military prison for the „crime“ of joining protests in Tahrir Square against President Hosni Mubarak, complained that an old injury was troubling him.

Deprived of a pen and paper, his real aim, when he reached hospital to be x-rayed, was something else. He wanted to write up the poems he had composed in his head and then slip them into an envelope to be delivered to his father, a retired colonel.

German police said they detained 400 anti-capitalist protesters in Frankfurt on Friday for defying a ban on demonstrations against austerity policies implemented to tackle the intensifying euro zone debt crisis.

Das FBI und andere US-amerikanische Strafverfolgungsbehörden verlangen, dass die bei der Registrierung anfallenden Kommunikationsdaten und weitere Angaben von Domaininhabern von der Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) gespeichert werden sollen. Selbst nach Löschung der Domain sollen die Daten 2 Jahre vorgehalten werden. Nach deutschem Recht ist das Vorgehen nicht legal.

Der US-amerikanische Sicherheits-Experte Michael T. Klare berichtet von sechs aktuellen Konfliktherden, die allesamt mit der Frage der Energieversorgung verbunden sind: Sudan, China / Philippinen, Ägypten / Israel, Argentinien / Spanien, Argentinien / Großbritannien, und USA / Iran. “Diese Streitigkeiten haben eines gemeinsam: die Überzeugung herrschender Eliten auf der ganzen Welt, dass der Besitz von Energie-Vermögenswerten wesentlich für die Stützung des nationalen Reichtums, der Macht und des Prestiges sind.“

Samaras and Tsipras exchange harsh criticism about their parties, setting tone for June 17 elections

Nach dem G-8-Gipfel reist Merkel nach Chicago, wo am Sonntag der NATO-Gipfel beginnt. Zu dem zweitägigen Treffen der weltgrößten Militärallianz werden rund 60 Staats- und Regierungschefs erwartet.

While much of Europe is mired in debt and recession, some countries further afield are so flush with cash that they don‘t quite know what to do with it all.

Hong Kong is so rich that its government recently announced plans to give HK$600 (about £490) to more than 6 million people aged over 18. Added to a similar tax rebate that is in the works, the wealthy territory is giving back more than HK$40bn to its citizens.

In the runup to the G8 summit at Camp David, political scientist Ian Bremmer argues that the United States is no longer willing to play the role of global policeman, nor be a lender of last resort. In his latest book Every Nation For Itself he describes the ‚G-zero‘ world in which no single country takes leadership – a geopolitical phase that he expects to hold for five to 20 years

Welcome to the G-Zero era, a world of every nation for itself. The United States will remain the sole superpower for the foreseeable future, but war-weary, under-employed, debt-plagued voters will reject an activist foreign policy. Europeans won‘t fill the vacuum; they‘re busy fighting over how best to save the eurozone. China and other emerging powers won‘t be much help. They face too many complex challenges at home to accept new risks and burdens abroad.

The G-8 convenes as the eurozone is threatening to unravel, most immediately in the showdown over Germany’s insistence that Greece either swallow the toxic austerity medicine that could kill its economy, or see it be banished from the eurozone, potentially triggering global financial losses of the order of $1 trillion.

Fareed Zakaria: What is a G-Zero world, and how did we get here?

Ian Bremmer: The G-Zero is a world without effective, consistent leadership. It’s not the G7 world where Western industrialized powers set the agenda. It’s not a G20 world where developed and developing states find some way to work together on tough transnational problems. It’s a world where no can be counted either to pay the piper or call the tune.

(16.05.) Police in Frankfurt cleared hundreds of protesters who set up camp outside the European Central Bank in October as they prepare for as many as 30,000 anti-capitalist activists to besiege Germany’s banking capital.

German police began removing anti-capitalist protesters on Friday from outside a Frankfurt skyscraper that is Goldman Sachs‘ home in the German financial capital.

They came from near and far, descending on Frankfurt in the thousands. And that was just the police.

Mit Wasserwerfern sind Polizisten am Freitag vor der Europäischen Zentralbank (EZB) in Frankfurt angerückt. Bis zu 150 „Blockupy“-Aktivisten protestierten dort trotz eines Demonstrationsverbots vor einer Sperrzone, wie eine Polizeisprecherin berichtete. Bis zum Vormittag wurden in der Bankenstadt insgesamt rund 190 Protestler in Gewahrsam genommen.

Der gigantische Börsengang von Facebook birgt ein Risiko, das viele ignorieren: Setzt sich der Datenschutz durch, bricht das Geschäftsmodell von Facebook zusammen. Eine Gewinnwarnung.

Greece is following the road taken by several other crisis-ridden emerging economies over the past 30 years. Indeed, as I argued earlier this year, there are stunning similarities between this once-proud eurozone member and Argentina prior to its default in 2001. With an equally traumatic implosion – economic, financial, political, and social – now taking place, we should expect heated debate about who is to blame for the deepening misery that millions of Greeks now face.

More than 2 1/2 years after Greece revealed its bloated budget deficit, Europe has “known a lot of crisis,” Schaeuble said in a recorded interview broadcast today on France’s Europe 1 radio. “It’s practically normal.”