High-flying Germans out to down Danes - Football
Published: 17 Jun 2012 - 07:17:15
After two wins already at Euro 2012, a confident Germany are aiming to beat Denmark on Sunday in Lviv to finish top of Group B and set up a quarter-final near their base in Gdansk.
Having twice flown to the Ukraine for their respective wins against Portugal and Holland, Germany return to Lviv aiming to beat the Danes and book their place in the Gdansk quarter-final on Friday against the Group A runner-up.
The Germans still need a point to qualify with the Group B runner-up facing a last eight clash in Warsaw on Thursday against the winner of Group A.
With three goals at Euro 2012, including two against Holland and the winning header against Portugal, Bayern Munich striker Mario Gomez has finally converted his impressive club form to German colours.
"The good thing with Mario is that he needs almost zero chances and still scores," said Germany midfielder Bastian Schweinsteiger, who described Gomez's goals as a "precious commodity" for the Germans.
Following their shock win over Holland and 3-2 defeat to Portugal, victory against Germany should put Denmark in the quarter-finals, but a draw would be enough if the Netherlands beat Portugal in the other group match in Kharkiv.
But Schweinsteiger and Germany have other ideas.
"We can approach the final game against Denmark with a lot of self-confidence - every victory gives you an extra push," said the 27-year-old.
"We definitely want to win that game against Denmark."
Germany coach Joachim Loew said his side have their destiny in their own hands after two wins in the "Group of Death".
"I think we've opened the door to the quarter-finals. It's now in our hands to make everything clear on Sunday," he said.
Germany will be without suspended right-back Jerome Boateng, who picked up his second yellow card against Holland, and Loew has hinted he may switch captain Philipp Lahm from the left or even play a three-man defence.
Midfielder Mesut Ozil missed training on Friday "as a precautionary measure", but is set to play after his man-of-the-match performance against Portugal in the opening game.
The 23-year-old Real Madrid attacking midfielder has been in stellar form at the European championship and also impressed in Wednesday's win over Holland.
Danish wing Dennis Rommedahl will miss the game against Germany while midfielder Niki Zimling is a doubt after the pair suffered muscle injures in the 3-2 defeat to Portugal.
"We are left with the number of points we had hoped for after the first two matches," said Danish coach Morten Olsen, whose team came back from 2-0 down against Portugal only to fall foul of Silvestre Varela's late winner.
"The scenario of our dreams would be to have one more point.
"That could have been the case, but you don't always have it your way in football."
Danish striker Nicklas Bendtner - who scored both their goals against the Portuguese - said his team have to show plenty of belief against the Germans.
"It's nice to know that we still stand a chance in this tournament," he said.
"We will have to do everything we can to get a good result against Germany. We are still in it.
"If we win against Germany, we are through. If we draw, other things must go our way. If we lose, we are out."
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Egyptian presidential vote enters second day - CBC
Egyptians were choosing on Sunday between a conservative Islamist and Hosni Mubarak's ex-prime minister in the second day of a presidential runoff that has been overshadowed by questions on whether the ruling military will transfer power to civilian authority by July 1 as promised.
Going head-to-head in the runoff are Ahmed Shafiq, a longtime friend and self-confessed admirer of Mubarak, and Mohammed Morsi, the candidate of the fundamentalist Muslim Brotherhood.
The two-day balloting, which ends Sunday evening, followed a week of political drama in which the military slapped de facto martial law on the country and judges appointed by Mubarak before his ouster dissolved the freely elected, Islamist-dominated parliament.
The generals who took over from Mubarak 16 months ago are expected this week to spell out the powers of the new president and appoint a 100-member panel to draft a new constitution, moves that will further tighten the military's grip on the nation.
The race between Shafiq and Morsi has deeply divided the country, 16 months after a stunning uprising by millions forced the authoritarian Mubarak to step down after 29 years in office.
"I am bitter and I am filled with regret that I have to choose between two people I hate. I have to pick a bad candidate only to avoid the worse of the two," lamented a silver-haired pensioner in Cairo's crowded Bab el-Shariyah district. He refused to give his name, fearing retribution for speaking so openly.
"Nothing is going to be resolved and Egypt will not see stability," he added.
A similarly pessimistic note was echoed by another voter, accountant Yasser Gad, 45. "The country is heading to a disaster. It will keep boiling until it explodes. No one in the country wants the former regime to rule us again."
Voting fatigue
Few voters displayed an air of celebration visible in previous post-Mubarak elections. The prevailing mood was one of deep anxiety over the future — tinged with bitterness that their "revolution" had stalled, fears that no matter who wins, street protests will erupt again, or deep suspicion that the political system was being manipulated. Moreover, there was a sense of voting fatigue.
Egyptians have gone to the polls multiple times since Mubarak's fall on Feb. 11, 2011 — a referendum early last year, then three months of multi-round parliamentary elections that began in November, and the first round of presidential elections last month.
"It's a farce. I crossed out the names of the two candidates on my ballot paper and wrote 'the revolution continues'," said architect Ahmed Saad el-Deen, in Cairo's Sayedah Zeinab district, a middle-class area that is home to the shrine of a revered Muslim saint.
"I can't vote for the one who killed my brother or the second one who danced on his dead body," he said, alluding to Shafiq's alleged role in the killing of protesters during last year's uprising and claims by revolutionaries that Morsi's Brotherhood rode the uprising to realize its own political goals.
Motivated by fear
Others said they were voting against a candidate as much as for one. Anti-Shafiq voters said they wanted to stop a figure they fear will perpetuate Mubarak's regime; anti-Morsi voters feared he would hand the country over to Brotherhood domination to turn it into an Islamic state.
With the fear of a new authoritarianism, some said they picked the candidate they believed would be easiest to eventually force out of power.
Asmaa Fadil, a young woman who wears the Muslim veil, said she lost confidence in the political process, particularly after the dissolution of parliament.
"I don't trust the whole thing. I feel everything is planned in advance and what we are doing now is just part of the plan," she said as she waited in line to vote in Sayedah Zeinab.
The election is supposed to be the last stop in a turbulent transition overseen by the military generals. But even if they nominally hand over some powers to the winner, they will still hold the upper hand over the next president.
The generals are likely to issue an interim constitution defining the president's authority while they retain their hold on legislative powers, and they will likely appoint a panel to write the permanent constitution.
Israeli kills 2 Palestinians, says they attacked him - Reuters
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Socialists seek majority in French vote - Reuters
PARIS |
PARIS (Reuters) - France began voting in a parliamentary run-off on Sunday expected to hand President Francois Hollande's Socialist party a majority and bolster his position in legislative battles over euro zone crisis policy.
A clear majority reliant neither on opposition conservatives nor eurosceptic hard leftists, as opinion polls suggest, would be a boon as Hollande prepares legislation to raise taxes, adjust budget spending and ratify an EU fiscal discipline pact.
Yet with a simultaneous election in Greece threatening to tip Europe into chaos and French voters in no mood for further economic gloom, Hollande will have no time to bask in glory.
Opinion polls and projections from last Sunday's first-round vote suggest the Socialist bloc could achieve the 289 seats needed for a majority in the 577-member National Assembly even without adding seats from its Green Party allies.
Added to its control of the Senate and the presidency, that would give the Socialist Party more power than it has ever held and should leave Hollande's largely social democratic and pro-Europe cabinet broadly intact.
The possible entry of Marine Le Pen's far-right National Front into parliament for the first time since the mid-1980s with up to three seats would be uncomfortable but would not pose any threat to Hollande's power to govern.
"It would probably be better if the Socialists get an absolute majority because they won't be influenced by the far left and they'll be able to govern along more centrist lines," said Yves Collignon, 62, a retired engineer voting in Paris.
Hollande, who won power last month, will fly to Mexico early on Monday with voting slips barely counted for the first of a flurry of summits. His decision to side with southern nations weary of austerity has opened a rift with Europe's paymaster Germany that the Socialist needs to fix fast.
He is toning down calls for joint euro zone bonds - accepting Berlin's insistence this is a long-term prospect - and is instead pushing for a package of growth-boosting measures worth around 120 billion euros.
Hollande may face a challenge keeping eurosceptic Socialist lawmakers behind him if he agrees to Germany's demand for a commitment to deeper fiscal and political integration in Europe.
He may also encounter resistance to slowing down spending plans if a public finance audit due by end-June shows France ill placed to meet its deficit goals, as it is expected to do.
"Hollande's biggest political test will be to keep his party united if he is forced to adopt economic policies that are unpopular with the electorate," political analyst Antonio Barroso of Eurasia Group said in a note to clients.
NO VOTER HONEYMOON
Polling booths opened at 8 a.m. (02.00 a.m. EDT) and the last ones were due to close 12 hours later, with concern over turnout as voters go to the polls for the fourth time in eight weeks. The abstention rate hit a record of nearly 43 percent last Sunday.
Initial results will be released at 8 p.m., the same time the world will learn whether Greece has elected an anti-austerity party whose victory could undermine its euro zone membership and send shockwaves through financial markets.
Hollande's chief ministers, including Prime Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault, were elected in round one by scoring more than 50 percent of votes. Those in run-off contests, like Finance Minister Pierre Moscovici, are expected to win their seats.
In all, 36 deputies were elected outright last weekend and 541 constituencies are up for grabs on Sunday.
A survey by Ipsos-Logica Business Consulting published on Friday, and tallying with other polls, showed Hollande's Socialist bloc could win between 284 and 313 deputies and that the Greens could take 14 to 20 seats.
The radical Left Front coalition, whose leader Jean-Luc Melenchon was knocked out of the running for a seat representing an economically destitute northern town by Le Pen last week, is set to win just 12 to 13 seats.
Le Pen's National Front is looking at up to three seats, and the conservatives, fractured since their leader Nicolas Sarkozy was ousted as president in May, are set for 192 to 226 seats.
The projections are for a bigger parliament win for the left than in the 1997 election, when voters lashed out at the then conservative government's attempt at welfare reform, and in 1988, just after President Francois Mitterrand's re-election.
That would still leave Hollande short of the two-thirds majority he would need for any constitutional changes, such as legislation to give EU institutions more power over the budget.
Hollande faces the risk that opposition lawmakers could demand a referendum in exchange for supporting legislation that many voters would view as undermining French sovereignty.
The fact voters are already marking Hollande harshly suggests they will react angrily if he announces spending cuts.
"My hypothesis is that after the summer there will be social upheaval as people will no longer be able to voice frustration via the ballot box," political expert Dominique Reynie said.
(Additional reporting by Nicholas Vinocur; Editing by Angus MacSwan)
Egypt tenses for new president after vote - Reuters India
CAIRO |
CAIRO (Reuters) - A second day of voting on Sunday will deliver Egypt's first freely elected president, though the country faces renewed tension whether he is a former general from the old guard or an Islamist from the long-suppressed Muslim Brotherhood.
Egyptians must decide between Ahmed Shafik, the last prime minister of Hosni Mubarak, or Mohamed Morsy, a U.S.-educated engineer who spent time in Mubarak's jails and offers Egypt a new start as an Islamic democracy.
"We have to vote because these elections are historic," said Amr Omar, voting in Cairo, who said he was a revolutionary youth activist. "I will vote for Morsy... Even if it means electing the hypocritical Islamists, we must break the vicious cycle of Mubarak's police state."
A gunfight killed two in Cairo overnight, according to local media. The reports blamed a dispute between street vendors and there was no apparent connection to the vote, which saw little trouble on Saturday despite mutual accusations of fraud. Observers reported only minor and scattered breaches.
It was impossible to forecast who will emerge the winner by Monday - and whoever it is may face anger and accusations of foul play. Both men have widespread support, but many voters may be staying away, disillusioned by a choice of extremes after centrist candidates were knocked out in the first round last month.
Turnout at polling stations in several areas seemed lower on Saturday than during the first round. Polls re-opened at 8 a.m. on Sunday (0600 GMT).
"I am on my way to vote and I'll spoil my ballot. I'll cross out both Morsy and Shafik because neither deserve to be president," said 40-year-old shop owner Saleh Ashour in Cairo.
The military rulers who pushed out their brother officer Mubarak 16 months ago to appease the street protests of the Arab Spring have already enraged their veteran adversaries in the Brotherhood late last week by dissolving the new parliament, elected only five months ago with a sweeping Islamist majority.
A win for Shafik, 70, who says he has learned the lessons of the revolt and offers security, prosperity and religious tolerance, may prompt Islamist claims of Mubarak-style vote-rigging and street protests by the disillusioned urban youths who made Cairo's Tahrir Square their battleground last year.
"The Egyptian people have chosen freedom and are practising democracy," Morsy said as he cast his vote on Saturday. "The Egyptian people will not back down and I will lead them, God willing, towards stability and retribution."
Shafik, a former fighter pilot and air force chief whose second finish to Morsy in the first round capped a rapid ascent from rank outsider status, made little comment as he voted.
UNEVEN OUTCOMES
Should Morsy prevail, benefiting from a movement forged by decades of clandestine struggle and from support among those who put aside qualms about Islamic rule to block a return of the old regime, he may be frustrated by an uncooperative military elite, for all the generals' pledges to cede power by July 1.
The Brotherhood on Saturday again denounced the dissolution, based on a ruling by the Mubarak-era constitutional court, as "a coup against the whole democratic process" and insisted only a popular referendum could reverse the parliamentary election.
But though overturning that vote drew comparison with events that triggered the bloody Algerian civil war 20 years ago, the Brotherhood, which hung back in the early days of the 2011 revolution, has shown little appetite for a violent showdown with Egypt's U.S.-equipped army, the biggest in the Arab world.
That stalemate, coupled with a failure this year of legislators to form a consensus body to draft a new constitution and a consequent lack of clarity over the powers the new head of state will have, leaves Egyptians, Western allies and investors perplexed by the prospect of yet more of the uncertainty that has ravaged the economy and seen sporadic flare-ups in violence.
Should Shafik win, his supporters reckon, he and the ruling military council which took sovereign powers when Mubarak quit would work in harmony to restore confidence, notably for the vital and ravaged tourist trade - but questions would remain over how far the Islamists and other opponents would resist.
Casting his vote on Saturday in the New Cairo district of the capital, businessman Ashraf Rashwan, 45, said hostility to the Brotherhood among the generals, who retain power and vast business interests, meant Morsy simply could not govern.
"They'll get no cooperation from the establishment. If Morsy wins, there will be a struggle that Egyptians - me at any rate - aren't ready for," he said. "Shafik will mean smooth transition. He's learned from Mubarak's failure to listen to the people."
One mid-ranking army officer, speaking privately, said he agreed with assessments that the military council would offer far more power to a President Shafik than a President Morsy:
"There will be different treatment depending on who wins. With Shafik, a firm crackdown is sure to happen," he said, noting a decree passed last week which restored powers to the military police to arrest civilians - a measure which replaced a hated emergency law that had lapsed the previous month.
"With Morsy, the establishment itself will not back him and there will be chaos and lax security, all of which will pose challenges to him and could destroy his presidency," he added.
"DEEP STATE"
In 60 years since army officers toppled the colonial-era monarchy, Egypt's armed forces have built up massive wealth and commercial interests across industries, helped since the 1970s by a close U.S. alliance which followed the decision of the most populous Arab state to make peace with Israel.
Commonly referred to as the "deep state", it is these shadowy structures, currently overseen in public by the ad hoc Supreme Council of the Armed Forces under Field Marshal Hussein Tantawi, which many Egyptians see maintaining influence long after the promised handover to an elected civilian by July 1.
"There is no doubt that the state in all its institutions - judicial, military, interior, foreign and financial - back Shafik for president and are working to that end," said Hassan Nafaa, a politics professor who campaigned against Mubarak.
"It is very difficult to eradicate this spirit of Mubarak."
Only if liberals swallowed their qualms and voted for Morsy to prevent Shafik winning, Nafaa said, "only then may the 'deep state' back down - but I doubt this will happen."
Washington, paymaster of the Egyptian military, and the European Union, a major aid donor, both expressed alarm at the move against parliament and urged the generals to honour their pledge to stand aside. But, like neighbouring Israel, both are also uneasy at the rise of the Brotherhood and have looked on anxiously as Islamists have closed in on power in other new democracies of the Arab Spring, notably in Tunisia and Libya.
(Reporting by Edmund Blair, Yasmine Saleh, Dina Zayed, Samia; Nakhoul, Tom Perry and Tamim Elyan; Writing by Alastair Macdonald and Tom Pfeiffer; Editing by Alessandra Rizzo)
Greeks vote in election that could decide fate of euro - Reuters India
ATHENS |
ATHENS (Reuters) - Greeks went to the polls on Sunday in an election that could decide whether their heavily indebted country remains in the euro zone or heads for the exit, potentially unleashing shocks that could break up the single currency.
In an election fought over the punishing austerity package demanded by international lenders as the price of keeping Greece from bankruptcy, opinion polls showed the radical leftist SYRIZA party, which wants to scrap the deal, running neck and neck with the conservative New Democracy, which broadly backs it.
The European Union and International Monetary Fund have insisted that the conditions of the 130 billion bailout accord agreed in March must be accepted fully by a new government or funds will be cut off, driving Greece into bankruptcy.
All parties say they will keep Greece in the single currency, but SYRIZA leader Alexis Tsipras believes the agreement can be renegotiated without Greece having to leave, betting that European leaders cannot afford the turmoil that would be unleashed by cutting a member of the euro zone loose.
On the right, establishment heir and New Democracy leader Antonis Samaras says rejection of the EU/IMF bailout would mean a return to the drachma and even greater calamity, although he, too, wants to renegotiate some aspects of the package.
Opinion polls show Greeks, weary after five years of deep recession, overwhelmingly favour remaining in the euro, but there is bitter anger over repeated rounds of tax hikes, slashed spending and sharp cuts in wages.
Many voters are also furious with New Democracy and the other traditional ruling party, the now severely weakened PASOK, blaming them for decades of corruption, waste and inefficiency.
"It's the first time I feel depressed after voting, knowing that I voted again for those who created the problem, but we don't have another choice," said 66-year-old English teacher Koula Louizopoulou.
"I voted for the bailout because these are the terms that will keep us in Europe," she said.
A win for Greece's national soccer team in a game on Saturday at the Euro 2012 championships provided some lift for voters but there was little sign of enthusiasm at the polling booths, which close at 7 p.m. (1600 GMT). Exit polls will follow soon after voting ends.
"STARING INTO THE ABYSS"
"It's obvious the country is now staring into the abyss," leading Greek daily Kathimerini said in a front-page editorial on Sunday, calling for the creation of a New Democracy-led "unity" coalition to keep the country in the euro.
The party gaining the most votes wins an automatic 50-seat advantage but neither New Democracy or SYRIZA is expected to win an outright majority and whoever emerges as top party will have to hold coalition negotiations with smaller groups.
European leaders weighed in on the eve of the vote - a re-run of an earlier election on May 6 that produced no clear winner - some of them openly urging Greeks to reject SYRIZA or risk undermining the very foundations of the single currency.
But whoever wins power may find their tenure is short-lived and, despite the insistence of EU politicians, some adjustment of the bailout terms may be inevitable if Greece is to cut a public debt amounting to 165 percent of gross domestic product.
"It is a scenario I see as likely and if that is the condition presented for Greece to stay and then move on, I would say it is probably something that should be attempted," Angel Gurria, head of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, told Reuters in an interview.
Central banks from Tokyo to London are readying arsenals to defend banks and national currencies against any post-election turmoil. The result will dominate a meeting of the Group of 20 world economic powers on Monday and Tuesday in Mexico.
Finance officials in the euro zone have discussed limiting the size of withdrawals from ATM machines, imposing border checks and introducing euro zone capital controls as a worst-case scenario.
Euro zone officials have hinted they might give a new Greek government some leeway on how it reaches debt targets set by the EU/IMF bailout package, but there would be no change to the targets themselves.
Euro zone paymaster Germany warned Greeks on Saturday the bailout would not be renegotiated.
"That's why it's so important that the Greek elections preferably lead to a result in which those that will form a future government say: 'Yes, we will stick to the agreements'," Chancellor Angela Merkel told a party conference of her Christian Democrats.
A Greek exit from the single currency would heap further pressure on two far larger European economies - Spain has already received up to 100 billion euros to save debt-riddled banks and Italy could be next to seek a bailout.
GERMAN WARNING
Anger with the establishment parties New Democracy and PASOK propelled SYRIZA and its youthful leader, a former Communist student protest organiser, from the obscure radical fringe to a shock second place on May 6.
The far-right Golden Dawn party also won seats in the first election, underscoring the fragmentation of a stressed society wrestling with unemployment of almost 23 percent and plummeting living standards.
Five years of recession and more than two years of acute crisis have started to fray the edges of Greek society, undergoing its severest test since the overthrow of the military dictatorship in 1974.
The streets of central Athens are scarred by repeated waves of protests, some hospitals are short of vital medicines and reports of suicides caused by the crisis have become routine.
Five opinion polls published before a blackout two weeks ago put New Democracy narrowly ahead. Two other polls had SYRIZA leading.
But analysts say Samaras, 61, will find it hard to govern for long with an empowered SYRIZA protesting at the gates. Tsipras, if he wins, will inherit a country on the verge of bankruptcy. He has ruled out a government of national unity and promised to nationalise banks and halt privatisations.
Some global businesses and banks are already in retreat.
Europe's biggest retailer Carrefour said on Friday it was selling up in Greece, a day after French bank Credit Agricole moved to take direct control of its Albanian, Bulgarian and Romanian units from its Greek bank Emporiki.
(Writing by Matt Robinson and James Mackenzie; Editing by Ralph Gowling and Alessandra Rizzo)
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