We need your help now
Support from readers like you keeps The Journal open.
You are visiting us because we have something you value. Independent, unbiased news that tells the truth. Advertising revenue goes some way to support our mission, but this year it has not been enough.
If you've seen value in our reporting, please contribute what you can, so we can continue to produce accurate and meaningful journalism. For everyone who needs it.
Sign in. It’s quick, free and it’s up to you.
An account is an optional way to support the work we do. Find out more.
By continuing, you are indicating that you accept our Terms of Service and Privacy Policy.
A SENIOR MEMBER of Angela Merkel’s cabinet has controversially suggested that Greece should be encouraged to leave the eurozone – potentially reigniting fears over the future stability of the currency bloc.
Interior minister Hans-Peter Friedrich told news magazine Der Spiegel that while Greece should not be kicked out of the euro, other countries should be prepared to create conditions so that it leaves of its own accord.
“I’m not talking about kicking out Greece, but to create incentives for an exit that it can’t refuse,” Friedrich said.
His comments mark the first time that a cabinet minister has openly questioned whether Greece should remain in the bloc, and come within a week of eurozone finance ministers agreeing to issue €130 billion in new bailout loans to the struggling Greek government.
The same Spiegel article quoted the treasurer of Angela Merkel’s CDU party, Norbert Barthle, who said he doubted that the terms of the new bailout could achieve its objective of helping Greece to reduce its national debt to 120 per cent of its GDP by 2020.
The comments, published yesterday, came a day before the Bundestag votes on whether to release new cash to assist Greece.
The vote is expected to pass easily – with opposition parties having signalled support at committee level last week – but an opinion poll published in yesterday’s Bild am Sonntag showed that 62 per cent of Germans opposed any further financial aid to Greece. That poll prompted Bild, the country’s biggest-selling daily, to campaign against any more help.
Angela Merkel has herself taken some heat for the comments, with the Wall Street Journal remarking that the Chancellor could find it difficult to maintain parliamentary support for continued Greek aid if Lucas Papademos’s government does not follow up on its austerity measures.
It notes that any German politician who previously argued the case for a Greek exit from the eurozone was labelled “an extremist”, but that an increasing number of figures in Berlin believe an exit would allow the rest of the eurozone to emerge more quickly from the crisis.
To embed this post, copy the code below on your site
OK
Sioned Taylor looks more like a chaperone than a friend to me.
At least she can get to or photoshopped in Spain
@Paul: That suitcase gives the game away. Poor photoshopping job, as if princesses carry their own suitcases. I wonder who the “former Royal Navy member” is working for now and how they came to be ‘friends’.
Several dozen children from multiple wives? Christ how many wives did he have?
@David O Brien:
Multiple
@David O Brien: 14 wives I believe
@Buster Cat: all at once or did he have no more than 4 at any one time? Maybe he divorced wife number 1 just before marrying wife number 5 and so on and so forth?
@Colin Heffernan: The religion’s founder made a special rule for himself, so he could more than 4 wives. Maybe Sheikh Mohammed made a similar rule for humself.
Sheikh Mohammed, a randy devi!.
@Seán Dillon:
Whatever about that, Sheikha’s own life choices must be fully respected by her popular father.
@Seán Dillon: It was love. He’s in love with himself.
Don’t believe any of it tbh
Must dig out pics of md holidaying in Spain
@Hughie Lynch: *me
@Hughie Lynch: no need I can photoshop you there if you like any particular person you want to be seen with Elvis perhaps
If only this much attention is given to the millions of women held in captivity around the world. Most not living in absolute luxury.
@Derek Moran: weird angle given that nobody knows wjats actually going on in this instance. Also weird to give out about this kind of stories not being covered on one of those stories. Fact of the matter is the absence of a person is a very difficult story to cover for obvious reasons. New evidence equals new attention.
@Derek Moran: if news is only reported on the absolute worst case, bar none, we would have very little to read and comment on. Cop on.
Is there a photo taken from behind, so we can see what Ms Taylor is holding in her left hand?
Funny I heard her death notice on mid West radio a while back.
@Shamel Jelupi Barron: is that a real radio station?
Use precise geolocation data. Actively scan device characteristics for identification. Store and/or access information on a device. Personalised advertising and content, advertising and content measurement, audience research and services development.
These cookies are necessary for the website to function and cannot be switched off in our systems. They are usually only set in response to actions made by you which amount to a request for services, such as setting your privacy preferences, logging in or filling in forms. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not then work.
These cookies may be set through our site by our advertising partners. They may be used by those companies to build a profile of your interests and show you relevant adverts on other sites. They do not store directly personal information, but are based on uniquely identifying your browser and internet device. If you do not allow these cookies, you will experience less targeted advertising.
These cookies enable the website to provide enhanced functionality and personalisation. They may be set by us or by third party providers whose services we have added to our pages. If you do not allow these cookies then these services may not function properly.
These cookies allow us to count visits and traffic sources so we can measure and improve the performance of our site. They help us to know which pages are the most and least popular and see how visitors move around the site. All information these cookies collect is aggregated and therefore anonymous. If you do not allow these cookies we will not be able to monitor our performance.
Cookies, device or similar online identifiers (e.g. login-based identifiers, randomly assigned identifiers, network based identifiers) together with other information (e.g. browser type and information, language, screen size, supported technologies etc.) can be stored or read on your device to recognise it each time it connects to an app or to a website, for one or several of the purposes presented here.
Advertising presented to you on this service can be based on limited data, such as the website or app you are using, your non-precise location, your device type or which content you are (or have been) interacting with (for example, to limit the number of times an ad is presented to you).
Information about your activity on this service (such as forms you submit, content you look at) can be stored and combined with other information about you (for example, information from your previous activity on this service and other websites or apps) or similar users. This is then used to build or improve a profile about you (that might include possible interests and personal aspects). Your profile can be used (also later) to present advertising that appears more relevant based on your possible interests by this and other entities.
Advertising presented to you on this service can be based on your advertising profiles, which can reflect your activity on this service or other websites or apps (like the forms you submit, content you look at), possible interests and personal aspects.
Information about your activity on this service (for instance, forms you submit, non-advertising content you look at) can be stored and combined with other information about you (such as your previous activity on this service or other websites or apps) or similar users. This is then used to build or improve a profile about you (which might for example include possible interests and personal aspects). Your profile can be used (also later) to present content that appears more relevant based on your possible interests, such as by adapting the order in which content is shown to you, so that it is even easier for you to find content that matches your interests.
Content presented to you on this service can be based on your content personalisation profiles, which can reflect your activity on this or other services (for instance, the forms you submit, content you look at), possible interests and personal aspects. This can for example be used to adapt the order in which content is shown to you, so that it is even easier for you to find (non-advertising) content that matches your interests.
Information regarding which advertising is presented to you and how you interact with it can be used to determine how well an advert has worked for you or other users and whether the goals of the advertising were reached. For instance, whether you saw an ad, whether you clicked on it, whether it led you to buy a product or visit a website, etc. This is very helpful to understand the relevance of advertising campaigns.
Information regarding which content is presented to you and how you interact with it can be used to determine whether the (non-advertising) content e.g. reached its intended audience and matched your interests. For instance, whether you read an article, watch a video, listen to a podcast or look at a product description, how long you spent on this service and the web pages you visit etc. This is very helpful to understand the relevance of (non-advertising) content that is shown to you.
Reports can be generated based on the combination of data sets (like user profiles, statistics, market research, analytics data) regarding your interactions and those of other users with advertising or (non-advertising) content to identify common characteristics (for instance, to determine which target audiences are more receptive to an ad campaign or to certain contents).
Information about your activity on this service, such as your interaction with ads or content, can be very helpful to improve products and services and to build new products and services based on user interactions, the type of audience, etc. This specific purpose does not include the development or improvement of user profiles and identifiers.
Content presented to you on this service can be based on limited data, such as the website or app you are using, your non-precise location, your device type, or which content you are (or have been) interacting with (for example, to limit the number of times a video or an article is presented to you).
With your acceptance, your precise location (within a radius of less than 500 metres) may be used in support of the purposes explained in this notice.
With your acceptance, certain characteristics specific to your device might be requested and used to distinguish it from other devices (such as the installed fonts or plugins, the resolution of your screen) in support of the purposes explained in this notice.
Your data can be used to monitor for and prevent unusual and possibly fraudulent activity (for example, regarding advertising, ad clicks by bots), and ensure systems and processes work properly and securely. It can also be used to correct any problems you, the publisher or the advertiser may encounter in the delivery of content and ads and in your interaction with them.
Certain information (like an IP address or device capabilities) is used to ensure the technical compatibility of the content or advertising, and to facilitate the transmission of the content or ad to your device.
Information about your activity on this service may be matched and combined with other information relating to you and originating from various sources (for instance your activity on a separate online service, your use of a loyalty card in-store, or your answers to a survey), in support of the purposes explained in this notice.
In support of the purposes explained in this notice, your device might be considered as likely linked to other devices that belong to you or your household (for instance because you are logged in to the same service on both your phone and your computer, or because you may use the same Internet connection on both devices).
Your device might be distinguished from other devices based on information it automatically sends when accessing the Internet (for instance, the IP address of your Internet connection or the type of browser you are using) in support of the purposes exposed in this notice.
The choices you make regarding the purposes and entities listed in this notice are saved and made available to those entities in the form of digital signals (such as a string of characters). This is necessary in order to enable both this service and those entities to respect such choices.
have your say