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Greek police will be rid of 'any racist elements,' Public Order Minister Nikos Dendias tells Amanpour
By Mick Krever and Annabel Archer, CNN
Greece is determined to rid its police of “any racist elements,” Public Order Minister Nikos Dendias told CNN’s Christiane Amanpour on Thursday.
“We have ordered a full-scale investigation by the internal department of the Greek police,” Dendias said. “Please allow me to say that we are adamant in our target to clean up the Greek police from any racist elements.”
Elements of the Greek police have been widely criticized as not only targeting minority groups, but being complicit with right-wing groups like the Golden Dawn, which has a neo-Nazi following.
Greece has seen a rise in racist attacks, which are up 20% according over last year, according to the head Greece’s National Commission for Human Rights.
But the dire economic situation in Egypt, Dendias said, is no excuse.
“Unemployment does exist. An economic crisis does exist. The Greek people, the Greek society is under considerable stress,” Dendias told Amanpour from Athens. “But that is no excuse, and it will not be accepted as the excuse for the reappearance of a neo-Nazi phenomenon. Neo-Nazism is completely unacceptable.”
Remembering the queen of la bella cucina
By Lucky Gold, CNN
Imagine a world where one remarkable woman set the dining room table, and the tastes, for millions of Italian food lovers.
Marcella Hazan may not be as famous as Julia Child, but her influence – as chef, teacher and author – may be even greater; not only in her adopted country of America, but throughout the world.
Before she came onto the scene, most Americans thoughts of Italian food the way it was portrayed in Disney’s Lady and the Tramp: Spaghetti and meatballs on a red checked tablecloth, adorably shared one bella notte.
Or else they bought Italian food pre-packaged in boxes and cans, as hawked on TV by Chef Boyardee.
Marcella Hazan changed all that with the publication of "the classic italian cookbook" in 1973. She emphasized natural ingredients, simple recipes
Arab Spring ‘will not die’ in Tunisia, where it started, Tunisian President Marzouki tells Amanpour
By Mick Krever, CNN
The Arab Spring “will not die” in Tunisia, where it all started, President Moncef Marzouki told CNN’s Christiane Amanpour on Tuesday.
“I'm very, very confident,” he said in an interview that aired Wednesday.
Last weekend, the ruling Islamist democrats in Tunisia resigned, and in return the secular opposition ratified the constitution that the Islamists had been drafting for a year and a half.
It stands in stark contrast to the on-going blood in Syria and political chaos in Egypt.
“The situation in Tunisia is much easier because first of all, we have a homogenous society; this is extremely important,” Marzouki told Amanpour. “Even under the dictatorship we used to have a very strong civil society.”
Red Letta day for Italy
By Mick Krever, CNN
Silvio Berlusconi, former prime minister of Italy, will never again be part of the Italian government, another former prime minister, Mario Monti, told CNN’s Christiane Amanpour on Wednesday.
“I definitely do not believe that this time around Mister Berlusconi can escape his fate,” Monti told Amanpour from Rome.
Berlusconi, the 77-year-old former leader convicted of tax fraud, backed down on Wednesday from trying to upend the coalition government of Prime Minister Enrico Letta.
Letta won a confidence vote in Italy’s parliament by a wide margin on Wednesday.
“In a sense [Berlusconi put up a brave face,” Monti said. “Certainly everybody but the sense that Mister Berlusconi lost out.”
“He has been pronounced defeated and out of politics many, many times in the past,” Monti said, “He has given proof of an incredible resilience, but I believe this time he will not.”
Amanpour explains: 77-year-old disgraced Berlusconi turns Italy into a political Circus Maximus
By Lucky Gold, CNN
In case you thought the United States was the only country flailing, and failing, at governing itself, imagine a world where the government can fall at the whim of a 77-year-old convict.
Italy, which held its umpteenth election just nine months ago, teeters on the brink of political chaos yet again, following a power play by former Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi.
Twitter founder Dorsey and Iran President Rouhani exchange tweets
The founder and chairman of Twitter, Jack Dorsey, exchanged tweets with Iranian President Hassan Rouhani on Tuesday.
Dorsey started the exchange:
Just over five hours later, the Twitter account representing Rouhani's office replied, and referenced his interview last week with CNN's Christiane Amanpour.
Assad will never give up chemical stockpile, defected Syrian General al-Sakat tells Amanpour
By Mick Krever, CNN
A defected Syrian general told CNN’s Christiane Amanpour on Tuesday that Bashar al-Assad will never give up his chemical stockpile.
“The locations of most of the scientific research centers in Syria and the storage facilities are known and under surveillance, thus, he will give up those centers and facilities for sure without lying. That said however, Bashar al-Assad will not give up the chemical stockpile,” Syrian Brigadier General Zaher al-Sakat said.
General al-Sakat says that he defected from the Syrian military after he was ordered to use chemical agents; he says he swapped the chemicals out for something non-toxic to fool his commanders.
The general said that in addition to four secret locations within Syria, the regime is currently transferring chemical weapons to Iraq and Lebanon, an enormous claim that the commander of the opposition Free Syrian Army, General Salim Idriss, recently also made to Amanpour.
Lebanon and Iraq denied the claims at the time, and CNN's Barbara Starr reported that, if true, the allegation would fundamentally shift the assessments of U.S. intelligence officials.
Al-Sakat said that the oppositions’ intelligence monitored “twenty eight large trucks moving from Jdeedet Yabous, toward Lebanon, then to Hezbollah, which were heavily guarded. They also found in the Frouqlus area more than fifty large Mercedes and Volvo trucks, also heavily guarded, moving in the direction of Iraq.”
Is America a failed State?
By Mick Krever, CNN
NASA’s unmanned Voyager 2 spacecraft may have put it best when it “tweeted” from beyond the solar system: “Farewell, humans. Sort it out yourselves.”
Most employees at NASA are now among the million U.S. government employees on forced leave because congress has failed to pass a spending bill, forcing a shutdown.
The world is watching in seeming disbelief. So, is America a failed state?
Not quite, but the apparent failure of the American congress to govern certainly raises the question. If we were covering some of the far-flung failing states we often do, we’d know just how to put it.
“The capital’s rival clans find themselves at an impasse, unable to agree on a measure that will allow the American state to carry out its most basic functions. … The current crisis has raised questions in the international community about the regime’s ability to govern this complex nation of 300 million people.”
That, of course, was a satirical post; it appeared in the online magazine Slate, but it just about fits.
A small cabal of representatives in the House have blocked passage of a government spending bill, and are threatening to default on America’s debts, because they disagree with a bill, Obamacare, passed by congress three years ago.
At stake, unlike a “Banana Republic” is the world’s largest economy and the currency of global trade.
Amanpour explains: U.S. Government shutdown
Some Republicans don’t ‘understand the process of governing,’ says former Republican Senator Judd Gregg
By Mick Krever, CNN
An American default on its debt could do “nothing good” for the economy, either in the U.S. or abroad, Former Republican Senator Judd Gregg told CNN’s Christiane Amanpour on Monday.
Gregg spoke with Amanpour as the U.S. faced dual financial crises: An impeding government shutdown imposed by a congress unwilling to fund the government, which could come Monday night, and a possible default on the government’s debts, which would come in about three weeks.
It is that second problem, a default on America’s debts, that would be the much “bigger problem,” Gregg said.
“It would,” he told Amanpour, “obviously [have] significant ramifications for the country and for our fiscal policies.”
There are a group of Republicans in the House of Representatives who do not want President Obama’s healthcare reform – dubbed Obamacare – to go into effect, and are willing to do anything possible to block it.
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