Greek bill opens way for civil service layoffs

Public servants shout slogans during a protest in front of the Parliament in Athens, Sunday April 28, 2013. A few hundreds public servants protested peacefully outside the Greek Parliament as lawmakers vote on new austerity bill.(AP Photo/Kostas Tsironis)

Public servants shout slogans during a protest in front of the Parliament in Athens, Sunday April 28, 2013. A few hundreds public servants protested peacefully outside the Greek Parliament as lawmakers vote on new austerity bill.(AP Photo/Kostas Tsironis)

A protester burns an effigy depicting a Greek worker during a protest in front of the Parliament in Athens, Sunday April 28, 2013. A few hundred public servants protested peacefully outside the Greek Parliament as lawmakers voted on new austerity bill.(AP Photo/Kostas Tsironis)

Public servants shout slogans during a protest in front of the Parliament in Athens, Sunday April 28, 2013. A few hundred public servants protested peacefully outside the Greek Parliament as lawmakers vote on new austerity bill.(AP Photo/Kostas Tsironis)

A protester (not seen) waves a labour union flag during a protest in front of the Parliament in Athens, Sunday April 28, 2013. A few hundreds public servants protested peacefully outside the Greek Parliament as lawmakers vote on new austerity bill.(AP Photo/Kostas Tsironis)

Public servants cast their shadows on a banner of a labour union during a protest in front of the Parliament in Athens, Sunday April 28, 2013. A few hundred public servants protested peacefully outside the Greek Parliament as lawmakers voted on new austerity bill.(AP Photo/Kostas Tsironis)

ATHENS, Greece (AP) ? Greece's Parliament approved an emergency bill Sunday to pave the way for thousands of public sector layoffs and free up 8.8 billion euros ($11.5 billion) in international rescue loans.

The bill, which passed in a 168-123 vote, will allow for the first civil service layoffs in more than a century. About 2,000 civil servants will be laid off by the end of May, with another 2,000 following by the end of the year and a further 11,500 by end-2014, for a total of 15,500.

The legislation is the latest wave of Greece's draconian austerity program. It agreed this month with its bailout rescue lenders ? the European Union and International Monetary Fund ? to implement the measures as a condition to receive new emergency loans worth 8.8 billion euros ($11.5 billion).

The permanence of civil servant jobs has been enshrined in all constitutions since 1911, a form of protection from wholesale sacking when the government changes hands.

To get around the constitutional protection, the bill stipulates the first layoffs will take place in state agencies that will be disbanded or merged. A provision also aims to bypass, if needed, the notoriously slow and lenient disciplinary councils, which have refused to lay off even people convicted of felonies. More than 2,000 such cases are pending, nearly 600 on appeal.

The civil servants' union, ADEDY, bitterly opposed the bill's provisions and called for a protest outside Parliament. Authorities took strict security measures, such as barricading a Parliament entrance since Sunday morning and diverting traffic and shutting down a subway station two hours before the announced start of the protest. In the end, fewer than 300 people showed up.

The bill contained many unrelated provisions, from the payment of back taxes and social security contributions to the end of bakeries' monopoly in baking bread.

To shorten debate and to present the bill as a sort of confidence vote, the government bundled 110 pages of legislation into a single article. Debate in committee lasted a single day and so did debate in the full Parliament, despite opposition protests and claims of a "parliamentary coup."

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/cae69a7523db45408eeb2b3a98c0c9c5/Article_2013-04-28-Greece-Financial%20Crisis/id-95a39a2f706e4fe39b43b43d6d3637b5

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Evernote Food 2.0 for Android offers revamped UI, more ways to document your dietary obsessions

It may seem difficult to believe, but iOS and Android users do share something in common: they both like to eat. But while Evernote Food for iOS has seen a couple of updates in recent months, its Android counterpart has been somewhat neglected. That ends today, though, with a huge 2.0 refresh that finally gives Evernote Food for Android parity with the iOS version, including a new navigation drawer with four main sections.

Breaking those down: Explore is a compiled list of Evernote-suggested recipes, My Cookbook stores clipped recipes from the main Evernote app and around the web, Restaurants lets you discover and bookmark places to eat (you can even make OpenTable reservations) and My Meals is essentially a food journal. As for platform discrepancies, the Android app has a Recently Viewed pane which the iOS version lacks, but the latter offers recipe-sharing while the Android one doesn't. So go ahead, foodie Android fans: download the app and get to sharing your favorite food memories. Remember, you don't have to say how you got that pizza delivered.

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Lawmakers: Syria chemical weapons could menace U.S.

WASHINGTON (AP) ? Syria's stockpile of chemical weapons could be a greater threat after that nation's president leaves power and could end up targeting Americans at home, lawmakers warned Sunday as they considered a U.S. response that stops short of sending military forces there.

U.S. officials last week declared that the Syrian government probably had used chemical weapons twice in March, newly provocative acts in the 2-year civil war that has killed more than 70,000 people and displaced hundreds of thousands more. The U.S. assessment followed similar conclusions from Britain, France, Israel and Qatar ? key allies eager for a more aggressive response to the Syrian conflict.

President Barack Obama has said Syria's likely action ? or the transfer of President Bashar Assad's stockpiles to terrorists ? would cross a "red line" that would compel the United States to act.

Lawmakers sought to remind viewers on Sunday news programs of Obama's declaration while discouraging a U.S. foothold on the ground there.

"The president has laid down the line, and it can't be a dotted line. It can't be anything other than a red line," said House Intelligence Committee Chairman Rep. Mike Rogers, R-Mich. "And more than just Syria, Iran is paying attention to this. North Korea is paying attention to this."

Added Sen. Saxby Chambliss, R-Ga.: "For America to sit on the sidelines and do nothing is a huge mistake."

Obama has insisted that any use of chemical weapons would change his thinking about the United States' role in Syria but said he didn't have enough information to order aggressive action.

"For the Syrian government to utilize chemical weapons on its people crosses a line that will change my calculus and how the United States approaches these issues," Obama said Friday.

But Rep. Jan Schakowsky, an Illinois Democrat, said Sunday the United States needs to consider those weapons. She said that when Assad leaves power, his opponents could have access to those weapons or they could fall into the hands of U.S. enemies.

"The day after Assad is the day that these chemical weapons could be at risk ... (and) we could be in bigger, even bigger trouble," she said.

Both sides of the civil war already accuse each other of using the chemical weapons.

The deadliest such alleged attack was in the Khan al-Assal village in the Aleppo province in March. The Syrian government called for the United Nations to investigate alleged chemical weapons use by rebels in the attack that killed 31 people.

Syria, however, has not allowed a team of experts into the country because it wants the investigation limited to the single Khan al-Assal incident, while U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has urged "immediate and unfettered access" for an expanded investigation.

One of Obama's chief antagonists on Syria, Sen. John McCain, R- Ariz., said the United States should go to Syria as part of an international force to safeguard the chemical weapons. But McCain added that he is not advocating sending ground troops to the nation.

"The worst thing the United States could do right now is put boots on the ground on Syria. That would turn the people against us," McCain said.

His friend, Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., also said the United States could safeguard the weapons without a ground force. But he cautioned the weapons must be protected for fear that Americans could be targeted. Raising the specter of the lethal bomb at the finish line of the Boston Marathon, Graham said the next attack on U.S. soil could employ weapons that were once part of Assad's arsenal.

"Chemical weapons ? enough to kill millions of people ? are going to be compromised and fall into the wrong hands, and the next bomb that goes off in America may not have nails and glass in it," he said.

Rogers and Schakowsky spoke to ABC's "This Week." Chambliss and Graham were interviewed on CBS's "Face the Nation." McCain appeared on NBC's "Meet the Press."

___

Follow Philip Elliott on Twitter: https://twitter.com/Philip_Elliott

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/lawmakers-syria-chemical-weapons-could-menace-us-154735931.html

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Suspect indicted in Las Vegas Strip carnage

LAS VEGAS (AP) ? A self-described pimp was indicted Friday on charges that could bring the death penalty if he is convicted in a fatal shooting and fiery crash that killed three people on the Las Vegas Strip in February.

In an unexpected move, the Clark County District Court grand jury also indicted Ammar Asim Faruq Harris, 27, on a charge of robbery and three felony sex assault counts in a 2010 rape case that had been dismissed last year when the alleged victim refused to testify.

Prosecutor David Stanton said the second indictment didn't represent double-jeopardy under Nevada law because the earlier case was dismissed without prejudice before a preliminary hearing. That let prosecutors seek new charges when the alleged victim, who now lives in Texas, testified before the grand jury in Las Vegas.

The rape charges could put Harris in prison for a minimum of 10 years. He could get two to 15 years on the robbery charge if convicted.

Clark County District Attorney Steve Wolfson has said he was considering the death penalty in the Las Vegas Strip incident but had not made a decision. Wolfson was out of town Friday and unavailable for comment.

The indictment in the Strip shooting and crash accused Harris of the same 11 felonies contained in a criminal complaint filed Feb. 22: Three counts of murder, one count of attempted murder and seven counts of discharging a weapon.

Harris is expected to plead not guilty at his arraignment May 6 in Clark County District Court in both cases. A Monday court date in Las Vegas Justice Court was canceled.

Harris was being held without bail at the Clark County jail in Las Vegas. His lawyers, David Schieck and Randall Pike, weren't immediately available for comment.

Tourists compared the carnage and crashes early Feb. 21 to a Hollywood action film. The stunningly violent shooting occurred at the busy intersection of Las Vegas Boulevard and Flamingo Road, which is flanked by Caesars Palace, Bellagio, Bally's and the Flamingo.

Harris is accused of shooting from a black Range Rover into a Maserati sports car that then slammed into a taxi that burst into flames. Taxi driver Michael Boldon, 62, of Las Vegas, and passenger Sandra Sutton-Wasmund, 48, of Maple Valley, Wash., were killed. The Maserati driver, 27-year-old Kenneth Cherry Jr., died at a hospital.

Another man in the Maserati suffered gunshot wounds and survived. Five other people in several other vehicles suffered lesser injuries.

Police said Harris and Cherry had exchanged angry words at a casino valet stand before speeding with tires squealing up the neon-splashed Strip. Investigators found no gun in the Maserati and no evidence that Cherry returned fire before crashing.

Long before the shooting, Harris posted videos of himself fanning a stack of $100 bills and boasting about luxury cars, prostitutes and living in a house full of women who were all paying him. Records showed he lived in Miami, Atlanta and Las Vegas.

Records also show Harris was never convicted of pimping. But the 2010 case prompted police to seek charges of pandering by force and felon in possession of a concealed weapon. Prosecutors went ahead with robbery, sexual assault, kidnapping and coercion with a weapon charges before the case was dropped.

Harris was previously convicted in South Carolina in 2004 of felony possession with intent to sell a stolen pistol and convicted in Atlanta of a misdemeanor marijuana possession charge.

___

Find Ken Ritter on Twitter: http://twitter.com/krttr

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/suspect-indicted-las-vegas-strip-carnage-234734075.html

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