RSS

A government spokesman said Cyprus President Nicos Anastasiades faces a tough task to save the island’s economy.

The president was in Brussels discussing a crucial bailout with the European Union and the European Central Bank on Sunday.

According to AL-Jazeera News, Cyprus needs a 10-billion euro bailout to keep the government and the banks intact, but they have to raise 5.8 billion euros just to qualify for that package.

The European Central Bank has threatened to cut off emergency help to the country’s banks if Cyprus can’t meet the Monday deadline.

And without the assistance, the economy could collapse and force the country of the euro zone.

On Sunday, the country’s two main banks called Laiki and the Bank of Cyprus limited withdrawals at ATMS to 100 euros per day.

That led to demonstrations by hundreds of Cypriots Sunday evening, showing slogans against the “troika,” which is the European Union, and President Anastasiades. 

Banks are due to reopen on Tuesday after a 10-day shutdown.

Flickr Photo by: CyprusPictures

STORY WRITTEN BY: KURT WEISS

Montreal police are cracking down heavily on the student movement.

In a report by the Canadian University Press, SPVM officers who dealt with the protests stemming from tuition increases by the Liberal party last spring, put an end to the latest march on March 22nd in ten minutes.

Students are on the streets once again, to denounce the tuition increase of 70 dollars a year over the next five years put in place by the Parti Quebecois during the summit on higher education last month.

Once the summit ended, every protest ended in mass arrests, something that did not occur last year during the maple spring movement.

Those marches although deemed illegal with the bylaw passed by the then ruling Liberals were allowed to march for hours on end by the police. Arrests were made on only a few occasions.

On March 22nd, 2012, it marked the first of many nightly protests organised by student unions to denounce the tuition hike in which 200 000 people took part.

This year on the same date, protesting the P.Q.'s recent ruling, 300 people began a march only to be stopped by officers 10 minutes later, and resulted in the protest of 200 people.

Flickr Photo by: Viola Ng

Hosted by: Saturn De Los Angeles

Stories by: Carlo Spiridigliozzi, Alyssa Tremblay & Catlin Spencer

Produced by: Catlin Spencer

The time for secrets could be over soon in Montreal politics.

In a report by the Gazette, a former Montreal city councilor told the paper on Thursday that legal transparency at Montreal city hall should be a priority to the provincial government.

Richard Théorêt says that legislating transparency at the municipal level will bring an end or deal a blow to possible corruption and collusion.

Théorêt has been campaigning for executive committee meetings to be public. Interim mayor Michael Applebaum made that possible when he took office in November following Gerard Tremblay’s abrupt resignation.

Public servants and city councilors have been under the microscope over their involvement in the corruption and collusion scandal rocking Quebec’s construction industry.

Executive committee meetings once  held behind closed doors was the floor where city contracts were handed out and anything involving city policy is hammered out.

Flickr Photo by: ArturoYee