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Published on 21 December 2012 at 11:10

The International Monetary Fund has refused to comment on rumours that it has demanded Cyprus officially request a restructuring of its debt. Such an initiative by the island would be viewed as a credit event, and would be both controversial and risky. Negotiations on a possible bailout are continuing.

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Russian roulette for Cypriot debt – Politis

In early 2013, ”the EU is expected to come up with a good idea to help the heavily indebted island.” The German banking association has suggested that some €17bn might be needed, and added that the amount “seems like a lot but it can be dealt with if there is international cooperation.”

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Cyprus? Not the end of the world! – Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung

Parliament has waived the immunity of Labour Party leader Viktor Uspaskich and two of his close associates. Uspaskich, a businessman of Russian origin who made a fortune by importing gas and packing gherkins, is accused of failing to pay tax when managing his party’s finances. The Labour Party is a member of the ruling coalition which took office in the wake of the October 28 general elections.

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Trio move between parliament and the courthouse – Lietuvos Rytas

Scared by massive layoffs at Fiat’s plant in Tychy, where close to 1,500 jobs are to be cut, the government is preparing an anti-crisis bill that will provide state aid to companies in trouble. It stipulates that threatened companies will be able to reduce working hours and salaries, while their employees are compensated from a special fund. The bill could become effective in May. “Too late,” concludes the daily, which says the crisis will be most acute in the first half of 2013.

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Government too late for the crisis – Rzeczpospolita

The UK Ministry of Defence has paid out £14m (€17m) in compensation and costs to hundreds of Iraqis who complained that they were illegally detained and tortured by British forces during the five-year occupation of the south-east of Iraq. Payments totalling £8.3m have been made to 162 Iraqis this year. There were payments to 17 individuals last year and 26 in the three years before that.

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Ministry pays out millions to torture victims – The Guardian

The government has postponed the privatisation of the Portuguese state-owned airline after rejecting the only offer, made by Germán Efromovich. The Brazilian-Colombian entrepreneur had offered €350m for the company, but did not present sufficient bank guarantees. The government will now establish a plan to reduce TAP’s operating costs, which may include wage cuts and redundancies.

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Efromovich's TAP buy-up fails and government plans restructuring – Diário económico

“Apocalypse? What Apocalypse?” wonders the daily against the backdrop of Hieronymus Bosch’s Last Judgement, which was painted between 1485 and 1505, and is now kept at the Academy of Fine Arts in Vienna. Pushing forward the date to 2052, the newspaper imagines planet Earth after a demographic explosion, and concludes that paradise as depicted by Bosch will be relatively spacious in comparison.

December 21, 2012: The world in transition – Die Presse

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