Greece
Greece’s government submitted a list of reforms to its creditors on Friday in an effort to rebuild its fiscal standing.
Greece will begin paying off the first of several loans to the International Monetary Fund in hopes of appeasing the Eurozone and convincing them to continue economic aid to Greece.
The new seven-point plan includes provisions dealing with budgetary procedure reforms and efforts to clamp down on tax evasion, as well as strategy to ease the suffering of Greece’s poor citizens. The plan also stipulates new regulations to tax internet gambling.
Last month, Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras and Finance Minister Yanis Varoufakis reached an agreement with Greece’s creditors to extend its 240 billion euro bailout by four months. Friday’s plan was seen as a response to the creditors’ request for more details on Greece’s reform measures before granting the aid.
Jerusalem
A Palestinian man from East Jerusalem rammed his car into a light rail train station on Friday after running into a group of female officers, wounding five officers and an Israeli.
The attack took place outside Border Police base in northern Jerusalem on Shimon HaTzadik where people were celebrating the Jewish holiday Purim. The street was also the site of a hit-and-run attack last November that killed one border police officer and injured 13 other people.
The driver, identified as Udaayi Salayma, was shot by a Border Guard who was present at the scene as part of a training exercise going on at the base. A large cleaver was found on Salayma with which he reportedly tried to attack officers before being shot.
The attack follows recent disputes between Israel and the Palestinian Liberation Organization over cooperation agreements. However, police said that it is difficult to prevent attacks by “lone wolf” assailants who are not thought to belong to militant organizations.
South Korea
The US Ambassador to South Korea, Mark Lippert, was attacked in Seoul while attending a breakfast meeting. The attacker slashed Lippert on the face with a knife, but Lippert was not seriously injured.
The assailant was a militant Korean nationalist and reportedly called for the unification of the Korean peninsula during the attack on Lippert.
North Korea’s state news agency applauded the attack, saying that the assailant delivered a “knife shower of justice.”
Many nationalist groups in the region blame the American military presence on the peninsula for the ongoing division of North and South Korea.
