Erstellt am: 21. 6. 2012 - 14:37 Uhr

Greece: new government, old problems

Reality Check: Greece, Homs evacuation, Egypt election results postponed, Rio +20, Uruguay to legalise marijuana

It's taken a while, a lot of negotiating and two elections, but finally, Greece has a government. Today, the new Prime Minsiter, Antonis Samaras, will announce his cabinet, which, in view of the financial crisis and austerity measures, has been slimmed down from 49 to 28 members.

The coalition he has put together includes the 3rd placed in the election Pasok party, and two left wing groups. However, the left wingers have said they will not accept cabinet posts, and while they have pledged support for the governement, it remains to be seen how solid their support will be whent he going gets tough.

It might be reasonable to ask "Just how much tougher can it get?" Greece is, effectively, on its knees. The thankless task of trying to steer around the financial mine-field of the Euro crisis will almost certainly fall to the Chairman of the Greek National Bank, Vassilis Rapanos. His first job will be to join EU finance ministers in Luxembourg for a meeting that is likely to be anything but welcoming and convivial. He will be wanting some concessions on the bailout deal to make life a little easier for ordinary Greeks. However, Angela Merkel has already made it clear that she doesn't want any changes to the deal as it stands now.

While Greeks may be happy that they have a government, it's going to come under a great deal of pressure from within the country and from abroad. Let's hope it's up to the job. It's hard to see how the new line-up is going to do anything substantially different from what has gone before.

Mark Lowen reports from Athens on the new government coalition and how it is likely to tackle the country's woes.

Homs evacuation

The International Committee of the Red Cross is trying to establish a cease-fire to allow civilians to be evacuated from the Syrian city of Homs. How does the status of the conflict as a civil war affect what international agencies can do?

Egypt delays Presidential election result

The announcement of the winner of the presidential elections, due to be made today, has been postponed among accusations on both sides and both candidates claiming victory. Karim El Gawhary reports from Cairo.

Uruguay to legalise marijuana

The government of Uruguay is planning to allow state-controlled sales of marijuana to divert resources into fighting hard drugs.

Danny Kushlick of the Transform Drug Policy Foundation gives his response

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Rio +20

Najda Hahn reports from Rio.

FM4 Reality Check

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