: Breaking News

UN: Afghan civilian deaths in war hit 5-year high

Sat, 04 Feb 2012 01:34 CST

By KAY JOHNSON

A U.N. report issued on Saturday said last year was the deadliest on record for Afghan civilians, with 3,021 killed in the war.

It was an 8 percent increase in civilian deaths from 2010. 2011 was also the fifth year in a row that the civilian toll has became steadily worse.

The report said insurgents killed more than three-quarters of the civilians who died, with a steep rise in people killed in suicide bombings. It said roadside bombs were the single biggest killer of civilians, accounting for nearly one in three deaths.

NATO and Afghan security forces were responsible for 410 civilian deaths - about 14 percent of the total.

The figures were a grim testament to the violence that the Taliban and allied Islamist militants can still unleash in Afghanistan, even as NATO begins to map out its plan for international troops to draw down and give Afghan security forces the main responsibility for fighting insurgents by the end of 2014.

The number of civilians killed in suicide attacks jumped dramatically to 450, an 80 percent increase over the previous year as militants set off increasingly powerful bombs in public places.

Insurgent-planted roadside bombs remained the single biggest killer of civilians last year. The homemade explosives, which can be triggered by a footstep or a vehicle, killed 967 people - nearly a third of the total. The United Nations decried the insurgents for using the indiscriminate weapons.

"For much too long, Afghan civilians have paid the highest price of war," said Jan Kubis, the U.N. secretary-general's special representative to Afghanistan.

Last year was the deadliest year for Afghan civilians recorded by the U.N. since it started keeping a detailed civilian casualties in 2007.

Overall, 3,021 civilians died in violence related to the war. Of those, the UN attributed 77 percent to insurgent attacks and 14 percent to international and Afghan troops. Nine percent of cases were classified as unknown.

The number of deaths caused by insurgents was up 14 percent over 2010, the U.N. said.

"It is extremely worrying to see civilian casualties continuing to rise year after year," said Navi Pillay, the U.N.'s High Commissioner for Human Rights . "Behind these numbers is real suffering and loss for families in Afghanistan."

While the total number of civilian deaths caused by international and Afghan forces backing President Hamid Karzai's government dropped by 4 percent from the previous year, the number of civilians killed by air strikes targeting insurgents rose to 187 last year, accounting for nearly half the deaths attributed to coalition and Afghan troops.

The U.N. also noted a shift in where the violence affecting civilians was centered. In 2010, the most civilian casualties were in the southern Taliban strongholds of Helmand and Kandahar, where an increased number of U.S. troops pushed to take back territory from insurgents.

While those two provinces still had the most deaths in 2011, their numbers dropped, while civilian deaths went sharply up in southeastern provinces including Khost and Paktika, as well as the eastern provinces of Kunar and Nangarhar. All those areas lie along Afghanistan's volatile border with Pakistan, where many of the Taliban's leaders and the al-Qaida-allied Haqqani network are believed to be based.

Most of the fighting has shifted to those areas over the past year.

No. 23 North Carolina women beat Virginia 64-56

Fri, 03 Feb 2012 22:14 CST

Chay Shegog had 20 points and Candace Wood added 14 points, leading No. 23 North Carolina to a 64-56 win over Virginia on Friday night.

Wood scored the game's final seven points as North Carolina (17-5, 7-2 ACC) swept the season series. The Tar Heels won the first meeting 78-73 in double overtime Jan. 5 in Charlottesville, Va.

Ariana Moorer led Virginia (16-8, 4-6) with 21 points, Lexie Gerson chipped in 14 and Ataira Franklin scored 11.

North Carolina led 35-24 at halftime behind 50 percent shooting and eight points from Shegog. Moorer had 13 at the break for the Cavaliers, who shot 27.3 percent for the period.

Virginia led 12-11 with 14:37 left in the first half before the Tar Heels went on a 10-0 run that included a pair of 3-pointers.

The Cavaliers chipped away in the second, tying it at 54 before Tierra Ruffin-Pratt's three-point play with 1:32 left put UNC ahead for good.

Popular character actor Ben Gazzara dies in NY

Fri, 03 Feb 2012 22:59 CST

By CRISTIAN SALAZAR

Ben Gazzara, whose powerful dramatic performances brought an intensity to a variety of roles and made him a memorable presence in such iconic productions over the decades as the original "Cat on a Hot Tin Roof" on Broadway and the film "The Big Lebowski," has died at age 81.

Longtime family friend Suzanne Mados said Gazzara died Friday in Manhattan. Mados, who owned the Wyndham Hotel, where celebrities such as Peter Falk and Martin Sheen stayed, said he died after being placed in hospice care for cancer. She and her husband helped marry Gazzara and his wife, German-born Elke Krivat, at their hotel.

Gazzara was a proponent of method acting, in which the performer attempts to take on the thoughts and emotions of the character he's playing, and it helped him achieve stardom early in his career with two stirring Broadway performances.

In 1955, he originated the role of Brick Pollitt, the disturbed alcoholic son and failed football star in "Cat on a Hot Tin Roof." He left the show after only seven months to take on an equally challenging role, Johnny Pope, the drug addict in "A Hatful of Rain." It earned him his first of three Tony Award nominations.

In 1965, he moved on to TV stardom in "Run for Your Life," a drama about a workaholic lawyer who, diagnosed with a terminal illness, quits his job and embarks on a globe-trotting attempt to squeeze a lifetime of adventures into the one or two years he has left. He was twice nominated for Emmys during the show's three-year run.

Gazzara made his movie debut in 1957 in "The Strange One," Calder Willingham's bitter drama about brutality at a Southern military school. He had previously played the lead role of the psychopathic cadet, Jocko de Paris, on Broadway in Willingham's stage version of the story, "End of Man."

He followed that film with "Anatomy of a Murder," in which he played a man on trial for murdering a tavern keeper who had been accused of raping his wife.

After "Run for Your Life" ended in 1968, Gazzara spent the rest of his career alternating between movies and the stage, although rarely with the critical acclaim he had enjoyed during his early years.

In the 1970s, he teamed with his friend director John Cassavetes for three films, "The Killing of a Chinese Bookie" and "Opening Night." In another Cassavetes film, he appeared with Falk, and the two became friends (it was Cassavetes who introduced them to the Wyndham Hotel, according to a 1982 article in New York magazine.)

Gena Rowlands appeared with Gazzara in "Opening Night," which also starred Cassavetes. Cassavetes and Rowlands were married; he died in 1989. Falk died last year.

"It breaks my heart to have this era come to an end. Ben meant so much to all of us. To our families. To John. To Peter. To have them gone now is devastating to me," she said in a statement.

She said her prayers and thoughts went out to "all his loyal and wonderful fans throughout the world."

Rita Moreno, who played Gazzara's wife in the 2000 film "Blue Moon," said, "He was a wonderful man, and I so enjoyed working with him. I wish I could have had the pleasure more often."

Other Gazzara films included "The Bridge at Remagen," "The Young Doctors," "They All Laughed," "The Thomas Crown Affair," "If It's Tuesday, It Must Be Belgium," "The Spanish Prisoner," "Stag" and "Road House." He also made several films in Italy.

He appeared on Broadway in revivals of "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf," "Awake and Sing!" "Strange Interlude" and several other plays.

Gazzara began acting in television in 1952 with roles on the series "Danger" and "Kraft Television Theater." Before landing "Run for Your Life," he played a police detective in the series "Arrest and Trial," which lasted two seasons.

Born Biagio Anthony Gazzara in New York on Aug. 28, 1930, he grew up on the Lower East Side of Manhattan in a cold-water flat with a bathtub in the kitchen. His parents were immigrants from Sicily who met and married in New York, and his first language was Italian. Although he was baptized under his birth name, his parents always called him Ben or Benny.

As a child he became fascinated with movies, and after giving his first performance, in a Boys Club play, he knew he had found his life's work.

"I disliked high school," he once said, "and after two years of it I left without telling anyone at home."

Instead he spent his days in movie theaters.

He entered Erwin Piscator's Dramatic Workshop in 1948. Eighteen months later he auditioned for the Actors Studio run by Lee Strasberg and was accepted.

The school was a beehive of activity in those days, turning out such followers of method acting as Marlon Brando, Montgomery Clift, James Dean, Barbara Bel Geddes, Shelly Winters, Paul Newman, Joanne Woodward, Rod Steiger and Julie Harris.

"There's a lot of voodoo about the Actors Studio," Gazzara told The Associated Press in 1966. "In the best sense it was a place for professionals to stay in touch with their craft, where newcomers and professionals mingled, to grow, to try parts they would never get in the professional theater and to even fall on their face."

Gazzara's first two marriages, to actresses Louise Erikson and Janice Rule, ended in divorce.

While filming "Inchon" in Korea in 1981, he met Krivat. They married the following year, and the union endured.

"Elke saved my life," Gazzara said in 1999. "When I met her, I was drinking too much, fooling around too much, killing myself. She put romance and hope back in my life."

He adopted Krivat's daughter, Danja, as his own. She recalled on Friday that he was a "complex soul" and that his role as a father to her and his own daughter was challenging.

"I adored Ben, and so did his daughter," she said. "But we both had difficulty with him ... I think the difficulty lay in his complexity of being an actor and those layers that you have, that you bring with you."

Besides Danja, Gazzara is survived by his wife, daughter Elizabeth and a brother.

Friday's College Basketball

Sat, 04 Feb 2012 01:49 CST

EAST

Baruch 68, Lehman 50

Castleton St. 77, Maine Maritime 58

Columbia 64, Dartmouth 62

Fairfield 77, Niagara 69

Harvard 71, Cornell 60

Ithaca 81, Nazareth 59

Loyola (Md.) 63, Rider 46

Medgar Evers 64, York (NY) 61

Moravian 68, Susquehanna 64

Princeton 77, Brown 63

Scranton 59, Juniata 53

St. Lawrence 65, Hobart 62

St. Peter's 63, Siena 58

Yale 60, Penn 53

SOUTH

Alice Lloyd 67, St. Louis Pharmacy 61

Belmont 84, Lipscomb 58

Rhodes 65, Oglethorpe 62

MIDWEST

Augustana (SD) 70, Minn. St.-Mankato 64

Beloit 67, Illinois College 65

Bethany Lutheran 95, Presentation 61

Carroll (Wis.) 84, Knox 61

Cleveland St. 65, Loyola of Chicago 47

Concordia (St.P.) 79, Upper Iowa 74

Lake Forest 66, Lawrence 58

Maranatha Baptist 78, Faith Baptist 63

Mary 76, Minn.-Crookston 52

Minn. St.-Moorhead 66, Northern St. (SD) 60

Minn.-Morris 56, Martin Luther 39

Northland 85, Crown (Minn.) 75

Northwestern (Minn.) 78, St. Scholastica 61

Ripon 105, Grinnell 96

SW Minnesota St. 73, Wayne (Neb.) 58

St. Norbert 77, Monmouth (Ill.) 63

Winona St. 84, St. Cloud St. 74

SOUTHWEST

No scores reported from the SOUTHWEST.

FAR WEST

Coll. of Idaho 60, NW Christian 56

Corban 79, E. Oregon 71

Warner Pacific 91, Evergreen St. 60

EXHIBITION

Northwest U. 82, Concordia (Ore.) 74

More charges ahead for man held in homeless deaths

Fri, 03 Feb 2012 22:10 CST

Prosecutors said Friday they plan to file two more murder charges against an ex-Marine accused of killing four homeless men in Southern California, this time in the stabbings deaths of a mother and son who lived near him.

Orange County District Attorney Tony Rackauckas announced the pending charges against Itzcoatl Ocampo in the stabbing deaths of Raquel Estrada and her son Juan Herrera.

Charges were dropped earlier Friday against Estrada's son Eder Herrera, 24, who was arrested shortly after the October killings in Yorba Linda.

"We no longer have sufficient evidence to hold Mr. Herrera in custody," Rackauckas said at a news conference Friday, according to City News Service.

"Since the filing of the charges against Herrera and Ocampo, there has been a significant amount of new evidence discovered in the case," he said.

The Orange County Register reported earlier this week that detectives found similarities in the cases of the Yorba Linda deaths and the stabbings of four homeless men in December and January.

On Thursday, authorities said they had "significant evidence" linking Ocampo to the Yorba Linda killings.

Estrada and Juan Herrera were killed in their Yorba Linda home, less than two miles from Ocampo's residence.

Estrada's son Eder Herrera was arrested the day after the killings as he drove from a friend's house.

Rackauckas said Ocampo and Herrera were friends from high school. He said DNA collected at Ocampo's home linked him to the Yorba Linda crime scene.

"At this point we have not conclusively eliminated Mr. Herrera as a suspect in the case. We will continue to investigate the case," Rackauckas said.

Ocampo is charged with stabbing to death four homeless men in a killing spree that terrorized Orange County in December and January.

The victims, James Patrick McGillivray, 53, was stabbed Dec. 20 near a shopping center in Placentia; Lloyd Middaugh, 42, was found Dec. 28 near a riverbed trail in Anaheim; Paulus Smit, 57, was stabbed to death outside a Yorba Linda library on Dec. 30; and John Berry, 64, was stabbed to death on Jan. 13, the day Ocampo was arrested.

Each of the four men was stabbed more than 40 times with a weapon believed to be a 7-inch, fixed-blade, military-type knife, authorities said.

Before Ocampo's arrest, police fanned out across the county better known as the home to Disneyland and multimillion-dollar beachfront homes to urge the homeless to be careful and seek shelter indoors.

Ocampo has been charged with four counts of first-degree murder, plus the special circumstances of multiple victims and murder by lying-in-wait.

Charges dropped against soldier in Afghan deaths

Fri, 03 Feb 2012 22:39 CST

The Army on Friday dropped all charges against the fifth soldier it had accused of killing Afghan civilians for sport during a 2010 deployment.

Spc. Michael Wagnon, 31, of Las Vegas, had been charged with the unlawful killing of one Afghan civilian in February 2010. He was expected to go on trial in March.

In a statement, Joint Base Lewis-McChord said the charges were dismissed "in the interest of justice."

Wagnon's lawyer, Colby Vokey, said his client was "ecstatic" at the news, "very, very relieved" and eager to tell his wife.

"He kept saying over and over, 'This is great news - I can't wait to tell Carrie,'" Vokey told The Associated Press in a telephone interview late Friday.

Four other soldiers from a Lewis-McChord Stryker brigade have been sent to prison in connection with the killings of three unarmed men during patrols in Kandahar province.

In all, 12 soldiers were charged in connection with alleged misconduct that in addition to murder included hash smoking, collection of illicit weapons, the mutilation and photography of Afghan remains and the gang-beating of a soldier who reported the drug use.

Eleven soldiers were convicted on various counts.

An Army investigating officer had twice recommended that prosecutors dismiss the case against Wagnon.

Vokey said he thinks preparations for the impending trial "just kept developing the evidence of Michael's innocence until it just became overwhelming.

"The witnesses coming forward that we were able to speak to all confirmed the same thing - that Michael Wagnon had nothing to do with any kind of illegal activity," the lawyer said.

The case hinged on an account from a "kill team" participant, Spc. Jeremy Morlock, who is serving 24 years after admitting his involvement in all three killings. Morlock testified that Wagnon knowingly participated in a scheme to kill a civilian.

Wagnon had testified that he shot at an Afghan on the day in question because he believed the man had fired a weapon at Staff Sgt. Calvin Gibbs. Gibbs in November was sentenced to life in prison in the killings of three Afghans, including the man in the February 2010 encounter.

Wagnon "was simply a soldier pulling security who responded to the firing of weapons and came to support another soldier," Vokey said. "That's all Michael Wagnon ever did."

The Army said the decision to dismiss charges was made by the senior Army commander of 1 Corps at the base, Maj. Gen. Lloyd Miles.

An Army spokesman, Lt. Col. Gary Dangerfield, said Friday evening that he had no details as to how the decision was reached.

Wagnon was released from custody in June. He has been living unrestricted at the base and working as a soldier, his lawyer said.

Vokey said he didn't know what's next for his client. "He's just ready to get on with his life," the lawyer said.

"One of the amazing things is that even with all this hanging over his head, he still loves the Army," Vokey said. "He's never blamed the Army for this happening - never become bitter. As an organization, he loves the Army."

Dangerfield said Wagnon "should be able to continue his normal duties as a soldier."

Spencer Levin takes Phoenix Open lead

Fri, 03 Feb 2012 21:49 CST

By JOHN NICHOLSON

Spencer Levin holed out from a greenside bunker for eagle on the par-4 17th and shot an 8-under 63 on Friday to take a three-stroke lead in the suspended second round of the Phoenix Open.

Levin completed a first-round 65 in the morning and was 14 under overall.

Harrison Frazar was 6 under for the round and 11 under overall with three holes left at TPC Scottsdale when play was suspended because of darkness.

Frost delayed the start for an hour for the second straight day. Last year, frost and frozen greens delayed play nine hours during the week, forcing a Monday finish.

Syrian activists: 200 dead in government assault

Sat, 04 Feb 2012 01:09 CST

By ZEINA KARAM

In a barrage of mortar shells, Syrian forces killed 200 people and wounded hundreds in Homs in an offensive that appears to be the bloodiest episode in the nearly 11-month-old uprising, activists said Saturday.

The assault in Homs, which has been one of the main flashpoints of opposition during the uprising, comes as the U.N. Security Council prepares to vote on a draft resolution backing an Arab call for President Bashar Assad to give up power.

Telephone calls to Homs were not going through, but residents of nearby areas described a hellish night of shelling.

"Homs is on fire," said one opposition activist in a quieter area near the city, who did not want to be identified for fear of reprisal. "All sides are attacking each other and the number of casualties is more than anyone can count," he said.

The government denied the assault. Syrian TV said the reports were part of a "hysterical campaign of incitement by the armed groups" against Syria, meant to be exploited at the Security Council.

It claimed that corpses shown in amateur videos posted online - bodies that activists said were victims of the assault - were purportedly of people kidnapped by "terrorist armed groups" who filmed them to portray them as victims of the alleged shelling.

Two main opposition groups, the British-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights and the Local Coordination Committees, said the death toll in Homs was more than 200 people and included women and children in mortar shelling that began late Friday. More than half of the killings - about 140 - were reported in the Khaldiyeh neighborhood.

"This is the worst attack of the uprising, since the uprising began in March until now," said Rami Abdul-Rahman, the head of the Observatory, which tracks violence through contacts on the ground.

The reports could not be independently confirmed.

It was not immediately clear what precipitated the attack, but there have been reports that army defectors set up checkpoints in the area and were trying to consolidate control.

Unconfirmed reports also said gunmen, possibly army defectors, had attacked a military checkpoint in Khaldiyeh, captured 17 of its members, prompting intense clashes with the military.

Homs is known to shelter a large number of army defectors known as the Free Syrian Army.

The LCC called on residents of Homs and surrounding areas to support the people of Khaldiyeh and nearby Bayada by donating blood and housing families fleeing from the bombing.

It called for sit-ins in front of all Syrian embassies and consulates in capitals across the world.

In Kuwait, demonstrators stormed into the Syrian Embassy compound on Saturday, breaking windows and hoisting the flag of the opposition, witnesses there said. They spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to talk to the media.

They said there were no serious injuries at the embassy, where protesters ripped down the Syrian flag. Police later cleared the area and blocked roads.

There was also reports of protesters storming the Syrian Embassy in Cairo and starting a fire.

Earlier on Friday, deadly clashes erupted between government troops and rebels in suburbs of the Syrian capital and villages in the south, sparking fighting that killed at least 23 people, including nine soldiers, activists said.

Assad is trying to crush the revolt with a sweeping crackdown that has so far claimed thousands of lives, but neither the government nor the protesters are backing down and clashes between the military and an increasingly bold and armed opposition has meant many parts of the country have seen relentless violence.

The U.N. Security Council will meet Saturday morning to take up a much-negotiated resolution on Syria, said a diplomat for a Western nation that sits on the council.

The diplomat spoke Friday on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to be quoted by the media.

The move toward a vote came after U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton spoke by telephone with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov in an effort to overcome Russian opposition to any statement that explicitly calls for regime change or a military intervention in Syria.

The U.S. and its partners have ruled out military action but want the global body to endorse an Arab League plan that calls on Assad to hand power over to Syria's vice president.

Russia's deputy foreign minister, Gennady Gatilov, said Friday that Moscow could not support the resolution in its current form. But he expressed optimism that an agreement could be reached, according to state news agency RIA Novosti.

Assad's regime has been intensifying an assault against army defectors and protesters. The U.N. said weeks ago that more than 5,400 people have been killed in violence since March. Hundreds more have been killed since that tally was announced.

Army orders court-martial in WikiLeaks case

Fri, 03 Feb 2012 23:14 CST

By DAVID DISHNEAU

An Army officer ordered a court-martial Friday for a low-ranking intelligence analyst charged in the biggest leak of classified information in U.S. history.

Military District of Washington commander Maj. Gen. Michael Linnington referred all charges against Pfc. Bradley Manning to a general court-martial, the Army said in a statement.

The referral means Manning will stand trial for allegedly giving more than 700,000 secret U.S. documents and classified combat video to the anti-secrecy website WikiLeaks for publication.

The 24-year-old Crescent, Okla., native faces 22 counts, including aiding the enemy. He could be imprisoned for life if convicted of that charge.

A judge who is yet to be appointed will set the trial date.

Manning's lead defense counsel, civilian attorney David Coombs, didn't immediately return a call Friday evening seeking comment on the decision.

Defense lawyers say Manning was clearly a troubled young soldier whom the Army should never have deployed to Iraq or given access to classified material while he was stationed there from late 2009 to mid-2010.

At a preliminary hearing in December, military prosecutors produced evidence that Manning downloaded and electronically transferred to WikiLeaks nearly half a million sensitive battlefield reports from Iraq and Afghanistan, hundreds of thousands of diplomatic cables, and video of a deadly 2007 Army helicopter attack that WikiLeaks shared with the world and dubbed "Collateral Murder."

Manning's lawyers countered that others had access to Manning's workplace computers. They say he was in emotional turmoil, partly because he was a gay soldier at a time when homosexuals were barred from serving openly in the U.S. armed forces. The defense also claims Manning's apparent disregard for security rules during stateside training and his increasingly violent outbursts after deployment were red flags that should have prevented him from having access to classified material. Manning's lawyers also contend that the material WikiLeaks published did little or no harm to national security.

In the December hearing at Fort Meade, Md., prosecutors also presented excerpts of online chats found on Manning's personal computer that allegedly document collaboration between him and WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange.

Federal prosecutors in northern Virginia are investigating Assange and others for allegedly facilitating the disclosures.

The Bradley Manning Support Group, which contends Manning heroically exposed war crimes, issued a statement calling his prosecution "fundamentally unjust."

"This administration owes all Americans an honest explanation for their extraordinary retaliation against Bradley Manning," said Jeff Paterson, one of the group's lead organizers.

Greek debt talks to stretch into weekend

Fri, 03 Feb 2012 17:59 CST

By ELENA BECATOROS and DEREK GATOPOULOS

"Crucial" issues remain to be resolved in Greece's critical negotiations over a second multibillion euro international bailout, and talks would continue into the weekend, the country's Finance Minister said early Saturday.

A long anticipated bond swap deal was now the easier part of the process in securing continued funding for the country, Evangelos Venizelos said after marathon talks with debt inspectors from the European Commission, the European Central Bank and the International Monetary Fund, known as the troika.

Venizelos said he would speak on Saturday afternoon by teleconference with the other eurozone finance ministers, and that the ministers would meet on Wednesday - a gathering that had originally been expected to be held Monday.

"After 12 hours of continuous and tough negotiations with the troika on the new program, we have solved quite a few issues. But there remain crucial issues which concern the future of the country and the Greek people," Venizelos said.

Greece desperately needs to secure the second bailout and the bond swap deal that seeks to halve its debt load in order to avoid a catastrophic default within weeks.

A major sticking point in the negotiations over Greece's second euro130 billion bailout are disagreements over the troika's demands for private sector wage cuts.

Apart from the new bailout talks, Greece is conducting urgent negotiations with its private creditors, who are being asked to lose half the face value of their Greek government bonds. New talks on the writedown - which would slash Greece's national debt by euro100 billion ($131.6 billion) - will be held in Athens over the weekend.

Venizelos said the negotiations on the bond swap "is now the easier part of the whole procedure."

In a letter to the government Friday, Greek unions and employers said they rejected proposals to slash the minimum wage and further cut annual salaries. Private sector workers have already suffered a 14 percent loss in income due to emergency taxes imposed since the beginning of 2010, the letter said.

The creditors argue that cutting labor costs is essential to making the Greek economy more competitive. The unions and employers' associations counter that the move will only further depress consumer spending and therefore tax revenue.

The government must conclude negotiations on its second rescue package "that will ensure debt sustainability of the country in the long run, and that will bring remedies to a number of serious problems that the Greek economy has had even before this crisis," said Amadeu Altafaj Tardio, spokesman for EU Monetary Affairs Commissioner Olli Rehn.

"And one of the main problems of the Greek economy as we have said time and again here is the chronic loss of competitiveness over the past decade. ... Therefore all the elements, including elements linked to the labor market, wage formation, are part of these discussions."

Dutch Finance Minister Jan Kees De Jager said he and his colleagues from the other three AAA-rated eurozone countries - Germany, Luxembourg and Finland - "are not satisfied with Greece's progress."

"We want a serious commitment from the Greek government and the opposition. They need to show concrete action as soon as possible," De Jager wrote on his blog after a meeting of finance ministers from the four triple-A countries in Berlin.

"The IMF rightly is demanding a reduction in the minimum wage and a major reduction in the number of civil servants," he said. "We will not agree to the second loan package until Greece has shown it is seriously working at this."

Without the new bailout deal, and the related bond swap to cut its privately-held debt, Greece would go bankrupt in late March, when it faces a euro14.5 billion bond redemption it cannot afford.

The Institute of International Finance, a Washington-based bank association conducting negotiations for the private creditors, said Friday that its senior official Charles Dallara would resume talks in Athens over the weekend.

IIF spokesman Frank Vogl said Jean Lemierre, senior adviser to the chairman of French bank BNP Paribas, will be accompanying Dallara.

Athens has said the writedown deal would see private investors take real losses of more than 70 percent through a 50 per cent cut in the face value of the bonds, along with lower interest rates and a longer repayment period than originally planned. It has also called for the ECB and national central banks to take part in the debt relief agreement, and indicated it was seeking a lower interest rate for the first bailout.

Greece has been surviving since May 2010 on rescue loans from a euro110 billion bailout package from other eurozone countries and the IMF. In return, it has pushed through tough austerity measures, including public sector salary and pension cuts and repeated rounds of tax hikes. Despite the measures, however, the country has failed to meet the targets set out in its bailout agreement, and now needs a combination of the bond deal and a second bailout to prevent a default that could roil the euro currency.

A meeting between Prime Minister Lucas Papademos and the heads of the three parties in his interim coalition government was expected to be held Saturday, according to government officials. The leaders must commit to the new agreements and whatever further austerity measures they entail for the deals to go ahead.

Speaking from Brussels, Tardio said that while negotiations were "extremely complex," he believed an agreement was within reach "in the days to come."

Venizelos stressed the decisions to be taken in the coming days were critical.

"We must save the country, we must now all together, united ... fight this battle. Tomorrow is the day of truth for all the political parties, for the country's political leadership."