Greece Should Exit Eurozone, Expert Says

By Ilya Rzhevskiy
July 14, 2011

MUNICH—The Greek financial crisis is not getting any better, as more protests spur through the streets of Athens with social instability rising.

The continuously incoming rescue packages from the European Union and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) help Greece stay solvent, albeit barely. But the question is, do they really help?

Many European experts are openly discussing the possibility of Greece temporary exiting the eurozone, the euro currency block, and introducing its own currency to sustain the country from complete default.

Hans-Werner Sinn, the renowned German economist who is also the president of the Ifo Institute for Economic Research, is of the opinion that Greek goods and services should be revised 20 to 30 percent cheaper in all aspects in order to become more competitive in the market and regain stability.

He thinks that the best way to do that is not to lower prices for all goods and housing by 30 percent, which would be a complex maneuver, but to fix the temporary Greek currency rate versus the euro down by 30 percent and all the prices will automatically be regulated.

In this way, all the internal prices, salaries, and loans still remain the same value inside the country, only that they will be in a different currency. As for the external loans, they would become 30 percent more expensive—which is an unavoidable situation, according to Hans-Werner.

A second approach, not favored by Hans-Werner, is to keep the euro currency, but lower all the prices and salaries inside the country. Such an approach was once used widely by Germany in 1929 during the reign of Chancellor Heinrich Brüning, when prices and salaries fell by 30 percent, which pushed the Weimar Republic (old name for Germany) to the brink of a civil war.

Hans-Werner believes that once Greece stabilizes its economy, it can again enter the euro currency block, thereby bringing fewer losses to itself and all the other eurozone members.

Not all economic experts share Hans-Werner’s opinion. Many hold that it’s too dangerous for Greece to exit the eurozone, as it would not be able to sustain its own economy by itself.

Overall, Greece is set to receive another tranche of a rescue package of 110 billion euros (US$154 billion)—the biggest in the history of the eurozone—followed by an 85 billion euro loan to Ireland and 78 billion euro loan to Portugal. Greece’s economy bears the heavy burden of 216 billion euro in debt, which is about 120 percent of its GDP in 2010. The Greek financial crisis was mostly caused by the incorrect financing of the country—mainly taking outrageous loans without the possibly of paying them back. Estimated tax evasion also costs the Greek government about 20 billion losses per year.

The Greek government is trying hard to implement austerity programs to lower the current gaping budget deficit. The austerity programs mostly target slashing public sector jobs and salaries.

As tragic as the Greek tragedy sounds, it is not at all that bad. Many people don’t know much about the public benefit system in Greece that is about to be slashed. For example, unmarried or divorced daughters collect the pensions of their deceased parents. Many civil workers retire with a good pension upon reaching their 40s.

Greece is known for its abundance of special bonuses for behaviors, which in other countries people take as normal work conduct. For example, according to the Toronto Star, Greeks get a bonus for showing up to work on time, for speaking a foreign language, for working outdoors, for using a computer and many others. And, without exception, Greek public and private sector workers get 14 months worth of salary in one year.

Aside from this, Greece employs many committees and organizations that get paid, but do not really do any work, or at least nobody seems to know what they are doing. One example is a committee overseeing the management of Lake Kopias, which unfortunately dried out in 1930.

Besides working, Greeks like to party. Greece is voted by many club and party sites as the best party place on the planet. Mykonos Beach is rated the No. 1 Party Beach in the world by many beach party top listings such as www.threebestbeaches.com. It is not at all uncommon for many Greeks to spend 30 vacation days a year partying at Mykonos and thereby living the meaning of Greek word “hedonism.”

Known as the spoiled kid of the eurozone, Greece is battling hard to keep these benefits by staging violent protests and not cooperating with the government’s efforts to reduce the budget deficit. It remains to be seen whether Greece will assume responsibility and curb the lavish expenses and corrupt practices in order to strengthen the eurozone with decent work ethic and stability.

Source: The Epoch Times.
Link: http://www.theepochtimes.com/n2/business/greece-should-exit-eurozone-expert-says-59130.html.

China, Iran sign major infrastructure, trade agreements

July 16, 2011

China and Iran on Saturday signed several agreements on infrastructure and trade cooperation, a fact further testifying to the already strong political and economic ties between the two countries.

He Guoqiang, a senior official of the Communist Party of China (CPC) who is currently on a three-day official visit to Iran, and Iranian Vice President Mohammad-Javad Mohammadizadeh witnessed the signing ceremony.

Under the agreements, Chinese companies will invest heavily in some major infrastructure projects in Iran, including a water diversion project and a dam. Chinese companies will also import large quantities of chrome ore and celestine from Iran.

China and Iran established diplomatic relations in 1971 and bilateral relations have developed steadily in recent years.

In 2010, bilateral trade reached a record 29.3 billion U.S. dollars, increasing by 38.5 percent over the previous year. China has also given financial and technological support to some major infrastructure projects in Iran.

Source: People's Daily.
Link: http://english.people.com.cn/90001/90776/90883/7442344.html.

Elite units under an office of Maliki's linked to secret jail where detainees face torture, Iraq officials say

Iraqi legislators and security officials have been joined by the Red Cross in expressing concern about the Green Zone facility, called Camp Honor, where torture to extract confessions is alleged

July 15, 2011

Reporting from Baghdad—

Elite units controlled by Prime Minister Nouri Maliki's military office are ignoring members of parliament and the government's own directive by operating a clandestine jail in Baghdad's Green Zone where prisoners routinely face torture to extract confessions, Iraqi officials say.

Iraqi legislators and security officials have been joined by the International Committee of the Red Cross in expressing concern about the facility, called Camp Honor. In a confidential letter to the prime minister, the Red Cross requested immediate access to the jail and added that there could be three more connected to it where detainees also are being mistreated.

Iraq's Justice Ministry ordered Camp Honor shut down in March after parliament's human rights committee toured the center and said it had uncovered evidence of torture. The Human Rights Ministry denied Wednesday that it was still in operation. But several Iraqi officials familiar with the site said that anywhere from 60 to 120 people have been held there since it was ordered closed.

Allegations that the jail has continued to function are likely to launch a fresh debate about the breadth of powers belonging to Maliki and his closest associates. The jail falls under the prime minister's Office of the Commander in Chief, which supervises a vast military and security apparatus.

Maliki supporters say he is committed to protecting human rights, but needs broad powers to navigate a treacherous domestic environment. The prime minister, a Shiite Muslim, is reluctant to loosen his grip on the army, police and his elite combat units, believing that any compromise would make it easier for opponents to organize a coup or political conspiracy, or would allow armed Shiite and Sunni Muslim groups to gain strength.

Maliki also has refused to permit his main political rival, the Iraqiya bloc led by Iyad Allawi, to choose the next defense minister, in defiance of an understanding on division of authority that took months to hammer out after inconclusive elections in March 2010. The position has remained vacant, with Maliki filling it for now.

The agreement also called for all security forces to be removed from the prime minister's office and restored to the normal chain of command. But the protracted negotiations over who should hold the key defense and interior ministries, which could stretch into next year, have allowed Maliki to preserve his authority.

The dispute over who directs Iraq's security forces is fueling a sense of drift as tens of thousands of U.S. troops prepare to leave Iraq. U.S. forces ended combat operations last year, and the remaining 46,000 troops are to leave by the end of this year. The United States has offered to keep some troops in Iraq after that deadline to help ensure stability, but that requires Iraqi consent, which is far from certain.

Adnan Assadi, a member of the prime minister's political coalition who serves as deputy interior minister, said in an interview that it was vital for Maliki to maintain control of Iraq's security because he will be blamed for any failures.

"The ministries of Defense and Interior are like the right and left hand for the commander in chief," Assadi said.

Until the inspection in March, the Camp Honor jail had illustrated the prime minister's supremacy on security matters. He has faced complaints since 2008 about his control of the U.S.-trained counter-terrorism service and a security force known as the Baghdad Brigade, or Brigade 56. The units possessed their own jails, investigative judges and interrogators, answering only to the prime minister's military office.

Critics say that many of those jailed by the forces are locked up for political reasons, because of personal feuds or to cover up corruption. But because of the opaque nature of the security forces and the jails they run, it is difficult to determine whether that is true.

The prime minister's military office promised reforms when, in April 2010, it was found to be running a separate secret jail in western Baghdad, where more than 400 inmates had been held for months. But nothing changed at Camp Honor, where family members and attorneys were barred from seeing detainees and allegations of torture were rampant.

Lawmakers, security officials and the Red Cross letter expressed deep concern that despite parliament's success in extracting the pledge to close Camp Honor, people were still being imprisoned there.

Detainees "are still being held by the counter-terrorism center or Brigade 56 in the same location they declared was shut down," said Salim Abdullah Jabouri, the head of parliament's human rights committee. "These people are held 30-50 days. After they have obtained confessions, the detainee is transferred to Rusafa with his confession," he added, referring to one of Baghdad's main detention facilities.

The people in Maliki's military office haven't changed their practices, said a second member of parliament, who spoke on condition of anonymity so he could comment freely. "They have more power. They have more prisoners. They are holding them in the IZ," the Green Zone, said the lawmaker, a prominent member of the Iraqiya bloc. "This is the reality."

Jabouri said he became aware of the detentions after he started looking for a leader of the Sunni Awakening movement who had helped U.S. troops fight Islamic extremists in northern Iraq.

Jabouri said he received a phone call about three weeks ago from the man, who said he had been transferred to a regular jail after he was tortured in the Green Zone facility and confessed to being a member of the militant group Al Qaeda in Iraq and of a wing of the late dictator Saddam Hussein's Baath Party.

As many as 120 detainees had been through the secret jail since March, Jabouri said. Most of the cases he knew of involved prisoners from provinces with large Sunni populations, where security forces regularly carry out raids looking for Islamic militants and members of the former Baath Party.

The Red Cross said in its May 22 letter that detainees whom it interviewed after they had been transferred out of the facility reported beatings, electric shock to the genitals and other parts of the body, suffocation using plastic bags, scalding with boiling water or burning with cigarettes, being hung from ceilings with hands tied behind the back or being hung upside down from the top frame of a bunk bed, the pulling out of fingernails, being left naked for hours and rape using sticks or bottles.

Detainees also alleged that female family members were brought to Camp Honor and raped in front of them, the Red Cross said.

A security official confirmed that detainees were guarded at Camp Honor by the Baghdad Brigade, probably in a building that can hold up to 60 or 70 prisoners that had been used previously to hide detainees when inspectors came to the base.

Government spokesman Ali Dabbagh referred questions about the facility to the Human Rights Ministry, where officials insisted that it had been shut down. "Absolutely, it is closed," said ministry official Kamal Amin.

Supporters say Maliki shouldn't be held responsible for abuses by people within the ranks of the security forces.

"Maliki has given very tough directions to respect human rights," said lawmaker Ali Alaq, a senior member of the prime minister's Islamic Dawa Party. "I know the leaders in the Office [of the Commander in Chief] are accurate and professional, but you know sometimes there are forces who say they belong to this office and do really bad things. Sometimes they are even connected to terrorist groups."

The Red Cross letter to the Iraqi government said the organization was "seriously worried regarding the possibility that the interrogations are continuing in Camp Honor."

The letter, shown to The Times by an Iraqi source, cited what it called credible allegations that three other secret facilities existed in the Green Zone, which it said were still being used "to hide and hold detainees when committees visit the main prison." It said one was near the counter-terrorism service's headquarters and that the two others were known as the Flag and Five Star.

The Red Cross declined to confirm or deny the authenticity of the letter because of its policy of not discussing publicly its detainee inspections or correspondence with governments.

The letter said the Red Cross had visited Camp Honor last December but was forced to leave after less than two hours. It said its teams, which included medical personnel, gained information about the facility by interviewing detainees around the country at prisons and detention centers where they had been transferred.

The interviews, done at different times and places, "show that [the detainees] were exposed to systematic mistreatment during their detention in Camp Honor that reached the level of torture due to its severity and the goal of it to extract confessions or information."

Detainees reported that investigative judges were present during interrogation sessions in which they were mistreated, the letter said. It also said the Red Cross was concerned that the tactics were still being used and asked for full access to the facility and all detainees held there.

Source: Uruknet.
Link: http://www.uruknet.de/?s1=1&p=79607&s2=16.

Clashes erupt at pro-reform protest in Jordan

15 Jul 2011

Several people injured as police use batons to break up anti-government demonstration in Amman.

At least 10 people have been injured amid efforts by police to stop clashes between demonstrators and government supporters in the center of the Jordanian capital, Amman.

Police used batons on Friday to disperse people outside city hall, beating and injuring nine journalists.

The clashes took place after about 2,000 people, including Islamists and youth groups, marched from the city's Al-Husseini mosque to the city hall.

An Al Jazeera correspondent and several other journalists, including a Reuters cameraman, said they were attacked by police.

The wounded included an AFP photographer and a female activist.

Al Jazeera's Nisreen El Shamayleh, reporting from the scene of the clashes, said: "The protesters were attacked by riot police and public security personnel at the beginning of the sit-in that they were planning to hold at Al Nakheel Square.

"They weren't allowing the protesters to enter [the square] and that is when the clashes started.

"Only after the clashes began and several people were injured that they allowed people to [begin the sit-in]."

Fahim Karim, a New York Times reporter, was beaten by 10 policemen while a photographer who works for another international news agency said he was ordered by police not to shoot the scene.

Protesters' accounts

One protester told Al Jazeera: "During the march the security forces attacked us. We had to make for the women to escape the assault as one woman had already passed out.

Another said he was kicked in the stomach by one of the royal guards while trying to protect "the women in the march".

Besides Amman, rallies for reform and against "rampant corruption" also took place in Tafileh, Man and Karak in the country's south, and in Irbid and Jerash in the north.

Our correspondent said there is a definite feeling in Jordan that there is no serious motivation to implement real and true democratic reforms in the country.

Jordan has faced a protest movement demanding political and economic reforms and an end to corruption, since January.

Security forces have previously prevented demonstrators demanding the removal of the government, but not King Abdullah, who appoints the cabinet and has wide powers, from assembling at main squares.

The clampdown appears to have been prompted by fears of mass crowds as seen in Egypt and Tunisia where long-serving leaders were overthrown earlier this year.

Source: al-Jazeera.
Link: http://english.aljazeera.net/news/middleeast/2011/07/2011715131426955192.html.

Algeria opens world's first hybrid power plant

2011-07-15

The first gas-solar hybrid power station in the world opened Thursday (July 14th) in Algeria, APS reported. The Hassi R'mel power plant was inaugurated by Algerian Energy Minister Youcef Yousfi and Spanish Industry Minister Miguel Sebastian.

The natural gas and solar energy hybrid facility in the Tilghemt region has an overall capacity of 150 MW, including 30MW from solar energy. New Energy Algeria (NEAL) and Spanish company Abener partnered for the 350 million euro project.

Source: Magharebia.
Link: http://www.magharebia.com/cocoon/awi/xhtml1/en_GB/features/awi/newsbriefs/general/2011/07/15/newsbrief-06.

Air Algerie strike ends

2011-07-15

Air Algerie flights will resume on Friday (July 15th) after cabin crew workers agreed Thursday to end their strike, AFP reported. According to labor union official Yassine Hamamouche, Prime Minister Ahmed Ouyahia said he would intercede to prevent the state-run air carrier from making some workers "redundant". The four-day strike left hundreds of passengers stranded at Algerian and French airports. The crew workers were demanding a 106% pay hike.

Source: Magharebia.
Link: http://www.magharebia.com/cocoon/awi/xhtml1/en_GB/features/awi/newsbriefs/general/2011/07/15/newsbrief-04.

Power cuts hit Algeria

The heat wave roasting Algeria for the past week has resulted in power outages and aroused public anger.

By Lyes Aflou for Magharebia in Algiers – 15/07/11

Energy consumption has reached a record high this summer in Algeria. The sweltering weather is forcing locals to constantly keep their air conditioning on, which has resulted in repeated power cuts across the country.

"The impact of air conditioning is so great that for the past three years now, the summer maximum has been higher than the winter maximum," Electric System Operator (OSE), a subsidiary of the Sonelgaz group, explained in a communiqué released on Monday (July 11th).

The resulting power cuts have drawn the ire of consumers who are complaining that the outages are causing their food to rot.

"On Tuesday (July 12th), the electricity was cut off from 9am to 5pm," said Faiza, who works as a newspaper researcher and lives in Dely Brahim on the hills of Algiers. "The yoghurts and meat began to go off in the heat. We had to throw everything away. You can't keep anything at all."

The electricity was cut off for the whole night Monday in Ain Benian, to the west of Algiers. "It was like a furnace at home," Lies, who lives in the area, told Magharebia. "There's no way you can sleep in the suffocating heat of a sirocco."

Butchers are worried about losing their stock. Boualem, who works in the Rue Tanger in central Algiers, complained that his stall was beginning to turn blue.

"I can't say that I have any fresh meat," he said. "All of this meat will have to be thrown away if the power cuts keep happening. The authorities will have to think about compensating us."

In the eastern district of Les Bananiers, which hosts several flat blocks, both food wastage and out-of-order lifts are causing concern.

"I live on the 15th floor, it's a real job to go up the stairs several times," said Djamel, an academic. "I try to keep my comings and goings to a minimum, but when I'm busy, it's a real battle."

According to the OSE, spikes in energy consumption require building "a power plant with a capacity of almost 500 MW every year".

In the meantime, the company called on Algerians "to moderate their consumption for the benefit and comfort of all". It recommended that people switch off lights and electrical appliances when not needed, set air conditioners to a reasonable temperature and avoid using washing machines, irons and other high-consumption appliances at peak times.

In the communes of Laghrous, El-Hadjab and Chetma in Biskra Province, residents on Tuesday mounted protests against the power outages. The demonstrators blocked the RN 46 between Laghrous and El-Hadjab and the RN 83 in the commune of Chetma using stones and tree-trunks and burning tires.

Sonelgaz's regional distribution director based in Biskra, who met the protesters in Laghrous, explained that rolling power cuts in communes were "planned in order to lessen the strain on the grid".

In Ouled Djellal, 60km from Biskra, protestors on Monday set fire to a local Sonelgaz office. Eight police officers were injured, and eight demonstrators were detained.

The power black-out in some areas on the outskirts of Algiers was mainly due "to damage caused to the power grid", according to Lakehal Loucif, the official in charge of electricity and gas distribution in Gué de Constantine, 9km from the capital.

Weather forecasters say that the heat wave will continue over the week-end.

Source: Magharebia.
Link: http://www.magharebia.com/cocoon/awi/xhtml1/en_GB/features/awi/features/2011/07/15/feature-03.

"Come on, leave Bashar"

July 14, 2011

He composed straightforward tunes and sang colloquial lyrics against the Syrian regime, attacking President Bashar Al-Assad, his brother Maher and the ruling Syrian Baath Party. The songs were taken up by hundreds of thousands of demonstrators gathered in the city of Hama, causing more protesters to take to the streets and making his songs the slogans of anti-regime protesters across the country.

Ibrahim Qashush, the "mocking bird of the Syrian Revolution," as his fans preferred to call him, led the protests in Hama's Al-Assi Square on the "Friday of Departure" at the beginning of July, improvising lyrics that added to the enthusiasm of the protesters. The songs will have appealed particularly to residents of Hama, where there is a tradition of group singing, the protesters being passionate about Qashush's songs and his striking voice.

It was this voice and these songs that apparently so disturbed the Syrian regime that it decided to silence him.

Qashush, a young man in his 30s, was kidnapped on a street in Hama on 3 July as he headed to work. The next day, his body was found in the local river, his throat cut and larynx removed after signs of brutal torture.

City residents and Syrian human rights groups say that security agents tortured and killed Qashush before removing his larynx and dumping his body into the river as an act of revenge for songs that had attacked senior figures in the regime, among them Al-Assad.

Shortly before his death, Qashush sang, "Bashar, you are not one of us; / take Maher and leave us; / your legitimacy is no longer recognized by us; / come on, leave Bashar. / Maher, you coward, / agent of the Americans, / the people of Syria cannot be disrespected; /come on, leave, Bashar. / We want rid of Bashar. / with our powerful might, / Syria wants freedom. / Syria wants freedom."

In response to Qashush's death, protesters dedicated more than 12 Facebook pages, variations on "We are all the Martyr Ibrahim Qashush", or "We will not forget you, Ibrahim", to the singer's memory, and within days they had thousands of followers. The online encyclopaedia Wikipedia has also dedicated a page to Qashush focusing on the latter part of his life.

Fans of the singer said that they would continue what Qashush had started by continuing to chant for freedom in Syria's cities, even if they too risked death by doing so. Songs by Qashush were sung during protests on last week's "Friday of No to Dialogue", and demonstrators in several Arab and European cities picketed Syrian embassies this week to protest against his death.

Syrian authorities claim that "unknown assailants" were responsible for Qashush's death, saying that the singer was in fact an informer and that he was killed in order to incite further anti-regime protests.

Before the uprising in Syria began earlier this year, Qashush had been just another ordinary young man. However, the popular protests that have swept the country over recent months led him to be active in leading demonstrations calling for the overthrow of the regime and the ousting of Al-Assad.

According to Hama residents, Qashush was murdered by the regime as a punishment for his song "Come on, leave Bashar."

By Bassel Oudat

Source: Uruknet.
Link: http://www.uruknet.de/?s1=1&p=79588&s2=15.

U.K. sends more warplanes to Libya

LONDON, July 15 (UPI) -- Britain is sending four more Tornado warplanes over Libya to support NATO military operations as an international contact group explores ways of ending the stalemate pitting the U.N.-backed armed rebels against loyalist forces of Moammar Gadhafi.

The military measures were announced amid intensive mediation at different levels on securing an end to five months of an inconclusive campaign in support of the rebels' Transitional National Council.

The council received formal support from the contact group of NATO and Arab diplomats meeting in Istanbul but China and Russia stayed away.

The rebels are receiving weapons and ammunition from France, logistical and medical support from Britain and substantial quantities of unspecified weapons and backup operations from Qatar and other Arab countries.

British military experts are helping rebels in and around Benghazi and other British teams of mostly undercover special agents are reportedly on the ground but not acknowledged in official reports.

The dispatch of the additional four British air force Tornado warplanes takes to 16 the total number of the attack and surveillance aircraft active over Libya. British officials have said the Tornado's 3,000-mile missions to carry out attacks on Libyan military sites were the longest range bombing missions conducted by the air force since the Falkland Islands conflict with Argentina in 1982.

British air support for the Libyan rebels has also included laser-guided bombs, deployed with the LITENING targeting pod, and Brimstone missiles.

British Foreign Office Minister Alistair Burt said the aircraft were well-equipped for surveillance and reconnaissance.

"It is important to have this capability available," he said.

The British announcement followed a plea from NATO Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen for more aircraft to support operations protecting Libyan civilians against government forces' assaults on rebel-held communities.

NATO warplanes have conducted more than 5,000 air missions since the action began in March, officials said.

European concerns over the escalating costs of the military operations in Libya resurfaced at the Istanbul meeting. However, diplomatic analysts suggest some of the costs could be defrayed by NATO accessing Libyan state funds frozen at the start of the crisis.

Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu said at least $3 billion could be released to cover the cost of humanitarian assistance to tens of thousands of Libyans displaced by the conflict or trapped in battle zones.

The actual NATO costs in Libya are mired in mystery amid conflicting statements, some designed to deflect public criticism of the campaign.

British Prime Minister David Cameron, frequently queried over the British spending, has yet to give any updated total after early reports that about $40 million-$50 million was spent. Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne said British operational costs in Libya were "tens rather than hundreds of millions" of dollars.

NATO Supreme Allied Commander U.S. Navy Adm. James Stavridis told the U.S. Senate "hundreds of millions" could already have been spent in the NATO operation.

U.S. officials said the military intervention cost the Pentagon alone at least $608 million in bombs, missiles and logistics. Pentagon estimates set the monthly cost of the air campaign to the United States alone at $40 million.

French military costs in Libya were estimated by Parisian defense analysts at more than $600 million.

Source: United Press International (UPI).
Link: http://www.upi.com/Top_News/Special/2011/07/15/UK-sends-more-warplanes-to-Libya/UPI-15981310748737/.

Estonian bicyclists freed in Lebanon

BEIRUT, Lebanon, July 14 (UPI) -- Seven Estonian bicyclists kidnapped earlier this year were released Thursday in Lebanon, though sources said Beirut had no prior knowledge of the operation.

The cyclists were captured by gunmen in late March after crossing the Syrian border into Lebanon.

A previously unknown group calling itself the Renaissance and Reform Movement issued an e-mail statement to Lebanese media demanding an unspecified ransom and Lebanese authorities had expressed concern that Syria might be behind the abductions.

Security officials told The Daily Star newspaper in Lebanon that the bicyclists were released Thursday from Hezbollah strongholds in the south of the country.

French authorities took charge of the former captives and took them to the French Embassy in Beirut.

Denis Pietton, the French envoy to Beirut, told the newspaper the cyclists' release came as a result of "efforts undertaken solely by Lebanon and Estonia." A source told the newspaper, however, that Beirut didn't know about the operation until the French came forward with their release.

French Embassy officials said the Estonians would be handed to their foreign minister who was on his way to Beirut. The Lebanese newspaper noted the men appeared in good health as they waved from the balcony of the French Embassy.

Source: United Press International (UPI).
Link: http://www.upi.com/Top_News/Special/2011/07/14/Estonian-bicyclists-freed-in-Lebanon/UPI-59611310649034/.