Urban decay

Ecuador's president has declared a state of emergency in the prison system following a battle among gang members in a coastal lockup that killed at least 116 people and injured 80 in what authorities say was the worst prison bloodbath ever in the country.

Officials said at least five of the dead were found to have been beheaded.

Another angry open letter was sent today by the Association for Modern Trade (MTA) , an organization that brings together some of the largest food and non-food retail stores in Bulgaria. It once again notes that the decision of the authorities not to open from April 1 the large non-food stores is detrimental to their business.

The government and its creditors have clinched an agreement that will remove restrictions on foreclosure auctions for all properties on June 1, including primary residences, sources told the Athens-Macedonian News Agency on Sunday.

Commercial rents, and therefore store values, are set to suffer strong pressure in the coming months, as the crisis generated by the coronavirus is growing both in intensity and duration, which is weighing on private consumption.

Finance minister Christos Staikouras welcomed the results of the historic Eurogroup pandemic rescue package which he depicted as a satisfactory but hardly optimal compromise.

Staikouras said that Greece's three main demands were met.

The first is direct liquidity for businesses which will not be laid out through banks.

Leftist opposition SYRIZA on Monday presented a 10-point plan to shield the economy from the effects of the coronavirus epidemic, drawing on funds from the cash buffer left over from Greece's bailout, and European Union and European Central Bank resources.

In 2018, 23.4 % of children in the EU27 were at risk of poverty or social exclusion compared with 22.1 % of adults (18-64) and 18.4 % of the elderly (65 or over).

Authorities in Montenegro appear helpless to stem the bloodshed from an increasingly international war between rival drug gangs with roots in a medieval coastal town.

Many refugees from the 1992-95 war in former Yugoslav Bosnia had already settled in the neighbourhood, he said.

"I remember those white sheets, so clean and nice, coming from a refugee camp with dust and everything," said Avni, now 30, who spoke on condition his real name not be disclosed.

"It was basically a country where you could heal from the war and feel welcome."

Greece's creditors appear ready to agree to a solution on foreclosures in the form of a housing benefit for people in need that would not be associated with the protection of debtors' main residence.