International news:

Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras held more late night talks this week with Germany’s Angela Merkel and France’s Francois Hollande in a bid to stave off the looming default at the end of this month. Greece will be unable to pay 1.6 bill;ion Euro to the IMF at the end of June unless it gets more bailout funds from the Eurozone. But France and Germany have warned that Greece needs to take more steps to correct its finances before any more funds will be provided.

PRIME MINISTER RAJOY DENIES CORRUPTION AS NATIONAL SCANDAL GROWS

Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy this week denied allegations that his Peoples Party ran a corrupt slush fund financed by corporate donations. The allegations have led to calls for Rajoy’s resignation, but so far the Prime Minister has refused to step down or to answer questions about the allegations. The scandal surrounds allegations by former PP treasurer Luis Barcenas that the Prime Minister was one of the beneficiaries of a secret slush fund run by the party and financed by big business.  Barcenas has given details of the fund to a national court judge. This week details of the secret ledgers of the party for two decades were revealed in court. This the most serious corruption allegation yet against Rajoy but the Peoples Party majority in congress has allowed it to stonewall all attempts to get a parliamentary inquiry.