Sting blasts leaders as ‘cowards’

ATHENS: British singer and actor Sting called world leaders “half men and cowards” on Saturday for their inability to solve the refugee crisis. German Chancellor Angela Merkel has already played down expectations of a breakthrough at hastily-arranged talks among EU leaders on Sunday on the migration dispute dividing Europe and threatening her own government. Austrian Vice-Chancellor Heinz-Christian Strache said on Saturday he expects a chain reaction across the European Union if Germany closes its borders to refugees. Migration policies in the US have also been in the spotlight. “Thank God for Greece because you have shown the way,” said Sting at an Amnesty International event in Athens. “You have shown how to treat refugees when other people are building walls. When children are being taken from their mothers and put in cages, you are acting with compassion and generosity and commonsense,” he said. — AFP