Greece has demanded nearly €279bn in reparations from Germany, more than the value of its current bail-out, as the cash-strapped country continues to pursue compensation for crimes carried out by the Third Reich.

A parliamentary committee established by Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras put an official number on the claim, which includes the cost of a forced Nazi loan made by the Bank of Greece and the return of archaeological treasures.

Greece suffered a brutal occupation at the hands of the Third Reich in 1941, with over 40,000 people starving to death in Athens alone.

Previous Greek calculations for the cost of the country's occupation have stood at around €160bn. The revised figures however amount to nearly 10pc of Germany's GDP.

Mr Tsipras has called the reparations question a "moral and ethical" issue for his country, repeating his demands during a visit to Berlin last month.

Greek ministers have also touted the idea of seizing German assets in the country to compensate the families of victims of Nazi war crimes.

A poll carried for Greek radio found more than 80pc of Greeks agreed with the pusuit of Nazi war debt claims.

Berlin moved to quickly to reject the fresh claims. Vice chancellor Sigmar Gabriel described the proposal as "dumb" and said it risked conflating Greece's current debt problems with historical grievances.

“If you bring two areas that have nothing to do with one another, both heavily burdened issues politically, into a single context, then you make it damned easy for those from whom you want something simply to exit the debate and say ‘you can’t do that’,” said Mr Gabriel.

Chancellor Angela Merkel has also resisted re-opening old wounds, insisting Berlin has honoured its obligations during a compensatory accord signed in 1960.

In a further sign of a hardening in attitudes towards their creditors, Greek lawmakers also voted to establish a committee examining the circumstances of its 2010 bail-out by eurozone creditors and the IMF to the tune of €240bn.

"After five years of parliamentary silence on the major issues that caused the bailout catastrophe, today we commence a procedure that will give answers to the questions concerning the Greek people," Mr Tsipras said to parliamentarians on Tuesday.

Finance minister Yanis Varoufakis has claimed the economy was unfairly lumbered with the liabilities that it is now struggling to pay off as its coffers run empty.

Mr Varoufakis has claimed Europe dealt with his country's bankruptcy by "loading the largest loan in human history on the weakest of shoulders - the Greek taxpayer."

(CNN)The massacre that killed 147 people and wounded scores of others at a Kenyan university lasted for hours Thursday before the terror was over.

"It is a very sad day for Kenya," Interior Ministry Joseph Nkaissery said of the carnage at Garissa University College.

The death toll is the highest in a terror attack on Kenyan soil since the U.S. Embassy was bombed in 1998. More than 200 people died in the Nairobi blast.

A total of 147 people were killed Thursday, according to the official Twitter account of Kenya's National Disaster Operation Centre and Kenyan media reports. The agency also said 79 people were injured and 587 people were evacuated.

Four gunmen were killed, officials said.

The Somalia-based Al-Shabaab militant group claimed responsibility for the assault.

Awaking to terror: 'I am lucky to be alive'

Islamist gunmen burst into the university before dawn Thursday, shooting students and taking hostages during early morning prayer services.

At one point, the attackers cornered a building in which 360 students live, but some of the students escaped, Nkaissery said.

Kenyan forces cleared three of four dormitories and had cornered the militants in the last one, the Interior Ministry explained.

"This is a moment for everyone throughout the country to be vigilant as we continue to confront and defeat our enemies," Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta said.

There are usually four guards at the campus gates overnight, Jackstone Kweyu, dean of students, told Kenya's Citizen TV.

The attack was deadlier than an Al-Shabaab attack on the Westgate shopping center in Nairobi in September 2013 that left 67 people dead.

What is Al-Shabaab, and what does it want?

Witness: Gunmen shot non-Muslims
Joel Ayora, who was on the campus and witnessed the attack, said gunmen burst into a Christian service. Taking hostages from the service, they then "proceeded to the hostels, shooting anybody they came across except their fellows, the Muslims."

The attackers separated students by religion, allowing Muslims to leave and keeping an unknown number of Christians hostage, Agence France-Presse reported.

"We were sleeping when we heard a loud explosion that was followed by gunshots and everyone started running for safety," student Japhet Mwala told AFP.

"There are those who were not able to leave the hostels where the gunmen headed and started firing. I am lucky to be alive because I jumped through the fence with other students."

For hours after the attack began, heavy gunfire and explosions continued, said Dennis Okari of CNN affiliate NTV.

Photo of wanted man released
The ministry posted a "Most Wanted" notice for a man in connection with the attack. The notice offers a reward of 20 million Kenyan shillings, which is about $215,000.

The name listed is Mohamed Mohamud, who also goes by the aliases Dulyadin and Gamadhere. "We appeal to anyone with any info on #Gamadhere to share with relevant authorities and security agencies," the Interior Ministry posted on Twitter.

The post does not say what role the man may have played in the attack, if any.

It includes the words "Kaa Chonjo," which means to be on the lookout.

President: Kenya suffering from police shortage
Garissa is about 145 kilometers (90 miles) from the border with Somalia. Al-Shabaab militants have often launched attacks inside Kenya since the Kenyan government sent troops across the border to fight the group.

Kenyatta called on the inspector-general of police "to take urgent steps" to ensure that 10,000 recruits whose enrollment is pending "promptly report for training at the Kenya Police College, Kiganjo. I take full responsibility for this directive. We have suffered unnecessarily due to a shortage of security personnel. Kenya badly needs additional officers, and I will not keep the nation waiting."

The U.S. Embassy in Nairobi condemned the attack.

Police declared a curfew for the next several days in the region from 6:30 p.m. to 6:30 a.m.

Garissa University College, which has 815 students, was established in 2011 and is the only public university in the region.

The Kenyan Red Cross and the country's health ministry organized a blood drive to help the victims.

Al-Shabaab's carnage in Kenya
The dangerously porous border between Somalia and Kenya has made it easy for Al-Shabaab militants to cross over and carry out attacks.

In a December attack on a quarry, Al-Shabaab militants separated Muslims and executed the non-Muslims, a spokesman for the group said.

Last month, the U.S. Embassy warned of possible attacks "throughout Kenya in the near-term" after the reported death of a key al-Shabaab leader, Adan Garaar.

"Although there is no information about a specific location in Kenya for an attack, U.S. citizens are reminded that the potential for terrorism exists," the warning said.

We pleased to see that our article on sexism at the 2015 NUS Women’s conference appear to have really struck a chord. It’s already received over ten thousand unique visits in just a few days and seeing as there’s so much interest we decided to write a follow up and examine some of the latest developments in the story.

The scandal began with a Tweet by Sarah Noble, who openly boasted of her proposal at the conference expressing the “need to remove men from society”. Such a hateful statement seemingly calling for the genocide of men isn’t too out of the ordinary in more extremist feminist circles. However, we discovered that Sarah sits on no less than three Liberal Democrat executive committees and also a a fourth position on the policy committee of Liberal Youth, and thus gets to influence policy for a major UK political party. In addition to its hateful content, the timing of the tweet is also unfortunate with the story mushrooming just as the Lib Dems launch their 2015 General Election campaign. Interestingly, Sarah also holds a senior position in administering a feminist block bot on Twitter that blocks and smears the likes of Richard Dawkins and Brian Cox amongst countless others, and we’ll have more on that subject that in our next article.

Unlike an equally vile article by the Independent which was also published recently, Sarah decided to leave her hateful Tweet in place we thought we’d take a closer look to see if it was just a one-off, or part of a pattern of hatred of men. Here’s what we found:

Spoiler

So men need removing from society and putting in the bin (though they’ll just crawl out like animals anyway).

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Entitled pigs who abuse and objectify women? I guess that explains why we “need” to remove them from society. Still, in all fairness to Sarah, she’s never explained exactly how such a removal would take place and she hasn’t actually advocated for actual violence of any sort…

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Ok, so she’s advocated violence against men once…

Spoiler

Well OK it was actually all men, and she’s done it twice now the link has various nursery rhymes on the same hateful, threatening and violent theme. Some make reference to murdering old men, cutting of men’s genitalia, dancing on dead mens’ graves and other similar hate crimes. Anyhow, onto the next tweet:

Spoiler

That’s three “kill all men” tweets for anyone who’s counting. Remember, this isn’t a random Twitter feminist we’re looking at here, she really is an influential Liberal Democrat politician who sits on three executive committees and a further policy committee too.

Spoiler

At the Corner Wine Bar and Wellington Pub in Broad Ripple, the menu board outside proclaimed “service for everyone.” It’s a slogan that began popping up across Indiana Thursday, in doorways, on windows and other spots, in response to Gov. Mike Pence signing of Indiana’s hot-button religious freedom law.

The Broad Ripple restaurant and pub also posted the slogan in Facebook posts that were quickly “greeted with multiple ‘likes,’” its general manager Ashley Daubenspeck said.

The slogan’s meaning, she explained: “We don’t discriminate and we are happy to serve anybody.”

Hours after Pence signed the measure, dozens of calls by reporters to Central Indiana businesses couldn’t find one willing to admit it planned to use the new law to discriminate against some customers for religious reasons. That was the fear expressed most often by opponents of the measure, including gay rights groups and others.

Most businesses contacted Thursday insisted they had no desire to discriminate against any of their customers. For many, the law brought a new worry: that it will spawn a backlash of negative public reaction that will discourage tourists from coming to the state and some residents from spending money here for certain services.

One scenario sketched out by opponents of the Religious Freedom Restoration Act was that the law would give wedding-related businesses the legal right to refuse to serve same-sex weddings. In 2014, an Indianapolis cake shop that’s now closed did just that. Years earlier an Indianapolis bakery wouldn’t sell its baked goods to a gay customer.

But several businesses in the wedding industry didn’t see the new law causing a rise in such practices.

Taylor’s Bakery of Indianapolis and Fishers, one the oldest bakeries in the state, said it has made many wedding and commitment cakes for gay couples, and plans to continue.

“Our door is open to everyone,” said John Allen, the bakery’s president. “Why would you run off business? I don’t understand who would do that. I don’t know anyone who would.”

Classic Cakes in Carmel was of similar mind. “I have very strong religious beliefs, but I am not going to judge anyone who walks in the door,” said owner Ilene McHone.

Wedding planner Renea Gates said she serves all kinds of clients, and doesn’t care about their sexual or religious beliefs. “I’ve served Christians, Muslims, Baptists, atheists, gays, straight – I just don’t care,” said Gates, owner of Elite Coordinators. “I am going to keep serving everyone.”

Wedding photographer Jennifer Van Elk said she worries the new law could prompt gay couples to choose other states for wedding ceremonies and receptions, costing Indiana money.

“They will miss great opportunities to work with great people because the religious freedom bill will scare those great people away from getting married in our state,” she said.

Tom Trine, owner of Elite Banquet and Conference Center in Kokomo, sees little changing for him under the new law.

“I just don’t think it’s going to be a business killer,” he said. He said he knows how he’d react if a business owner chose to discriminate against him for religious reasons.

“If somebody would tell me they don’t want to serve me then I wouldn’t want to give them my business. I’d go somewhere else.”

Both the Indiana and Indianapolis area chambers of commerce decried passage of the law.

“In our eyes, the law is entirely unnecessary. The reactions to it are not unexpected or unpredicted; passing the law was always going to bring the state unwanted attention,” said Kevin Brinegar, CEO of the state chamber.

“The Indy Chamber remains opposed to this divisive and unnecessary law,” said CEO Michael Huber. “We warned of the impending negative economic impact this legislation would have on our ability to attract and retain jobs, talent, and investment, noting the bill will encourage current and potential residents, and visitors to take their business elsewhere.”

“Within moments of this legislation being signed,” Huber said, “this warning became a stark reality.”

The early fallout from the bill’s signing was an announcement via Twitter by Salesforce.com CEO Marc Benioff that his San Francisco company will stop sending out-of-state staff to meetings in Indianapolis with its locally based ExactTarget division.

A Salesforce spokeswoman said Benioff wouldn’t expound on his remark.

At Shapiro’s Delicatessen, a near Downtown fixture, owner Brian Shapiro said he worried the bill would “foster anti-Semitism and a lack of tolerance.”

“Shouldn't the legislators be passing bills that help the business community, not hurt us? My great-grandmother, Rebecca Shapiro, once said: The only bad customer is the one that doesn't come in.”

The business community also suggested the law would impact the quality of their workforces. In testimony in the legislature while the bill was debated, several businesses said the law would hamper efforts to retain employees and recruit new hires because some might object to living in a state with a religious freedom law in place.

About 20 other states, including Texas, Florida, Illinois and Louisiana, have passed religious freedom laws since 1993 that are the same or similar to Indiana’s. Those laws passed for the most part with little or no controversy. The passage of Indiana’s law comes at a time of debate over same-sex marriage legislation that heightens the public sensitivity over sexual and other types of discrimination.

A consultant to the convention and meetings industry, Joan Eisenstodt, president of Eisenstodt Associates in Washington, D.C., said she’s never had a client ask her to avoid meeting in a state with a religious freedom law in place. But that could change with the public furor over Indiana’s passage of its law, she said.

“It’s been more on the radar and people are more aware of this,” she said. “Groups are going to be out there and make the connection” that a state has passed a Religious Freedom Restoration Act.

“It’s going to be a very interesting issue,” she said. “And Indiana is going to be on the forefront of dealing with this and is probably going to lose some (convention and meeting) business.”

Another meeting consultant, Tim Brown, CEO of Meetings Sites Resources of Irvine, Calif., said it’s unlikely that conventions or other groups will cancel already scheduled meetings in Indiana because they’d have to pay stiff cancellation fees to hotels. But the multimillion-dollar convention industry in Indianapolis could be hurt if groups that book conventions years ahead of time decide to avoid Indiana, he said.

“It’s hard to quantify,” how strong the anti-Indiana feeling will be in the convention and meeting industry, he said. “But you really are talking about the potential loss of revenue and jobs if it gets legs.”