Greece PM calls referendum

Greece’s prime minister on Friday called a surprise referendum for July 5 on the financially troubled country’s fraught bailout talks with international creditors, and government officials are calling on the nation to reject the proposed deal.

Alexis Tsipras announced the referendum in a televised address to the Greek people early today, following an emergency meeting of his Cabinet.

“The Greek government has been asked to accept a proposal that places new unbearable burdens on the Greek people,” Tsipras said. “Right now, we bear an historic responsibility concerning … the future of our country. And this responsibility obliges us to answer (bailout creditors’) ultimatum based on the sovereign will of the Greek people.”

The move radically raises the stakes in Greece’s confrontation with bailout creditors, whom Tsipras accused of demanding new pension cuts, sales tax hikes and labor market reforms.

Apple removes Civil War games

Civil War historians were flummoxed by Apple’s removal of Civil War games from its App Store that included images of the Confederate flag. The controversial symbol is key to depicting history, they said.

“It seems to me that pulling Civil War games might be an extreme response to the flag controversy, as if the Civil War didn’t exist,” said Bob Brinkmeyer, a professor of Southern studies at the University of South Carolina. “As these games remind us, the South lost.”

Apple’s decision this week came soon after major retailers and e-commerce sites, from Wal-Mart to Amazon to EBay, banned sales of Confederate flags and products with Confederate images on them.

The commercial actions came in response to the shooting of nine African-Americans at a historic black church in Charleston, South Carolina. The young man arrested for the crime had an apparent fondness for the Confederate flag and the flags of Apartheid-era South Africa and Rhodesia, judging by photographs of him flaunting those symbols.

SEC warms up to tweets about IPOs

Trying to figure out how many investors might want to fund your small business? Go ahead and tweet about it.

Startups are now able to post a Twitter message about their stock or debt offering to gauge interest among potential investors, the Securities and Exchange Commission said this week. The announcement continues the SEC’s trend of warming up to social media, which began two years ago when it approved the use of posts on Facebook and Twitter to communicate corporate announcements such as earnings.

The SEC’s latest endorsement of social media applies only to companies looking to raise as much as $50 million a year.

— From wire reports