NEWS,11.03.2013

Greek economy shrinks 5.7%

Greece's ailing economy contracted by 5.7% in the fourth quarter of 2012 in an annual comparison, provisional data from the state statistics agency showed on Monday.

The agency said the contraction was slightly lower than the previous estimate of 6.0% for the fourth quarter announced a month ago.

Combined with contraction data given for the first, second and third quarters, Greece's economy shrank by 6.4% in 2012.

This is slightly better than the 6.5% estimate contained in Greece's current budget.

The 2013 budget forecasts another contraction of 4.5% this year before the economy limps back into growth in 2014.

In 2011, Greece's economy shrank by 7.1%. Overall, it has contracted by more than a fifth since 2008.

The coalition government of conservative Prime Minister Antonis Samaras has made achieving growth its top priority as the nation struggles to meet its commitments to international creditors.

EU bans animal-tested cosmetics

The European Union is banning the sale of new cosmetic products containing ingredients tested on animals.

The 27-country bloc's executive arm, the European Commission, said on Monday the ban will take effect immediately.

Animal rights groups cheered the news, but industry trade body Cosmetics Europe said the ban comes too early and "acts as a brake on innovation."

The EU has banned animal testing of finished cosmetic products since 2004. The ban on cosmetics containing animal-tested ingredients was first decided four years ago but initially left loopholes for certain tests following resistance from cosmetics companies.

While the industry's rabbits and guinea pigs will now be spared, consumers are unlikely to notice immediate changes because products containing ingredients that were tested on animals before the ban can remain on the shelves.

Chavez death: Cuba has lost 'best friend'

Cuba's Fidel Castro praised the late Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez on Monday as a champion of the poor and said Cubans had lost their best friend ever, in his first comments on the death last week of his socialist ally.

Castro said the news, although not unexpected, had been a hard blow.

"On the 5th of March, in the afternoon hours, died the best friend the Cuban people had in their history," Castro wrote in a column published in Communist Party newspaper Granma.

"We have the honour of having shared with the Bolivarian leader the same ideals of social justice and of support for the exploited," said the 86-year-old Castro who led Cuba's 1959 revolution, ruled the country for 49 years and still plays a behind-the-scenes role.

"The poor are the poor in any part of the world," he said.

During Chavez' years in power, he and Castro forged a close personal and political relationship that resulted in extensive Venezuelan aid to the communist island and a shared strategy for promoting Latin American unity against US influence in the region.
 

Chavez helped rescue Cuba from desperate economic times that followed the 1991 collapse of the Soviet Union, its former top ally, by providing two-thirds of its oil in a barter deal for the services of Cuban professionals, most of them doctors and nurses.

He also signed a number of joint ventures aimed at integrating the two countries' economies.

Chavez, aged 58, was diagnosed with cancer in the pelvic region in June 2011 by Cuban doctors and underwent four surgeries on the Caribbean island, which has an extensive medical system and provides free care to its people.

Except for a set of photographs, Chavez was never seen in public again following his last operation in December and he died on Tuesday in Caracas.

Castro said he had received a phone call via satellite notifying him of what he called "the bitter news".

"The significance of the phrase used was unmistakable. Although we knew the critical state of his health, the news hit us hard," wrote Castro, who resigned as Cuba's president five years ago because of his own health problems.


"I remembered the times he joked with me saying that when both of us finished our revolutionary work, he would invite me to spend time by the Arauca River in Venezuelan territory, which reminded him of the rest he never had," Castro said.

Raul Castro, who succeeded his older brother as Cuba's president, represented the island on Friday at Chavez' funeral.

Chavez' death has raised worries in Cuba that Venezuelan aid will cease to flow to the island.

His preferred successor, Nicolas Maduro, is favoured to win an April election to replace Chavez and expected to continue his Cuba policies for the immediate future.

However, if more conservative opponent Henrique Capriles pulls off an upset victory, he has promised to put an end to Venezuela's oil largesse.

Castro closed his column by paraphrasing a famous quote from another late friend and revolutionary, Ernesto "Che" Guevara, the Argentine physician who fought alongside him in the Cuban revolution.

"Until victory always, unforgettable friend," Castro wrote of Chavez.

EU anti-terror head warns of threat

The EU's anti-terror chief warned Europe on Monday to remain on its guard, especially against the threat of European jihadists who are finding new safe havens from Syria to Mali.

Gilles de Kerchove, marking a day of remembrance for victims of terror, said the threat remained real whether "it stems from terrorist organisations or lone actors”.

Recent successes against al-Qaeda and associated groups, such as in Mali after the French intervention there in January, were positive, Kerchove said in a statement.

"But we know that terrorists are constantly seeking out new safe havens where they have space to operate, taking advantage of conflict situations," he said.

If most of those fighting to overthrow President Bashar Assad have a stake in the future of their country, "Syria has also turned into a destination for European jihadists who want to profit from the situation there, and who may also pose a threat to our societies upon their return," he said.

Pakistan, Nigeria, Yemen and the Horn of Africa remained unstable while the situation in the Maghreb and the Sahel also "has to be watched closely", he said.

"We must continue to help vulnerable countries address injustices, to combat terrorist ideology," at the same time fully respecting human rights and the rule of law, Kerchove said.

"Together, we must continue to fight terrorism in and outside Europe since far too many people have fallen victim to it," he concluded.

UN: Human rights abuses spiral in Iran

Human rights violations in Iran spiralled in 2012, a UN monitor said on Monday in a report spotlighting abuses including repression of freedom of speech, torture and secret executions.

"There has been an apparent increase in the degree of seriousness of human rights violations in the Islamic Republic of Iran," Ahmed Shaheed said in his report to the UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC).

Shaheed highlighted "frequent and disconcerting" reports about "punitive state action" against a number of groups, including the jailing of opposition politicians, journalists and human rights campaigners.

He also expressed concern about rights violations affecting women and religious and ethnic minorities, and retaliatory action against individuals that Tehran suspects of co-operating with UN monitors.

Such abuses remain "widespread", "systemic" and "systematic", said Shaheed, former foreign minister of the Maldives who was named the UN's Iran monitor in 2011.

Shaheed, who is forbidden from visiting the country, said he regretted Tehran's unwillingness to co-operate with him, despite his repeated efforts.

He wrote his report by contacting campaigners, exiles and victims of the abuses.

"Moreover, a lack of government investigation and redress generally fosters a culture of impunity," he said, emphasising that this undermined global human rights accords signed by Iran.

The torture of detainees was also an ongoing concern which Shaheed said he had raised in a previous report.

"The Iranian government maintained that allegations of torture in the country are baseless since the country's laws forbid the use of torture and the use of evidence solicited under duress," he said.

"The existence of legal safeguards does not in itself invalidate allegations of torture, and does not remove the obligation to thoroughly investigate such allegations," he added.

Turning his focus to executions, Shaheed said while 297 were officially announced by the government - 58 of them carried out in public - some 200 "secret executions" had been acknowledged by family members, prison officials or members of the judiciary.

Nearly 500 executions - both official and unofficial - were carried out in 2012, compared to 661 in 2011, and 542 the year before.

Despite that drop, the number of executions had, nevertheless, risen progressively in recent years, Shaheed said, having stood at less than a hundred a year a decade ago.

He said he was "alarmed" by the escalating rate "especially in the absence of fair trial standards" and for offences that did not warrant capital punishment including alcohol consumption, adultery and drug-trafficking.

All eyes on Vatican chimney

Forget all the artistic masterpieces. The most gazed-at item at the Vatican this week will be a humble, copper, 2m-high chimney that will pipe out puffs of smoke to tell the world if there's a new pope.

Black smoke means "not yet." White smoke means "pope elected."

When three Vatican firefighters hoisted the chimney to its perch a few days ago, it was a visual cue that preparations for the conclave to elect retired Pope Benedict XVI's successor were in high gear.

The Sistine Chapel and its magnificent Michelangelo-frescoed ceiling were made off limits to tourists. Two metal stoves were then installed in a far corner, away from the chapel's altar and the area where the cardinals will write out their picks for the next pope on slips of paper.

In the past, counted ballots went into just one iron stove along with damp wood chips or wet clumps of straw to create black smoke if the vote didn't yield a pope.

But the smoke signal system has been unreliable, triggering nervous cries of "It's white" and emphatic choruses of "No, it's black!" in the various tongues of the faithful and curious who flock to St Peter's Square for a glimpse of the chimney.

So in 2005, for the conclave that made Benedict pope, the Vatican tried something different: A second stove was installed that produces smoke from a chemical compound whipped up by the Vatican's own technicians. The smoke from the burned ballots from the first stove and the coloured smoke from the second stove were funnelled up one pipe that leads to the chimney and the outside world.

But that solution hardly made the distinction between black and white smoke any clearer - and confusion still was the order of the day.

It's a big unknown whether the Vatican has improved its technology this time around.

The sequestered cardinals will have a first chance to vote early on Tuesday evening. If they fail to pick a pope, the next few days can see as many as two rounds of balloting each morning and two rounds each afternoon, until one man clinches the required two-thirds majority.

The weather forecast promises to cloud the situation even further.

Rain, sometimes heavy, is predicted through Thursday, with Friday's skies forecast to be partly cloudy.

The Vatican says it will shine spotlights on the chimney for the evening votes.

In following the conclave, it will be wise not just to keep your eyes open, but your ears as well: The bells of St Peter's Basilica will be set ringing when a new pope has been chosen.