Willem-Alexander sworn in as Dutch king
The Netherlands' Willem-Alexander was sworn in as Europe's youngest monarch on Tuesday after his mother, queen Beatrix, abdicated and his country hailed the avowedly 21st-century king with a massive, orange-hued party.
Beatrix, 75, shed a tear before signing the act of abdication at the Royal Palace in Amsterdam, witnessed by Willem-Alexander, 46, his Argentine-born Queen Maxima, 41, and members of the government.
A cry went up from the 25 000 crowd in the Dam, the main square opposite the palace where the signing was shown on giant screens.
Willem-Alexander, Maxima and Beatrix appeared in front of the crowds on the palace balcony, bedecked in roses and oranges, before heading for the enthronement ceremony in the neighbouring Nieuwe Kerk.
Beatrix accompanied the king and queen's three daughters to the church, including their eldest, now Princess of Orange Catharina-Amalia, 9.
The Dutch monarch is sworn in before a joint session of the houses of parliament in the deconsecrated church, rather than crowned, because church and royalty are separated in the Netherlands.
The king entered the church at a stately pace with Maxima under an awning of fishing nets, an ancient tradition in the seafaring nation.
Before taking his oath, the king thanked his "dear mother" for the "many beautiful years during which she was our queen."
"I'm treading in your footsteps. I have a clear vision of my office. But no one knows what the future brings," he said.
"Wherever that path leads and however far it goes, I will carry your wisdom and warmth with me," he said.
Ermine-lined cloak
The king swore "to preserve the independence and territory of the kingdom to the best of my ability ... so help me God."
His ermine-lined cloak has been criticised by animal rights activists in the Netherlands, but Willem-Alexander noted that it is old and so no blood had recently been shed for it.
MPs and senators then swore an oath to the king, although 16 MPs have refused to do so saying they have already pledged allegiance to the constitution.
A who's who of royals-in-waiting, including Britain's Prince Charles, Spain's Prince Felipe and Japan's Prince Naruhito and his wife, Crown Princess Masako, attended the ceremony.
Princess Masako is on her first trip abroad in nearly seven years, while Prince Charles also attended Beatrix's enthronement in 1980.
Former UN secretary general Kofi Annan and International Olympic Committee head Jacques Rogge also attended.
Police escorted two republicans from in front of the royal palace shortly before the abdication after they brandished a large sign reading: "I'm not a subject".
They were escorted to an authorised protest area but police later apologised for detaining the anti-monarchists.
Willem-Alexander is the first Dutch king since 1890 and the first of a new wave of relatively youthful European monarchs.
"Beatrix has been queen for 33 years, our queen," Ruud, 49, told AFP on the Dam after the abdication, a tear in his eye.
"She was a stabilising factor and a symbol of our country. It's sad to see her go after all these years, a page in our collective history is turning."
Million visitors
Amsterdam's population is set to double with around a million visitors flooding the city's streets and canals to mark the abdication and enthronement.
Over 10 000 police have been deployed in Amsterdam, with authorities saying they had arrested 70 people since Monday.
The monarchy is popular in the Netherlands, but some question the cost of the royal household and republicans are seeking to get the king's €825 000 tax-free salary reduced.
While Beatrix was known for her formal court, Willem-Alexander has already said that he will not be a "protocol fetishist".
Beatrix's enthronement in 1980 was marred by violent protests and running street battles over a housing crisis that left the city looking like a war zone.
Anti-royalists this time have been allotted six locations in Amsterdam to stage protests. But only around 100 republicans turned up for a protest at just one of the locations, an AFP correspondent reported.
Koningslied
Preparations for the day have been overshadowed by a rancorous debate about the event's official song, known as the Koningslied, which many considered ill-fitting, with its mix of traditional and rap music.
The nation will now sing the Koningslied as one on Tuesday evening, just before the royal family heads off on a water pageant behind Amsterdam's central train station.
Maxima is largely responsible for having made her husband popular after an allegedly boozy youth which earned him the nickname "Prince Pils".
Ever smiling, she has mastered the Dutch language and even taken a charity swim in Amsterdam's canals, endearing herself further in a country that expects their royals to be at once normal and regal.
Speaking ahead of the enthronement, Willem-Alexander said that "people can address me as they wish because then they can feel comfortable".
He stressed he wanted to "be a king that can bring society together, representative and encouraging in the 21st century".
Cyprus parliament approves €10bn bailout
Cyprus's parliament approved on Tuesday an EU bailout including provisions to impose substantial losses on bank depositors and wind down one of the island's biggest banks.
With a razor-thin majority of just two votes, lawmakers approved terms accompanying €10bn ($13.10bn) in aid from the European Union and the International Monetary Fund (IMF).
In a show of hands, 29 lawmakers from the three parties in the centre-right government approved the motion, with 27 voting against.
Government officials had warned the island would fall into chaotic default, unable to pay salaries or pensions, as early as next month without emergency funding.
"Unfortunately the (bailout) is a one-way street for us. It will avert disorderly default and gives, albeit with many hurdles, some prospect of getting us out of the storm," said Averof Neophytou, head of the governing right-wing Democratic Rally party.
The bailout was unlike any other aid deal, controversially forcing depositors to foot the cost of recapitalising banks exposed to debt-crippled Greece.
Opposition parties argued that the bailout would keep Cyprus in perpetual bondage to foreign lenders.
"A 'yes' from Cyprus's parliament is by far the biggest defeat in our 8 000-year history," said lawmaker George Perdikis of the Greens party at an extraordinary parliamentary session opened on Tuesday.
"Its democratically elected representatives have a gun to their head to agree to a deal of enslavement," he said.
Cyprus, the euro zone's third smallest country, is bracing for at least two more years of economic misery and record unemployment as terms on the bailout start to bite.
Attempts to agree a deal triggered financial chaos last month when parliament rejected a plan to make both insured and uninsured depositors pay a levy to fund the recapitalisation of banks heavily exposed to debt-crippled Greece.
It was followed by a two-week bank closure. The fallback option was to wind down one of the banks, Laiki, and impose losses of up to 60% on uninsured deposits - over €100 000 - in a second, Bank of Cyprus.
About 300 demonstrators gathered outside parliament on Tuesday, calling politicians "thieves". One group brought along a fake gallows, which they said was for lawmakers.
Communist AKEL, in government until it lost presidential elections in February, said Cyprus should seek alternative forms of funding, including possibly an exit from the euro currency. The island adopted the single currency in 2008.
"We know leaving the euro is an equally painful option, but reinstating a national currency could offer prospects for growth in the future," AKEL leader Andros Kyprianou said.
AKEL had made the initial application for financial aid in June 2012.
US home prices rise, helps economy
US home prices rose in February at their fastest rate in almost seven years, a fresh sign the housing market recovery will help counter the drag on the economy from government belt tightening.
The S&P/Case Shiller index of 20 metropolitan areas released on Tuesday showed single-family home prices rose 9.3% in February from a year earlier.
The data reinforces the view that rising home prices could make Americans feel better about spending this year, helping counter a hit to economic growth from tax hikes and government spending cuts.
"This will be a powerful positive fundamental not only for housing but presumably helpful for consumer spending as well," said Stephen Stanley an economist at Pierpont Securities in Stamford, Connecticut.
Another report showed US consumer confidence rebounded in April as Americans felt better about the outlook for the economy and their income prospects.
The Conference Board, a private industry group, said its index of consumer attitudes rose to 68.1. Economists polled by Reuters had expected a reading of 60.8.
Still, there appears to be a growing risk that weakness in the labor market and broader economy could dial down the housing recovery's strength. Hiring slowed dramatically in March and economic growth was lackluster in the first quarter, raising fears the economy could struggle to cope with Washington's austerity drive.
Business activity in the US Midwest unexpectedly contracted in April to its lowest level since September 2009 as a gauge of employment pulled back, another report showed.
The Institute for Supply Management-Chicago business barometer fell to 49, falling short of economists' expectations for 52.5.
Other recent data has pointed to less steam building in the housing market, but rising prices could give construction firms more incentive to build new homes and increase inventories. A dearth of homes on the market has held back sales.
The S&P/Case Shiller index showed prices gained 1.2% in February on a seasonally adjusted basis from January, topping forecasts for a 0.9% gain.
Following a spectacular collapse that fueled the 2007-09 recession, the housing sector appears to have turned a corner and prices have been rising since February 2012.
More monetary stimulus
The data came as the Federal Reserve prepared to open a two-day meeting on monetary policy. Yields on US government debt fell on the prospect the Fed would continue buying bonds to support the economy. US stock prices also fell.
A recent slew of weak US growth data has raised expectations the Fed will keep its pace of bond buying at $85bn a month throughout the year.
The Fed has kept overnight interest rates near zero since late 2008 and it has tripled its balance sheet to about $3 trillion through purchases of securities, which are aimed at pushing longer-term borrowing costs lower.
A separate report showed US labour costs rose a modest 0.3% in the first quarter, pointing to a lack of inflationary pressures that could give the Fed space to continue its monetary stimulus.
Wages and salaries, which account for 70% of employment costs, increased 0.5% in the first quarter, and were up 1.6% in the 12 months through March, according to the report from the labour department.
Workers' benefits rose 0.1% during the quarter, the slowest pace since 1999. The data may have been distorted by an error found in benefits data for sales and office workers, but the department said the data error probably did not have a major impact.
Germany to invest more in Africa
Germany is to increase its economic investment in South Africa and other African states, Foreign Affairs Minister Guido Westerwelle said in Pretoria on Monday.
His country was seeking partners in Africa to do business with as equals, he told reporters after meeting his South African counterpart Maite Nkoana-Mashabane in Pretoria.
"This is a strategic decision of the government in Germany to seek new opportunities in Africa, especially in South Africa. We think Africa is a continent of opportunities.
"We need investments. We need to trade and establish partnerships between equals. We need partnerships in skills development, vocational training, education and science."
Westerwelle is leading a Germany business delegation which has toured Ghana and will be heading to Mozambique.
South Africa was, however, Germany’s "most important economic and political partner" on the continent.
"Last year, our trade was around €14bn and over 600 German companies provide over 90 000 jobs in South Africa," he said.
"South Africa is also an important partner to us in world politics. We followed with close attention the Brics [Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa] summit you hosted in March. It shows how the world is changing and there are new heavyweights like South Africa and we are seeking close co-operation."
He lauded South Africa for its interventions in strife-torn countries on the African continent.
"We value highly South Africa’s commitment to peace and security in Africa, for instance the mediation efforts by former president Thabo Mbeki in Sudan. We pay tribute to your peace-keeping efforts."
Nkoana-Mashabane said Germany extensively supported South Africa’s development priorities and had allocated around R3.4m during the 2012/13 period.
She said Germany was South Africa's third largest trading partner and its second largest investor.
"Africa is on a massive infrastructure building [exercise] which will help unlock the potential of our continent."
EU to protect savers from bank collapses
Depositors should be the very last to suffer losses when a bank collapses, according to a proposal being discussed by European Union countries and seen by Reuters, which would shield savers from the kind of losses they face in Cyprus.
The idea comes as member countries finalise a new draft law for the European Union that could make losses for larger savers a permanent feature of future banking crises. EU officials, however, are nervous that such a regime will panic savers, prompting them to withdraw money.
In the paper, outlining the process of 'bailing in' savers and other steps to deal with troubled banks, officials in Brussels said that it might be wise to put depositors behind all bondholders when dividing losses from a bank collapse.
Small savers, with less than €100 000, will, in any event, be protected. But officials also raise the possibility of allowing national exemptions from losses for big depositors in their country if a bank fails.
By striking such a compromise, officials hope to rebuild confidence after a botched attempt earlier this year to impose losses on depositors in Cyprus - initially also aimed at small savers although this was later changed.
A more favourable treatment of big depositors in the new EU law, charting how to deal with failing banks in a regime that could start in 2015, is backed by the European Central Bank and the International Monetary Fund.
Ireland, which currently holds the rotating EU presidency, is also pushing for such concessions ahead of a meeting of EU finance ministers in May.
"This would mean that they are not excluded from bail-in, but other creditors would first absorb losses to their capacity before eligible depositors are bailed-in," officials said in the paper, dated April 29.
Before any such softening of provisions, however, EU diplomats will need to convince Germany, which remains sceptical about making such concessions, according to one official familiar with the talks.
Policymakers have sought to portray the losses suffered by depositors at two of Cyprus's banks as a one-off, but experts believe it marks a change in approach in how Europe deals with troubled banks, sparing taxpayers who have been on the hook for previous bailouts.
"After Cyprus, a number of states would like more clarity," said one official who is involved in the discussions.
"It may be that we give depositors preference, which means that they have a higher likelihood of getting back their money."
