Mario Monti 'ready to lead Italy again'

Outgoing Italian technocrat MP remains open to electoral offers from pro-reform coalition parties in favour of change.

Video link: http://www.aljazeera.com/news/europe/2012/12/2012122312281179194.html

Mario Monti, who resigned as Italy's prime minister on Friday, has said he is ready to govern the country again as head of a pro-reform coalition in favour of change in Italy and Europe.

However, he rejected Silvio Berlusconi's offer to lead the centre-right in next year's election, leaving himself open to offers from other parties.

Macedonia budget sparks clashes

Six people, including two politicians, briefly needed hospital treatment for injuries sustained during the incident.

 

 

Video link: http://www.aljazeera.com/news/europe/2012/12/2012122418283562830.html

 

Clashes have broken out in front of Macedonia's parliament between opposition and ruling legislators over next year's budget, as rival supporters pelted each other with stones and bottles.

Six people, including two politicians, briefly needed hospital treatment for injuries from Monday's clashes.

"We are calling for civil disobedience... Macedonia will see a popular uprising," Brank Crvenkovski, leftist opposition party SDSM's leader, told his supporters outside parliament.

European shares lap up US fiscal deal

Markets across continent enjoy broad-based rally after fiscal deal passed by US Congress.

 

 

Video link: http://www.aljazeera.com/video/europe/2013/01/201312173950629244.html


European markets have breathed a collective sigh of relief following the fiscal deal passed by the US Congress.
Shares saw a broad-based rally on Wednesday, kicking off the New Year with strong gains.
But traders there are warning that the good news created by the deal may not last long.
Al Jazeera's Nadim Baba reports.

French weekly prints Prophet Muhammad drawing

Satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo insists the special issue is a properly researched and educational work.

The Charlie Hebdo offices were fire-bombed after it published cartoons on the prophet last September [AFP]

A French satirical magazine, whose offices were fire-bombed after it published cartoons on the Prophet Muhammad last September, has published a 64-page special issue with cartoons on the life of Islam's founder.

The editor of Charlie Hebdo weekly insisted that the publication titled "The Life of Muhammad", which was published on Wednesday, was a properly researched and educational work prepared by a Franco-Tunisian sociologist.

Prior to publication, Stephane Charbonnier, who was also the illustrator of the book, said "I don't think higher Muslim minds could find anything inappropriate".

OPINION: Fighting back against the eurozone tyrants

Crisis countries in Europe must find more ways to tilt the market to produce more favourable outcomes for workers.

One thing eurozone crisis countries should begin doing is forcing property owners to lower rents for their housing and apartments by imposing a vacancy tax [EPA]

The eurozone crisis countries still have not developed a workable strategy for countering the policies being imposed by the troika - the European Central Bank (ECB), the IMF and the European Union. Their main problem is not profligate government spending, as fans of data everywhere have long known; the problem is an imbalance in relative prices between the crisis countries and Germany and other northern countries.

This imbalance is causing the crisis countries to run chronic trade deficits. Prior to the collapse of housing bubbles in the peripheral countries, this deficit was financed primarily through massive lending to the private sector in the crisis countries by banks in the northern countries. Since the collapse, the trade deficit has been largely financed with official lending to peripheral country governments. However, the core problem is the trade deficit, not government borrowing in the crisis countries.

Global economy 'set for sharp downturn'

Eurozone debt crisis "remains the greatest threat to the world economy at present", the OECD warns.

A potentially catastrophic budget standoff in US could threaten business activity around the world [GALLO/GETTY]

Global growth is set for a sharp slowdown next year and the eurozone debt crisis "remains the greatest threat to the world economy at present," the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) has warned.

"Economic prospects are very uncertain and highly dependent on the risks associated with the nature and timing of policy decisions related to the euro area crisis, [and] the US fiscal cliff"

- OECD analysts

In its latest Economic Outlook, drafted on Tuesday before the eurozone and IMF unblocked almost $57bn (44 billion euros) in emergency loans for Greece, the OECD also cautioned that "the risk of a new major contraction cannot be ruled out" after a global slump in 2009.

Eurozone and IMF agree Greek bailout deal

Loans will be released to Greece in order to keep the near-bankrupt economy afloat and reduce debt by $51bn.




Greece will receive urgently needed loans to rescue its stricken economy after eurozone finance ministers and the International Monetary Fund agreed a deal on reducing the country's debt.

The agreement was reached on Monday after 12 hours of talks at the third meeting of the finance ministers and the IMF in as many weeks.

Lenders agreed on a package of measures to reduce Greek debt by $50bn, cutting it to 124 per cent of gross domestic product by 2020.

Anti-austerity strikes erupt across Europe

Workers across the continent are protesting against unemployment and spending cuts.

Anti-austerity demonstrators clashed with police in Spain, Portugal, France and Italy [AFP]

Workers across the European Union have launched an unprecedented string of strikes in a co-ordinated battle against austerity cuts on Wednesday.

The strikes are intended to paralyse factories and public sector offices, and have grounded more than 700 flights. Organisers are urging national leaders to abandon fiscal austerity measures and address growing social anxiety.

Walkouts are expected in Spain, Greece, Portugal and Italy, with other protests planned in Belgium, Germany, France and the United Kingdom.

Italian students stage anti-austerity protest

Marches against education spending cuts fill Rome's famed avenues after leaders push through new economic measures.

Three student protests converged into one mass march in the Italian capital [AFP]

Thousands of students and teachers have marched through central Rome to protest against education spending cuts.

Saturday's demonstration comes as Mario Monti, the prime minister, pushed through "austerity measures"; raising taxes and reining in public spending, at a time when schools and universities say they desperately need more support.

"We need to fight for our rights. This government doesn't represent us and these austerity measures and all the cuts they've introduced are totally anti-democratic," Tommaso Bernardi, student protester, said.

'Good progress' made on Cyprus bailout

Government officials say they have reached 'in-principle' agreement with the troika on terms of a bailout deal.

Cyprus' President Demetris Christofias says his team and the troika had "reached a convergence" [Reuters]

Cyprus’ potential international creditors say they have made "good progress" in negotiations on a possible bailout for the crisis-hit country.

Despite earlier hopes that a deal was imminent, representatives from the so-called troika of the European Commission, the European Central Bank and the International Monetary Fund said long-distance talks would continue on securing an agreement.

In a statement issued on Friday, the troika said that there had been "productive discussions" with Cyprus on the "policy building blocks of a macroeconomic adjustment programme."

EU budget talks end in failure

Tensions between rich and poor states and UK demands for austerity had set Brussels summit on rocky course from start.




A European Union summit in Brussels has wound up with "no agreement" sealed for the bloc's next long-term budget.

With the 27 heads of state and government bitterly divided over spending policy, there had been little hope of a deal on a trillion-euro budget for 2014-20 during the two-day summit.

"There is no agreement," one EU official said on Friday.

Tensions between rich and poor states and Britain's demands for austerity in the budget for the seven years from 2014 to 2020 had set the summit on a rocky course from the start.

Merkel expresses doubt over EU budget summit

German Chancellor warns another summit may be needed as EU diplomats say UK's "virulent" demands are blocking deal.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel has said that she doubts European leaders taking part in a summit this week on the EU's 2014-2020 budget would reach an agreement.

Merkel's statements  on Friday came as EU diplomats said that UK Prime Minister David Cameron's "virulent" demands for austerity measures were blocking a deal on the budget.

A day after talks on the nearly one trillion euro spending framework saw a rocky start with serious disagreements among officials in Brussels, Merkel said that another summit on the budget of the 27-country bloc would most likely be required at a later date, probably early next year.