Spanish PM says bailout not imminent

Mariano Rajoy denies reports that Madrid is on verge of seeking a bailout while meeting leaders of country's regions. Last Modified: 02 Oct 2012 20:59

New jobless figures suggest one in every four in the Spanish workforce are now unemployed [Reuters]

Mariano Rajoy, the Spanish prime minister, has said that a new bailout for his country is not yet imminent. Rajoy made the comment on Tuesday after a meeting in the capital Madrid with the 17 leaders of Spain's regions. In response to a report by the Reuters news agency that Spain could apply for European aid as soon as this weekend, Rajoy said: "If a news agency reports that we'll ask for aid this weekend, there can only be two explanations: that the agency is right, and knows more than I do, which is possible, or that they are not right.

Georgia ruling party concedes poll defeat

Opposition Georgian Dream coalition has won majority of parliamentary seats, President Mikhail Saakashvili says.

President Saakashvili has led the country since his 2003 'Rose Revolution' [Reuters]

Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili has conceded defeat in parliamentary polls that appear set to hand a shock victory to the opposition Georgian Dream coalition. "It is clear that the [opposition] Georgian Dream has won a majority," Saakashvili said in a televised speech on Tuesday. Bidzina Ivanishvili's Georgian Dream opposition coalition was leading Saakashvili's ruling United National Movement (UNM) by 53.19 per cent to 41.51 per cent after a quarter of electoral precincts declared results on Tuesday in the proportional ballot that will decide just over half of parliamentary seats. A complex electoral system means that the ruling party could still take a large number of seats, however. First-past-the-post votes in 73 constituencies will make up the remainder of the 150-seat parliament, and the opposition was ahead in partial counts from seven out of 10 such constituencies in its stronghold Tbilisi.

Eurozone unemployment hits record 18.2 million

Official jobless figures for the eurozone hit a record 18.2 million in August, new Eurostat data showed Monday, the highest since records for the bloc began in 1995 and indicating an annual rise of more than two million unemployed.

 

Unemployment across the 17 countries that use the euro remained at its record high rate of 11.4 percent in August, official data showed Monday, renewing concerns that efforts to slash debts have sacrificed jobs.
While European leaders have managed to calm financial markets in recent months with promises to cut spending and build a tighter union, they have been unable to solve the eurozone’s deep-rooted economic problems and the rising tide of joblessness.
In August, 34,000 more people lost their jobs in the eurozone, according to data released Monday by the European statistics agency, Eurostat. The unemployment rate -- the highest since the euro was created in 1999 -- is the same as July’s, which was revised up from 11.3 Monday.
Europe’s problems are dragging down the entire global economy. The region is the U.S.’s largest export customer and any fall-off in demand will hit American companies -- as well as President Barack Obama’s election prospects.

Reports that French agent killed Gaddafi ‘nonsense’

A French intelligence expert has poured cold water on allegations that a French agent killed Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi after making a deal with Syria to save then-President Nicolas Sarkozy from embarrassing campaign-funding revelations.

Reports that Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi was killed by a French operative after Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad sold vital intelligence to Paris are “patent nonsense”, according to a leading French intelligence expert.
Mahmoud Jibril, who led Libya’s first post-Gaddafi government in 2011, told Egyptian television channel Dream TV last week that “a foreign agent infiltrated the [rebel] Revolutionary Brigades in order to kill Gaddafi.”
Jibril now heads the National Forces Alliance, one of Libya’s largest political groups, as the country works to produce a constitution ahead of elections expected in 2013.
Following his interview, Italian daily Corriere della Sera quoted unnamed Western diplomats saying that if Gaddafi had been killed by a foreign agent, “he would almost certainly have been French.”
These diplomatic sources went on to explain that the then French President, Nicolas Sarkozy, wanted the Libyan strongman out of the way after he threatened to reveal large cash donations to Sarkozy’s 2007
 presidential campaign.
Meanwhile on Sunday, the UK's Daily Telegraph quoted former Libyan rebel intelligence chief Rami el-Obeidi saying that the Syrian governm

Kosovo declared 'fully independent'

 

Kosovan Prime Minister Hashim Thaci (r) called the

 decision a 'historic turnaround' for the state

   
     Western powers overseeing Kosovo have announced the end of their supervision of the tiny Balkan nation. Kosovo had been overseen by a group made up of 23 EU countries, the US and Turkey since 2008, when it unilaterally declared independence from Serbia. US President Barack Obama said Monday marked a "historic milestone" for Kosovo, which he said had made "significant progress". But Serbia dismissed the sovereignty announcement as meaningless. It does not recognise the secession of Kosovo and regards it as part of Serbia.

Spain gears up for bank bailout by eurozone partners

 

     Up to 60bn euros (£48bn; $78bn) will be needed to bail out Spain's banks, according to the country's second biggest lender, BBVA. The results of independent stress tests of the Spanish banking sector will be published on 28 September. But previews are already being sent to the country's financial institutions.

     The BBC has been told that the Spanish government has already put in place economic reform plans that would allow it to apply for a bailout immediately. Spain's conservative Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy has in the past insisted Madrid would not become the fourth European capital in recent years to apply for such a bailout, but sources indicate such a programme is now likely.

Mohamed Morsi goes to UN general assembly with independence in mind

Egypt's first democratically elected and Islamist president takes first trip to US keen to redefine international relations

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• Abdel-Rahman Hussein in Cairo
• The Guardian, Sunday 23 September 2012 13.16 EDT

Mohamed Morsi, the Egyptian president, will be under the spotlight during his trip to the UN general assembly in New York. Photograph: Virginia Mayo/AP

The UN general assembly, which opens in New York this week, is notable for the cast of leaders it draws to the city. This year, it is Mohamed Morsi, who will be the most closely watched, as he embarks on his first visit to the US as president, at a delicate time in relations between America and the Islamic world.

Morsi, who will meet David Cameron and French president François Hollande but not Barack Obama – has left the US leadership in no doubt that relations have entered a new era. America was angered by his dilatory response to the attack on the US embassy two weeks ago.

On his official Facebook page the president said: "Egyptian foreign relations are now about a balance with other nations based on mutual respect and interests. We open doors and do not close others."

An MP from Egypt's dissolved parliament for the Brotherhood's political arm, the Freedom and Justice party, Mahmoud Helmy, told the Guardian, "The president's visit is primarily about Egypt's interests, and we trust Morsi to do that. He's trying to set foundations for mutual interests and improving relations to a level that was lost with the previous regime, which was more of a stooge."

Elijah Zarwan, a Cairo-based fellow at the European Council on Foreign Relations, said: "Morsi and Obama have compelling shared interests in keeping the Egyptian-US relationship strong, and have already moved to mend fences after last week's tensions, which I suspect will be a flash in the pan. US relations with Mubarak were sometimes prickly. Relations with Egypt's first democratically elected and Islamist president may also be, but for different reasons."

Morsi is catering to public opinion in Egypt by making it clear that he is his own man when it comes to foreign relations. Choosing to visit Iran, the first visit by an Egyptian leader in 30 years, he then went on to publicly criticise the Syrian regime, in Tehran to the chagrin of its staunchest regional ally.

And in the wake of the embassy attacks, he also had to contend with local uproar at the American film which triggered the anger.

"The embassy events are not the first nor the last flash points that may happen, and they will not influence relations between two countries so markedly," Helmy said. "We announced that we don't accept the offense to the Prophet Mohammed and we also condemn the violence and attack on the embassy. Any foreigner in your country is your guest and you are responsible for his safety."

And despite the events in Cairo having implications on the US presidential race, Morsi does travel to the US with a merit of goodwill, according to Bassel Adel, member of the secular liberal Free Egyptians party. "Morsi goes to the US with a card up his sleeve that the Brotherhood didn't participate in the embassy protest, for the first time in their history. Also events in Libya [where the US ambassador was killed after an attack on the consulate] overshadowed the events in Cairo."

However, Adel alluded to a unique relationship that the Brotherhood has with the US administration, going back to the early days of the revolution that ousted Mubarak. "Egyptians not belonging to the Brotherhood feel there is a special relationship between the Brotherhood and the US, adirect line of communication that began with the onset of the revolution. This is something that needs to be looked into."