Russia welcomes Georgia opposition victory

Russia's Foreign Ministry said it hopes recent parliamentary elections in Georgia, won by opposition coalition Georgian Dream, will help normalise the country's relations with neighbours.
"It is obvious that Georgian society has voted for changes. We hope in the end they will allow Georgia to start the normalisation, establishment of constructive and respectful relations with neighbours," Alexander Lukashevich, Russia's Foreign Ministry spokesman, said on Wednesday.
Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili conceded the shock defeat to the opposition, led by billionaire tycoon Bidzina Ivanishvili, ending nine years of dominance that antagonised Russia and brought Tbilisi closer to the West.
Although Saakashvili remains president, the defeat of his United National Movement in Monday's elections means he will lose control of parliament and the government.
His apparently graceful acceptance of the unexpected

Report says EU nuclear reactors need repair

A leaked report on Europe's nuclear reactors found that up to $32bn needs to be invested to prevent disaster. Last Modified: 03 Oct 2012 09:23

Almost all of Europe's nuclear reactors are in need of an urgent overhaul that could cost as much as $32bn, according to a leaked draft-report by the European Commission.

The Commission is expected on Thursday to finalise its stress test report, which was designed to ensure that a disaster similar to the one at Japan's Fukushima could not happen again.

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.