Britain climbs out of the double-dip recession - by Jamie Grierson

The UK climbed out of the double-dip recession with a bang between July and September as the economy returned to growth at its fastest pace in five years, official figures showed today.


Gross domestic product (GDP) - a broad measure for the total economy - grew 1% in the third quarter of the year, the Office for National Statistics (ONS) said, ending three consecutive quarters of declining output.

City experts had expected a rise of 0.6%. The actual figure is the biggest increase since the third quarter of 2007.

The largest contribution to the surge came from the powerhouse services sector, which makes up around 75% of the total economy and grew at 1.3%, following a 0.1% drop in the previous quarter.

Read more: UK bounces back from double-dip recession - Business News - Business - The Independent

Champions League Soccer: Ajax beats Manchester City 3-1 - by Theo Ruizenaar

Ajax Amsterdam came from a goal down to beat Manchester City 3-1 today and leave the Premier League champions facing a major battle to reach the Champions League knockout stage.

Samir Nasri fired City ahead from James Milner's pass midway through the first half but the Dutch side levelled on the stroke of halftime when Siem de Jong crisply dispatched Ricardo van Rhijn's cross from the right.

Defender Niklas Moisander guided in a corner to restore Ajax's lead on 57 minutes and there was no way back for City when Christian Eriksen's shot took a deflection off Gael Clichy to wrongfoot Joe Hart 11 minutes later.

Borussia Dortmund top Group G on seven points from three games after beating Real Madrid 2-1. Real have six points followed by Ajax (three) and City (one).

Read more: Champions League | Man City rock bottom; Milan,... | Stuff.co.nz

Oil Industry Fraud: Royal Dutch Shell and other Oil giants face South Africa price-fixing charges

Subsidiaries of global oil giants Chevron, Shell, Total and BP were referred to South Africa's top anti-trust body Wednesday over accusations they have been colluding to rig consumer prices since the 1980s, with a recommendation that the companies face massive fines.

Following "wide-ranging investigations" since 2009, the Competition Commission said it had uncovered "collusive conduct" that stretched back decades, and had referred the case to the Competition Tribunal for judgement.

The commission recommended that each company be fined 10 percent of total turnover from their South African business for the last financial year. "The investigation revealed collusive conduct through extensive exchanges of commercially sensitive information by the respondent oil companies," it said.

The information was said to include detailed monthly sales figures and collusion to influence the regulatory environment.

Read more: more: Oil giants face South Africa price-fixing charges | Radio Netherlands Worldwide

US Presidential Election: Obama lays out an astoundingly ambitious second-term agenda

President Barack Obama laid out an astoundingly ambitious second-term agenda in an interview published Wednesday, vowing to forge a "grand bargain" with Republicans to reduce the national debt and achieve comprehensive immigration reform — all in 2013.

"It will probably be messy. It won't be pleasant," Obama told the Des Moines Register's publisher and its editor by telephone. The daily made the exchange public after the White House dropped its insistence that it be off-the-record.

Messy? Unpleasant? Well, yes. Even if Obama wins reelection -- hardly a done deal -- few if any analysts expect the Democrats to retake the House of Representatives. And while the Democrats are forecast to hold on to the Senate, betting that the president's party will secure a filibuster-proof 60-seat majority is a fool's game — at least according to the latest polls. That makes these promises reliant on Obama using the "bully pulpit" of the White House more effectively than he has since taking office January 2009.

Read more: Obama vows debt-cutting ‘grand bargain,’ immigration reform in 2013 in Des Moines Register interview | The Ticket - Yahoo! News

US Presidential Elections: Obama vs. Romney: What they think about abortion and Planned Parenthood

Get out your political boxing gloves and find your voting location, ladies. Women might determine who sits in the Oval Office for the next four years. You don’t have to be a feminist to feel uncomfortable with a woman's body being labeled as an "issue" in the political arena, and at the very least, we have the right to know exactly why politicians think our bodies are "issues" they get to make decisions about.

President Obama is 100 percent pro-choice, meaning he believes each and every woman has the right to decide for herself if she wants to get an abortion, regardless of circumstances surrounding a pregnancy. He pledges to uphold Roe v. Wade and ensure that abortions remain legal in the United States. Vice President Joe Biden is also pro-choice, citing in his recent debate against opponent Paul Ryan that he is personally against abortion for religious reasons, but that neither he nor anyone else has the right to inflict those beliefs on the the nation's women.

Though Romney previously supported abortion rights, he now says that the policy of a Romney administration would be to oppose abortion except in cases of rape, incest, or protecting the life of the mother. Romney's camp holds that life begins at conception. If Romney were elected, his administration would hold that Roe v. Wade should be overturned and that the issue of whether or not abortions are legal should be decided by individual state governments. It is estimated that more than 30 states would outlaw abortion under Romney's policy.

Read more: Obama vs. Romney: What they think about abortion and Planned Parenthood

European Stocks Climb as SAP Forecast Outweighs Economic Reports - by Sarah Jones

European stocks advanced, after yesterday tumbling the most in four weeks, as technology companies rallied, outweighing worsening economic data from the euro area. U.S. index futures rose, while Asian shares fell.

SAP AG gained 4.1 percent after the world’s biggest maker of business-management software raised its full-year revenue target as license sales beat analyst estimates. Volvo AB and Nordea Bank AB both declined more than 3.5 percent after the companies reported third-quarter profit that missed projections.

The Stoxx Europe 600 Index rose 0.4 percent to 269.36 at 11:22 a.m. in London, after earlier falling as much as 0.4 percent. The equity benchmark has given up almost all of its gains since European Central Bank agreed to an unlimited bond- purchase program on Sept. 6. Futures on the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index rose 0.3 percent today, while the MSCI Asia Pacific Index lost 0.4 percent.

Read more: European Stocks Climb as SAP Forecast Outweighs Economic Reports - SFGate

ECB chief defends bond-scheme to German parliament - by Richard Carter

The head of the European Central Bank launched a fierce defence of his euro-crisis strategy on Wednesday, telling German deputies the bank's bond-buying plan was neither inflationary nor covert aid to governments.

Addressing the German lower house of parliament, Mario Draghi sought to ease the concerns of some of his harshest critics, stressing his plan was needed for the eurozone's hardest-hit nations to benefit from the ECB's low interest rates.

The OMT program, under which the ECB will buy unlimited amounts of the bonds of struggling countries to bring down their borrowing costs, "will not lead to inflation," Draghi stressed, according to a copy of his speech.

"In our assessment, the greater risk to price stability is currently falling prices in some euro area countries," he said.

Read more: AFP: ECB chief defends bond-scheme to German parliament

Chinese HNA buys into French airline, steps into Europe

 A Chinese firm has acquired an interest in a French airline for the first time with the announcement on Tuesday that HNA has acquired nearly half of Aigle Azur.

HNA is a diversified group which owns the fourth-biggest Chinese airline Hainan Airlines, and has tried for some time to gain a foothold in Europe.

HNA has acquired 48 percent of Aigle Azur, the oldest airline in France, which now intends to open a route from Paris to Beijing for the beginning of the summer season in 2013.  The value of the deal was not disclosed.

The president of HNA, Chen Feng, said: "Aigle Azur is a very good, profitable business."

He said: "It is a small company which cannot develop without the help of a big firm. It is mutually beneficial."

The Chinese company, active in finance, tourism and transportation, was created in 2000, has assets totalling 36 billion euros ($46.7 billion) and achieved sales of 12 billion euros last year.

Read more: Chinese HNA buys into French airline, steps into Europe - Channel NewsAsia

Airbus launches assembly line for long-range A350

Airbus inaugurated an assembly line on Tuesday for its new A350 jets, which the European manufacturer hopes will break Boeing's domination of the long-haul passenger aircraft market.

Airbus has become a symbol of European excellence and shows that "France and Europe can succeed in international competition," said French Prime Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault at the ceremony opening the 74,000 sq m facility outside the south-western city of Toulouse.

The A350XWB (extra wide body), which Airbus expects to begin delivering in 2014, will "allow us to capture fifty per cent of the long-haul aircraft market," said the company's chief executive Fabrice Brégier.

Read more: Airbus launches assembly line for long-range A350

Read more: European soccer body vows to fight racism

European soccer's governing body says it is doing all it can to combat racism in the sport. The comment comes after the British government demanded strong sanctions following brawls and racist chants during England's under-21 match in Serbia last week.

UEFA opened disciplinary proceedings against Serbia and England, and a police investigation was ordered from Belgrade as a result of last Tuesday's game.
UEFA President Michel Platini says his group is "doing everything in our power to eradicate racism in our stadiums.''

England player Danny Rose complained of racial abuse, saying trouble had been brewing throughout the evening. He was sent off after kicking a ball into the stands after the final whistle.
England won 1-0 to qualify for the 2013 European Under-21 Championship.

Read more: European soccer body vows to fight racism - - SI.com

France to put surveillance drones over Mali

French Surveillance Drone

France and the United Nations insist any invasion of Mali's north must be led by African troops. But France, which has six hostages in Mali and has citizens who have joined al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb, is playing an increasing role behind the scenes.

Many in the West fear that northeast Mali and the arid Sahel region could become the new Afghanistan, a no-man's-land where extremists can train, impose hardline Islamic law and plot terror attacks abroad. And France, former colonial ruler to countries across the Sahel, is a prime target.

"This is actually a major threat - to French interests in the region, and to France itself," said Francois Heisbourg, an expert at the Foundation for Strategic Research, a partially state-funded think tank in Paris. "This is like Afghanistan 1996. This is like when Bin Laden found a place that was larger than France in which he could organize training camps, in which he could provide stable preparations for organizing far-flung terror attacks."

Read more: France to put surveillance drones over Mali - Telegraph

Germany could assist in Mali military training mission says Merkel

Germany could take part in any European training mission to Mali to help its government prepare troops to counter Islamist insurgents in the north of the African country, Chancellor Angela Merkel said on Monday.

Northern Mali has been taken over by al Qaeda-linked Islamists. Regional leaders and international organisations failed to resolve differences on how to tackle the growing security threat when they met in Mali's capital Bamako last week.

"Free and democratic states cannot accept that international terrorism is finding a safe haven in the north of the country," Merkel said at a conference of Germany's armed forces in the city of Strausberg near Berlin.

Read more: Germany could assist in Mali training mission - Merkel- swissinfo

Push for EU budget deal ahead of November summit

Diplomats are pushing to secure a swift deal on the bloc's next seven-year budget, believing a Nov. 22-23 summit offers the best chance of agreement - saying the need to solve bigger issues may work to defuse the political challenges.

At stake is nearly €1tn of investment between 2014-2020 in infrastructure projects, agriculture and research, designed to help spur the economic growth Europe needs to emerge from its debt crisis.

The desire to reach agreement at a single summit appears at odds with recent shadow boxing by EU governments, with British Prime Minister David Cameron publicly threatening to veto a deal if his demands are not met.

It would also buck an EU trend for long-drawn-out talks over the multi-year budget, which in the past has required at least two summits to get the unanimous agreement needed.

But with euro zone countries keen to focus their efforts on crisis response measures, and with poorer EU countries wary of any delays to the new spending plan, diplomats insist that a one-shot deal is possible and remains the best option. 

Read more: Push for EU budget deal ahead of November summit - European, Business - Independent.ie

The Netherlands: Dutch Cabinet Negotiations in final stage

The talks between the VVD and the PvdA to form a new Dutch government have been going well say Mark Rutte (leader of the VVD) and Diederik Samsom (leader of the PVDA) and have now entered their final stage.

Next week could very well be the last full week of negotiations, informed sources in the Hague report. Somewhere around November 10th, the second Rutte cabinet could be standing next to the queen on the steps of the Royal Palace to be inaugurated.

The Dutch national news service NOS reported that a full agreement between the two parties will be reached either at the end of this week or early next week.

EU-Digest

US presidential elections: A missing topic in the debates: Obama’s handling of the European crisis - by Neil Irwin

The debates are done: Three face-offs between Mitt Romney and President Obama, totaling 4¹ / ₂ hours and combined transcripts of more than 50,000 words, longer than “The Great Gatsby.” But this was a novel with some glaring plot holes.

There were a startling range of issues that were never broached, a list that includes climate change, housing policy and appointments to the Federal Reserve. But one topic stands out for the mismatch between how much it has affected the economy — and how much of Obama’s time and energy it has claimed — relative to its nonexistence in the debates.

Europe’s financial woes have weighed on U.S. economic growth — driving down earnings among American companies that do business there and walloping financial markets on both sides of the Atlantic — amid persistent worries that the euro currency could unravel. It is impossible to know what the U.S. economy would have done over the past three years absent a fiscal crisis in Greece and other European countries (or if Germany and other financially stronger nations on the continent had responded to that crisis crisply and decisively). But it is easy to imagine that this was the difference between steady emergence from the nation’s deep doldrums and the muddling along that has occurred.

Read more: A missing topic in the debates: Obama’s handling of the European crisis - The Washington Post

US Presidential elections: 'With 'horses and bayonets,' Obama casts Romney as out of touch

President Barack Obama

If Mitt Romney’s foreign policy was an unknown to average voters, President Obama came to the table for the third presidential debate ready to sum it up in one word: dated.

In his final face-off against the former Massachusetts governor, Obama unleashed a series of zingers all casting Romney’s foreign policy ideas as old — sometimes really, really old.

Obama started by tearing into Romney’s description of Russia as a “No. 1 geopolitical foe.”

“And the 1980s are now calling to ask for their foreign policy back because, you know, the Cold War's been over for 20 years,” Obama said, reviving a bit of snark he’s used on the campaign trail. “But, governor, when it comes to our foreign policy, you seem to want to import the foreign policies of the 1980s, just like the social policies of the 1950s and the economic policies of the 1920s.”

Obama reached quite a bit further back for his next, practiced attack. Answering Romney’s familiar critique about the Navy having fewer ships today than under past presidents, Obama said Romney “hasn't spent enough time looking at how our military works.”

“Governor, we also have fewer horses and bayonets because the nature of our military's changed. We have these things called aircraft carriers where planes land on them. We have these ships that go underwater, nuclear submarines,” he said. “And so the question is not a game of Battleship where we're counting ships. It's — it's what are our capabilities.”

Note EU-Digest: Last week to the surprise of many Christians and non-Christians but obviously to the delight of the Republicans  Billy Graham’s Evangelistic Association removed the word Mormon from its website, where it used to be listed along with Jehovah’s Witnesses and Scientology as a cult. The move comes just a week after Romney visited Graham at his home in North Carolina.


Read more: With 'horses and bayonets,' Obama casts Romney as out of touch - latimes.com

Welcome to Berlin, Europe’s cool new capital - by Gideon Rachman

Berlin does not feel like an imperial city. The new government buildings — the chancellor’s office, the Bundestag and the foreign ministry — have all been designed with plenty of glass and natural light, to emphasise transparency and democracy. The finance ministry is, admittedly, housed in the old headquarters of the Luftwaffe. But most of the grandest architecture is a legacy of the Prussian kings. Modern Berlin presents a more welcoming face, and has become a magnet for tourists and teenagers.

Yet while the German capital has deliberately eschewed the trappings of imperial power, Berlin is increasingly the de facto capital of the European Union (EU). Of course the EU’s main institutions — the commission and the council — are still based in Brussels. But the key decisions are increasingly made in Berlin.
Will Greece have to leave the euro? Ultimately, it will be Germany’s call. Will politicians support further bail-outs for southern Europe? The vital debates will take place in the Bundestag in Berlin, not in the European parliament. Who does the International Monetary Fund call about the euro crisis? The most important conversations take place with the German government and the European Central Bank in Frankfurt — not with the European Commission.

This shift in power from Brussels to Berlin has been accelerated by the euro crisis. Naturally, German Chancellor Angela Merkel still has to go to summits in Brussels and strike deals. But the euro crisis means Merkel is now incomparably the most important leader at the table.

For different reasons, the leaders of all the other big EU nations arrive in Brussels in a weak negotiating position. Spain and Italy are struggling with their debt crises — and so they have become supplicants. The British have opted out of the single currency and the new structures that the eurozone is putting together — so they have become marginalised. The Poles are also not in the euro, and have a relatively small economy.

That leaves France. By tradition, a Franco-German partnership is at the heart of any EU deal.

That kind of power can lead to arrogance. In Berlin last week I heard occasional exasperated references to arrogant Spaniards, haughty Brits, delusional Frenchmen and corrupt Greeks. But the general tone of discussion is serious, patient and responsible. The Germans insist that they are completely committed to the euro and to the EU.

The problem is that life is too sweet in Berlin. Germany is prosperous and Berlin is a pleasant and fashionable city. The struggles of Greece or Spain seem a very long way away. That detachment from the rest of the eurozone — rather than any "will to power" — is why Berlin remains a peculiar capital for Europe.

Read more: Welcome to Berlin, Europe’s cool new capital | Columnists | BDlive

Finland's Crazy Plan to Make Nuclear Waste Disappear

The U.S. plan to bury nuclear waste in Yucca Mountain may be dead, but in Finland, engineers are going ahead with a plan to build an enormous bunker to house the dangerous stuff. And they have a radical solution to keep future civilizations away—hide the nuclear waste somewhere so unremarkable and unpleasant that nobody would ever think to go there.

the Finnish government later this year will begin the final licensing of the world's first permanent storage facility for high-level nuclear waste. Located on Olkiluoto Island, just off Finland's southwest coast, the underground facility known as Onkalo will hold all of the country's existing waste and all that it expects to produce over the next century. It is designed to keep that waste secure for at least 100,000 years—in part by making humans forget it was ever there.

Onkalo is intended to house high-level waste (HLW), the most worrisome byproduct of nuclear power. It consists of spent nuclear fuel and some of the fuel's decay products, and it can emit dangerous types and levels of radiation for tens of thousands of years. Roughly 300,000 tons of it now exists; about 12,000 more tons are produced annually, and both numbers will increase significantly in the coming decades. To date, most HLW has been stored in water-filled pools at the nuclear plants where it was produced, or in temporary offsite facilities where the waste is bound in borosilicate glass and cast into ingots, which are then sealed inside shielding metal canisters. But these are impermanent and unsatisfactory solutions. Pools require constant maintenance and refilling, and both they and temporary facilities are physically insecure.

And there is the problem of time. HLW will remain dangerous for longer than civilization itself has existed. Future civilizations may not even have the ability to address the dangers—even if we could somehow warn them what they're dealing with.

The only viable solution seems to be facilities like Onkalo—deep underground bunkers carved from impermeable rock, in geologically stable zones, where the waste can be redundantly sealed and then permanently buried. The U.S. attempt to build such a bunker at Nevada's Yucca Mountain fizzled in a fit of political bickering. But in Finland, Onkalo marches on, with a plan to keep humans out of there long after the entrance is sealed. 

Read more: Finland's Crazy Plan to Make Nuclear Waste Disappear - Popular Mechanics

Hungarian role seen in China-Europe freight - by Daniel Hirsch

Prospects for economic growth through multiple methods of transport in countries in the so-called “Mediterranean Corridor/Corridor V” were examined in a conference in Budapest this month, with Hungary said to be well-placed to play an important role as a bridge between Western, Eastern and Southern Europe.

The conference, organised by the Hungarian-Italian Chamber of Commerce, focused on “Pan-European inter-modal corridors as opportunities for regional development from an anti-crisis perspective”. Speakers included Daniel Wieland, senior vice-president rail logistics and forwarding at DB Schenker, chamber president Maurizio Sauli, Italian ambassador to Hungary Maria Assunta and the Hungarian state secretary at the National Development Ministry, János Fónagy.

Wieland addressed economic opportunities and perspectives presented by the use of the two rail routes from China to Europe, the “northern” and “southern” routes, with reference to the additional logistics offerings from DB Schenker. “We link the strongly growing provinces around major cities such as Chongqing with Europe by rail,” Wieland said.

The 12,000-kilometre northern route leads from Shanghai via Russia, Belarus and Poland, while the 10,000-kilometre southern route leads from Chongqing via Kazakhstan, Russia, Belarus and Poland.

With growing distances into the Chinese hinterland, rail-based transport from there directly to Europe can generate economic advantages and ideally complement the possibilities of air freight and sea freight,” Wieland said. “By rail the transport time is up to 16 days quicker than by sea, while there is a cost saving of up to 75 per cent compared to air freight.”

Read more: Hungarian role seen in China-Europe freight | The Budapest Times

Euro zone fiscal deficit cut in 2011, but debt climbs

The euro zone’s fiscal deficit fell sharply last year as governments slashed expenses and raised taxes to regain market confidence in their public finances, but public debt still climbed, data from the European Union’s statistics office showed on Monday.

Eurostat said the aggregate budget deficit in the 17 countries using the euro fell to 4.1 per cent of gross domestic product in 2011 from 6.2 per cent in 2010 – the first year of the sovereign debt crisis.

Euro zone public debt, however, rose to 87.3 per cent of GDP in 2011 from 85.4 per cent, Eurostat said.

The euro zone’s biggest economy, Germany, slashed its budget deficit to 0.8 per cent in 2011 from 4.1 per cent in 2010 and its debt fell to 80.5 per cent of GDP from 82.5 per cent.

Ireland reported a spectacular drop in the deficit to 13.4 per cent from 30.9 per cent as the one-off expense of shoring up its banking sector disappeared from its books. But its debt jumped to 106.4 per cent from 92.2 per cent.

Greece, where the crisis started, had the highest debt in Europe last year, reaching 170.6 per cent of GDP even though it reduced its deficit to 9.4 per cent from 10.7 per cent in 2010 and 15.6 per cent in 2009.

Note EU-Digest: the figures are somewhat nebulous when it comes to giving a precise picture on the US debt but several reports indicate it is now over 100%. GDP growth has also slowed and deficit spending has increased. 

Today, the US is also running its fourth $1+trillion deficit. US deficit to GDP ratio is nearly 10%. and the “official” Total Debt to GDP is well over 100% though when you include the debt hidden in various Government entities and unfunded liabilities the US could be well over a Debt to GDP ratio of 300% at this point.

Read more: Euro zone fiscal deficit cut in 2011, but debt climbs - The Globe and Mail