The Star Online: World Updates
The Star Online: World Updates |
- U.N. say Mali still precarious, future peacekeepers need equipment
- Brazil President Rousseff's popularity falls for first time - poll
- Brother-in-law of Chinese Nobel winner jailed for 11 years
| U.N. say Mali still precarious, future peacekeepers need equipment Posted: 08 Jun 2013 09:15 PM PDT [unable to retrieve full-text content]UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - Armed groups in Mali continue to pose a serious security threat to the entire region while African troops forming the core of a U.N. peacekeeping mission deploying next month are not yet properly equipped, the U.N. chief said in a new report. | ||
| Brazil President Rousseff's popularity falls for first time - poll Posted: 08 Jun 2013 08:44 PM PDT RIO DE JANEIRO (Reuters) - Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff's approval rating fell for the first time since her term began in January 2011 as concern about inflation and sluggish economic growth grew, the Datafolha polling agency said on Saturday. Brazilians rating Rousseff's presidency as "good" or "excellent" fell to 57 percent from 65 percent in the previous poll. The Datafolha survey was published in the Folha de S. Paulo newspaper.
The decline was seen in all age and income groups and in all regions of Brazil, Datafolha said. While Rousseff, a member of Brazil's Workers' Party, remains the favourite to win presidential elections in October 2014, Datafolha said her weakening popularity reflects Brazilians' dissatisfaction with the performance of their economy and rising concern that consumer prices and unemployment will rise. The percentage of Brazilians who expect the inflation rate to rise from current levels rose to 51 percent from 45 percent, the poll said. Inflation rose to 6.5 percent in the 12 months ended May 30, Brazil's IBGE statistics agency said on Friday. It is now at the top of the government's own inflation targeting range of 4.5 percent plus or minus two percentage points. Economic growth in the first quarter came in below expectations, with gross domestic product rising only 0.6 percent compared with the fourth quarter. Annual GDP growth in 2012 was 1.4 percent. The risk of inflation limits the ability of Rousseff to promote the expansionist economic policies that have won her many supporters. It also prompted the central bank to raise interest rates to 8 percent from 7.5 percent last week, a move that could hurt already sluggish growth. On Thursday, Standard & Poor's downgraded its outlook for Brazil's foreign currency debt rating to "negative" from "stable". S&P said deteriorating budget fundamentals and slow growth under Rousseff's left-leaning government, could undermine the country's ability to pay its debt and jeopardize its BBB long-term rating. Economic difficulties and policy doubts come as Rousseff also faces growing resentment from members of her ruling coalition in Congress. Despite a strong coalition majority in both houses of Congress, legislators have overridden Rousseff's line item vetoes of a controversial royalty provisions in a major oil law and resisted voting in favor of high-profile legislation written by the executive aimed at improving the country's clogged and inefficient ports. Despite the declines in popularity, Datafolha said Rousseff remains the favourite among the most likely candidates in an October 2014 presidential election. According to the Datafolha, she is the favorite of 51 percent of those polled, followed by Marina Silva, a former Brazilian environment minister with 16 percent, and Aecio Neves, a former governor of Minas Gerais state with 14 percent. Neves is the leader of Brazil's main opposition party, the PSDB. The Datafolha poll was conducted on June 6 and 7 and surveyed 3,758 people. The poll has a margin of error of plus or minus two percentage points. Later this month, the Ibope public opinion research group plans to release another poll measuring Rousseff's popularity. The Ibope poll is commissioned by National Industrial Confederation, or CNI, Brazil's largest industrial lobby group. (Reporting by Sabrina Lorenzi; Additional reporting by Jeb Blount; Writing by Jeb Blount; Editing by Eric Walsh) Copyright © 2013 Reuters | ||
| Brother-in-law of Chinese Nobel winner jailed for 11 years Posted: 08 Jun 2013 07:44 PM PDT HUAIROU, China (Reuters) - A Chinese court on Sunday sentenced the brother-in-law of jailed Nobel Peace Prize laureate Liu Xiaobo to 11 years in prison on charges of fraud in a case that rights activists have called another example of official retribution on the Liu family.
Supporters of Liu Hui say his case was trumped up, aimed at thwarting the increasing attention by the rights community on the plight of Liu Xia, who has remained under effective house arrest since her husband Liu Xiaobo won the Nobel Prize in 2010. The court in Huairou, a one-hour drive northeast of Beijing, convicted Liu Hui, a manager in a real estate company in the southern city of Shenzhen, on charges of defrauding a man called Zhang Bing of 3 million yuan (314,930 pounds) with another colleague, lawyer Mo Shaoping told reporters. "As Liu Hui's defence attorney, I definitely do not approve of this verdict, because we see this fundamentally as a civil issue, and it fundamentally does not constitute criminal fraud. Also, there is not sufficient evidence," Mo said. Liu Hui has maintained his innocence, according to his lawyers. In a rare statement to media, a weeping Liu Xia told reporters from the front passenger seat of her car as she drove away from the courthouse that she was extremely angry with the verdict and vowed to launch an appeal. "I absolutely cannot accept this. This is simply persecution," she said. "This is completely an illegal verdict." Liu Xia said she had "completely lost hope" in the government. "I can't even leave my house." After about two minutes, security forced journalists away from the car, which moved off. Liu Hui was out on bail last September, but then arrested again in January, after several rights activists and foreign reporters forced their way past security guards late last year to visit Liu Xia, one of his other lawyers, Shang Baojun, told Reuters before the verdict. SETBACK FOR REFORM The ruling is seen as a setback for hopes for political reform from new Chinese President Xi Jinping, whose government has detained anti-corruption activists and tightened free expression on the Internet following his appointment in March. "Everything related to the Liu Xiaobo case previously could have been seen as the legacy of the previous leadership," said Nicholas Bequelin, a researcher at Human Rights Watch, a New York-based advocacy group. "But with this sentence the new leadership buys into this suppression and persecution of the family. It deems the prospect unlikely that the government is amenable to the release of Liu Xiaobo, or will make any concessions on the case." The case will also renew international criticism of the plight of Liu Xiaobo's family. The verdict was handed down within hours of Xi and U.S. President Barack Obama completing an informal summit in California. U.S. and European diplomats were present outside the courthouse in Huairou, a one-hour drive northeast of Beijing. Speaking in California after the summit, China's top diplomat, State Councillor Yang Jiechi defended the country's achievements in human rights as "there for all to see". "With China's economic and social development, human rights causes in China will enjoy even greater progress in the future," Yang told reporters, though he did not refer directly to the Liu Hui trial. Liu Xiaobo, a veteran dissident involved in the 1989 Tiananmen Square pro-democracy protests crushed by the Chinese army, was jailed for 11 years in 2009 on subversion charges for organising a petition urging the overthrow of one-party rule. His wife Liu Xia is rarely allowed out and is almost never allowed to receive visitors. She has not been convicted of any crime. (Additional reporting by Maxim Duncan and Sui-Lee Wee, and John Ruwitch in RANCHO MIRAGE, California; Writing by Ben Blanchard; Editing by Ron Popeski) Copyright © 2013 Reuters |
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