Government stands firm
The civil service strike which took place yesterday was said to have been limited in its effect around Portugal. The national strike caused the closure of some schools, medical offices and waste removal services but was said to have lacked the impact that unions predicted.

The civil service unions claimed that the action was going to be the biggest walkout in four years asserting that participation would be at 80 per cent. Some rubbish was left at the side of roads in Lisbon following the cancellation of overnight services, a number of classrooms were closed, a number of hospital appointments were postponed and some court procedures were affected.

The government suggested a very different figure of 14.1 per cent of workers were on strike and the vast majority continued to work as normal concluding the overall affect was nowhere near as bad as forecasted. The issue in contention was the government’s determination to freeze pay in light of the huge debt burden.

The Secretary of State for the Civil Service, Gonçalo Castilho dos Santos said yesterday that the government won't move from its austerity plan and urged workers to accept the need for cuts in government spending, maintaining the Portuguese cannot sacrifice the common good for the sake of individual well being and pushed the point that there was no room for manoeuvre in salary levels this year.

Paper investment
Portugal will invest €1.7 billion over the next 15 years in Mozambique following this week’s visit of the Prime Minister, José Socrates. A project was approved in 2009 to grow 173 hectares of eucalyptus and there is a new proposal to develop another 200 hectares. The PM confirmed in a seminar yesterday in Maputo on economic development that the Portuguese investment will go towards developing a factory producing paper and the forestry project.

The Mozambican Minister of Industry and Trade, António Fernando spoke at the meeting of Mozambique being a country of peace and freedom which is growing at 8 per cent a year.

Europe
Low interest rates
Eurozone interest rate is to remain at its record low of 1 per cent for the 10th consecutive month.

The European Central Bank has decided to keep the rate low in order to help stimulate eurozone growth where recovery is still delicate and concerns are running high over the economies of Portugal, Spain, Ireland and Italy as well as Greece’s enormous debt.

The Bank of England has also kept the interest rate suppressed at 0.5 per cent where it has been for the last year.

Official statistics from Eurostat show that initial accounting in the eurozone indicate a growth of 0.1 per cent in the last quarter of 2009.

Europe
Goals set
The European Commission advises that European countries must be innovative and also adhere to green energy targets.

In its blueprint Europe 2020 strategy paper, the commission encourages European countries to invest 3 per cent of GDP in research and development.  Adhering to EU low-carbon energy targets would by 2020 save €60bn in oil and gas imports.

Commission president Jose Manuel Barroso noted that the financial crisis has “wiped away” the past decade’s record of growth and employment in Europe.  Meanwhile, Asia has captured a good part of the market share previously held by European businesses.

The EU’s targets for member states include:

"It is not acceptable in the modern age that nearly 80 million people in Europe live under the poverty line," Mr Barroso said.

Spain
Rogue waves kill two
Freak waves smashed into a large cruise ship in waters near Barcelona, causing two passenger deaths and leaving others with injuries.

Three waves measuring 8 metres in height broke several glass windows in the saloon in the front of the ship.  Winds of over 100 km/h were buffeting the area at the same time.

Onboard were 1,350 passengers and 580 crew.  The two victims were identified as a German and an Italian man.

The ship returned to Barcelona in order for the injured to receive treatment but is expected to resume its voyage to Genoa, its final destination.

Germany
Terrorists convicted
A court has sentenced four Islamists to prison having found them guilty of plotting to attack US military targets in Germany.

Two of the men, aged 24 and 30, are German born converts to Islam, one a Turkish citizen and the fourth a German of Turkish origin.  In the course of the 10-month trial, all the men admitted membership in a terrorist group, plotting murder and preparing explosives.  Two of the men renounced extremist and said their actions had been a “mistake”.

The men were accused of working as a German cell of an al-Qaeda-linked group, the Islamic Jihad Union which the US State Department says was the group responsible for bombings in Tashkent in 2004 of the US and Israeli embassies.  The judge said the men wanted to create a second September 11th.  The targets would have been primarily US army personnel and civilians as well as Frankfurt airport.

It is known that the men trained in Pakistan and obtained 700kg of chemicals which would create 410kb of explosives, an amount nearly 100 times that used in London in 2005.

The plot was uncovered in 2006 and the biggest surveillance operation in post-war Germany was undertaken.

People in Germany are said to be shocked over the participation of German citizens and the idea that militant groups abroad are recruiting Muslim converts.

UK
Zimbabwe sanctions to remain
Prime Minister Gordon Brown has rejected South African President Jacob Zuma’s request to lift sanctions against Zimbabwe.

In talks together, Mr Brown said that first Zimbabwe must show progress in key areas such as democratic reforms, human rights, and free press.

Mr Zuma said he was “very positive” that there has been progress in Zimbabwe and lifting sanctions could help the country.  Mr Brown noted some sanctions had been rescinded with the remaining ones aimed at individuals with a history of supporting violence and not ordinary citizens.  

The EU wants sanctions to stay as they will keep pressure Mr Mugabe to fulfill his commitments on political and economic reform.  The US is prolonging its sanctions for a further year, noting that the recently establish power-sharing agreement has not ended the country’s political or economic crisis.

South Africa
Farm failures
The government has said that nearly 90 per cent of the farms redistributed to its black population are not productive.

The South African minister for land reform, Gugile Nkwinti, has said that a continuation of failure on these farms could result in repossession.

Almost 60,000 sq km were redistributed from white farmers who sold their land voluntarily.  The aim was to help black people who were impoverished.  The government policy is to redistribute one-third of the white-owned farms by 2014, although it is doubtful this deadline will be met.

The government is to refocus its efforts on assisting farmers with productivity.

Repossession will bring its own problems to government, but the lack of productivity is depriving the government of revenue which it had been receiving before redistribution.

When apartheid ended in 1994, nearly 90 per cent of land was in the hands of white farmers who numbered under 10 per cent of the total populace.  Land reform remains a sensitive situation in the country, heightened by awareness of the failings of similar farms in Zimbabwe.

Iraq
Birth defects on the rise
Doctors in the city of Fallujah say the city is experiencing an alarming level of birth defects particularly cardiac and nervous system defects.

One doctor operating from a new hospital in the city says there are as many as two or three such births a day, mostly cardiac defects.  Prior to 2003 it is believed there was one case every other month.  Now the rate of heart defects, 95 out of every 1,000, is estimated to be 13 times higher than in Europe.

In 2004 fierce fighting took place in the city with US military using launching a major offensive.  Doctors and parents fear the birth defects are linked to the highly sophisticated weapons used by the US.
To date, no scientific study, however, has been conducted.