Saturday 30 Jan 10 News
Around 15,000 nurses marched in Lisbon yesterday congregating outside the Ministry of Health in a protest about pay levels for entry level staff and proposals about career development in the profession. A national three day strike ended yesterday organised by the National Nurses’ Union and the demonstration was intended to show that they are strongly committed to their cause. José Carlos Martins, head of the union, spoke to the press about what he termed unacceptable proposals for nurses’ careers by the government and the intention to freeze entry level pay rates at €1,020.
Sovereign credit risk has risen sharply in Portugal since September because of the sale of government debt by investors. Greece and France have experienced similar problems with Greece sovereign credit default (CDS) swap levels having increased by over 250 per cent followed by Portugal at 217 per cent and France at 122 per cent. There were 16 of the top 81 countries listed in the report shown with increasing CDS. Reuters news agency quoted Tim Backshall, chief strategist at Credit Derivatives Research, as saying in the report: "We believe the dramatic rise in CDS spreads of many sovereign nations is rising due to arbitrage-free pricing with the cash bond markets and not in any way driven by a cabal of ancient and mysterious CDS traders.” Five countries account for around 40 per cent of the eurozone debt, namely Greece, Spain, Portugal, Ireland and Italy as debt levels increased due to the economic crisis.
The Association of Farmers in the Algarve presented a paper yesterday to the Minister of Agriculture and the President of Portugal stating that horticultural production in the Algarve region is disappearing. Large sections of green housing and land have been left in decline following large losses in the past two decades due to inadequate insurance protection and bad weather. The report also cited the proliferation of large supermarkets as a contributory factor replacing smaller farmer-friendly outlets. The farmers said that the lack of a financial cushion has led to rising debt and many pulling out of the region.
The unemployment rate in Portugal rose to 10.4 per cent in December, according to data released yesterday by Eurostat. The figure represented an increase of 0.1 per cent compared with November and is above the 10 per cent average of the EU. The lowest levels in the EU are the Netherlands at 4 per cent and Austria with 5.4 per cent.
Tony Blair’s testimony
Tony Blair told the Chilcot inquiry into the Iraq war that he had “no regrets” about removing Saddam Hussein from power and as a consequence the world was made a safer place. He went on to claim that the people of Iraq were better off now and he would take the same decisions again if he had to do so.
Earlier in the day he said that the September 11 attack on New York, which he regarded as “an attack on us”, had changed his thinking about the threat that Saddam posed. While regime change had not been his original goal, he came to believe that a tougher line than his initial one was needed in light of Iraq’s breach of UN disarmament agreements and that Saddam should have a final opportunity to comply with UN demands.
Mr Blair said he was “sorry” that the war had been “divisive” but ultimately Saddam had to be removed from office. Had he not been “today we would have a situation where Iraq was competing with Iran" both in terms of nuclear capability and "in respect of support of terrorist groups".
He denied having made a secret pact with then President Bush to invade the country, noting he had always been "open" about what he had told Mr Bush in private, namely that "we are going to be with you in confronting and dealing with this threat". He felt President Bush understood this to mean that “if it came to military action because there was no way of dealing with this diplomatically, we would be with him." He went on to inform the inquiry that a year later, on the eve of war, the Americans had offered Britain a "way out" of military action, but Mr Blair had rejected this.
On the question of the legality of the war, Mr Blair said Mr Bush decided the UN Security Council's support "wasn't necessary". He said it was "correct" to say that he shared that view, although it would have been "preferable politically". Yet he said he would not have backed the initiative if the then attorney general had said it "could not be justified legally".
About the famous claim that Iraq could deploy weapons of mass destruction (WMD) at 45 minutes' notice, Mr Blair said it "assumed a vastly greater significance" afterwards than it had at the time and it "would have been better if (newspaper) headlines about the '45-minute claim' had been corrected". Had he known, he would have made it clearer the claim referred to battlefield munitions, not missiles. He believed that it was "beyond doubt" Iraq was continuing to develop its weapons capability and that Saddam Hussein had "no intention" of allowing his scientists to co-operate with UN weapons inspectors, he said, with the regime concealing key material.
One major thrust of his statements revolves around his interpretation of his role. "This isn't about a lie or a conspiracy or a deceit or a deception…It's a decision. And the decision I had to take was, given Saddam's history, given his use of chemical weapons, given the over one million people whose deaths he had caused, given 10 years of breaking UN resolutions, could we take the risk of this man reconstituting his weapons programmes or is that a risk that it would be irresponsible to take?"
Heavy penalty
An officer has issued a £60 fixed penalty fine to a businessman in Ayrshire for blowing his nose while in his car.
Michael Mancini, from Prestwick, said he used a tissue to blow his nose when his van was stuck in stationary traffic and had the handbrake on. When the traffic again began to move, he was waved across by one officer from a group of four who informed Mr Mancini that he was not in proper control of the vehicle and issued the fine.
The unbelieving Mr Mancini said: “I honestly thought someone was going to run out with a camera." Although fined on 26 October, Mr Mancini has refused to pay the fine and his solicitor has been informed that if the fine is not paid, the case will proceed to court. They are waiting to hear if a court date has been set.
Unemployment rises
In December the 16 nations of the eurozone cumulatively had an unemployment rate of 10 per cent, the highest rate since the euro was introduced in 1999.
This means that 15.8 million people in the eurozone are currently jobless, while in all 27 EU countries the figure is 23 million unemployed. The highest rate in the eurozone is in Spain, currently at 19.5 per cent; Spain is also suffering the highest rate of all when calculating the unemployment of people under 25 years of age – a staggering 44.5 per cent.
The lowest rate is in the Netherlands with 4 per cent, followed by Austria with 5.4 per cent. It is feared that unemployment may continue to rise in 2010.
Sugar export
An excess of 500,000 tons of sugar will be exported within the next six months by the EU as sugar prices have risen dramatically and beet farmers in Europe find themselves with surpluses.
The agricultural spokesperson for the Commission said: "People on the world market are crying out for sugar and we've got too much of it." As the sugar has not been subsidised, the export will not fall foul of international trade rules, and in any event is a temporary measure. The EU's annual limit for subsidised sugar exports is 1.37m tonnes, under World Trade Organisation agreements.
Production of sugar is not meeting consumer demand, so stocks of sugar are declining leading to prices rocketing. Production has been hampered by poor weather conditions in both Brazil, the world’s biggest exporter, and India. Meanwhile, production in Europe in 2009 was higher than expected.
France, Germany and Poland are the EU’s largest sugar producers followed by Italy and the UK. But usually the EU is a net importer of sugar. Australia, Thailand and Cuba are also significant sugar exporters
Tourists airlifted
The heaviest rainfall in 15 years has caused landslides, closing the access to the Machu Picchu ruins and stranding visitors to the ancient Inca site. Thousands of Peruvians have lost their homes and farming land under the heavy flood waters and landslides.
A break in the weather allowed rescue teams to use helicopters to airlift about 2,500 tourists since Monday out of the troubled area. The evacuation began with older people and children going first. An estimated 800 visitors remain stranded in the town of Aguas Calientes, at the foot of the ruins.
The train to the city of Cuzco is the only means of transport on the last part of the journey to the ruins. Service has been halted since Saturday when floods and landslides destroyed road and rail links. More than 400,000 tourists make the journey to the site every year, and some of those stranded by the weather this year found that the costs of hotels and food increased considerably, with some having to rely on local generosity when the cash machines ceased to function.
Five people are reported to have perished, including two residents who died when their house was destroyed, and a tourist who was crushed to death in his tent.
