This week in the UK bleak figures from the Office for National Statistics showed that the economy shrank by three per cent at the end of 2012, leading to predictions of an unprecedented triple dip recession. US President Barack Obama officially named deputy national security advisor Denis McDonough as his next White House chief of staff. Nine people were shot dead in Egypt during nationwide protests against President Mohamed Morsi on Friday, the second anniversary of the uprising that toppled Hosni Mubarak which has laid bare the divide between Islamists and their secular rivals. French and Malian troops continue to push north in their campaign to regain control from rebels and in western Venezuela more than fifty people have been killed in a prison riot.
1. Does a triple dip recession loom?
The UK economy shrank by 0.3 per cent in the last three months of 2012, fuelling fears that the economy could re-enter recession.
The Office for National Statistics (ONS) said economic output as a whole remained flat in 2012 and was largely due to a drop in mining and quarrying sectors, after maintenance delays at the UK’s largest North Sea oil field. The fourth-quarter drop is worse than expected, with most economists forecasting a drop of 0.1 per cent. This is the first estimate of how the economy performed in the fourth quarter, and is subject to at least two further revisions as more data is collected.
It deals a setback to recovery hopes after the UK bounced back from the longest double-dip recession since the 1950s in the third quarter. The economy had grown by 0.9 per cent in the previous quarter, boosted by the London 2012 Olympic Games.
Chief economist for the ONS Joe Grice said that the “bumpy economy” was on a “sluggish trend”.
George Osborne said he would not “run away” from the problems facing the UK economy, and would be “determined to confront them so that we can go on creating jobs for the people of this country.”
Following the publication of the figures by ONS, RBS said it was the weakest four years of GDP performance outside post-war demobilisations since “at least the 1830s”.
2. Denis McDonough names as new chief of staff
US President Barack Obama has named Denis McDonough, his deputy national security adviser, as his new chief of staff. Mr McDonough, 43, is taking over the position from Jack Lew, Mr Obama’s nominee for treasury secretary.
McDonough has been a trusted adviser to Obama for almost a decade since 2004 when he helped him set up his first Washington office as junior senator for Illinois, and has served for the last four years as the president’s deputy national security adviser.
‘‘I know you’ll always give it to me straight, as only a friend can, telling me not only what I want to hear, but more importantly, what I need to hear to make the best possible decisions on behalf of the American people,’’ Obama told McDonough.
Obama said that McDonough had been seminal in every important national security decision of the past four years, from ending the war in Iraq and drawing down the troops from Afghanistan, to dealing with natural disasters in Haiti and Japan, and repealing Don’t Ask Don’t Tell.
3. French and Malian troops push north against rebels
French and Malian troops pushed north towards the key Islamist strongholds in northern Mali, and have retaken the town of Hombori, officials say, as they continue their campaign to regain control from rebels. On Saturday, west African defence chiefs gathered in Ivory Coast to review plans to deploy a regional intervention force.
Islamists seized a vast area of northern Mali last year and have imposed strict Sharia, or Islamic law, on its inhabitants. France intervened militarily on 11 January to stop them advancing further south. France has already deployed 2,300 troops to Mali and defence officials acknowledge the force is likely to exceed the 2,500 soldiers that were initially presented as the upper limit.
Christian Aid expressed fears about the growing food crisis for civilians in the north of Mali: “The current food crisis has already brought suffering to more than 18 million people across the region,” said Yacouba Kone, its Mali country director. “The more people are forced to flee the mounting military offensive in the north, the more market gardens are being abandoned and the less vegetables are being produced for child nutrition.”
The UN refugee agency says more than 7,000 civilians have fled to neighbouring countries since 10 January to escape the fighting.
4. Protests in Egypt
Egyptian opposition supporters protested across the country on the second anniversary of the uprising that swept Hosni Mubarak from power. Eight people including a policeman were shot dead in Suez, east of the capital, and another was shot and killed in Ismailia, another city on the Suez Canal, medics said. Another 456 people have been injured in 12 of the country’s 27 regions, officials said, in demonstrations fuelled by anger at President Mohammed Morsi and his Islamist allies in the Muslim Brotherhood.
Thousands of opponents of the president massed in Cairo’s Tahrir Square, to rekindle the demands of a revolution they say has been hijacked by Islamists who have betrayed its goals. Smaller rallies are taking place in other cities, including Alexandria, Ismailia, Suez and Port Said.
“Our revolution is continuing. We reject the domination of any party over this state. We say no to the Brotherhood state,” leftist leader Hamdeen Sabahi told the Reuters news agency, referring to the Islamist movement to which Mr Morsi belongs.
Amid the unrest an Egyptian court has sentenced to death 21 defendants over clashes between rival football fans in the Port Said stadium disaster in which 74 people were killed last February. The judge said he would announce the verdict for the remaining 52 defendants on 9 March. The court ruling has sparked fears of further tensions across Egypt.
5. Venezuela prison riots kill more than fifty
More than 50 people have been killed in a prison riot in western Venezuela, hospital staff say.Violence broke out after news of an inspection to confiscate weapons at the Centro Occidental jail, Prisons Minister Iris Varela said in a statement. The dead are thought to include inmates, guards and prison workers. Varela went on to say that the violence involved both a struggle between rival gangs for control of the jail and a confrontation between inmates and troops called in to calm the situation.
Opposition leader Henrique Capriles blamed the violence on “incompetent and irresponsible government”. Venezuelan prisons are controlled by armed gangs that have rioted repeatedly over the last several years due to disputes with jail authorities or prison leaders.
There has been no official account of the incident or confirmation of the number of casualties, but the government says it will carry out a full investigation.
Image Credits: uk.reuters.com, abcnews.go.com
Source: bostonglobe.com, bbc.co.uk, guardian.co.uk, uk.reuters.com