PT in Brazil
Portugal Telecom said yesterday that Brazil is “a must” for future growth and that they should try to buy out the Spanish company Telefonica SA’s stake in Vivo Participacoes SA, Brazil’s largest mobile phone company. Nuno Vasconcellos, who controls around a seven per cent stake in PT, said in an interview in Milan: “Brazil is not only strategic; it’s part of us, like an arm or a leg.”

PT has grown in revenue terms as a result of its investment in Brazil in spite of a slower rate in the local market. PT said yesterday that net income in the last quarter more than doubled to €312 million based on higher revenue from Brazil. PT shares rose 22.7 cents, or 2.9 per cent, to €8.097 following the news.

Car sales up
The motor industry in Portugal breathed a sigh of relief as passenger vehicle sales figures for February were up by 53 per cent compared with the same month last year. The same was true of January which recorded very high growth compared with 2009, providing hope for a sustained increase in the industry as reported by the Automotive Industry in Portugal (ACAP).

The number of units sold, according to current figures produced by ACAP, demonstrated that 15,346 units were sold in February and 14,579 new passenger vehicles were sold in January, compared with figures of 10,031 and 8,985 for the previous year. In cumulative terms, January and February figures were up 57.2 per cent with a total of 29.902 units sold.

The down side is that the figures are still short of the 2008 levels and the industry is still trying to recover from the massive decline in sales in the first half of last year, with a sales decline of 40 per cent.

Better weather on the way?
Weather forecasters are reluctant to make rash judgments after weeks of heavy rain but this weekend is expected to be mild across the Algarve at around 16°C during the day both Saturday and Sunday but with showers. Evening temperatures will be around 13°C. The mild weather is expected to continue and by Friday we should expect some prolonged periods of sunshine.

In Tavira, residents escaped major flooding after the heavy rain combined with high tides created the potential for the River Gilão which flows through the city centre to burst its banks but some light flooding did occur across a number of streets. No major damage was reported.

Fishermen not recovered
The fishing boat which sank on Wednesday was recovered yesterday but the bodies of the two missing fishermen have not been found. It was towed into the harbour of Caminho, still intact but minus the cabin. The trawler sank at around 5.30am due to a high wave which hit the boat off the coast of Caminho, the most northerly town on the west coast of Portugal.

Two men were rescued on Wednesday around five hours after the alarm was raised after clinging to buoys but a third man was found dead.

UK
Brown calls Iraq war “right”
Prime Minister Brown, who was Chancellor of the Exchequer at the time the war in Iraq was instigated, has told the Chilcot inquiry "I think it was the right decision and made for the right reasons".

Mr Brown also said the troops received all the equipment they requested.

Rather than cite weapons of mass destruction as a reason to go to war with Iraq, Mr Brown said he felt that Iraq was a consistent violator of international laws and UN resolutions.  He felt that “rogue states” should not be allowed to ignore international law and that the international community should act in concert over Iraq or the “new world order we were trying to create would be put at risk”.

Mr Brown called Iraq a “threat which had to be dealt with” and said that terrorists and “rogue states” were the “two risks to the post-Cold War world” and needed to be tackled.

He further noted there were important lessons to be learned from the chaos which enveloped Iraq after the invasion, saying that planning for reconstruction was as important as planning for war.  He went on to comment that he did not think that “somehow, at the barrel of a gun, overnight, liberty and democracy could be conjured up.”

Some military leaders at the inquiry or in media interviews have expressed the view that military spending on the war was insufficient and resulted in loss of life.  Mr Brown’s response was to reject the notion that the armed forces were starved of equipment.  He insisted that British forces were given all the equipment they requested. "At any point, commanders were able to ask for equipment that they needed and I know of no occasion when they were turned down."

The Prime Minister told the inquiry of the sacrifice made by UK servicemen and women.

UK
Pay hike for MPs
MPs have been given an annual pay increase of almost £1,000 effective 1 April.  As a result, basic MP salary will be £65,737 per annum.

Cabinet ministers receive an extra £79,754 a year on top of basic salary.  Ministers will not take the rise in basic pay or to their additional salaries, according to Downing Street.

The pay rise amounts to a 1.5 per cent increase. Doctors and dentists, NHS managers, the judiciary and the senior civil service are in line to receive a 1.5 per cent increase for the next financial year.

The Local Government Association has said 1.4 million workers in England, Wales and Northern Ireland will get no rise as authorities try to protect front-line services and minimise job losses.

UK
MEP dismissed
The UK Independence Party has expelled one of its Euro MEPs after she objected to the party’s alliance in the European Parliament with a multi-national group, Europe of Freedom and Democracy.

Nikki Sinclaire has since January declined to sit with her own party in the European Parliament, saying that some of UKIP’s allies held “extreme views”.  Her relationship with UKIP’s leader, Nigel Farage, had also deteriorated.

Europe of Freedom and Democracy formed last year and is composed of 32 right-wing MEPs from nine national parties.

Mr Farage has recently stepped down as UKIP’s leader in order to prepare for his general election contest against John Bercow in Buckingham, although he remains a UKIP MEP.  The party is now lead by Lord Pearson.

UKIP’s response to Ms Sinclaire’s stance was to remove the whip, thus reducing their number to 12 MEPs, saying she may no longer describe herself as a UKIP MEP and may not stand as a UKIP candidate in the general election.

Greece
Protest at austerity cuts
Serious unrest in Athens followed the launch of new austerity measures to curb the government’s massive debt.

Police used tear gas to disperse rock-hurling protestors and truncheons were used against some.  Gas was sprayed directly into the face of a national hero, Manolis Glezos, in his mid-80s, who is admired nationally for his stance against Nazi occupation when he climbed the Acropolis to tear down the swastika.

The country’s two leading trade unions have called another general strike for 11 March.  They claim the austerity measures are “barbaric”.

Greek and German leaders met yesterday.  Chancellor Merkel pledged German support and expertise in “working together toward a further modernisation of Greece”.  She called for the cessation of market speculation that Greece is set to default on its loans.

Earlier indications that German funds might be used to assist Greece were met with widespread opposition from German citizens.  Mrs Merkel has assured them she will not use taxpayers’ money.

The German 2010 budget itself allows for soaring borrowing expected to reach €80bn which is twice as high as the previous record for borrowing set in 1996.

On Thursday Greece’s €5bn government bond issue was oversubscribed, taken by some to mean that some investors believe that Greece will not default on its debts.  The bond was offered at a high interest rate to gain investors.

In order to service its existing debt of around €300bn, the country needs to borrow a further €20bn this spring to repay debt and an estimated €70bn for the entire year.

Turkey
Genocide resolution
A US congressional panel has described as genocide the WWI killing of Armenians, a decision which has been met with hostility in Turkey.

Turkey is one of the most important US ally in the Muslim world and is a member of NATO.  A similar resolution in 2007 also passed in the committee stage but was dropped following pressure from the George Bush administration.  This time the Obama administration urged against the vote, although during his election campaign Mr Obama pledged to term the killings genocide.

Approval was by 23 votes to 22.  A full vote will be taken by the House of Representatives, if the resolution gets that far.

It was in 1915 that the Ottoman Empire deported Armenians en masse from eastern Anatolia.  Hundreds of thousands died having been killed by troops or from starvation and disease.  Turkey has consistently refused to use the term genocide.  It recognises that atrocities occurred but as part of war and not a systematic effort to annihilate the Armenians.

An accord between Turkey and Armenia was signed in October 2008 to normalise relations between them after a century of hostility.

The Turkish ambassador to the US has been recalled.  Turkey is considering if it will take further action.

Climate
New review
The UN Met Office claims that mounting evidence shows that human activities are causing climate change.

The agency claims that the evidence is stronger now than the last assessment in 2007 which claimed “unequivocal” evidence showed that the earth was warming, probably due to the use of fossil fuels.

The new research has found that changes in the Arctic sea ice, atmospheric moisture, saltiness in parts of the Atlantic Ocean and temperature changes in the Antarctic are consistent with human influence on the climate.  

On the possible link between climate change and extreme weather conditions, the Met Office study believed it was more difficult to confirm.  Scientific models predict that extreme weather conditions are more likely but by definition rare events are difficult to attribute.