The Economist february 16th-22nd 2013 [antikvár]

The world this week The Economist February l6th Politics Pope Benedict XVI stunned the Catholic church by announcing that he would step down on February 28th, the first papal resignation in 600 years. In a statement read out in Latin, the 85-year-old pontiff said he had decided to leave office because of his age and because "strength of mind and body are necessary" for the job. He conducted his final public mass on Ash Wednesday. The list of favourites to succeed him includes cardinals from Austria, Brazil, Ghana, Italy and the Philippines. The economies of Germany and France contracted in the fourth quarter of 2012 as the euro zone moved deeper into recession. Germany's gdp shrank by 0.6%, its worst performance since 2009. The 0.3% contraction in France makes it less likely that it will reach its budget-deficit target this year. A meeting of European Union leaders confounded the critics by agreeing on the first real-term cuts in spending since the eu's founding. The deal shaves €34-4 billion ($46 biUion) off the budget over the next seven years, a cut of less than 1%. France suggested that it wants to give new impetus to Turkey's application to join the eu, and would not block accession talks that have been stalled for three years. Under Nicolas Sarkozy's presidency, France was a stout opponent of Turkish entry. Turkey's eagerness to join has waned since the start of the euro-zone debt crisis. A bill that legalises gay marriage in France easily passed the National Assembly. It now heads to the Senate. One of the closest allies of Angela Merkel, the German chancellor, stepped down as Germany's education secretary. Annette Schavan had been stripped of her doctoral degree following a plagiarism scandal. The ruckus was a distraction for the ruling Christian Democrats as they focus on an election later this year. Italy's former head of intelligence was sentenced to ten years in prison for his part in the 2003 rendition to Egypt of a Muslim cleric, who claims he was tortured. The rendition was conducted under the auspices of the cia. Italian courts have sentenced 22 cia agents in absentia. Nervous neighbours North Korea carried out its third test of a nuclear bomb, bringing condemnation from around the world. It said the test was in response to America's "reckless hostility". Barack Obama warned this would only isolate North Korea further. The un Security Council called it a clear threat to international security. In India a Kashmiri militant was hanged after his final plea for clemency was rejected. Afzal Guru was sentenced to death for helping to plot a deadly assauh by militants on India's Parhament in 200L He had been on death row since 2002, but had denied plotting the attack. Demonstrations grew in Dhaka, the capital of Bangladesh, over a ruling by the country's war-crimes tribunal. A leader of the Jamaat-e-Islami party was convicted of mass murder during the country's 1971 war of independence with Pakistan and was given a life sentence. Many of the protesters want him executed. Thailand's army killed 16 militants who had stormed a base near the border with Malaysia. More than 5,000 people have been killed in Thailand's Muslim-majority south since a separatist campaign reignited in 2004. Mohamed Nasheed, a former president of the Maldives, took refuge in the Indian high commission in Male, the capital. He was the first democratically elected president of the archipelago country but left office in February 2012 claiming the threat of a coup had forced him out. Diplomatic moves The Syrian National Coalition announced that Qatar will hand it control of the Syrian embassy in Doha, the capital. The Syrian opposition has already appointed an ambassador. Qatar was one of the first governments to recognise the group as the official representative of the Syrian people. The Congress for the Republic, the secular party of Tunisia's president, Moncef Marzouki, said that it would stay in the ruling Islamist-led coalition for another week in the hope that talks aimed at defiising the country's political crisis will succeed. Millions of Kenyans watched their country's first presidential debate, broadcast live on 42 local radio and television stations, as well as on YouTube. All eight candidates standing in next month's election took part. Much depredated Venezuela devalued its currency by 32% against the dollar, in a bid to reduce the fiscal deficit and help exporters. The bolivar has been devalued several times since Hugo Chávez became president in 1999. The official exchange rate still rates the dollar far lower than its price on the black market. The Jamaican government said it would restructure its sovereign debt. Jamaica completed one bond swap in 2010, but its debt-to-gdp ratio remains a crushing 140%. Creditors who participate are expected to receive much lower interest rates than they do now. Among friends (and enemies) Barack Obama gave the American president's annual state-of-the-imion message to Congress. He laid out a surprisingly full agenda that continued his recent theme of pushing progressive policies, such as proposing to raise the minimum wage to its highest level for 34 years (in real terms). Mr Obama also announced that the United States and the European Union would begin talks to create a transatlantic free-trade zone. The idea is not new but has gained support from senior politicians on both sides of the Atlantic in recent months. The talks are expected to last two years. The Republicans' official response to Mr Obama's speech was given by Marco Rubio, a Cuban-American senator, underlining the party's warming to immigration reform. However, John Boehner, the Republican Speaker in the House, said a bill needn't be rushed and he would prefer "a little foreplay" first.