Europe’s earth-monitoring Sentinel satellite heads into space

It is a revolutionary eye in the sky in what has been dubbed the most ambitious Earth observation venture ever. European radar satellite Sentinel-1a is being launched on Thursday. A fleet of other Sentinels will follow in coming years as part of Copernicus, a monitoring initiative led by the European Commission and European Space Agency (ESA). Each satellite will be able to provide imagery in near real time, the rapid data a major boost in dealing with emergencies. 'It will be able to monitor basically all surfaces of the earth, the ocean, the ice surfaces, land surfaces and it will react very quickly in case of natural disasters to support imagery to the support teams on the ground,' said ESA Spacecraft Operations Manager, Frank Juergen Diekmann. Sentinel 1-a will begin its all-important mission later on Thursday, launched into space from French Guiana on a Soyuz rocket.

Statistics: German firms only moderately dependant on Russia

The dependency of German companies exporting goods to Russia was modest at best, Germany's Federal Statistical Office, Destatis, said Thursday.

Roughly 10 percent of German exporters, or some 27,000 firms, sell their products to Russia, according to latest Destatis figures. For nearly three-quarters of these companies, that trade amounted to no more than 25 percent of each firm's exports.

Destatis noted that Russia was undoubtedly a major trading partner of Germany, but added: 'When put in relation to the worldwide trade relations of the German export sector the dependency of businesses on Russia is moderate'.

German exports to Russia totaled around 36 billion euros ($49.5 billion) last year. Imports from Russia were higher with a volume worth about 41 billion euros. Overall, the value of exports to Russia represents 3.3 percent of Germany's total exports around the world.

Dependency

The degree to which German importers could be affected by fluctuations in that trade, however, particularly in the energy sector, is notably higher.

Fifty percent of all the goods imported to Germany from Russia are brought in by companies who depend on Russia for at least three-quarters of their overall imports, according to the statistics office. In all, roughly 1 percent of German companies import from Russia.

Western countries, including the European Union and the United States, have imposed sanctions against Russia in retaliation for its recent deployment of troops into the Crimean peninsula and subsequent annexation last month. These have included travel bans and the freezing of bank accounts for a number of prominent Russians.

While German Chancellor Angela Merkel has been uncharacteristically candid in her condemnation of Russian actions in Ukraine, she has been reluctant to follow Washington's lead in imposing even stricter measures against Moscow, given Russia's vital deliveries of natural gas exports to Europe.

Mercedes logs record 2013 sales during new model offensive

In the race for the world leadership in the premium car segment, German Mercedes cars made strong progress in 2013, boosting sales to a new company record, the carmaker's parent company Daimler announced Friday.

Mercedes sold 1.46 million cars worldwide last year, posting an increase of 10.7 percent compared with 2012. In addition, about 100,000 units of its Smart city car were shipped to customers, Daimler said.

The result meant that Daimler was able to close the gap to the world's second largest luxury carmaker, Germany's Audi, which narrowly beat Mercedes with sales of 1.58 million cars in 2013.

Mercedes' growth strategy was bearing first fruit, Daimler Chief Executive Dieter Zetsche said in a statement, noting that especially its new version of the E-class and S-class sedans were selling well.

In the United States, which remained Mercedes\' largest single market in 2013, sales grew 14 percent to 312,000 cars. At home in Germany, the top-of-the-range brand sold 2.2 percent fewer vehicles than in the previous year.

But in China, which has become the world's largest car market, Mercedes made the biggest strides in its effort to catch up with global luxury car leaders Audi and BMW. Chinese sales jumped 11 percent year-on-year to 218,000 vehicles.

Despite the record result in 2013, Mercedes still lags far behind the world's top luxury brand, Bavarian marque BMW. The Munich-based auto maker already announced in November that it had beaten record 2012 sales with 1.78 million cars sold by the end of that month.

Greece reaches financial agreement with troika

Following months of drawn-out negotiations, the Greek government on Tuesday (18.03.2014) secured the next installment of the country\'s massive bailout from the European Commission, the European Central Bank (ECB) and the International Monetary Fund (IMF), known as the troika of Greek lenders.

With Tuesday's agreement, the way should now be clear for the payment of loans amounting to some 10.1 billion euros ($14 billion). The sum is urgently needed in Greece, as the government needs to repay billions in maturing government bonds at the end of May.

'These were the most difficult negotiations with the creditors yet,' said Greek Finance Minister Yannis Stournaras on Tuesday. 'But I believe that we were able to achieve many of our goals.' Discrepancies existed until only recently, particularly in much-needed structural and administrative reforms, as well as the liberalization of the labor market.

On these last stipulations, Prime Minister Antonis Samaras was reluctant to reveal any details. The conservative leader was particularly pleased that - just in time for the European election in May - he was able to come to the financial aid of society's most vulnerable. He explained that a total of one million people would immediately benefit from the financial support, to the tune of 500 million euros.

A whiff of election campaigning was evident in Samaras' speech. 'We have promised to prevent a euro exit for Greece, and we managed that. We promised to leave the recession behind us, and we are just about to fulfill that promise. In addition, we have promised to pass on a portion of our surplus to the economy, to reward the Greek people for their extraordinary sacrifices. And we're doing that now,' said Samaras.

Financial help in exchange for structural reforms

Samaras has often spoken of the newly generated 'primary surplus' in the Greek budget, provided interest payments on outstanding debt to Greece's creditor countries are not taken into account. In plain English: According to Samaras, Greece is currently taking in more money than it's spending, if interest is not included in the calculations. An official statement from Brussels is not expected before the end of April, but Samaras in his speech did not hesitate to announce the distribution of a 'social dividend' of the Greek surplus.

The prime minister also announced a reduction of social security contributions from July 2014, a move intended to give a boost to the labor market. According to Samaras, the promised financial assistance would especially benefit the poor and homeless, but also 'the uniformed men who earn less than 1,500 euros a month.' This last comment was apparently a reference to the police officers and professional soldiers who belong to the traditional supporters of Samaras' conservative ruling party.

Only toward the end of his speech did the prime minister address the 'major structural reforms' agreed upon with the troika, calling them a way to 'provide growth impetus to the economy to improve competitiveness and reduce prices,' he said. Samaras added that such reforms had already been carried out by other European countries many years ago, and that now it was Greece's turn.

These reforms are likely to include the elimination of regulatory barriers in almost all areas of the Greek economy - from special taxes on foodstuffs to fixed prices on books, to sales restrictions on over-the-counter drugs.

Discontent in the ruling coalition

According to a recent report from the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development, Greece is bringing up the rear when it comes to the liberalization of its economy.

Should the reforms be adopted, experts believe they could give a boost to the Greek economy of at least 5 billion euros. For this reason, the troika has strongly insisted on the implementation of the OECD recommendations - so far without success. But Samaras' comments on Tuesday have given an indication that economic reforms are now top priority.

However, Samaras should not expect his policy to be greeted without resistance from his own coalition government. For example: In a public appearance on Tuesday, Nikitas Kaklamanis, a conservative member of parliament and the former mayor of Athens, indicated that he was against the liberalization of the book market - not only for economic reasons but also out of a sense of patriotism. He said that there was currently an attempt in Greece to 'dehellenize' the country - and the trivialization of the book was just another facet of that process.

Putin seeks diplomatic end to Ukraine crisis: US

Russian President Vladimir Putin called his American counterpart Barack Obama on Friday to discuss a US proposal on resolving the crisis in Ukraine, the White House said.

"President Obama suggested that Russia put a concrete response in writing" to the proposal presented by US Secretary of State John Kerry to Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov in The Hague this week, White House spokesman Jay Carney said.

The proposal had been drawn up after consultations with Ukraine and the European Union, and Putin and Obama agreed "Kerry and Lavrov would meet to discuss next steps".

Earlier Obama told Russia in a CBS interview to pull troops back from Ukraine and stop escalating a crisis that has already redrawn the map of Europe and reopened the Cold War's East-West split.

Obama's blunt message added further urgency to a standoff that has forced NATO to reinforce positions along Russia's frontier in a bid to calm anxious ex-Soviet satellite nations about the Kremlin's new expansionist mood.

The American leader, who is visiting Saudi Arabia, told Putin "that the United States continues to support a diplomatic path" to resolve the crisis, which has seen Moscow absorb Ukraine's southern peninsula of Crimea and mass tens of thousands of troops on Ukraine's eastern border.

But Carney said Obama made clear to Putin "that this remains possible only if Russia pulls back its troops and does not take any steps to further violate Ukraine's territorial integrity and sovereignty".

Obama also "noted that the Ukrainian government continues to take a restrained and de-escalatory approach to the crisis and is moving ahead with constitutional reform and democratic elections".

And he urged Russia "to support this process and avoid further provocations".

China cuts taxes, to build more rail lines to steady economic growth

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China has acted for the first time this year to boost the economy. Beijing has announced tax cuts for small firms along with plans to speed up rail construction. Tax rates for smaller companies will be lowered by relaxing the criteria that allows them to halve their income taxes. This policy will be extended to the end of 2016, the government said. There will be an acceleration of the construction of rail projects that have been approved, and an increase in the total length of lines being laid this year by 18 percent compared to 2013. That will increase investment, which is the biggest driver of China’s economy. GDP there is rising at its slowest rate in at least a decade as the country moves from investment-driven growth to more expansion through domestic consumption. The Chinese government said recently it aims to grow the economy by around 7.5 percent this year, but some analysts believe it will fall short of that.

Obama faces rights criticism after Saudi visit focused on ties

US President Barack Obama flew home from Saudi Arabia Saturday under fire for not doing more to raise human rights concerns on a visit dominated by smoothing policy differences with a longtime ally.

Obama met a campaigner for the rights of women in the ultra-conservative Muslim kingdom before leaving on Saturday morning.

But despite appeals from US lawmakers, he did not raise any rights issues in his talks with King Abdullah late on Friday, which were dominated by policy on Iran and Syria, a source of friction between the allies, a senior US official said.

The official insisted that did not mean Obama did not share "significant concerns," merely that the conflict in Syria and Riyadh's concerns about Washington's diplomatic engagement with Tehran had left no time to discuss them.

"We do have a lot of significant concerns about the human rights situation that have been ongoing with respect to women's rights, with respect to religious freedom, with respect to free and open dialogue," the official said.

But "given the extent of time that they spent on Iran and Syria, they didn't get to a number of issues and it wasn't just human rights."

Saudi Arabia has strong reservations about efforts by Washington and other major powers to negotiate a deal with Iran on its controversial nuclear programme.

The Sunni Muslim oil kingpin, long wary of Shiite Iran's regional ambitions, views a November deal between the powers and Iran aimed at buying time to negotiate a comprehensive accord as a risky venture that could embolden Tehran.

Riyadh -- a staunch supporter of the Syrian rebels -- was also deeply disappointed by Obama's 11th-hour decision last year not to take military action against Tehran ally Damascus over chemical weapons attacks.

Obama sought to reassure Abdullah on both issues in Friday's meeting, telling the king that the strategic interests of the United States and its longtime ally remained "very much aligned", the US official said.

But Obama's focus on smoothing over the strains in the alliance to the exclusion of concerns over women's rights and religious freedoms drew criticism from international watchdogs and from activists inside the kingdom.

"President Obama's visit offered a crucial opportunity to raise a series of human rights issues from discrimination against women to the repression of independent human rights activists and freedom of expression and assembly," said Amnesty International's Saudi researcher Sevag Kechichian.

"His failure to publicly voice his concerns over the dire state of human rights in Saudi Arabia is disappointing and a real missed opportunity," Kechichian told AFP.

Obama's meeting with Maha Al-Muneef, who was honoured by the US State Department earlier this month for her bravery in campaigning against domestic violence and child abuse, came as activists called for a new day of defiance of the kingdom's unique and deeply controversial ban on women driving.

A small number of women responded to the call, the latest in a campaign of defiance launched last October.

"I drove my car for a while on Olaya Road in Riyadh," activist Aziza Yousef told AFP, adding that she was one of several women who got behind the wheel across the country.

Women in Saudi Arabia need permission from their male guardians to travel, marry, work and enrol in higher education.

Women who have been stopped by police during previous protests against the driving ban have been required to sign pledges before being released not to do so again.

Dozens of US lawmakers had called on Obama to publicly address Saudi Arabia's "systematic human rights violations", including the rights of women.

Saudi activist Nasima al-Sada expressed "disappointment" that Obama had met only Muneef and not a wider delegation of women activists.

"We were hoping he would meet a delegation of female civil society activists to explain the situation of women and human rights in a better way," she told AFP.

She said the meeting with Muneef did "not send a real message of support for the rights of women" in Saudi Arabia.