The TV election: A breakdown of how political parties advertised on the airwaves

The television has played an increasingly important role in political campaigns. ILLUSTRATION: JAMAL KHURSHID

ISLAMABAD: Last year’s elections in Pakistan were groundbreaking for many reasons, with the heavy use of media, both new and traditional, being one of them.

In all, 62,623 television commercials ran during the election campaign in 2013, according to government figures released during question hour at the National Assembly on Tuesday.

That number hardly compares to the number of advertisements aired in the United States during its presidential campaign in 2012 - 1,015,615 - but it does indicate the increasing importance television has had in the way political campaigns are fought and won.

In 2009 alone, more than 86 million people in Pakistan watched television, according to Gallup Pakistan. That number must have only increased by the time voters went to the polls in 2013.

Even though the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) lost heavily, it tops the list with 26,237 ads alone, more than a third of all the ads aired. The volume of ads can partially be explained by PPP’s last-ditch attempts to salvage their number of seats.

Despite ruling Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa and being a member of the ruling coalition, the Awami National Party (ANP) aired only 31 ads.

Both ANP and the PPP were targeted by the Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) in the build up to the general elections. ANP pulled out of many electoral races and districts where the Taliban threat was acute. It severely limited their campaigning ability, as evidenced by a dearth in television advertisements.

The Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf, that campaigned heavily on social media, is second on the list with 16,363 ads. The Pakistan Muslim League (Nawaz), the current ruling government, was third with 12,521 ads.

China unveils mini-stimulus to shore up sputtering growth

Under the batch of new measures announced by Prime Minister Li Keqiang late on Wednesday, smaller businesses in China would get bigger tax breaks, more social housing would be built and railway construction would be expanded this year.

Existing tax breaks for 'small and micro' companies were scheduled to be extended until the end of 2016, the government said on its official website, following a meeting by the State Council, which is China's cabinet.

Rail to be expanded

Moreover, some 6,600 kilometers (4,100 miles) of new railway lines would be built this year, the government said.

That was about 1,000 kilometers more than originally planned, it said. For that, a special railway fund worth between 200 billion and 300 billion yuan (23-35 billion euros) would be created, and bonds to the tune of 150 billion yuan would be issued.

In addition, the country's biggest lender, China Development Bank, would set up a special agency to issue home financing bonds under efforts to speed up urban redevelopment projects.

Growth worries prompt stimulus

Chinese state-run news agency Xinhua quoted officials at the meeting as saying that additional steps were being prepared by the government for later this year, including more stimulus for enterprises and measures to boost domestic consumption and employment.

The latest program has come in response to fears that Chinese growth might fall below the government target of about 7.5 percent this year. It followed a string of disappointing economic data from the world\'s second largest economy. On Monday, for example, British bank HSBC published its Purchasing Mangers' Index (PMI) for China's manufacturing industry revealing a slump in the country's factory activity to an 8-month low in March.

Small but targeted

'This time the package is small in scale, but it is more targeted and involves reforms on financing to secure funding. So this should help China to smooth growth without exacerbating financial stability risks,' HSBC economists Qu Hongbin and Sun Junwei said in a statement on Thursday.

In the wake of the 2008 global financial crisis, China unleashed a much bigger stimulus program which helped the economy recover quickly from the shock. However, the program led to a credit boom and an explosion of debt which Beijing currently seeks to rein in by tightening money supply and credit conditions.

In Wednesday's announcement, the State council did not mention any new plans for monetary policy such as lowering banks' capital requirements or a cut in interest rates which might spur lending and subsequently economic growth.

NATO still a distant prospect for Ukraine, Georgia

US President Barack Obama said it clearly enough during last week\'s trip to Brussels. He does not see Ukraine or Georgia becoming part of NATO at the moment. Nevertheless, the alliance's foreign ministers met with their Georgian counterpart Maja Panjikidze in Brussels in order to continue talks about the possible eventual accession of the former Soviet republic.

As in many summits and meetings before, NATO General Secretary Anders Fogh Rasmussen said Georgia would become a NATO member, some day.

'We remain firm in our support for Georgia's sovereignty and territorial integrity in its internationally-recognized borders,' he said. 'We also support Georgia's transatlantic aims.'

But since Russia opposes both Georgia and Ukraine's potential membership in the alliance, the NATO leadership remains hesitant. Though, officially, Rasmussen often emphasizes that no country, including Russia, can decide what alliance a country chooses to join.

Staying on the ball

NATO diplomats have said privately that as long as Russia is still occupying two breakaway provinces inside Georgia, the military alliance will hardly want to make that fight its own by letting the Caucasian nation join the transatlantic group.

Following a brief war in the summer of 2008, Russia took de facto control of the provinces of Abkhazia and South Ossetia - both of which have been calling for independence or membership of the Russian federation since the start of the 1990s.

In April 2008, just a few months before the war, NATO had decided at a summit in Bucharest to admit both Georgia and Ukraine, only to watch as Russian President Vladimir Putin rejected the decision outright. Unofficially, some European NATO members took heed of Russia's objections, and the alliance declined to make either a timetable or concrete preparations for Georgia and Ukraine's membership.

Now, six years later, Georgia's new government still wants a full seat in NATO. 'This desire is supported by the overwhelming majority of the Georgian population as well as Georgia's major political parties,' said new Prime Minister Irakli Garibashivili on his last visit to NATO headquarters in February. 'The Georgian government will undertake every effort to continue the path of reforms that will bring us closer to NATO,' he promised.

Rasmussen added that NATO did recognize the internal progress being made in the democratization of Georgian society, and he pointed out that the country was one of the most important troop suppliers to the Afghanistan mission. Georgia also intends to send soldiers to Afghanistan after the NATO troop withdrawal in 2014.

Russian resistance

But the general-secretary also refused to say whether the next NATO summit, to take place in September in Wales, will discuss Georgia's accession - or indeed any new members.

Rasmussen's tenure is set to end after the summit. In June, NATO diplomats have said off the record, the alliance will re-assess membership applications, which means that Georgia could potentially be offered a preliminary membership plan at September's summit. But the present Crimea crisis will have to be dealt with first. 'This isn't really the time to make new trouble,' one diplomat said in Brussels. At the same time, NATO did not want to be blackmailed by the Kremlin.

The Ukrainian foreign minister, for his part, did not express a desire for a quick accession to NATO, even though the alliance intends to strengthen both political and non-military cooperation with Ukraine. There has even been talk of joint military exercises.

Diplomatic freeze

The Kremlin has now reacted to NATO's decision to freeze contact with Russia following its occupation of the Crimean peninsula. Russian Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin, himself once an ambassador to NATO, scoffed at the alliance, calling the decision an April Fools joke, while Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov expressed his annoyance at the measure - which was threatened three weeks ago - in a phone call with his US counterpart John Kerry. Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev, on the other hand, expressed his hope that economic ties with the West would remain stable despite the crisis.

But even on the second day of the foreign ministers' summit in Brussels, NATO said it saw no sign that Russian troops were withdrawing from the border areas with Ukraine. US General Philip Breedlove, supreme commander of NATO in Europe, warned that the Russian troop deployment was big enough to reach any part of Ukraine within a few days. 'Over the past several decades it was unthinkable that the geography of European nations would be changed by force,' Breedlove told the 'Wall Street Journal.' 'Yet that's exactly what we've seen.'

Former NATO General Secretary Lord George Robertson, on the other hand, warned that the alliance should not put everything else on the backburner in order to deal with the Russian crisis and return to a Cold War strategy of territorial defense. The new NATO has many other global tasks, such as Afghanistan, to deal with, he said.

Speaking to the Internet video magazine NATO Review on the occasion of the 65th anniversary of the founding of the alliance on Friday (04.04.2014), Robertson said that at the end of the day, Russia would have to be included one way or another.

'There will never be security in Europe without an organization that says: We represent free values. And that has to include Russia,' Robertson said. 'Either under the current leadership or under another leadership. Putin's first government, when he was president for the first time, believed in precisely this goal.'

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.