Economics for the Intelligent Amateur

Western Balkan leaders and EU delegates are meeting in Slovenia to attempt to present a common front in the region’s path towards EU membership.
But Serbian President Boris Tadic is boycotting the event because of the presence of Kosovo’s prime minister.
Belgrade rejects the declaration of independence by Kosovo – Serbia’s southern province – two years ago.
It is a major blow to the event and to the changed image that the region is now trying to present to Brussels.

[Source]

At least 11 people have been injured in an Israeli air strike at an airport in southern Gaza, Palestinian medical officials and witnesses said.

The strike targeted Gaza’s defunct international airport, located near the town of Rafah, late on Friday, witnesses said.

The Israeli army told Al Jazeera that the attack targeted “a terror site” and said its pilots confirmed that the target was hit.

[Source]

A three-day strike by British Airways cabin crew has started after last-ditch talks in London between union officials and management collapsed.

About 12,000 BA staff are taking part in the strike that began on Saturday, and another walkout is planned from March 27 to March 30, just as the Easter holiday season begins.

Tony Woodley, general secretary of the Unite union, said “hawks” within the airline’s management had won the day, saying that they were not interested in negotiating with cabin crew.

[Source]

DOHA (Kyodo) Fishing nations won a victory over environmentalists Thursday when a U.S.-backed proposal to ban export of Atlantic bluefin tuna was overwhelmingly rejected at a U.N. wildlife meeting.

Japan won over scores of poorer nations with a campaign that played on fears that a ban would devastate their economies. Tokyo also raised doubts that such a radical move was scientifically sound.

The EU meanwhile dropped making a fresh proposal to ban international trade in bluefin tuna during the current session of the U.N. meeting, EU sources said Friday.

[Source]

(Reuters) – Dubai’s “build and they will come” model is in a state of flux, rather than broken, as the emirate suffers growing pains in its evolution from emerging economy to global business hub, one of its key developers said.

Santhosh Joseph, president of Dubai Pearl FZ LLC, the developer of the recently revived $4 billion Pearl project said Dubai’s property sector weakness had been exaggerated by those who had little or no first-hand insight into the market.

“My firm belief is that the same people who are talking down Dubai will be among the first people to come back,” he told Reuters in an interview on the sidelines of the MIPIM real estate trade fair at Cannes.

[Source]

The so-called Quartet of Middle East negotiators has demanded that Israel halt all settlement activity and denounced Israel’s plan to build new housing in East Jerusalem.

The Quartet’s comments came at a news conference in Moscow on Friday, following a meeting by the group, which brings together the United Nations, the US, the EU and Russia.

Ban Ki-Moon, the UN secretary-general, read a joint statement by the group, saying that the Quartet “urges the government of Israel to freeze all settlement activities”.

[Source]

Pope Benedict has written a pastoral letter to the Catholics of Ireland with guidelines on preventing and punishing sexual abuse of children by priests.
It follows revelations last year of paedophilia within the Irish Catholic Church, which rocked the institution.
Scandals involving Roman Catholic priests have also been reported from a number of other countries, including the Pope’s native Germany.
It is unknown if the letter, to be read at Sunday Mass, includes an apology.

[Source]

Almost 200,000 unemployed women have college diplomas, according to a report by the state-run statistics office.

According to Statistics Korea, the number of unemployed female college graduates was 196,000 last month, the highest number since 1999, when the office started to collect data on the education level of unemployed women. This accounts for about 40 percent of the total number of women without jobs, the report said.

The number includes 107,000 women who graduated from a four-year college. The rest were two-year college graduates, the report said.

[Source]

(Reuters) – China on Friday said it was sending an envoy to Washington to try to ease trade frictions as its currency regime comes under fire, warning that threats from U.S. legislators could stifle room for progress.

The announcement, along with conciliatory comments by China’s commerce ministry, appeared aimed at cooling an increasingly rancorous dispute which has U.S. senators threatening to slap duties on Chinese products if Beijing does not allow the yuan to rise.

“Channels of communication between our two sides are open. All issues of concern to either side can be discussed through these channels,” He Ning, head of the commerce ministry’s North American division, told a media briefing.

[SOurce]

The EU’s new foreign policy chief has arrived in Gaza on one of the highest level visits there by a Western politician since Hamas took power.
Baroness Caroline Ashton’s trip comes amid a new push by the EU and US to revive stalled Middle East peace talks.
The international quartet of Middle East mediators – the EU, US, UN and Russia – is to meet in Moscow later.

[Source]