Paul Taylor

CAIRO (Reuters) – Egypt’s main opposition alliance has got itself into a muddle by appearing to endorse a call for the overthrow of Islamist President Mohamed Mursi, then backing away.

“The NSF will fully align to the demands of the Egyptian people calling to topple the regime of tyranny and domination of the Muslim Brotherhood,” a statement by the National Salvation Front issued late on Saturday said.

After a week of violence between protesters and the security forces in which 59 people have died, it called for Mursi, his interior minister and “all his partners in those crimes” to be investigated and put on trial for “killings, torture and illegal detentions”.

“The NSF supports all forms of peaceful protest to achieve these demands, and calls for the Egyptians to rally peacefully in all the streets of Egypt in defense of Egyptian dignity.”

The Front includes liberal politicians such as former U.N. nuclear watchdog Mohamed ElBaradei and former Arab League chief Amr Moussa, who last week signed a statement mediated by the country’s leading Muslim scholar renouncing violence and calling for a national dialogue.

PARIS (Reuters) – For the first time since Cyprus joined the European Union nearly a decade ago, its partners have financial leverage to press for a settlement of the island’s almost 40-year division.

Yet there is no sign that Brussels is preparing to use its advantage to achieve a reunification that narrowly eluded negotiators when the Mediterranean island joined the EU in 2004.

Indeed the most powerful member states, Germany and France, may be content to see the frozen Cyprus conflict fester rather than deal with the potential consequences of a resolution that would bring Turkey closer to EU membership.

PARIS (Reuters) – For the first time since Cyprus joined the European Union nearly a decade ago, its partners have financial leverage to press for a settlement of the island’s almost 40-year division.

Yet there is no sign that Brussels is preparing to use its advantage to achieve a reunification that narrowly eluded negotiators when the Mediterranean island joined the EU in 2004.

Indeed the most powerful member states, Germany and France, may be content to see the frozen Cyprus conflict fester rather than deal with the potential consequences of a resolution that would bring Turkey closer to EU membership.

DAVOS, Switzerland (Reuters) – As President Barack Obama starts his second term, the world’s business and political elite pines for greater American engagement to tackle a thicket of security challenges.

From Syria to Mali, from Iran to the South China Sea, the United States’ reluctance to be drawn into conflicts far from its shores was a leitmotiv of geopolitical debate at this year’s World Economic Forum in Davos.

The absence of top Obama administration officials from the annual brainstorming and networking event in the Swiss mountains symbolised to some a perceived pullback from global leadership, even though it was Inauguration Week in Washington.

DAVOS, Switzerland (Reuters) – As President Barack Obama starts his second term, the world’s business and political elite pines for greater American engagement to tackle a thicket of security challenges.

From Syria to Mali, from Iran to the South China Sea, the United States’ reluctance to be drawn into conflicts far from its shores was a leitmotiv of geopolitical debate at this year’s World Economic Forum in Davos.

The absence of top Obama administration officials from the annual brainstorming and networking event in the Swiss mountains symbolized to some a perceived pullback from global leadership, even though it was Inauguration Week in Washington.

DAVOS, Switzerland (Reuters) – A senior member of Saudi Arabia’s monarchy called on Friday for Syrian rebels to be given anti-tank and anti-aircraft weapons to “level the playing field” in their battle against President Bashar al-Assad.

“What is needed are sophisticated, high-level weapons that can bring down planes, can take out tanks at a distance. This is not getting through,” said Prince Turki al-Faisal, a former intelligence chief and brother of the Saudi foreign minister.

Insurgents in Syria have seized territory in the north of the country and control suburbs to the east and south of the capital, but Assad’s air power and continued army strength have limited their advances 22 months into the conflict.

DAVOS, Switzerland (Reuters) – What a difference a year makes! At the last World Economic Forum in Davos there were frantic secret meetings on saving the euro and private straw polls on whether the euro zone would break up and how soon Greece would be forced out.

Twelve months on, the euro’s survival is widely taken for granted by the policymakers and business leaders attending the annual forum, and the EU’s top economic official has time to go skiing while in the Swiss mountain resort.

“I recall last year in 2012, Davos was full of uncertainty about the euro zone,” European Economic and Monetary Affairs Commissioner Olli Rehn said in an interview.

DAVOS, Switzerland (Reuters) – A British vote to leave the European Union would be a disaster, but is not likely to happen, Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte said on Thursday.

Rutte, a center-right, free-marketeering liberal, said he supported many of the goals that British Prime Minister David Cameron set out for renegotiating London’s relationship with the 27-nation bloc in a landmark speech on Wednesday.

“Britain has to be in the European Union, (it’s) in Britain’s interest and also in the European interest,” he told Reuters Insider television in an interview at the World Economic Forum in Davos.

DAVOS, Switzerland (Reuters) – The euro is probably not overvalued now but the European Union is keen to avoid a currency war in which its exchange rate could suffer and set back Europe’s economic recovery, the EU’s top monetary official said on Thursday.

Economic and Monetary Affairs Commissioner Olli Rehn also said that euro zone countries were working on ways to help Ireland and Portugal regain full financial market access this year and emerge from international bailout program.

In an interview with Reuters Insider television at the World Economic Forum in Davos, he was asked whether he was concerned that action by other major central banks was landing Europe with an overvalued currency that would slow its exit from recession.

DAVOS, Switzerland, Jan 24 (Reuters) – Central banks are
coming under too much pressure from politicians to act to
promote growth and weaken currencies, the head of the world’s
central banking forum said on Thursday.

Jaime Caruana, general manager of the Bank for International
Settlements, also said in a Reuters Insider television interview
that the world was reaching the point where the damage from
central banks’ printing money could outweigh the benefits.

Asked about pressure from the new Tokyo government on the
Bank of Japan to increase asset purchases to drag the economy
out of its fourth recession since 2000 and end deflation, he
said authorities should focus more on their own actions.