Life in the global gutter: The popular press


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Eurozone unemployment adds to gloom ahead of polls

Financial markets are braced for a rocky ride next week if voters in France and Greece strike a blow against the centrally imposed deficit targets that have been at the heart of Europe's response to the debt crisis over the past two year Rising unemployment and plunging business confidence in the euro area revealed the increasingly fragile state of the region's economy on Wednesday, as voters in France and Greece prepare to deliver their verdict on austerity in Sunday elections. Official figures showed that unemployment across the 17-member single currency zone increased by 169,000 in March, for the 11th consecutive month, to hit 17.37m. The unemployment rate was 10.9%, the highest level in its history. Even in Germany, which has so far largely escaped unscathed from the downturn sweep of the labour market, unemployment began to tick up in March, though it remained at just 5.6% of the workforce. There was also evidence that businesses are being hit by what many analysts expect ...
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US-Pakistan spy wars hit flood relief as aid workers get caught in dragnet

Nearly one million Pakistanis are still homeless, but charities hampered by fallout from Osama bin Laden killing Last summer aid workers in Pakistan battled with epic floods that affected 20 million people, destroyed crops and inundated one-fifth of the country. A year later they find themselves in a very different imbroglio: the escalating spy war between the US and Pakistan. With millions of flood victims still in urgent need of aid, western charities say their efforts are being hit by the fallout from Osama bin Laden's death as the government casts a wide dragnet in search of CIA spies. Stringent visa regulations and new restrictions on movement by the military are causing long delays, increasing costs and affecting the delivery of aid and the conflict with the Taliban. Last month a young American aid worker with Catholic Relief Services was brought to court for visa irregularities, imprisoned for nine days then deported. British agencies say their staff have fallen under the m...
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Gaddafi warrant complicates peace effort: African Union

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