Latvia joins the eurozone

1 January 2014 Last updated at 06:56 ET

Latvia has begun the new year by joining the eurozone, becoming the 18th member of the group of EU states which uses the euro as its currency.

The former Soviet republic on the Baltic Sea recently emerged from the financial crisis to become the EU's fastest-growing economy.

Correspondents report much scepticism in the country after recent bailouts for existing eurozone members.

But there is also hope that the euro will reduce dependency on Russia.

EU commissioner Olli Rehn said joining the eurozone marked "the completion of Latvia's journey back to the political and economic heart of our continent, and that is something for all of us to celebrate".

The government and most business owners also welcomed the single currency, saying it would improve Latvia's credit rating and attract foreign investors.

However, some opinion polls suggested almost 60% of the population did not want the new currency.

Missing the lats

"It's a big opportunity for Latvia's economic development," Prime Minister Valdis Dombrovskis said after symbolically withdrawing a 10-euro note as fireworks led celebrations in the capital Riga after midnight.

The governor of the Latvian central bank, Ilmars Rimsevics, said: "Euro brings stability and certainty, definitely attracting investment, so new jobs, new taxes and so on. So being in the second largest currency union I think will definitely mean more popularity."

One of those reluctant to give up Latvia's own currency, the lats, was Zaneta Smirnova.

"I am against the euro," she told AFP news agency. "This isn't a happy day. The lats is ours, the euro isn't - we should have kept the lats."

Leonora Timofeyeva, who earns the minimum wage of 200 lats (£237; 284 euros; $392) per month tending graves in a village north of the capital Riga, said: "Everyone expects prices will go up in January."

But pensioner Maiga Majore believed euro adoption could "only be a good thing".

"To be part of a huge European market is important," she told AFP. "All this talk about price rises is just alarmist."

Alf Vanags, director of the Baltic International Centre for Economic Policy Studies, told Bloomberg news agency he personally did not like giving up the familiar lats but it was an "entirely irrational sentiment".

Euro adoption was good for Latvia "on balance", he argued, since it provided a mutual insurance policy that countries could draw on when they got into trouble.

Latvia, with its large ethnic Russian minority, is often seen as having closer economic ties to Russia than its fellow Baltic states Lithuania and Estonia. Russia remains its biggest export market while its banking system attracts substantial deposits from clients in other ex-Soviet states.

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N Korean leader hails purge of uncle

31 December 2013 Last updated at 23:07 ET

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un has spoken of the "elimination of factionalist filth" in his first public reference to the execution of his once-powerful uncle last month.

In a new year message broadcast on state TV, he said "resolute action" had strengthened the country's unity.

North Korea announced on 13 December it had executed Chang Song-thaek after convicting him of "acts of treachery".

The move raised concerns of instability in the secretive nuclear-armed country.

North Korea's new year messages are closely scrutinised by South Korea and other regional powers for clues to Pyongyang's policy goals.

Kim Jong-un said action to "eliminate factionalist filth" within the ruling Workers' Party had bolstered the country's unity "by 100 times".

'Warmongers'

"Our party's timely, accurate decision to purge the anti-party, anti-revolutionary elements helped greatly cement solidarity within our party," he said.

Mr Kim also accused South Korea and US of being "warmongers", working "frantically" to bring nuclear weapons to the peninsula.

An accidental conflict, he said, could trigger "an enormous nuclear catastrophe".

He called for the strengthening of North Korea's defence capabilities, adding that the country's dignity and the people's happiness depend on "the gun barrel".

Mr Chang was married to the sister of late leader Kim Jong-il, and is believed to have mentored Kim Jong-un when he succeeded his father in 2011.

Although seen as the second-most important figure in the country, he was dramatically removed from a special party session by armed guards and stripped of all his titles.

The state news agency KCNA later said he had admitted at a military trial to trying to overthrow the state, and had been executed immediately.

Analysts said one theory for Mr Chang's downfall was that he was too keen an admirer of China's economic reform.

The 1950-53 Korean War ended with an armistice, not a peace treaty, leaving the peninsula technically in a state of war.

About 28,500 US troops are deployed in South Korea to help deter North Korean aggression.

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Russia blasts indefensible - Putin

1 January 2014 Last updated at 03:24 ET

Russian President Vladimir Putin has described the recent suicide attacks in Volgograd as "indefensible", during a visit to the city.

"No matter how the criminals may justify their actions, there is no justification for crimes committed against civilians," he said.

The bombings - one at the main railway station and the other on a city trolleybus - killed 34 people.

Security has now been increased, and thousands of police have been deployed.

No group has said it carried out the attacks, but analysts say the bombings could have been an effort to derail the Winter Olympics in Sochi, which begin next month.

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• Struck by suspected suicide bombers three times in two months
• Formerly known as Stalingrad, it was the scene of the bloodiest battle in World War II and has a deep symbolism for Russia
• One of the biggest cities near the troubled North Caucasus region
• A main transport hub between Moscow and Southern Russia

They are similar to previous indiscriminate attacks by Islamist militants operating from the North Caucasus.

Volgograd, a city of one million known as Stalingrad during World War II, commemorated the 70th anniversary of the battle of the same name this year, in an outpouring of Russian patriotic fervour.

Investigators believe a male suicide attacker bombed the trolleybus and are studying fragments of his body in an effort to identify him. Police sources say the attack on the station may also have been the work of a male bomber.

Identical shrapnel was used in the bombs, according to Vladimir Markin, spokesman for Russia's Investigative Committee.

Analysts say the prime suspect for the attack is likely to be Doku Umarov, a fugitive Islamist militant leader from Chechnya.

He has orchestrated previous bomb attacks on Russian civilian targets, and vowed in July that his fighters would use "any means possible" to keep Mr Putin from staging the Sochi Games.

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'Obamacare' reforms come into force

1 January 2014 Last updated at 05:16 ET

Millions of Americans are to receive health insurance cover for the first time as President Obama's flagship healthcare reforms come into effect.

The reforms are part of the president's aim to ensure affordable healthcare is available to everyone.

But the policy is controversial and the roll-out of the new system has been beset with problems.

Some religious-affiliated groups won a last-minute reprieve from being forced to provide birth control cover.

Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor temporarily blocked the government from forcing such groups to offer health insurance that would include contraception.

She acted at the request of a group of Catholic nuns in Colorado, the Little Sisters of the Poor, who had earlier lost their request for a preliminary injunction at an appeals court in Denver.

They had argued that the ruling conflicted with the Catholic Church's stance against the use of contraceptives.

Glitches

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• Nov 27: Year's delay in online insurance enrolment for small businesses
• Nov 26: Spanish-language sign-up tool is postponed until December
• Nov 22: Enrolment deadline for individuals is pushed back a week in December
• Nov 14: Obama announces insurers can keep customers on existing plans for another year
• Oct 23: Deadline for individuals to avoid penalties is pushed back six weeks to March 2014
• July: Businesses with over 50 workers given until 2015 to provide insurance or pay a penalty

Under the Affordable Care Act, popularly known as Obamacare, it is now compulsory for people to have health cover - either provided for by their employer or by buying one of the private health plans now on offer.

Those who cannot afford it will get help, but those without any insurance will be fined.

As of 1 January 2014, health insurance companies are also no longer able to deny coverage to people with pre-existing conditions.

More than 2.1 million people have enrolled so far for private health plans - short of the government's original target.

But the phased roll-out of the new law has suffered a number of difficulties.

The federal website offering the new health plans was plagued with technical glitches when it was launched in October. There were long sign-in wait times, log-in difficulties, insurance account creation problems, slow page loads and outages.

Insurance companies have also announced the cancellation of millions of policies, saying they did not meet the law's minimum requirements.

This came despite President Obama's promise that people would not be forced to move from plans they were happy with.

Mr Obama's approval ratings fell in the wake of the problems, but the White House says things have been fixed, the BBC's Rajini Vaidyanathan reports from Washington.

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Schumacher 'stable' in hospital

1 January 2014 Last updated at 05:47 ET

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Sabine Kehm said there had been "no significant changes" in Michael Schumacher's condition

Michael Schumacher, the most successful Formula 1 driver in history, remains in a stable but critical condition in hospital, his manager has said.

Sabine Kehm said he was being carefully looked after, and that she would not comment on rumours about his condition.

Schumacher is in a medically induced coma in hospital in Grenoble, after he suffered head injuries in a skiing accident in the French Alps on Sunday.

Doctors said on Tuesday that he had shown signs of improvement.

But they added that he was still "not out of danger".

They will not give any update on Schumacher's condition on Wednesday unless it changes significantly, Ms Kehm said.

'Not too fast'

"The good news for today is... there's no significant changes,'' Ms Kehm told reporters and well-wishers outside the hospital.

But she added that the situation remained critical.

Doctors say they cannot give a prognosis for his condition in the coming days and months.

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• Born: 3 January 1969
• First GP win: Belgium 1992
• Last GP win: China 2006
• Races started: 303
• Wins: 91 (155 podium finishes)
• Championships: 7 (1994, 1995, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004)

But it is medically possible for someone to spend several weeks in an induced coma and fully recover from it.

Schumacher had been skiing off-piste when he fell and hit his head. His helmet cracked on impact after hitting a rock.

"That does not mean that Michael was travelling at high speed. He was not too fast," Ms Kehm told reporters on Tuesday.

She said that the former champion was not skiing with just his teenage son, as had been reported, but also with a group of friends.

Messages of support have come from around the world.

Schumacher is held in a great deal of affection, correspondents say.

The former champion, who turns 45 on 3 January, retired from F1 for a second time in 2012.

He won seven world championships and secured 91 race victories during his 19-year career.

The driver won two titles with Benetton, in 1994 and 1995, before switching to Ferrari in 1996 and going on to win five straight titles from 2000.

He retired in 2006 but managed to recover and made a comeback in F1 with Mercedes in 2010.

After three seasons which yielded just one podium finish, he quit the sport at the end of last year.

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Romania and Bulgaria controls lifted

1 January 2014 Last updated at 05:57 ET

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Mark Lowen reports from the Romanian capital, Bucharest

Citizens of Romania and Bulgaria can work without restrictions across the European Union from Wednesday.

Transitional controls were imposed by some member states on nationals of the two countries - the poorest in the bloc - when they joined the EU in 2007.

Their rights to work and claim benefits were limited for their first seven years of EU membership.

Some in wealthier western EU nations fear mass migration from the two countries.

The controls were lifted as Greece took over the six-month rotating presidency of the EU.

BBC Europe correspondent Duncan Crawford says that it gives Greece the opportunity to influence the EU's political agenda.

Athens has been making reforms to overcome an acute debt crisis - a condition of a 240bn-euro (£200bn; $331bn) bailout that started in 2010.

The Greek crisis put the future of the eurozone and its common currency, the euro, at risk.

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It's a special new year for Romanians and Bulgarians, finally gaining equal rights to work freely across the EU seven years after their accession.

Some, particularly Britain, fear large numbers will come, mindful that a decade ago the government expected 15,000 per year from Eastern Europe but a million and a half came.

No extra flights have been planned from Bucharest but one coach company has tripled services to London.

Many here talk of their hopes of a better life with higher salaries - but nobody knows quite how many will finally leave.

Latvia became the 18th country to adopt the euro on 1 January 2014.

EU commissioner Olli Rehn said joining the eurozone marked "the completion of Latvia's journey back to the political and economic heart of our continent, and that is something for all of us to celebrate".

But some Latvians have expressed scepticism over the move at a time of financial difficulties in Europe, as well sadness at giving up the lat, a potent symbol of the country's independence from the Soviet Union in the 1990s.

UK rules tightened

The authorities in Bucharest and Sofia say there will not be an exodus, and that many of those who wanted to leave the country to seek work had already done so.

Romanians and Bulgarians were able to travel to other EU states without a visa after the two countries joined the bloc.

However, nine of the 26 other member states imposed temporary restrictions on the kind of jobs they could take.

France, the Netherlands, and Belgium required that they obtain work permits.

In Britain, prospective employers had to apply for work permits and Bulgarians and Romanians migrants for an "accession worker card". Low-skilled workers were restricted to existing quota schemes in the agricultural and food processing sectors.

The UK government is tightening the benefit rules to ensure that migrants cannot claim out-of-work benefits for three months after arriving and will only qualify for support after six months if they have a genuine chance of employment.

A spokeswoman for the Romanian foreign ministry told the BBC that some of the media coverage in the UK had bordered on racism, and there had been an "outright campaign" against Romanians and Bulgarians.

"There isn't going to be an invasion of Romanians," Brandusa Predescu said.

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Crowds and fireworks welcome 2014

1 January 2014 Last updated at 06:48 ET

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Watch six new year celebrations from around the world in 60 seconds

Celebrations are taking place around the world to mark the start of 2014.

People in Auckland, New Zealand, were among the first to celebrate. In Australia, hundreds of thousands gathered for a spectacular firework display around Sydney's Harbour Bridge.

Similar shows took place in cities across the world, with thousands lining London's River Thames.

New York staged its traditional New Year's Eve countdown and ball-drop over a chilly Times Square.

US Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor, a New York native, pushed the ceremonial button to drop the famous ball on a rooftop over the square.

Moscow also celebrated with a spectacular fireworks display over the Kremlin.

However, there was intense security in Red Square following recent suicide bombings in the southern Russian city of Volgograd.

Dubai - in the same time zone as Moscow - aimed for a world record with a fireworks extravaganza stretching along 30 miles (50km) of seafront.

Adjudicators from Guinness World Records were on hand to check proceedings, but it was not clear immediately whether the attempt was successful.

The world's tallest building, the Burj Khalifa, was the centrepiece of the display.

East Asian cities also rang in the new year, with Beijing, Jakarta and Singapore all hosting celebrations.

In Hong Kong, tens of thousands of spectators watched the fireworks over Victoria Harbour.

The Chinese city of Wuhan had called off its display to avoid worsening a smog problem.

In Japan, Shinto priests gathered at shrines. Japanese people traditionally visit shrines and temples to pray for their families at this time.

In Rome, Pope Francis offered "words of strength, courage and hope'' in his first homily of the new year, at St Peter's Basilica.

In the Ukrainian capital, Kiev, an estimated 100,000 people sang the national anthem in the city's Independence Square in support of further integration with Europe.

The square has been the focus of pro-European protests for more than a month after President Viktor Yanukovych ditched a key deal with the EU.

As midnight struck across western Europe, Berlin and Paris were among the capitals staging spectacular displays.

In London - an hour behind - the chimes of Big Ben signalled what was billed as the world's first "multi-sensory" firework show, with peach-flavoured "snow" and edible banana confetti showering crowds packing the banks of the River Thames.

In Scotland, where new year festivities are known as Hogmanay, crowds thronging the streets of Edinburgh were dazzled by a more traditional firework display over the ramparts of Edinburgh castle.

Meanwhile in Dublin, performers took part in a People's Procession of Light, a torch-lit celebration illuminating its way through the city.

Cape Town in South Africa staged a free concert with lasers, fireworks and a special tribute to former President Nelson Mandela, who died on 5 December.

In Brazil, organisers of Rio de Janeiro's celebrations estimated that more than one million revellers packed the city's famous Copacabana beach to watch fireworks light up the bay after midnight.

New York will soon mark the new year with the traditional New Year's Eve countdown and ball drop over Times Square.

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Iran embassy bombing suspect 'held'

1 January 2014 Last updated at 07:06 ET

The Lebanese authorities are reported to have arrested the head of a jihadist group that claimed the suicide bomb attack on Iran's embassy in November.

Defence Minister Fayez Ghosn told AFP that Majid al-Majid, the Saudi "emir" of the al-Qaeda-linked Abdullah Azzam Brigades, was being held by Lebanese army intelligence in Beirut.

Hezbollah's al-Manar television also said Majid was detained "recently".

The embassy attack killed 23 people, including the Iranian cultural attache.

A Salafist cleric close to the Abdullah Azzam Brigades, Sheikh Siraj al-Din Zureiqat, was issued a claim of responsibility in its name.

He warned attacks would continue in Lebanon until Iranian and Hezbollah forces stopped fighting alongside government forces in Syria, and the Sunni group's prisoners were released in Lebanon.

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• Based in Lebanon and the Arabian Peninsula
• Formed in 2009, according to US, but name used to claim attacks in Egypt in 2004 and 2005
• Saudi wing claimed 2010 attack on Japanese oil tanker off the coast of Oman
• Lebanese wing behind occasional rocket fire against Israel since 2009, but not believed to have carried out a major attack until embassy bombing
• Led since 2012 by Majid al-Majid, a Saudi citizen named on the kingdom's most-wanted list

Investigators later identified the two suicide bombers as a Lebanese man with ties to hardline Sunni groups and a Palestinian man with ties to the fugitive Sunni Islamist cleric, Sheikh Ahmed al-Assir.

'Break-out attempt'

Mr Ghosn did not specify when the arrest of Majid al-Majid took place, saying only: "He was wanted by the Lebanese authorities and is currently being interrogated in secret."

However, al-Manar cited Lebanese security sources as saying that two attacks on army checkpoints outside the southern city of Sidon on 15 December had been attempts to free him.

A soldier and four gunmen were killed in the ensuing clashes in the suburb of Majdelyoun, for which there was no claim of responsibility.

Majdelyoun is next to Ahmed al-Assir's stronghold of Abra, which the army captured in June after fierce clashes in which dozens of his supporters were killed.

Based in both Lebanon and the Arabian Peninsula, the Abdullah Azzam Brigades are named after a Palestinian jihadist ideologue who recruited mujahideen for the fight against the Soviets in Afghanistan in the 1980s.

The name was first used to claim a series of attacks against tourists in Egypt in 2004 and 2005, but the US government believes the group - which it has designated a terrorist entity - was not formed until 2009.

In Lebanon, the Abdullah Azzam Brigades is believed to have attracted hardline Islamist militants who had fought in the Iraqi insurgency and based itself in the Ein el-Hilweh Palestinian refugee camp, near Sidon.

The group began claiming responsibility for occasional rocket fire against northern Israel from 2009, but is not believed to have carried out any major attacks until the November's Iranian embassy bombings.

The Abdullah Azzam Brigades were led by Saleh al-Qaraawi, a Saudi veteran of the Iraqi insurgency, until June 2012. He was succeeded by Majid al-Majid, a Saudi who like Qaraawi was named on Saudi Arabia's list of 85 most-wanted terrorists in 2009.

One Lebanese media report said he left for Syria a month ago, where he allegedly pledged allegiance to the leader of the al-Nusra Front, an al-Qaeda affiliate seeking to overthrow President Bashar Assad.

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Antarctic rescue bid under threat

31 December 2013 Last updated at 05:16 ET

A rescue mission for a ship stuck in ice in Antarctica is under threat as reports have emerged that one of the assisting vessels may itself be stuck.

Fifty-two passengers and four crew members were due to be evacuated by helicopter from China's Xue Long ship as soon as conditions allowed.

However, the Xue Long has barely moved in a day and may be stuck in the ice.

The research vessel Akademik Shokalskiy has been trapped for nearly a week with 74 scientists, tourists and crew.

The ship is stocked with food and is in no danger, the team on board says.

The planned air evacuation required that the two icebreakers in the immediate area - the Xue Long and the Australian Aurora Australis - be positioned close to each other in open water, clear of the pack ice.

However, the captain of the Xue Long has told the Shokalskiy that he is keeping his vessel in a "holding position".

The Aurora Australis, is now understood to be planning to carve through the dense thick pack to assist the Xue Long.

The initial plan had been for a helicopter from the Xue Long to carry people in groups of 15 up from the pack ice next to the Shokalskiy.

The airlifted passengers would then be transferred by a small boat, deployed from the Australian icebreaker, onto the Aurora Australis.

The expedition members would then have travelled to Australia's Antarctic base at Casey some four days' voyage away.

However, if the Chinese vessel is also stuck and the Australian vessel cannot help it reach clear water, there will be no airlift.

Under the initial plan, the remaining crew members would have stayed on board until another, more powerful US icebreaker arrived in up to 10 days' time, the BBC's Andrew Luck-Baker reports from on board the Akademik Shokalskiy

However, it may now be that all of those on board may have to wait for the US icebreaker, the Polar Star, he adds.

Earlier attempts by Chinese and French icebreakers to reach the ship were also foiled by the thick ice.

The Shokalskiy was trapped on Christmas Eve by thick sheets of ice, driven by strong winds, about 1,500 nautical miles south of Hobart - the capital of the Australian state of Tasmania.

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Crowds and fireworks welcome 2014

31 December 2013 Last updated at 06:58 ET

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Auckland was one of the first cities to welcome the new year

Celebrations are beginning to mark the beginning of 2014, with Auckland in New Zealand ringing in the new year at 11:00 GMT on Tuesday.

Crowds have gathered in Sydney, Australia, in anticipation of the city's famous firework display.

In Japan, Shinto priests gathered at shrines to prepare to usher in the new year.

Other cities globally are also planning big displays, with Dubai attempting a world record for the largest display.

The display will be streamed live on the internet and organisers say it will stretch over 30 miles (48km) of seafront, with the highest fireworks reaching more than one kilometre in height.

While celebrations are expected in major Chinese cities, the city of Wuhan called off its display in order to avoid worsening the city's smog problem.

Later on, festivities will be held in European cities including Moscow, Paris and London.

Cape Town in South Africa is planning a free concert with lasers, fireworks and a special 3D tribute to former President Nelson Mandela, who died on 5 December.

New York will mark the new year with the traditional New Year's Eve countdown and ball drop over Times Square, while Rio de Janeiro is once again expecting more than two million people to pack its Copacabana beach.

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