Calm returns to European markets ahead of weekend (AFP)

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Calm returns to European markets ahead of weekend (AFP)

LONDON (AFP) – European stock rose on Friday as some calm returned to global financial markets after a rocky week driven by Middle East fears while London resumed trading after a technical glitch closed the bourse for the morning.

In early afternoon deals, the Paris CAC 40 was up 1.21 percent to 4,058.22 points and Frankfurt's DAX 30 added 0.39 percent to 7,158.27 points.

London's FTSE 100 index of top shares rose 0.86 percent to 5,971.18 points, having reopened at 12H15 GMT following an outage which halted trading for more than four hours.

Markets suffered heavy losses earlier this week as investors flocked to the safe-haven Swiss franc and yen amid violent unrest in Libya that sent oil prices rocketing close to $120 per barrel.

"A little bit of calm descends on the markets," said research director Kathleen Brooks at online trading site Forex.com on Friday.

"After taking a battering this week, risky assets are getting a little respite today. Stocks are higher, the (Swiss franc) and yen are off their highs and the dollar ... is finding support."

In foreign exchange trade, the European single currency edged up to $1.3808 from $1.3797 late Thursday as traders also bet on rising interest rates to combat building inflationary pressures in the eurozone.

London's technical glitch, meanwhile, followed similar outages in both Milan and Paris earlier this week, and comes amid a fast-moving flow of company earnings and economic data against a backdrop of nerves over the unrest in Libya.

"At a time of uncertainty in the markets, where traders are having to keep on their toes with the situation in Libya, the last thing they need is an unexpected halt to trading," City Index analyst Joshua Raymond said.

Britain's economy shrank by a worse-than-expected 0.6 percent in the fourth quarter of 2010, official data showed on Friday, hit partly by the impact of harsh wintry weather.

"Gross domestic product (GDP) contracted by 0.6 percent in the fourth quarter of 2010, revised down from the previously estimated fall of 0.5 percent," the Office for National Statistics said in statement.

That marked the largest quarterly drop in GDP -- the total value of goods and services produced in the economy -- since the second quarter of 2009.

The sharp contraction followed expansion of 0.7 percent in the third quarter of last year. Market expectations had been for no change to the initial estimate.

On the corporate front, Britain's state-rescued bank Lloyds on Friday posted annual pre-tax profits of £2.2 billion (2.6 billion euros, $3.6 billion), recovering from a steep loss as it slashed bad debts.

International Airlines Group, formed last month via the merger of British Airways and Iberia, posted modest 2010 net profits, shrugging off the impact of strikes and severe weather conditions late in the year.

The results were calculated on a pro-forma basis as if British Airways and Iberia had already been trading as a combined group.

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Alberto Contador returns to cycling circuit, but showdown looms over doping claims (The Christian Science Monitor)

Madrid – A day after the Spanish cycling federation unexpectedly cleared him of doping allegations, triggering a wave of global criticism, an ecstatic Alberto Contador returned to competitive racing Thursday.

"This is an authentic victory. It’s a huge satisfaction for me and for the team," said Mr. Contador in Portugal ahead of the Tour of the Algarve.

But that satisfaction may be short-lived. If the International Cycling Union (UCI) and the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) are not satisfied with the Spanish interpretation of international doping rules, they have up to two months to request a fresh review from the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) in Lausanne, Switzerland, with whom the final decision would then rest.

At stake for Mr. Contador is his 2010 Tour de France victory and the ability to try for a fourth title this year. But for the international sports community, the implications could be far greater if his case is taken up again.

At issue is a potentially landmark decision in a broader decades-old debate: whether the burden of proof in doping cases should lie with athletes or with the agencies and officials tasked with keeping sports free of illegal drugs.

As WADA's alphabet-soup list of banned drugs has grown since the organization was founded a decade ago, numerous athletes who have tested positive – including Contador – have argued that the illegal substance found in their body was a result of food or supplement contamination, rather than intentional doping.

If Contador's case – one of the most high profile in cycling – goes to CAS, it could become a showdown. On one side are those, including WADA, who insist that an athlete is responsible for cheating no matter what his or her motives. On the other are those who argue that the anti-doping regime has become too bureaucratic and dogmatic to mete out justice in doping cases, where the science is still being refined and intent is often hard to prove.

Two key issues: Intent and impartialityThe decision to exonerate Contador came as a surprise. European media broadly questioned the reversal only three weeks after the Spanish federation communicated its provisional decision to suspend the cyclist for one year – a move that would have stripped him of his latest Tour de France title.

Contador, a three-time Tour champion, has claimed that the clenbuterol detected during a rest day of the last Tour de France came from a contaminated steak a friend brought for him. Clenbuterol, an agent used to improve leanness in cattle and humans, has been banned in Europe for decades and even Spanish cattle herder associations accused the cyclist of mudding up their image.

Two key issues are whether Contador intended to take the drug – a condition referred to as "intentionality" – and whether the Spanish cycling federation showed partiality in clearing the national hero of doping charges. International sports officials have lobbied for the Court of Arbitration to get to the bottom of both questions.

“I strongly hope that UCI and WADA appeal to CAS to ensure that this case is really solved,” said International Olympic Committee Vice President Thomas Bach on Wednesday, speaking to German media.

IN PICTURES: Scenes from the 2010 Tour de France

The Swiss arbitration court would not treat the case as an appeal, but rather a do-over.

“It’s [international bodies] saying they are not content and want the investigation redone. It’s tried all over again,” says Jan Paulsson, one of more than 100 CAS arbitrators. “You don’t want to have any suspicion that a national federation might show favoritism.”

“It’s up to the athlete to prove that whatever product got into his system – in this case clenbuterol – got in without his knowledge,” UCI president Pat McQuaid told journalists from the Tour of Oman. “In this case, my understanding is that Contador has not proven that, but until such time as we see the full dossier we can't really comment on it.”

Contador's intent under scrutinyThe Spanish champ is fighting an uphill battle, experts agree.

“The general rule is that doping infractions are not about intentionality of having an unfair advantage. You have violated the rules because you have illegal substance in your body and it's your duty to see that you don’t,” says Paulsson. “It’s not up to doping authorities is to prove intentionality. The system couldn’t work and it would die.”

He cited the example of equestrian cases when owners allege a horse’s hay is contaminated by competitors to disqualify them. “The witness can’t tell you much, so how do you decide? It makes legislating on this area difficult.”

Contador has accused anti-doping organizations of making him a scapegoat. He called for revamping current rules to set minimum thresholds for investigation, arguing that as testing technologies advance they are able to detect increasingly minute traces that may be due to contamination rather than intentional doping.

But few expect any change of heart from international bodies.

“Contamination has been an issue for years. It becomes more of an issue as detections improves," says Howard Jacobs, a California-based lawyer who advocates for athletes in doping cases, including Floyd Landis, the only cyclist to have been stripped of the Tour de France. "As tests get more sensitive you will have more contamination cases. But so far WADA has not shown any inclination to adopt lower thresholds to deal with these contamination problems.”

Mr. Jacobs helped Jessica Hardy, a US swimmer who missed the Beijing Olympics after testing positive for clenbuterol, to win a reduced sentence on the grounds that the drug had come from a contaminated food supplement – a ruling CAS upheld.

In Contador’s case, the Spanish federation appears to have backed the cyclist's allegations that he didn’t knowingly dope himself and that the minute traces of clenbuterol found in his body could not have been ingested voluntarily, much less with the intent of improving his performance. Some medical experts support those arguments in Contador’s case.

Spain under fire for partialityThe official justification of Spain’s federation hasn’t been made public, but Contador’s defense made no secret of its arguments.

The reversal also came after last week’s unusual support from Spanish Prime Minister José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero, who tweeted “there is no legal reason” to justify a suspension of Contador.

The UCI’s top official criticized the tweet as meddling.

“It’s up to sport to police itself and sport should be allowed to do that," said McQuaid. “I don't think [the process] should be interfered with by politicians when they don't know the full facts.”

McQuaid called the involvement “unwarranted” and warned “it doesn't help the image of Spain either. It shows they’re biased towards supporting their own regardless of what the facts of the case might be.”

He hopes a final decision will be made before the next Tour de France in July.

Contador argues that the case is not about "patriotism" but is a "legal and scientific issue." But meanwhile, he is enjoying being back in the saddle with fellow competitors.

"I haven't had this much fun for some time," said Contador after today's race. "These have been some tough months."

IN PICTURES: Scenes from the 2010 Tour de France

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Iran opposition returns to streets, energized by Egypt (The Christian Science Monitor)

Baghdad, Iraq – Energized by people power revolts in Tunisia and Egypt, the opposition in Iran took to the streets on Monday, breaking a spell of fear and intimidation for the first time in more than a year.

Security forces fired tear gas, paintball guns, and bullets into the air, to disperse crowds as tens of thousands of protesting Iranians defied rally bans in Tehran and major cities to voice their solidarity with Arab revolts and anger at Iran's hard-line leaders.

Officials had declared the opposition Green Movement a "corpse," while taking every measure to preempt a rekindling of past protests – and lethal street battles – that lasted for weeks after disputed June 2009 elections.

Exclusive Monitor photos of Egypt's revolution

The irony wasn't lost on Iran's latent opposition in recent days, as Iran's top leaders claimed to be at the forefront of a popular "Islamic awakening" that was sweeping across the Arab world – but would not allow it to touch Iran.

"The government tried to say this movement is dead, it's a corpse," says an observer in Tehran who could not be named. "But for a corpse, you don't organize maximum security forces all over Tehran. This is the most important point today.... Do [hard-liners] doubt finally? Or still hold the illusion that it's just a few hundred crazy people out there?"

"It's not that the number is huge by any standards," adds the observer. "It's huge because there was so much repression during the last year, so these people risking and coming out was beyond expectation."

The fact that there was any turnout at all, after the systematic measures taken against the Green Movement and its leaders since mid-2009 – among them executions, rape in detention, and stiff prison sentences – served to invigorate its foot soldiers.

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"People will definitely believe in themselves again," says a London-based Iranian analyst who closely monitored events on Monday. "The [Green] Movement showed it still has strength.... It has, at least in people's hearts and minds, [been given] great boost of morale and knowing the movement is still there."

The scenes on the streets on Monday resembled those of the protests of 2009 against the declared reelection of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. Scores, if not hundreds, died and thousands were arrested then. More than 100 were charged with fomenting a "velvet revolution" in a show trial.

'Death to the dictator'On Monday cellphone video showed people chanting "Death to the dictator," and linking Iran's supreme religious leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, to ousted Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak.

One poster made for the event showed comparison pictures of Mr. Mubarak and President Ahmadinejad striking the same arms-raised-in-victory pose. That was a note struck by US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, who called for the Iranian government to recognize the “aspirations” of its people, as it had for Egyptians.

“What we see happening in Iran today is a testament to the courage of the Iranian people and an indictment of the hypocrisy of the Iranian regime, a regime which over the last three weeks has constantly hailed what went on in Egypt,” Mrs. Clinton said. “And now, when given the opportunity to afford their people the same rights as they called for on behalf of the Egyptian people, [they] once again illustrate their true nature.”

State television dismissed the protesters as "hypocrites, monarchists, thugs, and seditionists who wanted to create public disorder in Iran [and] were arrested by our brave nation.... These people set garbage bins on fire and damaged public property."

In one violent episode caught on video, a basiji religious militiaman tried to stop a crowd desecrating a banner with a portrait of Ayatollah Khamenei and the founder of Iran's 1979 Islamic Revolution, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini. The basiji was viciously kicked and beaten as an agent of the regime.

The government tried to headline news of Turkish President Abdullah Gul's visit to Iran. But Mr. Gul's call for Middle East leaders to hear their people gave Iran's opposition a boost.

"We see that sometimes, when the leaders and heads of countries do not pay attention to the nations' demands, the people themselves take action to achieve their demands," Gul said on Monday during a joint news conference with Ahmadinejad.

Green Movement protests peaked in December 2009, but huge rallies planned for February 2010 were preempted by arrests and saturation deployment of security forces and intelligence agents.

Virtual house arrest for opposition leadersSince then opposition leaders – former presidential candidates Mir Hossein Mousavi and Mehdi Karroubi, both of them senior former officials – have been under virtual house arrest and vilified by hard-line officials as traitors.

Before his phone lines were cut off, his house surrounded, and guards placed to prevent visits from anyone, including his children – and to prevent him from attending Monday's demonstration –Mr. Karroubi told The New York Times in a Skype interview last week that the event was a test for the Iranian regime.

"If they are not going to allow their own people to protest, it goes against everything they are saying, and all they are doing to welcome the protests in Egypt is fake," said Karroubi.

Prior to Monday's protest, dozens of journalists and activists were detained, though protest routes had already been mapped out in 30 cities and circulated on the Internet.

On Monday, security forces in riot gear – and in some places, according to eyewitnesses, wearing face masks for the first time – deployed in major squares and patrolled the streets in motorcycle posses.

The security forces have "also learned," since 2009, says the London analyst. "They are showing crowd management now, less thug-like and more trained. Still brutal, but dispersing people before a nucleus is formed, funneling [crowds] to keep [people] moving."

Still, he says, the images of Iran's most sacred leadership icons being driven over by cars – even more than video of burning trash bins and clashes – are the ones that will resonate at the top in Iran.

"It took ages to get there [in 2009], but a few hours this time," he says. "It's there, the people do have it in them."

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