news20091229cnn

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[World]
December 29, 2009 -- Updated 0913 GMT (1713 HKT)
China executes British citizen for drug smuggling
STORY HIGHLIGHTS
> NEW: China defended the execution in a statement issued by the Chinese Embassy in London
> Akmal Shaikh's supporters said he was mentally ill and officials did not take that into account when trying him
> British government had asked China not to execute Shaikh but China says it has followed law

(CNN) -- The British government condemned China's execution of a British national Tuesday on drug smuggling charges.

"I ... am appalled and disappointed that our persistent requests for clemency have not been granted," Prime Minister Gordon Brown said. "I am particularly concerned that no mental health assessment was undertaken."

Akmal Shaikh was convicted of carrying up to 4 kilograms (8.8 pounds) of heroin at the Urumqi Airport in September 2007. According to Chinese law, 50 grams (1.76 ounces) is the threshold for the death penalty.

China defended the execution in a statement issued by the Chinese Embassy in London.

"Drug trafficking is a grave crime worldwide," the statement said. "The concerns of the British side have been duly noted and taken into consideration by the Chinese judicial authorities in the legal process, and Mr. Shaikh's rights and interests under Chinese law are properly respected and guaranteed."

The 53-year-old is the first European executed in China in 50 years, according to the British legal group Reprieve.

"The family express their grief at the Chinese decision to refuse mercy," a statement released by Reprieve said, thanking "all those who tried hard to bring about a different result."

His family and the British government had asked Chinese leaders for clemency. His supporters argued that Shaikh was mentally ill, and that Chinese officials did not take his mental condition into account when trying him. Shaikh's advocates say he suffered from a bipolar disorder and that he was tricked into carrying heroin into China with promises of a career as a pop singer.

Brown raised Shaikh's case with Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao during the international climate summit in Denmark earlier this month.

British Foreign Secretary David Miliband echoed Gordon's concerns about the execution.

"The UK is completely opposed to the use of the death penalty in all circumstances," Miliband said. "However, I also deeply regret the fact that our specific concerns about the individual in this case were not taken into consideration. ... These included mental health issues, and inadequate professional interpretation during the trial."

Sally Rowen, legal director with Reprieve, condemned the execution.

"The death of Akmal Shaikh is a sad indictment of today's world, and particularly of China's legal system," she said. "Akmal was a gentle man who suffered from a tormenting illness ... and was betrayed and deliberately killed by one of the most powerful nations on Earth."

Before the execution, Philip Alston, the U.N. special rapporteur on extrajudicial executions, said it would be a "major step backwards for China" to execute a mentally ill man.

"Both Chinese and international law clearly indicate that a person who committed a crime while suffering from significant mental illness should not be subjected to the death penalty," Alston said in a statement released by Reprieve.


[Business]
By James Blitz and Ben Hall, FT.com
December 29, 2009 -- Updated 0830 GMT (1630 HKT)
French most downbeat on economic future
STORY HIGHLIGHTS
> The French are markedly more pessimistic about their prospects for the coming decade
> Poll asked people in Britain, France, Germany, Italy, Spain and the US
> More Americans than Europeans also felt their economic prospects better today than in 2000

(FT) -- The French are markedly more pessimistic about their prospects for the coming decade than their counterparts in Europe or the US, fearing they will have progressively lower living standards and get less state help, according to a new opinion poll.

A Harris poll for the Financial Times asked people in Britain, France, Germany, Italy, Spain and the US whether they felt they were better off than 10 years ago, and to assess how they will have fared by 2020.

The poll found that, in spite of the US recession, Americans were more optimistic than Europeans about the prospects ahead.

A higher percentage of Americans than Europeans also felt their personal standard of living was better today than it was in 2000.

Some 44 per cent of French people -- a higher percentage than in any other country -- said they felt pessimistic about the decade to come. The same number also said their standard of living was worse today than it was in 2000, again a figure higher than in any other nation polled.

France also emerged as the gloomiest of the nations surveyed on nearly every other question posed by Harris.

Asked whether they thought their national government was keeping more information about them now than was the case 10 years ago, some 72 per cent of French respondents agreed. Some 75 per cent said they expected the government to offer them less state help over the next decade.

Both numbers were far higher than those of either the US or other European states.

Only once in the poll was the gloom of the French trumped by another state.

Asked whether they felt more or less safe than they did 10 years ago, some 46 per cent of Italians said they felt less safe, narrowly beating the French on 44 per cent.

Britain, meanwhile, emerged in the poll as the second gloomiest country of those surveyed, after France.

Some 36 per cent of Britons say they are "pessimistic" about the coming decade. Nearly seven out of 10 Britons also believe the state will be doing less for them and their families by 2020 -- a figure that is higher than any other country except France.

The election in France of President Nicolas Sarkozy in May 2007 was greeted with a burst of optimism, but that has proved short-lived as public opinion has turned against him.

One reason for the pessimism is that many French people fear Mr Sarkozy's reform drive, and future efforts to restore order to the public finances, will mean cuts to France's generous welfare and health systems.

Ironically, France has suffered a less severe recession than other large developed economies in 2009.


[World]
December 29, 2009 -- Updated 0823 GMT (1623 HKT)
NATO acknowledges deaths in Afghanistan
STORY HIGHLIGHTS
> NATO says it has launched a joint investigation with the Afghan government
> The U.S.-led operation took place in the Narang district of Kunar province on Saturday
> U.S. military's goal is to protect population centers, Commander McChrystal says

Kabul, Afghanistan (CNN) -- NATO officials on Tuesday admitted that a weekend operation in northeastern Afghanistan's Kunar province killed nine people but would not say whether they were civilians or militants.

The governor of the province told CNN on Monday that 10 people were killed and that all of them were civilians.

NATO said it has launched a joint investigation with the Afghan government to determine who died in the U.S.-led operation in the Narang district of the province on Saturday.

Said Fazelayallah, Kunar's governor, said the operation was launched without the knowledge of officials in the province.

Civilian casualties during U.S. airstrikes against Taliban targets have strained the relationship between Afghanistan and the United States.

The numbers have fallen off in recent months since Lt. Gen. Stanley McChrystal took over as U.S. commander in Afghanistan.

The military's goal is to protect population centers to enable the government to improve security and governance., McChrystal told CNN's Christiane Amanpour earlier this month. Civilian casualties, he said, make it less likely that the Afghans will support the coalition.

"It is better to miss a target than to cause civilian casualties," he said. "We can always target enemy leaders later. We can't make up for the fact that we killed civilians."