Newspaper : 23rd October

Haider's deputy reveals gay affair. Tony Paterson, The Independent (en)
" ... Conservative Austria was in a state of shock today after the male successor to Jörg Haider admitted to having a longstanding “special relationship” with the far right leader ...
... Admitting that he felt a “magnetic attraction” for Haider, whom he met five years ago while working as a cosmetics reporter, Mr Petzner insisted: “We had a relationship that went far beyond friendship. Jörg and I were connected by something truly special. He was the man of my life.” ...
... The revelations came after photographs in the Austrian media showing Mr Haider in a gay bar shortly before his fatal accident. Witnesses who were present at a magazine launch party where the two men were seen together on the night of the crash were quoted today as saying that Mr Haider had left in a hurry after an emotional argument with his deputy ...
... Although his party was nicknamed the “Haider’s boy party”, until today conservative Austria had preferred to embrace his public persona as a traditional family man. Mr Petzner’s revelations have shattered that charade, and there was speculation today that after not even a month in the job, he might soon find himself replaced as leader of the Alliance for the Future of Austria ..."

There's a lesson in French resistance to Carla culture. Lisa Armstrong, The Times (en)
" ... Two of the bookshops around my hotel feigned blissful ignorance that any such book might exist, which made me wonder whether the half-dozen Carla biographies I'd seen in Geneva airport earlier this year had been a mirage. A semi-interested assistant in a third shop pointed me to a back shelf, but it turned out to be a false lead. Eventually a taxi driver suggested that I try Fnac, where they sell things “like that” ...
... He took pity on me. “If you really want to perfect your French, go and see my colleague over there and he'll sort you out. Even when you're reading a foreign language, you shouldn't settle for mediocrity.”
Not too many hours later, I emerged from Fnac sans Carla, but armed with Colette's Gigi and Françoise Sagan's Aimez-vous Brahms - books selected largely, I admit, because they were thin and had nice covers ..."

Donors find $4.5bn for Georgia. Tony Barber and Guy Dinmore, The FT (en)
" ... Given the financial difficulties there are now on a global scale, to show this much support is something no Georgian will ever forget,” said Lado Gurgenidze, Georgia’s prime minister, at a donors’ conference in Brussels. The amount pledged was significantly higher than the target of about $3.2bn (€2.5bn, £2bn) set in a pre-conference assessment of Georgia’s needs by the World Bank and other international agencies ...
... More than half the contributions will come from the European Union, which, through its executive Commission and 27 member states, will provide about $1.5bn, and the US, which will give $1bn. Other funds will take the form of low interest loans from international development banks ..."

Berlin prepares stimulus package. Bertrand Benoit, The FT (en)
" ... The government reduced its 2009 gross domestic product growth forecast last week from 1.2 to 0.2 per cent and several economists fear the economy could even shrink next year.
Although details of what will be included are yet to be announced, the move confirms that Berlin is no longer aiming to balance the federal budget by 2011, once a central goal of Angela Merkel, the chancellor ... "

Hungary lifts rates to defend currency. Thomas Escritt and Roman Olearchyk, The FT (en)
" ... Hungary on Wednesday raised its base interest rate 300 basis points to 11.5 per cent in an attempt to support the currency and stabilise financial markets reeling from the global credit crisis ...
... The central bank’s unexpected intervention and the market’s uncertain response spread fears of contagion in other central and eastern Europe markets ...
... Economists said that higher interest rates could accelerate the decline of economic growth in the region, with Hungary, the slowest-growing economy outside the Baltic states, possibly falling into recession next year. Danske Bank said: “We would stress that rate hikes not only have a negative impact on growth, but also on the funding costs for banks in the region" ..."

Loose Lips Lead to Trouble for British Tories. Sarah Lyall, The NYT (en)
" The meetings took place this summer in various picturesque spots on the Greek island of Corfu: a Russian billionaire’s yacht, a Rothschild family villa, a charming local taverna ... There are many embarrassed participants here. But the most embarrassed could well be the opposition Conservative Party ...
... The basic issue is simple: Did George Osborne, the Conservative’s brash spokesman for economic affairs, solicit an $80,000 donation from the fabulously rich Russian oligarch Oleg Deripaska? Mr. Osborne says he did not. “We never asked for a donation, nor did we receive one,” he declared Tuesday ...
... "This raises questions about the honesty and reliability and integrity of the political class as a whole,” said Anthony King, a professor of British government at the University of Essex. “People think that this kind of affair is inconsistent with liberal democracy, that this is not the way these things ought to work.” ... "