UK to tackle social problems after riots

Britain needs to tackle deep-seated social problems following riots and looting in English cities this week, the centre-right govt said, and a US street crime expert it has brought in said arrests alone would not solve the problem. 

“There are communities that have just been left behind by the rest of the country. There are communities that are cut-off from the economic life-blood of the rest of the country,” Finance Minister George Osborne said.

Prime Minister David Cameron, criticised by some in his Conservative party as being too liberal on crime and punishment, has taken a hard line on rioting in statements this week after returning from his summer holiday and recalling parliament.

He has also come under attack for austerity measures his government is introducing to tackle a huge debt burden.

Osborne said the government intends to press on with deep cuts to police numbers. The Conservative mayor of London, Boris Johnson, has said the riots weakened the case for those cuts.

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The riots broke out a week ago after a demonstration against the police shooting of a suspect.

Cameron has said political and economic grievances had little to do with days of looting and violence in which five people were killed, calling it “criminality pure and simple” and saying gang violence lay at its heart.

He enlisted U.S. street crime expert William Bratton on Friday to advise the government on handling it.

Bratton, credited with curbing street crime as police chief in New York, Los Angeles and Boston, told Reuters on Friday he would offer advice based on his experience tackling gangs.

“You can’t arrest your way out of the problem,” he said on U.S. broadcaster ABC on Saturday. “Arrest is certainly appropriate for the most violent, the incorrigible, but so much of it can be addressed in other ways and it’s not just a police issue, it is in fact a societal issue.”

Cities were largely quiet on Friday and Saturday. British police flooded the streets again on Friday night to ensure weekend drinking does not reignite the rioting that shocked Britons and sullied the country’s image a year before it hosts the Olympic Games.

More than 1,200 people have been arrested in connection with violence disorder and looting and hundreds have been charged.

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Scandals, economy take toll on Brazil's Rousseff

Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff has suffered the first major fall in her popularity, a poll showed on Wednesday, as she battles a rash of corruption scandals and a slowing economy.

Although her ratings remain relatively high, a sustained fall could undermine the 63-year-old career civil servant's ability to stay the course on economic austerity measures and make it harder to push reforms through an unruly Congress.

Rousseff's approval rating dropped 6 percentage points to 67 percent, while the number of those who disapproved more than doubled to 25 percent, a survey by the Ibope polling firm showed.

"People had expectations that weren't fulfilled," said Flavio Castelo Branco, director of economic policy with the National Industry Confederation, which releases the poll.

The center-left Rousseff took office on January 1 amid high expectations, buoyed by a roaring economy and the huge success of her predecessor and patron, Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva.

But she has faced an increasingly tough economic environment, plagued by inflation and a marked slowdown in growth even before the global market plunges of recent days.

Her government adopted $30 billion in unpopular budget cuts and has hiked interest rates five times to 12.5 percent to combat inflation, jacking up costs for the country's credit-reliant consumers. She has taken a tougher stand against corruption and nepotism than Lula, angering her main coalition partner but apparently failing to reap the reward of greater public support.

Further falls in polls could rob her of the crucial political clout she needs to maintain budget cuts and continue to root out corruption in ministries.

"She needs to improve her communication skills or she risks losing more political capital," said Rafael Cortez, a political analyst with Tendencias consultancy in Sao Paulo.

HIGHER RATES UNPOPULAR

Despite some improvement, Rousseff still shies from public appearances and, unlike the charismatic Lula, struggles to connect with ordinary people.

Among planned reforms to improve Brazil's growth prospects that have yet to be taken up by Congress are an overhaul of the country's Byzantine tax code, and legislation to regulate royalties from the country's oil riches.

With the mounting global crisis set to slow Brazil's economic growth more than initially expected, Rousseff aides fear her ratings could turn further south.

"Her biggest concern right now is the economy," said a source in the presidential palace on condition of anonymity.

Investment bank Credit Suisse lowered its 2011 economic growth forecast for Brazil on Tuesday to 2.9 percent, well below the consensus of around 4 percent and a far cry from last year's stellar performance of 7.5 percent.

Rousseff's disapproval ratings rose across the board in the Ibope poll, from education to health and public security. But the biggest jump in dissatisfaction came in monetary policy, rising 20 percentage points to 63 percent.

Rousseff's fight against poverty got the best marks from poll respondents, though that rating also fell from the previous poll in March. She has made the eradication of extreme poverty a major policy goal and launched her flagship social welfare program in June.

Since June, Rousseff has lost three cabinet members to graft and ethics scandals and faces fresh corruption scandals in the agriculture and tourism ministries.

The Ibope survey polled 2002 people from July 28-31 and has a margin of error of plus or minus 2 percentage points.

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Greeks protest, almost half oppose austerity

Thousands of Greeks marched on parliament on Saturday in a show of unabated public anger after Prime Minister George Papandreou vowed to push on with an austerity campaign that a poll showed half the country opposed.

In a move meant to stifle dissent in his Socialist Party, Papandreou on Friday dismissed Finance Minister George Papaconstantinou, architect of a new five-year austerity programme that has sparked weeks of protests.

The reshuffle coincided with a pledge by France and Germany to continue funding Athens, a move that may have bought Greece and its fellow euro zone members time to prevent a messy default, even if doubts over its longer-term solvency persist.

The European Union and International Monetary Fund have made the reforms a condition for a new bailout package worth an estimated 120 billion euros ($170 billion) that Greece, shut out of markets, will need to fund itself through 2014.

Around 5,000 protesters from the Communist group PAME marched into Athens' central Syntagma square -- where demonstrations turned violent earlier this week -- chanting "the measures are killing us!"

French activists also performed with a three-metre puppet depicting a bloodied figure of Lady Justice to rhythmic drumming, in a gesture of solidarity with Greek protesters who have camped in the square for three weeks.

"What has changed with the reshuffle? Nothing," said Costas, a 22-year-old student who has been camping on the square since the beginning of the month. "We are not planning to leave unless they take back the measures."

An opinion poll taken before the reshuffle showed 47.5 percent of respondents wanted parliament to reject the reform package and for Greece to hold early elections.

Just over a third -- 34.8 percent -- wanted it to be approved so Athens could secure the second bailout.

Constantinos Routzounis, head of pollsters Kapa Research, said Greeks were not against austerity in itself but thought the reforms were unfairly aimed at the poor while wealthy tax evaders and corrupt politicians got off lightly.

"People don't want Greece to exit the euro zone. They do want fiscal consolidation measures -- but more just ones," he told personally.

Greece's biggest union GSEE, representing around 2 million workers in the private sector, called for a 48-hour strike when parliament votes on what has been dubbed the mid-term plan. The government hopes that will happen by end-June.

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