Latvia enjoys strongest growth in EU

LATVIA'S economy grew 5.6 per cent last year - the best performance among the 27-country European Union - thanks to robust trade and manufacturing.

The national statistics agency said on Monday that growth accelerated from 5.4 per cent in 2011.

In the fourth quarter of 2012, gross domestic product increased 5.1 per cent.

Though Latvia is enjoying fast growth, it remains one of the poorest of the bloc's 27 members.

After several years of rapid expansion, the country's economy entered a deep recession in 2008 and had to be bailed out by international lenders such as the EU and the International Monetary Fund.

The Baltic state's centre-right government hopes to phase in the euro in 2014, which would make it the 18th member in the currency union.

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N Korea accused of crimes against humanity

A UN human rights monitor has accused North Korea of committing a string of crimes against humanity, laying out a litany of abuses before the world body's top rights forum.

Marzuki Darusman told the UN Human Rights Council he had identified nine areas of key concern, including depriving the population of food, torture, enforced disappearances, arbitrary detention, the use of prison camps and the secretive regime's denial of freedom of expression.

"I believe that many, if not all, of the nine patterns of violation, identified in my present report, may amount to crimes against humanity, committed as part of systematic and or widespread attacks against civilian population," Darusman, who hails from Indonesia, told the Council on Monday as he presented a report on the situation in North Korea.

He pressed his demands for an international commission of inquiry into the human rights record of North Korea, which repeatedly has refused to co-operate with Darusman and other United Nations investigators.

Japan and the European Union are set to lodge a resolution at the Council creating such a commission.

Last month, UN human rights chief Navi Pillay decried the "deplorable" situation in North Korea, saying a commission of inquiry was "long overdue".

But North Korea rejected the criticism on Monday, with its delegate Kim Ju-song claiming Darusman was in league with "hostile forces", citing Japan, the EU and the United States.

"We make it clear again. The human rights violations identified in this report do not exist," Kim said.

North Korea won support at the Council from China, whose delegate said creating a commission of inquiry could "escalate tensions".

Iran, Cuba and Venezuela also criticised the plan, calling for dialogue, not naming and shaming, and accusing the West of double standards.

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Cuba lost best friend: Castro on Chavez

FORMER president Fidel Castro has eulogised Venezuela's Hugo Chavez as "the best friend Cuba ever had", in his first remarks since the death of his protege and his country's long-time benefactor.

Writing in the daily Granma newspaper, Castro eulogised Chavez, who died last week, as "an unforgettable friend" who "did not even himself realise just how great he was".

"Even though we knew the critical state of his health, the news (of Chavez's death) was a heavy blow," the revolutionary icon wrote in a brief newspaper column.

Castro, 86, added that he and Chavez "had the privilege of sharing the same ideals of social justice and help for the exploited. The poor are the same everywhere throughout the world."

Chavez passed away on March 5 after a years-long battle with cancer, after undergoing surgery and treatment almost exclusively in Cuba.

His death was a major blow to Havana, which for more than a decade has relied heavily on cheap Venezuelan oil and favourable terms of trade to keep its economy afloat.

The two countries were also close ideological partners and political allies, often finding common cause against the United States and global capitalism.

Chavez was seen as the region's leftist firebrand in the tradition of Fidel Castro, who resigned Cuba's presidency in 2008 after a health crisis.

Venezuela has announced it will hold elections in 30 days with Nicolas Maduro, Chavez's hand-picked successor and now interim president, faced off against opposition leader Henrique Capriles.

Capriles, who is also the governor of Miranda state, was defeated by Chavez in the presidential election in October last year.

Cuba was represented at Chavez's funeral in Venezuela last week by current President Raul Castro, Fidel's younger brother.

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Local militias used in Syria mass killings

THE Syrian regime appears to be using local militias known as Popular Committees to carry out sometimes sectarian mass killings in Syria, a UN inquiry team says.

"In a disturbing and dangerous trend, mass killings allegedly perpetrated by Popular Committees have at times taken on sectarian overtones," the UN commission of inquiry, led by Brazilian Paulo Pinheiro, said in an update to its latest report on the situation in Syria, without giving concrete examples of the killings.

The groups, it said, were frequently described as Shabbiha militias and were reportedly being set up to protect their neighbourhoods against anti-government armed groups and criminal gangs.

But the groups, which according to defectors "mirror the ethnic, religious and class composition of the neighbourhoods they protect", had evolved to reinforce government forces, the report found, adding their presence had been documented across Syria.

"Recently, the regime has begun to integrate the Popular Committees along with other sympathising groups in a new paramilitary force called the National Defence Forces, institutionalising the existing militias and organising them into an operational structure," it said.

The commission, which on Monday presented the findings of its report published last month to the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva, said the past two months had seen a rapid deterioration of the situation in Syria.

Syrian ambassador Faysal Khabbaz Hamoni, meanwhile, lambasted the report, which he said was full of errors and based on "testimonials of which the reliability and truthfulness we question".

The commission - set up in 2011 at the behest of the UN Human Rights Council - has previously detailed what it believes are war crimes and crimes against humanity committed by Syrian government forces and their allies, and, to a lesser extent, by opposition fighters.

It is set to submit a confidential list of names of suspected perpetrators to the UN human rights office, and has repeatedly urged the deadlocked UN Security Council to refer the cases to the International Criminal Court.

Switzerland on Monday, meanwhile, presented a petition signed by 63 countries calling for the Security Council to refer the Syrian violence to the International Criminal Court.

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OECD sees signs of eurozone growth

EUROZONE economic growth is beginning to emerge, especially in Germany, leading OECD indicators show.

In France and Italy, the second and third biggest eurozone economies after Germany, the trend was not as strong however, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) said on Monday.

In France, leading indicators pointed towards a "stabilisation" of business activity, whereas they had suggested in February that business activity could start to show slight growth.

Italy was also considered to be in a stabilising phase, which would be an improvement from a recent period of decline.

The OECD indicators are designed to identify turning points in the economic cycle, but they also pointed towards sustained growth in both the United States and Japan, the world's biggest and third biggest economies, respectively.

The data for number two China, for India and to a lesser extent for Brazil suggest that economic growth will continue but at a pace that is below trend, while Russia was tipped to benefit from a rebound in activity.

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Mandela leaves hospital after tests

PEACE icon Nelson Mandela is back home after spending a night in hospital for a "scheduled medical check-up", the South African president's office says.

"Former President Nelson Mandela has this afternoon ... returned to his Johannesburg home following a successful medical examination at a Pretoria hospital," presidential spokesman Mac Maharaj said in an emailed statement.

"The doctors have completed the tests. He is well and as before, his health remains under the management of the medical team," said Maharaj.

Mandela had been admitted on Saturday for "a scheduled medical check-up to manage the existing conditions in line with his age", less than three months after being treated for a lung infection and gallstones.

News of his latest hospitalisation sparked concern the 94-year-old had fallen ill again.

Mandela underwent treatment for a recurrent lung infection and surgery to extract gallstones over Christmas, during his longest stint in hospital since his release from prison in 1990.

He was discharged the day after Christmas and was last known to be convalescing at his Johannesburg home.

The revered statesman has not appeared in public since South Africa's Football World Cup final in 2010, six years after retiring.

Since then he has stayed out of the public eye at his rural home village Qunu in the Eastern Cape.

The last confirmed image of the statesman was a picture taken with then-US secretary of state Hillary Clinton, when she visited him last August.

At the beginning of February two of his granddaughters released a picture of a smiling Mandela sitting with his youngest great-grandson in an arm-chair.

It was taken to show his recovery after his December hospitalisation, they said while promoting their new reality show, Being Mandela.

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Karzai-Hagel event off due to security

AFGHAN President Hamid Karzai has cancelled a high-profile news conference in Kabul with new US Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel, with US officials saying the event was dropped over "security concerns".

A palace official, who declined to be named, said however the news conference had been cancelled because of "scheduling pressure", without giving further details.

Karzai and Hagel's appearance together in front of the cameras was to be a key part of the Pentagon chief's first visit to Afghanistan since he was sworn in 11 days ago and as US-Afghan ties focus on the withdrawal of foreign troops.

The start of Hagel's trip on Friday was overshadowed by a suicide bombing outside the defence ministry in Kabul.

Nine people were killed in the explosion that occurred while the defence secretary was in a briefing at a nearby US military base in the city.

Karzai also made a contentious speech on Sunday in which he said the US was in daily talks with the Taliban and that insurgent suicide attacks enabled the US-led international military force to justify its presence in Afghanistan.

"The Secretary is looking forward to meeting President Karzai," Hagel's spokesman said about their meeting, which was still on schedule. "The press conference was not cancelled because of the president's recent comments."

The decision was "reached in consultation with our Afghan partners", George Little added.

US officials travelling with Hagel said on condition of anonymity the news conference had been "cancelled due to security concerns".

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