Portugal economy to contract: bank

THE Portuguese economy is set to contract by 2.3 per cent this year due to a sharp fall in domestic demand and disappointing export growth, the Bank of Portugal says.

With the new forecast, which predicts a deeper contraction than an earlier estimate of 1.9 per cent, Portugal is now in line with estimations made by Lisbon's creditors, the European Union (EU) and the International Monetary Fund (IMF).

The central bank outlook expected Portugal's economy to grow by 1.1 per cent in 2014 despite headwinds caused by new austerity measures necessary to stay in line with the country's 78 billion euros ($A96.53 billion) bailout program, negotiated in May 2011.

With recession deepening, Portugal this month won an extra year from creditors to bring its public deficit into line with EU limits, as it faces record unemployment and mounting social discontent.

Portugal, suffering its worst recession in 40 years, now has until 2015 to bring the deficit below 3.0 per cent of gross domestic product (GDP).

Eurozone countries are obliged to run public deficits of no more than 3.0 per cent of output, and are supposed to work towards a balanced budget, and even a surplus in times of economic growth.

Portugal's troika of public creditors, the EU, IMF and the European Central Bank, gave the extra leeway as they approved an eighth payment of emergency aid to the country as part of the program.

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Cold lambs feast on chocolate eggs

TWO lambs have caused mayhem at a popular UK tourist attraction after trying to scoff a pile of a quarter of a million chocolate Easter eggs.

A ewe and the two lambs were found in the egg store at Wookey Hole Caves in Somerset where staff believe they went to try to escape the unseasonably cold weather.

Thousands of chocolate eggs will have to be destroyed but the tourist attraction say their suppliers have agreed to deliver more before the weekend Bank Holiday fun.

General manager Daniel Medley said: "The eggs were delivered at the weekend and somehow this ewe and her lambs got out of their usual accommodation and made their way in there.

"We think it was a bit warmer in there or maybe the smell of the chocolate attracted them.

"It was pretty clear from the chocolate stuck to their wool who was responsible.

"There were pallets with 250,000 eggs on them and we believe a few thousand will have to be destroyed.

"Thankfully, our suppliers just laughed and have agreed to deliver some more before Good Friday.

"The baby lambs are usually very popular with the children at Easter but so are the chocolate eggs.

"They are so cute that we couldn't be too angry with them. We may get them to stand in the naughty corner over the weekend as a punishment.

The eggs had been purchased for an Easter egg competition.

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Native title boss to step down

THE boss of the body that oversees native title claims in Australia is stepping down after almost two decades of involvement with Aboriginal land rights.

National Native Title Tribunal president Graeme Neate announced on Tuesday he would leave the role at the end of March, after 17 years with the organisation.

In a statement, Mr Neate said it had been rewarding to be part of helping reconciliation among all Australians.

"There are now 222 registered determinations of native title, including 174 that native title exists," Mr Neate said.

"These determinations cover approximately 20 per cent of the land mass of Australia as well as large areas of sea, particularly in northern Australia.

"Most of the determinations that native title exist have been made by the consent of the parties, without long, expensive and unpredictable litigation."

Native title was these days "a generally accepted part of the legal and social landscape of Australia", Mr Neate said.

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Italian star Lollobrigida auctions jewels

ITALIAN actress Gina Lollobrigida is to sell jewellery worth as much as three million euros ($A3.71 million), with some of the proceeds going to help stem cell research, auction house Sotheby's says.

Designed by Italian creator Bulgari in the 1950s and 1960s, the most valuable items being put up for auction in Geneva in May include pearl and diamond earrings and a 19.3-carat diamond ring.

Both pieces are valued at between $600,000 and one million dollars.

The jewels were displayed at an exhibition entitled Bulgari: 125 years of Italian magnificence at the Grand Palais in Paris in late 2010.

"All of the jewels to be sold by the actress have been estimated at between two and three million dollars," a Sotheby's spokeswoman told AFP.

She said she did not yet know whether the 85-year-old Italian star would be in Geneva for the auction on May 14.

Some of the most sought-after of the 22 pieces to go under the hammer are to be shown in London, Rome and New York in the run-up to the sale.

Lollobrigida, star of The World's Most Beautiful Woman and Come September, says she wants to devote herself to sculpture and "a sculptor doesn't need jewellery", Sotheby's said in a statement.

Some of the proceeds will go towards funding an international hospital for stem cell research, a cause Lollobrigida described as "close to her heart" and something that "every sick child should be able to benefit from".

David Bennett, the chairman of Sotheby's Switzerland, described the auction as "a wonderful opportunity for collectors to acquire seminal Bulgari pieces, imbued with Gina Lollobrigida's magical provenance".

Such sales often beat the auction house estimates.

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Breivik denied attendance at mum's funeral

NORWEGIAN prison authorities have rejected a request by mass killer Anders Behring Breivik to attend the funeral of his mother, who died last week after a long illness, his lawyer says.

Breivik, a 34-year-old right-wing extremist who is serving a 21-year jail sentence for killing 77 people in twin attacks in July 2011, is being held under strict prison conditions.

Officials at the high-security Ila prison near Oslo decided to extend his strict security regimen when it came up for review on Tuesday, and denied his request to attend the funeral, lawyer Tord Jordet told AFP in an email.

Wenche Behring Breivik, who died age 66, had shunned the spotlight after her son's attacks. She appeared to be the person closest to him, and he had described her as his "Achilles heel".

A single mother, she struggled to raise her son and his half-sister alone, and social services very early on hinted that Breivik might not have been receiving proper care at home. But he was never removed from her care.

As an adult, he returned to live with her and began plotting his attacks in an apartment the two shared.

She did not attend his trial, citing health reasons, but had visited him in prison, according to media reports.

Accusing the Labour party of facilitating multiculturalism, Breivik opened fire on the summer camp of the party's youth wing on July 22, 2011, killing 69 people, most of whom were teenagers.

His attack began in Oslo, where he set off a massive bomb outside the main government building, killing eight.

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Steenkamp parents tell of grief

THE parents of Oscar Pistorius' dead girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp have spoken of their grief over her killing.

June and Barry Steenkamp are still trying to come to terms with the death of their daughter shot dead at Pistorius' home in the upmarket region of Pretoria, South Africa, in the early hours of Valentine's Day.

Pistorius, a double amputee and six-time Paralympic sprint champion, was charged with premeditated murder but says he killed his girlfriend accidentally opening fire after mistaking her for an intruder at his home.

Mrs Steenkamp told Grazia magazine said: "He (Pistorius) still has his thoughts. He still has to answer for this. I don't want anything from him. What could he say to me? My daughter is dead and nothing is going to change that. I don't ever want to see him.

"My biggest regret is that Reeva will never have a wedding day. She'll never have a child. This is forever. It's the end."

Mr Steenkamp said he hopes that he will know all the facts of what happened after the court case and have the strength to look Pistorius in the eye.

"I just feel it's necessary. For closure," he said.

They plan to scatter her ashes in the sea at Bloubergstrand with Table Mountain in the background, according to Grazia.

Their contact with Pistorius is now only through lawyers.

Pistorius, 26, who competed at both the London 2012 Olympics and Paralympics, is staying with relatives as he awaits trial accused of shooting dead Ms Steenkamp, a 30 year-old model.

Mrs Steenkamp said her daughter "led a very exciting life and tried to do everything" adding "it's almost as if she knew she only had a little time in which to get everything done".

Ms Steenkamp had told her parents that Pistorius was a good man and she had been impressed by his charity work and fundraising for children with disabilities, according to the magazine.

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Spain bank says recession to deepen

SPAIN will seek deeper into recession this year and the unemployment rate, which is already at a record 26 per cent, will rise further as it continues to feel the fallout of the collapse of a property bubble, the central bank says.

The Spanish economy, the eurozone's fourth largest after Germany, France and Italy, will shrink by 1.5 per cent this year, after contracting 1.4 per cent last year, before posting a "modest rebound" in 2014 with growth of 0.6 per cent as private demand recovers, the Bank of Spain said in its latest bulletin.

Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy's conservative government had predicted gross domestic product (GDP) would contract by a more modest figure of 0.5 per cent this year and grow by 1.2 per cent in 2014, but last week it said it would have to revise its forecast.

Spain is facing a double-dip recession, not having fully recovered from the collapse of a decade-long property boom in 2008.

"The significant drag effect, resulting from the sharp decline in economic activity at the end of 2012, means that despite the progressive improvement in quarterly rates of GDP, the forecast for all of 2013 is for a contraction that is slightly greater than the one registered last year," the Bank of Spain said.

The Spanish economy contracted 0.8 per cent in the final quarter of 2012, the steepest decline since the second quarter of 2009 and more than double the 0.3 per cent fall posted in the previous three-month period, as households cut back on spending.

The central bank forecast that Spanish unemployment, among the eurozone's highest, would rise to 27.1 per cent of the workforce by the end of this year before dropping to 26.8 per cent in 2014.

Spain's jobless rate stood at a record 26.02 per cent in the final quarter of last year and averaged 25 per cent during all of 2012.

The central bank predicts Spain will end 2013 with a public deficit equal to around 6.0 per cent of the country's economic input,down from 6.7 per cent last year but above the target of 6.3 per cent agreed with the European Commission.

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