(Financial Times)

Cabinet Office figures on Monday showed that real GDP fell an annualized 2.3 per cent in the fourth quarter, much worse than consensus forecasts of a 1.3 per cent decline. On a quarter-on-quarter basis, output fell by 0.6 per cent, dragged down by exports — which fell 3.1 per cent — following a 1.7 per cent rise in the third quarter.

The nation’s currency has eased only a little since hitting a postwar high of Y75.35 against the US dollar in October. The trade balance for 2011 showed a deficit of Y2.5 trillion ($32 billion) — the first annual deficit in 31 years — as exports to the eurozone and Asia, including China, fell sharply.

Looking forward, the picture is brighter, thanks in large part to reconstruction demand in the quake-hit region of Tohoku. Machinery orders in the three months to December increased by 10 per cent from September, suggesting that industrial production in January and February could recover to a level reached before the disasters last March, according to the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry.

Real GDP growth for the full calendar year is expected at 1.7 per cent, according to Bloomberg. While that is well short of the 2.2 per cent global average, it is more than double the average growth rate Japan has achieved since 1995.

“Provided that the US and global economy can continue to grow, a recovery in Japan’s exports on top of reconstruction demand could allow the economy to make up for the slack seen late last year,” said Takuji Aida, an economist at UBS, before the release of Monday’s data.

Meanwhile, the Bank of Japan, which concludes a two-day policy meeting on Tuesday, will be under pressure to do more to shake off the country’s persistent state of deflation. Opposition party members last month called for the BoJ to emulate the US Federal Reserve’s decision to set a firm inflation target of 2 per cent.

The BoJ, however, prefers to aim for what it calls “price stability”, whereby the year-on-year rate of change in the core consumer price index — which includes all items, excluding fresh food — is between zero and 2 per cent, centering around 1 per cent.

Nationwide core CPI fell 0.1 per cent, year-on-year, in December, the third straight month of decline. Prices haven’t risen at least 1 per cent for any year since 1997.

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Athens, Greece (DNN)

As lawmakers debated, police turned tear gas and stun grenades on demonstrators outside Greece’s Parliament. Several buildings, including a bank, cafes and a movie theater, in Athens were set ablaze.

Twenty-five protesters and 40 officers were injured in the clashes, which occurred throughout the city, police said. Authorities detained at least 30 people.

“They are protesting because they feel that there is no end in their financial suffering. More and more (people) everyday are getting poorer and become homeless in Greece, and especially Athens,” wrote CNN iReporter Thanasis Trompoukis.

The package, which includes deep cuts in government spending, wages and pensions, will help pave the way for eurozone finance ministers to sign off on the new €130 billion ($172.6 billion) bailout deal. It passed Parliament in a 199-74 vote.

Speaking before the vote, Prime Minister Lucas Papademos called for calm. “This vandalism, violence, they have no place in a democracy and will not be tolerated,” he told lawmakers, urging them to approve the deal.

“At this critical time, we don’t have the luxury of such conflicts,” he said.

Echoing comments he made in a speech to the Cabinet Saturday evening, Papademos warned lawmakers the government would not be able to pay salaries, cover services or import basic goods if the plan was not approved. He spoke about the possibility of “catastrophic bankruptcy.”

“It’s a hard program, a tough program, which also envisages some painful sacrifices,” he said, adding that the plan would put Greece back on “stable ground.”

Protesters criticizing the program have demonstrated for days.

On Saturday, some isolated scuffles broke out as protesters rallied in Syntagma Square, in front of the Parliament building, but the mood was calmer than a day earlier.

Friday’s protest dispersed after youths smashed pavements and began throwing stones and pieces of marble, as well as Molotov cocktails, at the police, who responded with stun grenades and teargas.

Even though the sweeping reform package agreed to by Greece and the so-called troika — made up of the European Commission, European Central Bank and International Monetary Fund — was approved in Parliament, Greek lawmakers must still do more.

Jean-Claude Juncker, the prime minister of Luxembourg and head of the Eurogroup, which brings together euro-area finance ministers, said Thursday that other assurances were also needed from Athens before the bailout could be paid out.

Greece’s political leaders must pledge that they will continue to implement the measures after upcoming elections, he said.

Athens must also find a further €325 million in “structural expenditure” cuts for 2012, Juncker added.

The bailout deal, which would result in significant losses for bondholders, is intended to help reduce Greece’s debts to 120% of Gross Domestic Product by 2020, from about 160% currently.

Greece, which owes some €330 billion, has come close to default before.

The nation has struggled to follow through on austerity measures and economic reforms that were a condition of its 2010 bailout package. At the same time, the Greek economy has been in recession for years and many analysts warn that additional austerity could make the situation worse.

Tripoli, Libya (DNN)

Saadi Gadhafi has been in Niger since September, following the collapse of his father’s 42-year rule. He had been granted asylum, but Libyan authorities renewed demands for his arrest after he told the satellite news network Al Arabiya that “a new popular uprising” was brewing in his home country.

Nigerien officials would not comment on the move. But Libya’s National Transitional Council, which replaced the Gadhafi regime, said Saadi Gadhafi’s comments “were considered a violation of the terms of his residency granted by Niger.”

“Saadi used the asylum he was granted in Niger on humanitarian basis to carry out acts of aggression against the Libyan people and their glorious revolution,” NTC spokesman Mohammed Nasr al-Hraizi said in a government statement. Libya’s new government complained to Niger about Saadi Gadhafi’s interview, demanding Niger “take stringent measures, including his extradition to Libya.”

The move came as Libya prepares to mark the anniversary of the February 17 revolt that toppled the elder Gadhafi six months later. Few details have been announced, but commemorations are expected in Tripoli; in Benghazi, where the revolution began; and in Misrata, one of its major battlegrounds.

Security has been tightened in Tripoli, with new checkpoints going up around the city in recent days. Gadhafi loyalists have been circulating text messages and YouTube videos talking about a new for uprising around the anniversary date. Gen. Youssef Mangoush, the new chief of staff of the Libyan argmed forces, said there has been no direct threat regarding the anniversary, but said the government would take all steps necessary to head off any new revolt.

The transitional government in Tripoli is still working to build a new national army and police force. The NTC has set elections for a new National Assembly in June. But several revolutionary militias and regional factions have held onto their weapons and fought occasional clashes with each other, and ordinary Libyans say their biggest concern is security.

Saadi Gadhafi was a prominent businessman and onetime head of Libya’s national football league before his father’s government fell to a six-month revolt in late August. The new Libyan government has accused him of misappropriating properties through force and armed intimidation, and the multinational police agency Interpol issued a “red notice” calling for his arrest in September.

In his interview with Al Arabiya, he said he had been in touch with Libyans “on a daily basis” and said several groups were ready to take up arms against the new government.

“I call everyone to be prepared for this uprising, and be ready for the zero hour,” he said. “Because when it happens, it will a real uprising.”

He added that he could return to Libya and “stop those acts of revenge,” and he urged armed factions in Libya “to meet and discuss and achieve real peace this time.”

The elder Gadhafi was killed by NTC fighters in October, along with his son Mutassim. Another son, Khamis, was reported killed in battle as the regime imploded in August.

Gadhafi’s second-eldest son and closest adviser, Saif al-Islam Gadhafi, is now awaiting trial in Libya. The elder Gadhafi’s wife, three other children and several grandchildren have fled to neighboring Algeria.

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(Financial Times)

Greek television reported that Mr Papademos has set a deadline of midday on Monday for the three leaders to let him know whether they agree in principle with the proposed austerity measures, before he meets them again later in the day.

After five hours of discussions, the three leaders of Greece’s national unity government had not accepted demands by international lenders for immediate deep spending cuts and labour market reforms as part of a new medium-term package.

Mr Papademos said the political leaders had agreed on some “basic issues”, including making spending cuts this year of 1.5 percentage points of gross domestic product, or about €3bn, according to a statement from his office.

George Karatzaferis, the head of the small rightwing Laos (People’s) party said as he left the prime minister’s office, that he expected the talks to continue on Monday. There was no immediate announcement by Mr Papademos.

It was clear however that the talks had reached a dangerous deadlock. “They’re asking for more recession than the country can take,” said Antonis Samaras, leader of the centre-right New Democracy party as he left the meeting.

Mr Papademos said the political leaders had agreed on some “basic issues”, including making spending cuts this year of 1.5 percentage points of gross domestic product, or about €3bn, according to a statement from his office.

The talks with the three leaders of a national unity government came after the government failed to persuade the so-called “troika”– representatives of the European Commission, European Central Bank and International Monetary Fund — to ease conditions for the rescue deal.

Patience with Greek politicians has evaporated among its creditors. During a conference call on Saturday, eurozone finance ministers bluntly told Athens to deliver on its promises and agree to reforms or face default next month.

Jean-Claude Juncker, head of the eurozone group of finance ministers, told Der Spiegel at the weekend that the possibility of bankruptcy should encourage Athens to “get muscles” when it comes to implementing reforms.

“If we were to establish that everything has gone wrong in Greece, there would be no new programme and that would mean that in March they have to declare bankruptcy,” he warned.

Mr Samaras last week threatened to veto the package unless concessions were made on private sector wages, claiming the cuts would prolong a recession already in its fifth year. Mr Karatzaferis also opposes further austerity measures.

The two sides were still far apart over projected cuts of 25 per cent in private sector wages, 35 per cent in supplementary pensions and the closure of about 100 state-controlled organisations with thousands of job losses.

These are part of a €4.4bn package of savings the troika has said should be implemented at once.

Eurozone officials are deliberately refusing to allow Greece to sign off on a €200bn bond restructuring plan because the threat of default is the leverage they have to convince recalcitrant Greek ministers to implement necessary cuts.

While some recognise that Greek politicians must be seen by voters to be putting up a fight, there are fears that the show of brinkmanship could easily go too far and backfire, with disastrous consequences.

The second Greek bail-out, which must be approved in a matter of days, has serious implications for the wider eurozone.

Markets are likely to react negatively to news of the breakdown in talks on worries that Greece will default on a €14.5bn bond repayment on March 20, and that “contagion” could spread to Portugal and Italy.

A further complication is the uncertainty over supplementing the €130bn bail-out to take account of the deteriorating economic position in Greece.

Some officials believe around another €15bn is needed — funds that Germany and other countries have said they are unwilling to provide.

The financing gap is likely to open a fierce debate over the sacrifices required of public bondholders such as the European Central Bank, which is being urged to forgo any profits on bonds that are fully paid on maturity.

The stand-off has also delayed a separate agreement with private bondholders’ representatives who flew to Athens to finalise a €200bn debt swap included in the rescue package.

Josef Ackermann, chief executive of Deutsche Bank, has warned that failure to agree on a voluntary debt rescheduling for Greece could open “a new Pandora’s box” in the eurozone crisis.

“We are in a make or break situation,” said Germany’s most powerful banker and senior participant in the talks led by the Institute of International Finance.

Private sector creditors were being “extremely generous” in offering to take a loss of more than 70 per cent on their Greek government bonds, he said, as a contribution to helping Greece manage its debts.

Mr Ackermann told a conference in Munich: “I think the markets are recognising this. But we have to fix the Greek problem.”

London (DNN)

The investigations into the death of Moammar Gadhafi after his capture last year could also be completed soon, Fawzy Abdilal said.

Saif al-Islam’s case will be handed to the courts as soon as the prosecutor general completes his investigations, Abdilal told CNN in an exclusive interview.

Separately, military trials of those who “committed criminal acts under the Gadhafi regime” began Sunday in the city of Benghazi, National Transitional Council member Mohammed El Sayah said.

He did not name those who were being tried, but said “even civilians who had guns and fought under the Gadhafi regime” would be tried before military courts.

Trials elsewhere in the country will start later, he said. Benghazi was the center of resistance to the Gadhafi regime last year.

Saif al-Islam Gadhafi, once his father’s heir apparent, was captured in November and has been held in the Libyan city of Zintan since then.

Human Rights Watch said after visiting Saif al-Islam in custody last year that he should have a lawyer, but Abdilal implied he had not asked for one.

“He may have a lawyer if he asks for a lawyer,” the interior minister said. “Should Saif demand a lawyer, then a lawyer would be provided.”

He also brushed aside accusations that authorities are torturing detainees under the new government.

There are “not systematic violations as there were under the Gadhafi regime,” he said, even as he conceded that “there may be cases of individuals who take the law into their own hands.”

“There is no comparison whatsoever between the situation prevailing under Moammar Gadhafi and the situation now,” he said.

Moammar Gadhafi was killed in October, two months after he was deposed by rebel fighters.

Abdilal said the circumstances of his death were complicated.

“It was a battlefield, he was carrying weapons, there were fighters around, no one was controlling those fighters,” Abdilal said.

And, he said, “Many people claim that they are the ones who killed Gadhafi, and that is complicating matters.”

Abdilal acknowledged that the interim government had not yet succeeded in integrating militias from different cities into a national security force, saying his visit to Britain was partly to seek help with that task.

Fighters from Zintan still control the international airport, he said, adding that he expected them to hand control over to the Ministry of the Interior “within two weeks.”

(DNN)

Roma took a 13th minute lead when Juan headed home a Francesco Totti corner and Fabio Borini doubled their lead when firing a shot through the legs of goalkeeper Julio Cesar.

Former Chelsea striker Borini added his second four minutes after the interval when racing onto Juan’s pass to again shoot through Cesar’s legs.

And Bojan Krkic completed a miserable return to the Stadio Olympico for Inter coach Claudio Ranieri when he added a fourth goal a minute from time.

The result leaves Inter in fifth place in the table, nine points off the lead, with Roma a further two points back in sixth position.

To complete a perfect afternoon for Roma, they confirmed after the match that in-demand midfielder Daniele De Rossi had signed a five-year contract extension with the club.

Juventus remain top on 45 points, and are still unbeaten after 21 games, despite a disappointing 0-0 draw at home to lowly Siena.

They stay a point ahead of second-placed Milan, with a game in hand, after the Rossoneri were held 0-0 at home by Napoli.

Milan will be thankful for the point after playing the final 20 minutes with 10 men following the dismissal of Zlatan Ibrahimovic for slappig Salvatore Aronica.

On a day when Roma were the only top-seven team to secure three points, third-placed Udinese failed to close the gap after falling to a 3-2 defeat at Fiorentina.

That result leaves Udinese four points behind Juventus, with Lazio still in fourth after their 3-2 loss at Genoa.

Meanwhile, in Germany, Freiburg remain bottom of the Bundesliga despite recovering to earn a 2-2 home draw with fifth-placed Werder Bremen, for whom Claudio Pizzaro scored both goals.

Sunday’s other match saw Albanian midfielder Odise Roshi score the only goal as Cologne defeated Kaiserslautern 1-0.

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Cairo (DNN)

Protesters outside the ministry threw rocks at police, who responded with tear gas.

Fires erupted at a nearby shopping center while more than 200 women demonstrated outside parliament, chanting anti-military slogans and demanding control of the country be handed over to civilian power.

Protests have rocked Egypt’s capital since a riot erupted at a soccer match in Port Said city Wednesday, killing more than 80. Rival fans battled with rocks and chairs, with a crush of bodies suffocating as crowds attempted to flee and found their escape blocked by a locked steel gate, survivors said.After the riots, throngs of angry protesters rallied in the streets across Egypt, demanding that the military-led government make reforms and improve security.

“Egypt is facing a dangerous situation that is not simple to deal with,” Deputy Interior Minister Gen. Ahmed Gamal El Din said in a statement Sunday.

More than 200 security forces have been injured as clashes broke out nationwide, he said. In Suez, some fired at police with machine guns, he said. Prisoners were at large after attacks on police stations.

At least 40 protesters have been arrested nationwide.

Every time “we advance and things start settling, something happens,” he said.

But some protesters argued that police were behind the violence, firing on protesters with gas and live ammunition to retaliate.

“They are spreading false slogans to kill the revolution,” said a statement from the Egyptian Revolutionary Alliance, a bloc of secular and democratic opposition groups.

The alliance staged a protest outside the general prosecutor’s office Sunday, calling for his removal from the post and accusing of him of negligence in trials of former President Hosni Mubarak and his aides.

Meanwhile, the co-founder of the April 6 Youth Movement who was a major participant in the protests to topple Hosni Mubarak was hospitalized Saturday with a skull fracture, according to a friend.

Ahmed Maher was hit in the head with a heavy object while trying to negotiate an end to the latest protests outside the tax ministry, said Waleed Rashed, the co-founder of the youth group.

It was not immediately clear who was responsible for his injury. CNN could not immediately confirm Rashed’s claim.

The military-led government has said that the country is undergoing a “sensitive and difficult time that is considered the most dangerous” and crucial to the nation’s history.

“The Supreme Council of the Armed Forces has always reiterated to the military forces that peaceful protests are a right to all people to state their demands,” it said in a recent statement.

The Wall Street Journal kicked off the hoopla on Friday, citing anonymous sources who said that Facebook may file for an initial public offering as early as this Wednesday.

The New York Times and CNBC echoed that with their own unnamed sources in articles posted late Tuesday, saying that the filing will land Wednesday. Facebook is seeking to raise up to $5 billion in its offering, they added.

If that number is correct, Facebook would represent by far the largest global IPO ever by an Internet-focused company, according to data from Dealogic. Google’s (GOOG, Fortune 500) $1.9 billion debut is currently the largest U.S. Internet IPO.

But Facebook would still lag behind blockbuster U.S. IPOs like those from Visa (V, Fortune 500), which raised more than $19 billion in 2008, and General Motors (GM, Fortune 500), which raised $18 billion last year.

Facebook’s IPO filing won’t answer one burning question: What’s the company worth? For that, Wall Street will have to wait until Facebook starts trading, which typically happens several months after companies file their first round of regulatory paperwork.

Some experts have suggested that the social network could valued between $75 billion and $100 billion once it starts trading. No matter what the market cap, Facebook’s IPO is undeniably hot, says Max Wolff, chief economist at GreenCrest Capital.

But there’s a lot more riding on Facebook’s paperwork than wealth creation. The social network has become an entire ecosystem, supporting independent app makers and gaming platforms like Zynga (ZNGA).

Facebook’s filing will have implications for companies that depend on it, as well as the social media landscape at large. Until then, analysts are left to speculate about Facebook’s revenue streams and profitability — and whether it really deserves a $100 billion market value.

Michael Pachter, a research analyst at Wedbush Securities, says the rumored valuation range is reasonable — though he won’t cite a specific estimate of his own.

How Facebook makes money — and could make more: The vast majority of Facebook’s revenue comes from advertising: a combination of search and display ads. And the sales growth is incredibly robust.

Research firm eMarketer estimated last September that Facebook’s ad revenue would more than double in 2011 to $3.8 billion and increase another 52% to $5.78 billion in 2012.

Facebook has grown by grabbing market share from Google and Yahoo. Last year Facebook comprised 16.3% of the so-called display (i.e. banners and other graphical ads) market, eMarketer estimates — compared with Yahoo’s (YHOO, Fortune 500) 13.1% and Google’s (GOOG, Fortune 500) 9.3%.

Martin Pyykkonen, analyst at Wedge Partners, says Facebook is highly appealing to advertisers because about two-thirds of its users fall into the coveted age demographic of 18-49. He thinks Facebook’s ad targeting will become even more effective over time.

“The ‘Like’ button option is a basic example of targeting,” Pyykkonen wrote in a note to clients Monday. “[It's] likely that advertisers will be able to even better target their audiences as Facebook goes deeper with integrating apps, games, movies, music.”

Facebook’s other revenue stream is its payment system for purchases within apps and games: Facebook Credits. Facebook keeps 30% of the revenue from those payments, and passes the remaining 70% on to the app developer.

Facebook Credits now comprises 10% of the company’s total revenue, up from 5% in early 2010, Pyykkonen estimates.

Those estimates will soon be backed up — or refuted — by hard numbers from Facebook. Once its IPO filing does finally land, it will help answer questions about the overall social media market.

“People are extrapolating outcomes into an environment that’s hungry for missing details,” said Wolff. “It’s like all the guys in the class spreading rumors about the prettiest girl in the school.”

source : CNN.com

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Irbil, Iraq (DNN)

“Al-Maliki is pushing my country to reach a turning point with deeply sectarian dimension,” the Sunni vice president told CNN on Sunday during an interview in the semiautonomous Kurdish region in the north, where he has fled so that government forces loyal to the Shiite prime minister cannot execute an arrest warrant for him on charges of running a death squad.

He expressed concern that Americans “will face the same problem as they faced in 2003,” when a U.S.-led coalition invaded Iraq, toppling the regime of Saddam Hussein and unleashing a wave of sectarian violence.

And he said he did not understand how U.S. President Barack Obama is able to characterize Iraq as a free, stable and democratic country.

“What sort of Iraq we are talking about?” he asked. “How the Americans will feel proud? How the American administration is going to justify to the taxpayer the billion of dollars that has been spent and at the end of the day the American saying, ‘Sorry, we have no leverage even to put things in order in Iraq’?”

Though Iraq’s instability may not affect this year’s election campaign in the United States, “it is going to affect the American interest in the region, and they should be very much concern about that,” al-Hashimi said. “The future of Iraq is grim.”

The arrest warrant for al-Hashimi was issued last year, days after the Sunni majority bloc Iraqiya suspended its participation in Parliament amid that claims it was being cut out of the political process. The bloc ended that boycott on Sunday as a “gesture of goodwill.” But a separate boycott of the Cabinet remains in place.

Al-Hashimi denied the charges against him as politically motivated. He accused al-Maliki of having “put my home and my office under siege” during the three months before he fled to the Dokan resort about 400 km (250 miles) north of Baghdad.

“I kept patient on that, hoping that al-Maliki is going to behave sensibly sometime, and things aggravated,” al-Hashimi said.

Asked whether al-Maliki is becoming a dictator, al-Hashimi was blunt: “What sort of explanation could I give for a real and serious power consolidation?” he asked. “What could the average Iraqi people or the American citizen … say for the prime minister to be chief in command, the minister of defense, the minister of interior and the chief of the national security?”

The charges appear to have been based on the confessions of three security guards for al-Hashimi. Iraqi state-run TV has aired video of the men’s confessions. CNN cannot independently verify their identities.

An official in al-Hashimi’s office, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of security concerns, has said the men may have confessed under duress.

In one confession, a man detailed roadside bombings and shootings that targeted government and security officials in 2009. He said orders at times came directly from al-Hashimi and at times through his son-in-law, Ahmed Qahtan, who is a senior member of his staff.

The man alleged that the vice president thanked him after a number of attacks.

The man in the video said al-Hashimi ordered him to map out security locations and checkpoints for the Baghdad Brigade, which protects the Green Zone. He said he was speaking out to “clear his conscience” and “expose this criminal.”

Since October, Iraqi security forces have rounded up hundreds of people accused of being members of Saddam Hussein’s outlawed Baath Party or terrorists. The Sunni-backed Iraqiya coalition says most of them belong to its political bloc and that the prime minister is simply taking out his opponents.

The political turmoil in Iraq has raised concerns in Washington, with officials saying they are monitoring the reports about the arrest warrant.

“We are talking to all of the parties. We’ve expressed our concern regarding these developments. We’re urging all political sides in Iraq to work out their differences peaceably, politically, through dialogue, and certainly in a manner that is consistent with democratic political processes and international standards of rule of law,” Victoria Nuland, a spokeswoman for the State Department, said in December.

(DNN)

Despite not going anywhere, Manchester City’s Carlos Tevez still managed to hog the headlines as he lodged an appeal with the English Premier League over his six-week fine ($1.6 million) for gross misconduct imposed by his club.

The Premier League confirmed Tuesday that it had received correspondence from Tevez informing them of his intention to appeal.

The Argentine striker hasn’t played for the Blues since he allegedly refused to take the field during a Champions League tie against Bayern Munich in September.

One Manchester City player who did manage to leave the Etihad Stadium was Wayne Bridgewho has joined Sunderland on loan until the end of the season.

The 31-year-old defender made just one appearance for Roberto Mancini this term and has played just 58 times for the club since he joined from Chelsea in 2009.

Bridge’s former London employers announced Monday the signing of winger Kevin de Bruyne from Belgian side Genk for a fee of £6.7 million ($10.5 million).

But the 20-year-old prospect will remain at the Belgian champions where he will play out the rest of the season on loan to gain more experience.

Heading out of Stamford Bridge is 18-year-old striker Philipp Prosenik, who has joined AC Milan for an undisclosed fee.

The Austrian under-19 international joined the west London club from Rapid Vienna in 2009 but hasn’t done enough to impress new coach Andre Villas-Boas.

North London neighbors Tottenham Hotspur have loaned out Croatian defender Vedran Corluka to Bundesliga side Bayer Leverkusen until the end of the season.

The 25-year-old, who joined Spurs from Manchester City in 2008, has only made eight appearances in all competitions this season.

Another Croatian on the move is Glasgow Rangers’ striker Nikica Jelavic who joins Everton on a four-and-a-half year deal.

The 26-year-old striker joins short-term loan signing Landon Donovan (from LA Galaxy) and Darron Gibson who arrived for an undisclosed fee from Manchester United earlier in the month.

Everton’s French striker Louis Saha has joined Tottenham Hotspur for the remainder of the season, according to the club’s website.

Fulham have agreed sell England international Bobby Zamora to West London rivals Queens Park Rangers for a fee of around £4 million ($6.3 million).

Also on his way to Loftus Road is Lazio striker Drijbril Cisse who returns to the Premier League after a three-year absence.

According to the Italian news agency Ansa, the former Liverpool and Sunderland striker has signed a two-and-a-half year deal worth €5 million ($6.5 million).

Meanwhile in Italy, Inter Milan made three signings before Tuesday’s deadline passed.

Colombian midfielder Freddy Guarin joins on a four-and-a-half year deal from Portuguese champions Porto.

The 25-year-old Colombian forward is joined by Italy midfielder Angelo Palombo — on loan from Sampdoria with an option of making a permanent move at the end of the season — and 20-year-old defender Juan, who arrives from Brazilian club Internacional on a four-and-a-half year deal.

The triple signing is offset by the departures of midfielder Thiago Motta — who has moved to Paris St Germain in a deal reported to be worth €10 million ($13 million) — and Sulley Muntari who has joined local rivals AC Milan on loan.

AC Milan have also signed the 21-year-old Brazilian forward Lucas Roggia on loan according to Internacional president Giovanni Luigi.

Juventus have signed midfielder Simone Padoin on a five-year deal from Atalanta, while 32-year-old striker Vincenzo Iaquinta leaves the Serie A league leaders to join Cesena on loan for the rest of the season.