Global Agenda articles from April 2007

Global Agenda archives from April 2007

Fools' paradise; How the world celebrates April Fools jokes; Finland is a world-leader in weird sports and pranks.
April 1, 2007... Finland leads the world in weird sports and pranks THE Finns like a laugh. Famous for an annual wife-carrying competition, for regular success at the world air-guitar championship and record-breaking hurling of rubber boots and mobile...

A dog's dinner; America's pets; A dog's dinner of an industry.
April 1, 2007... A recall of contaminated pet-food in North America THE grief cycle describes a common pattern of emotional responses to death, starting with denial, changing to anger and then depression, and ending with acceptance. Pet-owners in North...

Barrels, beans and bottlenecks; Up, up and away; Markets may falter, but commodities prices are continuing to rise.
April 1, 2007... Commodity prices look set to go on rising ALTHOUGH recent wobbles in the equity markets have seemed to revolve around the weakening prospects for American economic growth, one growth-sensitive asset class has continued to race ahead. As of...

The coming news; A look at the news in the next few days; What may be in the headlines this week.
April 2, 2007... What may be making headlines * THE row between the West and Iran seems to be brewing into a bigger story by the day. The kidnapping in mid-March of 15 British sailors, and the parading of them on Iranian television, was first played down...

Just the ticket; Back on the buses; Crowded cities see busways as a clean and cheap transport fix.
April 2, 2007... Busways unblock crowded cities EVEN by Asian capitals' standards Jakarta has terrible traffic and feeble public transport. There is no metro, and, as for the monorail that has been "under construction" for years, all that can be seen is a...

The god next door; China's frontiers: a diary; Travel notes from the writer of our survey on China and its regionr.
April 2, 2007... Our Tokyo bureau chief heads for little Lhasa Monday THE road from Beijing to Dharamsala goes by way of Hong Kong, where I change planes for a seven-hour flight to Delhi that arrives, as seems to be the fate of all flights to India, at...

Trouble with trade; American trade policy; George Bush's fast-track trade authority is set to expire. Trade deals will become much harder to strike.
April 2, 2007... George Bush will have difficulty striking trade deals from now on WITH the clock ticking down to the day he leaves office, George Bush has been trying to seal a few more trade deals. But since the Democrats took over the House and Senate,...

Mexico's politics; Mexico's waning opposition; As President Felipe Calderon's star has risen, the influence of losing presidential rival Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador has fallen.
April 2, 2007... The oppostion party is in decline Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, the leftist candidate who lost narrowly to Felipe Calderon in July 2006 presidential elections, has struggled to keep his movement afloat in a political environment that has...

What price independence? The future of Kosovo; The UN Security Council is discussing Kosovo's future. The outcome will depend on Russia's attitude.
April 3, 2007... The UN is considering the tricky issue of Kosovo's future EIGHT years ago NATO planes were bombing Serbia. They were at the beginning of a 78-day campaign, which concluded with Serbian forces being driven out of Kosovo, its southern...

The politics of reincarnation; China's frontiers: a diary; Travel notes from the writer of our survey on China and its region.
April 3, 2007... Our Tokyo bureau chief meets the Dalai Lama Monday | Tuesday Tuesday OUTSIDE Dharamsala is the Tibet Transit School, a cluster of boarding houses with a view over the valley. It offers four years of schooling to Tibetans who...

Trouble with trade; American trade policy; George Bush's fast-track trade authority is set to expire. Trade deals will become much harder to strike.
April 3, 2007... George Bush will have difficulty striking new deals WITH the clock ticking down to the day he leaves office, George Bush has been trying to seal a few more trade deals. But since the Democrats took over the House and Senate, bringing in a...

Hard pressed; The Tribune Company has a buyer; But why does anybody want to invest in newspapers?
April 3, 2007... If newspapers are dead, the corpses are oddly popular A WINNER has been declared in the battle for the Tribune Company, owner of the Los Angeles Times, the Chicago Tribune and other big media assets. It is Sam Zell, a Chicago real estate...

Yemen's politics; Yemen's Mr Clean; The country's new prime minister has a track record in fighting corruption.
April 3, 2007... A new corruption-busting prime minister is appointed Ali Mohammed Mujawer, the newly appointed prime minister of Yemen, won a reputation as an effective opponent of corruption in his previous post as electricity minister. His clean-up...

Maoists and ministers; Nepal's new government; Former insurgents join a coalition government.
April 3, 2007... Nepal's former rebels join the government THE sight of Maoist former rebels being sworn into a coalition government on Sunday April 1st by their old foe, the prime minister, Girija Prasad Koirala, was a moment of hope for many Nepalis. Ten...

How not to block a takeover; The battle for Endesa; Germany's E.ON, Spain's Acciona and Italy's Enel will divide up Spain's biggest electricty company between them.
April 3, 2007... Spain's meddling government is the big loser in the battle over Endesa HAVING fought for more than a year against fierce resistance from Spain's Socialist government, Wulf Bernotat, the boss of E.ON, Germany's biggest energy firm, conceded...

Karaoke night in Casablanca; China's frontiers: a diary; Travel notes from the writer of our survey on China and its region.
April 4, 2007... Our Tokyo bureau chief dodges spooks and sing-song girls Monday | Tuesday | Wednesday Wednesday I HAVE flown from Beijing to China's north-eastern borderlands with North Korea, part of what in the first half of the last century was...

Give war a chance; Sri Lanka's war gets worse; Neither the government nor the rebels looks likely to negotiate.
April 4, 2007... In Sri Lanka both sides refuse peace THE five-year-old paper truce in Sri Lanka's civil war has long been a fiction. The government in Colombo is said now to be planning a referendum on whether to maintain the ceasefire or to abrogate it...

How not to block a takeover; The battle for Endesa; Germany's E.ON, Spain's Acciona and Italy's Enel will divide up Spain's biggest electricty company between them.
April 4, 2007... Spain's government is the big loser in the battle for Endesa HAVING fought for more than a year against fierce resistance from Spain's Socialist government, Wulf Bernotat, the boss of E.ON, Germany's biggest energy firm, conceded this week...

Air pressure; Government power and global warming; America's Supreme Court makes its biggest environmental ruling in years.
April 4, 2007... America's Supreme Court rules on the environment THROUGHOUT George Bush's presidency, the federal government has refused to countenance any regulation of the greenhouse gases that cause global warming. Whenever the subject comes up,...

Iraq's economy; Kurdish promise; Iraq's Kurdish region is an oasis of security and prosperity, but foreign investors remain cautious despite generous incentives.
April 4, 2007... The Kurdish region seeks more foreign investment You would be hard pushed to find an area keener on attracting foreign investors than Iraqi Kurdistan. The region is almost entirely dependent on imports, as the authorities search for ways to...

Sailing into troubled waters; The British hostages and Iran; Iran has released 15 British servicemen, captured 12 days ago. But the country remains a problem for the West.
April 4, 2007... Despite its decision to free the British sailors, Iran remains a problem THE Iranian revolution has been replaying one of its favourite old propaganda movies. In 1979, Iran and the world were gripped by scenes of 52 blindfolded American...

The corpse in the city square; China's frontiers: a diary; Travel notes from the writer of our survey on China and its region.
April 5, 2007... Our Tokyo bureau chief sees Beijing and dies a little Monday | Tuesday | Wednesday | Thursday Thursday I AM back in Beijing. And though I lived in this city not long ago, each return visit disorients me. Vibrant earthy...

Africa's Titanic problem; Zimbabwe's wretched economy; Dire politics has turned one of Africa's great economic sucesses into a basket case.
April 5, 2007... Zimbabweans are fed up with a dreadful economy JUDGING by the pot-holes, rusting street lamps, broken traffic lights and pencil-thin residents of Harare, Zimbabwe's capital city, the former model of an African economy is at the end of its...

Floreat Estonia; A good new government in Estonia; It would have been even better with Mart Laar included.
April 5, 2007... The least bad government in eastern Europe ESTONIA'S new government may well be the least bad in eastern Europe. But that's a modest claim. The serious competition is at the other end of the scale, where Poland currently has the edge for...

Sailing into troubled waters; The British hostages and Iran; Iran has released 15 British servicemen, captured 12 days ago. But the country remains a problem for the West.
April 5, 2007... Despite freeing the British sailors, Iran remains a problem THE Iranian revolution has been replaying one of its favourite old propaganda movies. In 1979, Iran and the world were gripped by scenes of 52 blindfolded American embassy staff...

Bulgaria's politics; Bulgaria's communist past; Botched efforts to declassify communist-era files may fuel, rather than diminish, fears about vested political interests.
April 5, 2007... A wrangle over revealing communist-era secrets Against a backdrop of rancorous debate inside the parliament, Bulgaria's politicians are inching towards a further opening of files prepared by the country's communist-era intelligence...

The bay of strangeness; China's frontiers: a diary; Travel notes from the writer of our survey on China and its region.
April 6, 2007... Our Tokyo bureau chief sails the Swollen Sea Monday | Tuesday | Wednesday | Thursday | Friday Friday A TRUE Chinese--that is, a man from the Yellow River on the northern plains--knew that to travel south was to encounter increasing...

Floreat Estonia; A good new government in Estonia; It would have been even better with Mart Laar included.
April 6, 2007... The least bad government in eastern Europe ESTONIA'S new government may well be the least bad in eastern Europe. But that's a modest claim. The serious competition is at the other end of the scale, where Poland currently has the edge for...

All washed up; Climate change woes; An influential report from the UN's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change predicts the dire consequences of global warming.
April 6, 2007... As the evidence of global warming proliferates, so do the nasty consequences WE WERE right, all along. That is the thrust of the latest report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), a United Nations body set up to...

Skidproof your SUV; Making SUVs safer; Electronic stability control is the greatest life-saver since seat-belts and air-bags.
April 6, 2007... The greatest life-saver since seat-belts TO ANYONE schooled in Newtonian mechanics, there is only one place to put the engine in a car--midway between the front and rear wheels. By locating the heaviest lump as close as possible to the...

Turner returned; A Turner seascape resurfaces; The owner who wouldn't take no for a answer.
April 7, 2007... A persistent heir gets back a looted masterpiece OF THE 260 pictures in Christie's forthcoming Old Masters sale, 46 were expropriated by the Nazis during the second world war. Such a high proportion of looted works in a single auction might...

Questions of faith; The Christian church; Catholics, Anglicans and other Christians all still differ about where the divide between faith and reason lies.
April 7, 2007... Christians are divided about evolution and the creation EASTER Sunday is an exuberant moment in the calendar of St Chad's, the church where a doctor called Robert Darwin, sceptical about religion but conscious of convention, had his son...

The coming news; A look at the news in the next few days; What may be in the headlines this week.
April 8, 2007... What may be making headlines * Official campaigning in France's presidential election begins, just under two weeks before the first round of voting. Nicolas Sarkozy, the centre-right candidate, and the Socialists' Segolene Royal lead the...

A fine and fickle friend; Hedging with gold; It works, but only in the short term.
April 8, 2007... Gold is a useful hedge--but only for a fortnight FEW ASSETS arouse as much passion as does gold. Some commentators talk of it in almost religious terms as the one true store of wealth in a world of ersatz (paper) money. The...

Gay outburst in Tasmania; Australian diary; Our correspondent finds Tasmania doing almost too well for its own good.
April 8, 2007... Our Sydney correspondent probes an island's secrets Monday A PLACE called Devils Gullet is sticking in my mind. I am in Tasmania, as far south from my home base in Sydney as you can go in Australia. For generations, this island state...

All washed up; Climate change woes; An influential report from the UN's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change predicts the dire consequences of global warming.
April 9, 2007... As the evidence proliferates, so do the nasty consequences WE WERE right, all along. That is the thrust of the latest report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), a United Nations body set up to pronounce...

Happy ever after? Timor-Leste's election; Five years after winning independence from Indonesia, Timor-Leste is still in a mess. A presidential election is unlikely to bring much change.
April 9, 2007... Timor-Leste's presidential election may not resolve the country's conflicts "PEOPLE feel that they are sick of waiting, waiting for something good," observed Xanana Gusmao, the president of Timor-Leste, a few days before his people voted,...

Mean machine; Thrifty versus nifty; Less fashionable alternatives to the Toyota Prius.
April 9, 2007... The car in front is a second-hand Honda Civic PRIUS-ENVY has become epidemic among America's (upwardly) mobile classes. The little hybrid car reckons to get 60 miles to a gallon of petrol, even in city driving. It has become the vehicle of...

The Pursuit of Busyness; Hollywood does the business; At last a film shows capitalism in a good light.
April 10, 2007... Are you, or have you ever been, a capitalist? "FOR the past few decades I have been collecting movies that cast Big Business in a good light," Clive Crook revealed recently in the National Journal. Well, sort of revealed: "Strictly...

Happy ever after? Timor-Leste's election; Five years after winning independence from Indonesia, Timor-Leste is still in a mess. A presidential election is unlikely to bring much change.
April 10, 2007... The election may not resolve the country's conflicts "PEOPLE feel that they are sick of waiting, waiting for something good," observed Xanana Gusmao, the president of Timor-Leste, a few days before his people voted, on Monday April 9th, to...

Questions of faith; The Christian church; Catholics, Anglicans and other Christians all still differ about where the divide between faith and reason lies.
April 10, 2007... Christians are divided about evolution and creation EASTER Sunday is an exuberant moment in the calendar of St Chad's, the church where a doctor called Robert Darwin, sceptical about religion but conscious of convention, had his son Charles...

The bridge that speaks for a city; Australian diary; Our Sydney correspondent walks on water.(City overview)
April 10, 2007... Our Sydney correspondent walks on water Monday | Tuesday Tuesday SYDNEYSIDERS talk non-stop about the problems of crossing the harbour. I have to do it at least once a week. I work from an office in a large, old (for Sydney)...

Watch your backs; France's presidential election; The field is crowded as the first round of voting approaches.
April 10, 2007... The favourites for France's presidency face a tough campaign THE centre-right Union for a Popular Movement (UMP) and the left Socialist Party are France's biggest by some way and their presidential candidates are well known. The UMP's...

Growing energy nexus; China eyes Latin America's energy exports; China's hunger for Latin American energy.
April 10, 2007... Energy-hungry China looks to Latin America China's fast-paced economic growth--averaging 9.1% per year in the last decade--can only be sustained by high energy consumption, an increasing amount of which will need to be imported. Given...

Happy ever after? Timor-Leste's election; Five years after winning independence from Indonesia, Timor-Leste is still in a mess. A presidential election is unlikely to bring much change.
April 11, 2007... The election may not resolve the country's conflicts "PEOPLE feel that they are sick of waiting, waiting for something good," observed Xanana Gusmao, the president of Timor-Leste, a few days before his people voted, on Monday April 9th, to...

The climate-change election; Australian diary; Our Sydney correspondent feels the heat.
April 11, 2007... Our Sydney correspondent feels the heat Monday | Tuesday | Wednesday Wednesday SIR NICHOLAS STERN is on a whirlwind visit to Sydney and Canberra, the Australian capital, to talk about climate change. I go to hear him speak at the...

Watch your backs; France's presidential election; The field is crowded as the first round of voting approaches.
April 11, 2007... The favourites for France's presidency face a tough campaign THE centre-right Union for a Popular Movement (UMP) and the left Socialist Party are France's biggest by some way and their presidential candidates are well known. The UMP's...

Armenia's murky politics; Armenia's dreadful politics; Armenia's rigged parliamentary election.
April 11, 2007... Campaigning begins for a rigged election Campaigning for Armenia's parliamentary election, scheduled for May 12th, began officially on April 8th. The contest will be watched closely by foreign observers, as it could predetermine the fate of...

Seeking a revival; Faint hopes for Doha trade talks in Delhi; Bringing the Doha trade talks back to life requires a miracle.
April 11, 2007... Faint hopes for Doha in Delhi IT SEEMS appropriate that the latest attempt to revive the Doha round of global trade talks is underway in Delhi. India, after all, is one of the ringleaders of the G20 group of developing nations that helped...

Sinfully rich; The rich in China; Behind every great fortune in China may lie a crime.
April 11, 2007... Behind every great fortune in China may lie a crime FOR all its avowed atheism, China is quite taken with the Christian idea of original sin. The term has become a fashionable one in the state-controlled media, though used almost...

Panting towards a new path; Citigroup announces a big overhaul; The world's biggest bank needs to go on a diet.
April 11, 2007... Chuck Prince fights fat, and buys some time WHEN he engineered the merger that created Citigroup, the world's largest bank, Sandy Weill said he felt like a rock star. His successor, Chuck Prince, must have felt more like a busker since...

The Grim Reaper lends a hand; Australian diary; Our Sydney correspondent on an AIDS campaign that worked.
April 12, 2007... Our Sydney correspondent on an AIDS campaign that worked Monday | Tuesday | Wednesday | Thursday Thursday IT IS not often that I spend the lunch hour (or two hours in this case) in a nightclub. But today is different. Slide is a...

Armenia's murky politics; Armenia's dreadful politics; Armenia's rigged parliamentary election.
April 12, 2007... Campaigning begins for a rigged election Campaigning for Armenia's parliamentary election, scheduled for May 12th, began officially on April 8th. The contest will be watched closely by foreign observers, as it could predetermine the fate of...

The long arm of al-Qaeda; Al-Qaeda and terror attacks in north Africa; Bomb attacks in the Maghreb.
April 12, 2007... Who is behind the latest terrorist bombs in north Africa? THE bombs that shook Algiers and ripped the facade off the prime minister's office this week, killing some 30 people, suggest a worrying resurgence of the country's Islamist...

Georgia gets a rocket; Who shelled Georgia? Russia wants to keep its southern neighbour divided.
April 12, 2007... Beware Russian gunships that pass in the night WAS it a stunt, a signal or a test? A month after helicopters launched a night-time rocket attack on government buildings in Georgia's Kodori gorge, nobody knows. As so often in post-Soviet...

Panting towards a new path; Citigroup announces a big overhaul; The world's biggest bank needs to go on a diet.
April 12, 2007... Chuck Prince fights fat, and buys some time WHEN he engineered the merger that created Citigroup, the world's largest bank, Sandy Weill said he felt like a rock star. His successor, Chuck Prince, must have felt more like a busker since...

Getting a little warmer in Japan; China's ties with Japan are getting a little closer; China's prime minister, Wen Jiabao, visits Japan.
April 12, 2007... China's prime minister, Wen Jiabao, goes to Japan China's prime minister, Wen Jiabao, has arrived in Japan for three days of talks--the first such visit by a Chinese prime minister in more than six years. The trip is the latest sign of...

Not yet in step; North Korea is unlikely to close the Yongban reactor as agreed; North Korea is expected to a miss a deadline on closing its nuclear facilities.
April 13, 2007... A song and dance over the hermit kingdom's nuclear facilities ON SUNDAY April 15th, North Korea will conduct lavish official celebrations of the 95th birthday of its late president, Kim Il Sung. The country's neighbours, and America, will...

The taxi driver's tale; Australian diary; Our Sydney correspondent heads for the suburbs.(City overview)
April 13, 2007... Our Sydney correspondent heads for the suburbs Monday | Tuesday | Wednesday | Thursday | Friday Friday A TAXI driver asks me, on my way home from a friend's birthday party in Sydney, what I do for a living. When I tell him I am a...

Apple pipped; Upstaging the iPhone; Even Apple is struggling to keep up with the pace of innovation.
April 13, 2007... The iPhone may already be outdated THE mobile-phone industry's recent jamboree in Florida was a brutal reminder of how fast innovations come and go these days. A bare three months ago we were drooling over Apple's forthcoming iPhone, with...

Woeful Wolfowitz; Will Paul Wolfowitz keep his World Bank job? Paul Wolfowitz's position as World Bank chief looks weak.
April 13, 2007... The World Bank's directors consider what to do about its beleaguered president, Paul Wolfowitz. His position looks weak PAUL WOLFOWITZ's first mistake after becoming president of the World Bank in June 2005 may yet be the final straw that...

Iraq's bloody toll; Blowing up Iraq's new security efforts; A bomb in Iraq's parliament may speed American withdrawal.
April 13, 2007... An attack on parliament casts doubt on new security efforts A bomb attack on Iraq's parliament has killed at least eight people, including two MPs, and has injured 23 others. The incident has huge significance, given that parliament is...

Pie in the sky; The new space race; Plans for the commercial exploitation of the moon by a Russian company are madness.
April 14, 2007... Russian boasts for lunar industrialisation fall short of reality THE moon appears to warp the minds of some men. In folklore unlucky souls are said to transform into werewolves under its influence. But the malign sway of the Earth's...

Selling the Scots; Scottish paintings; Sotheby prepares to stage a more successful auction.
April 14, 2007... After one disappointing auction, Sotheby's tries again ANDRE ZLATTINGER, Sotheby's expert on Scottish pictures, is known for keeping a cool head. Last spring he got within a whisker of the summit of Mount Everest before turning back,...

Love, literature and real estate; Colombian diary; Our Americas editor in the Cartagena of Gabriel Garcia Marquez.
April 16, 2007... Our Americas editor goes house-hunting in Cartagena Monday WALK around the backstreets of the old town of Cartagena de Indias in the evening and you feel like you have stepped into the pages of "Love in the Time of Cholera", Gabriel...

A wing-clipped hawk; Will Paul Wolfowitz keep his World Bank job? Paul Wolfowitz's position as World Bank chief looks weak.
April 16, 2007... Paul Wolfowitz clings on to his job PAUL WOLFOWITZ's first mistake after becoming president of the World Bank in June 2005 may yet be the final straw that breaks him. At the conclusion of the bank's spring meetings in Washington, DC, its...

Looking for options; It's all derivative; Futures and options are booming.
April 16, 2007... Derivatives drive the battle of the exchanges VENERABLE it may be, but the 217-year-old Philadelphia Stock Exchange can hardly claim to be a powerhouse in its industry. So why is it reportedly being wooed by NASDAQ, America's largest fully...

Kill at your convenience; The boom in canned hunting; No kill, no bill.
April 16, 2007... Big-game hunting for small-minded people IF YOU want to shoot a lion without any risk to yourself, you had better hurry. From June 1st it will be illegal in South Africa to shoot a lion while it is caught in a cage or a bear-trap. Farms...

On trial, finally; The trial begins of a terror suspect, but American justice is also under scrutiny; The trial of Jose Padilla finally gets underway.
April 16, 2007... A trial of the American judicial system, too THE apprehension of Jose Padilla, on suspicion of planning to use a "dirty bomb", in 2002 seemed to confirm both that enemies exist who would go the ultimate distance to terrorise America, and...

A purge in Bangladesh; Bangladesh's wobbly democracy; Authorities intensify their crackdown against politicians.
April 16, 2007... The army puts the squeeze on the two main political parties In the latest dramatic twist to the political crisis in Bangladesh, authorities have charged Sheikh Hasina Wajed, a former prime minister, with murder and have also severely...

Pay-back time; A $25 billion deal for America's Sallie Mae; The new owners of Sallie Mae will carry large debts of their own.
April 16, 2007... Can Sallie Mae's new owners pay off their debts with student loans? NEW graduates in America are used to facing an uncertain future while saddled with hefty debts. Now Sallie Mae, the firm that provides many of them with the financial...

Murder at school; At least 30 students are killed by a gunman in a Virginia college; The deadliest school shooting in American history takes place in Virginia.
April 16, 2007... A massacre of at least 30 students in a Virginia college is the deadliest school shooting in American history ON MONDAY April 16th, a gunman killed perhaps as many as 32 people at Virginia Tech university, in Blacksburg, Virginia. In the...

Animal rights in South Africa; The boom in canned hunting; No kill, no bill.
April 20, 2007... A novel way to tempt tourists IF YOU want to shoot a lion without any risk to yourself, you had better hurry. From June 1st it will be illegal in South Africa to shoot a lion while it is caught in a cage or a bear-trap. Farms will no longer...

The roots of cocaine; Colombian diary; Our Americas editor joins the war on drugs.
April 20, 2007... Our Americas editor joins the war on drugs Monday | Tuesday | Wednesday | Thursday | Friday Friday EVEN with earplugs, the noise is deafening. I am sitting on a canvas seat in the back of a Blackhawk helicopter-gunship, with a...

Pay-back time; A $25 billion deal for America's Sallie Mae; The new owners of Sallie Mae will carry large debts of their own.
April 20, 2007... Can Sallie Mae's new owners pay off their debts? NEW graduates in America are used to facing an uncertain future while saddled with hefty debts. Now Sallie Mae, the firm that provides many of them with the financial wherewithal to complete...

Murder at school; A gunman kills 32 students in a Virginia college; The deadliest school shooting in American history takes place in Virginia.
April 20, 2007... The deadliest such shooting in American history ON MONDAY April 16th, a gunman killed 32 people at Virginia Tech university, in Blacksburg, Virginia. In the way of the modern world, somebody with a mobile-phone camera was nearby to capture...

Anywhere but Delaware; News from North Dakota; Luring American business away from Delaware.
April 20, 2007... Bismarck, a friend to American shareholders WITH Canada to its north and Montana to its west, North Dakota is a well-kept secret among American states. It is best known (if at all) for extreme weather and frequent thunderstorms, and its...

Inflation shock; British inflation rises, followed by the pound and, probably, by interest rates; Inflation and interest rates are rising in Britain, taking the pound up too.
April 20, 2007... A surprise rise in British inflation; and a pound now costs $2 MERVYN KING, governor of the Bank of England, has long cherished the ambition of making British monetary policy boring. Instead it has become rather exciting thanks to the...

Reforming Ecuador; Ecuador's voters want radical reforms; A referendum in Ecuador shows support for rewriting the constitution.
April 20, 2007... Voters back plans to rewrite the constitution On April 15th Ecuador's president, Rafael Correa, secured a major electoral victory just three months after taking office, garnering decisive popular support for his proposal to convene a...

After the massacre; Tighter gun control seems unlikely in America; Despite the Virginia shootings, gun control is unpopular.
April 20, 2007... Americans still don't want more gun control IT IS surely an American oddity that, after the worst mass shooting in the country's history, some are already saying that such horrors would be less likely if only guns were easier to own and...

A history of violence; Japan and China; The reconciliation is gathering speed.
April 20, 2007... Japan and China try to make friends HIS entourage landed in a thunder storm, but Wen Jiabao, China's prime minister, still insisted that spring had sprung when he visited Japan for three days last week. Wherever he popped up in a...

The autocrat at the table; Dining with the president; The low-down on the top tables.
April 20, 2007... Heads of state: a user's guide A SOCIAL engagement with an east European head of state is not something to engage in lightly. In some countries, you may find the top man willing to meet over a meal or a drink. But others are so hedged...

Baath time in Syria; An election is not what it seems, in Syria; Syria's president ensures he will have a tame parliament.
April 20, 2007... Bashar al-Assad tightens his hold on power The result of the Syrian parliamentary election, to be held on April 22nd, is not in doubt, as the constitution dictates that a front led by the Baath party must hold two-thirds of the 250 seats....

Boo-hoo; Google leaves Yahoo and MSN even further behind; Google tightens its domination over all its rivals.
April 20, 2007... Yahoo and MSN fall even further behind Google ANOTHER month, another string of victories for Google, the world's emerging internet superpower. On Tuesday April 17th, in the latest sign that Google has the upper hand over all its rivals,...