Global Agenda articles from July 2007

Global Agenda archives from July 2007

The resilience of freedom; Hong Kong ten years on; How Hong Kong is faring ten years after China took over.
July 1, 2007... Ten years of Chinese sovereignty THE torrential rain that fell on Britain's end-of-empire parade on the night of June 30th 1997 conjured up apocalyptic visions of the future of Hong Kong. Prince Charles bequeathed a sodden city to Jiang...

Intelligent design; Green houses; Intelligent design enters the home.
July 2, 2007... A green rating system for America's homes A CRAZE for "green" buildings is sweeping American business. As each company seeks to be greener than the next, so demand is growing to get buildings certified by the Leadership in Energy...

The week ahead; What may be in the headlines this week; What may make the news.
July 2, 2007... What may make the headlines • FRED THOMPSON, a well-known TV actor and a former senator, is set officially to join the throng of Republican presidential hopefuls. Mr Thompson has made little secret of his intention to challenge a...

The pleasures of the gutter; Tehran diary; Our correspondent finds the city flooded--with money.
July 2, 2007... Our correspondent finds peace in a secret garden Monday IT HAD been a hellish day of dry heat, throat-stinging pollution and growling traffic. I was late for an afternoon meeting downtown, seething in a vast queue of cars pumping...

Britain under threat; What can be learned from a weekend of terror threats; Even failed attacks may promote terrorists' interests.
July 2, 2007... Even failed attacks may promote terrorists' interests IT IS becoming a dreadful summer ritual for Britain. On July 7th, 2005, suicide bombers struck London's public transport system, killing 52 and injuring 700; two weeks later four more...

Hollowing out? The Bell Canada takeover; The world's biggest private-equity deal.
July 2, 2007... The biggest private-equity takeover BY ANY standard the sums are enormous. For $32.6 billion in cash and the transfer of $15.9 billion in debt, Bell Canada Enterprises (BCE), owner of the largest telephone company in Canada, has agreed to...

Staying alive; American-Andean free trade is prolonged.
July 2, 2007... Congress prolongs American-Andean free trade Expiring trade preferences granted by the US to four Andean nations have been extended by the US Congress. An 11th-hour agreement was reached on June 26th to grant an additional eight months to...

A swamp of paranoid nostalgia; Poland and the EU; The Kaczynskis need to work on their social skills.
July 3, 2007... Grumpy diplomacy hurts Poland most of all YOUR family is kidnapped by a cult that murders your best and brightest, steals your money and tries to brainwash your children. Eventually, it collapses and you are free--if a bit batty and scruffy...

A poet of light; Turner; An unusual sale of watercolours.
July 3, 2007... Fourteen Turners on the block HENRY WEYMSS, Sotheby's specialist on J.M.W. Turner, says he is determined not to get too excited about the sale of 14 Turner watercolours on July 4th, but he cannot help himself. "This sale is unprecedented...

The house of strength; Tehran diary; Our correspondent admires Iranian tradition.(Column)
July 3, 2007... Our correspondent admires Iranian traditionalism Monday | Tuesday Tuesday I WAS at a friend's birthday party last night and the room was filled with wealthy young north Tehranis. The girls sparkled in skimpy cocktail dresses and...

Britain under threat; What can be learned from a weekend of terror threats; Even failed attacks may promote terrorists' interests.
July 3, 2007... Even failed attacks may promote terrorists' interests IT IS becoming a dreadful summer ritual for Britain. On July 7th, 2005, suicide bombers struck London's public transport system, killing 52 and injuring 700; two weeks later four more...

The lobster summit; George Bush and Vladimir Putin put their best faces forward; What was achieved at the Bush-Putin summit.
July 3, 2007... Vladimir Putin and George Bush inch together in Maine AMERICAN hospitality can fix almost any problem. That was the background assumption to this week's summit between George Bush and Vladimir Putin in Kennebunkport, at the home of the...

Odd times in private equity; Still going strong; Rumours of death of the private-equity merger boom are exaggerated.
July 3, 2007... Four threats to the current boom "THIS is an odd time to be setting records in leveraged buy-outs", argues the Lex column in July 2nd's Financial Times, noting the announcement of the $48.5 billion acquisition of BCE, a Canadian telecom...

From first lady to president; Argentina's presidential politics; Who will be Argentina's president?
July 3, 2007... Argentina's Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner wants the top job Months of speculation over who would represent the governing party in Argentina's October elections ended on July 1st with the announcement that the wife of President Nestor...

Slices of life; Tehran diary; Our correspondent luxuriates in fresh-baked bread.(Column)
July 4, 2007... Our correspondent luxuriates in fresh-baked bread Monday | Tuesday | Wednesday Wednesday AS I DO most mornings, I trotted up the hill today to buy a loaf of fresh, oven-hot barbari bread for breakfast. The morning rush was already...

The lobster summit; George Bush and Vladimir Putin put their best faces forward; What was achieved at the Bush-Putin summit.
July 4, 2007... Vladimir Putin and George Bush inch together AMERICAN hospitality can fix almost any problem. That was the background assumption to this week's summit between George Bush and Vladimir Putin in Kennebunkport, at the home of the first...

China winks at the West; China's foreign policy; Are Beijing's interests really aligned with America's?
July 4, 2007... Tailoring foreign policy to the Beijing Olympics CHINA'S foreign policy, usually vilified in the West for its brazen mixture of commercial self-interest and callous disregard for even the most basic human rights, has been enjoying better...

Free at last; The release of a kidnapped BBC reporter may benefit Hamas; Freedom for a kidnapped BBC reporter in Gaza.
July 4, 2007... The release of a reporter boosts Hamas ALAN JOHNSTON, the BBC reporter who has finally been let go by kidnappers in the Gaza Strip after 114 days in captivity, has every reason to be both furious and thankful. The last Western journalist to...

Oil on troubled waters; Where next for Iraq's economy? How to share out Iraq's oil.
July 4, 2007... Iraq appears to take a step forward on sharing out its oil UNTIL Iraq's economy recovers fully is there any chance of tackling its other woes? The prospects seem dim. Getting the economy in shape means, mostly, getting the oil industry back...

Ten years on; Ten years on from the Asian economic crisis; How Asia shrugged off its economic crisis.
July 4, 2007... How Asia shrugged off its economic crisis Ten years ago, on July 2nd 1997, Thailand's central bank floated the baht after failing to protect the currency from speculative attack. The move triggered a financial and economic collapse that...

Heroes of the revolution; Tehran diary; Our correspondent sees Ayatollah Khomeini in the street.(Column)
July 5, 2007... Our correspondent is unmoved by a suicide bomber Monday | Tuesday | Wednesday | Thursday Thursday I HAPPENED to pass the best of Tehran's revolutionary murals today, a striking four-storey image of Ayatollah Khomeini saluting the...

A swamp of paranoid nostalgia; Poland and the EU; The Kaczynskis need to work on their social skills.
July 5, 2007... Grumpy diplomacy hurts Poland most of all YOUR family is kidnapped by a cult that murders your best and brightest, steals your money and tries to brainwash your children. Eventually, it collapses and you are free--if a bit batty and scruffy...

Oil on troubled waters; Where next for Iraq's economy? How to share out Iraq's oil.
July 5, 2007... Can it be shared out? UNTIL Iraq's economy recovers fully is there any chance of tackling its other woes? The prospects seem dim. Getting the economy in shape means, mostly, getting the oil industry back on its feet. Iraq has the world's...

A mosque red with blood; Tackling Islamist extremists in Pakistan; Pakistan finally cracks down on a group of Islamist extremists.
July 5, 2007... Pakistan finally cracks down on a group of Islamist extremists A VIOLENT battle with Islamist extremism was fought this week in the heart of Pakistan's capital, Islamabad. On Tuesday July 3rd the army besieged the Lal Masjid, or Red Mosque,...

Italy's mission impossible; Italy's troubled centre-left; Uniting the centre-left in Italy.
July 5, 2007... Can the centre-left be united? The maelstrom of Italian politics has intensified with the decision of Walter Veltroni, the popular mayor of Rome, to throw his hat in the ring for the leadership of the nascent Partito Democratico (PD). Plans...

The borders of Islam; Tehran diary; Our correspondent encounters an exodus of Afghanse.
July 6, 2007... Our correspondent encounters an exodus of Afghans Monday | Tuesday | Wednesday | Thursday | Friday Friday SUMMER is really starting to hit this week, and the temperature has been rising. I find it hard enough to work sitting in an...

Flowers in the sky; Fireworks; The Japanese have made the colourful displays into an art.
July 6, 2007... Japanese fireworks are still the best in the world "REMEMBER, remember the fifth of November--gunpowder, treason, and plot." No disrespect for America's foremost celebration, but Britain's Guy Fawkes Day leaves Independence Day in the...

Taking stock; How the world fares in the fight against poverty; The Millennium Development Goals.
July 6, 2007... Surprise, the world is winning its fight against poverty MAKE poverty history is a compelling slogan. Halve it by 2015, in contrast, is a measurable commitment. That is the logic behind the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), a host of...

Mexico a year later; Mexico's year under Felipe Calderon; What Mexico's Felipe Calderon has achieved.
July 6, 2007... What Felipe Calderon has achieved A year after hotly contested elections and seven months into his term of office, Mexico's President Felipe Calderon has achieved more, and is more popular, than might have seemed possible after he beat off...

Taking stock; How the world fares in the fight against poverty; The Millennium Development Goals.
July 7, 2007... The world is winning its fight, mostly MAKE poverty history is a compelling slogan. Halve it by 2015, in contrast, is a measurable commitment. That is the logic behind the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), a host of targets in the...

Bill Bryson's beauty; Preserving rural England; Unspoilt land is valuable, but not priceless.
July 9, 2007... Unspoilt land is valuable, but not priceless ALL of England should be a national park, says Bill Bryson, an author who takes office this week as president of a pressure group called the Campaign to Protect Rural England (CPRE). "It is...

The week ahead; What may make the headlines this week; What may be in the news.
July 9, 2007... What may make the headlines • THE European Commission publishes its strategy for sports reform in the middle of the week. It is expected to address concerns about the fuzzy legal status of professional sports, the most contentious...

An English village summer; Hampshire diary; Our correspondent inquires after a prolapsed cow.
July 9, 2007... Our correspondent inquires after a prolapsed cow Monday WARNFORD is tiny. It has maybe 20 houses, the relics of a long-dead railway, a church, a village hall, and a pub surely dependent on passing trade from the busy main road down the...

Wondrous, once more; Picking the world's seven wonders; The seven wonders of the world.
July 9, 2007... Listing the world's seven wonders THE ancient Greeks had their list of the seven wonders, dotted in and around the Mediterranean, to aid and entertain travellers. Of these only the Pyramids at Giza, in Egypt, remain. But on Saturday July...

Extremism under siege; Taking on extremists in Pakistan; The siege in Pakistan continues.
July 9, 2007... Pakistan's government takes on Islamist extremists in the heart of its capital in an effort to show the country's moderate credentials THE siege by Pakistan's security forces of the Lal Masjid, or Red Mosque, complex in central Islamabad,...

Easy money; Equity markets; Will the second half of 2007 be as kind to investors as the first?
July 9, 2007... The year has treated equity investors well SO FAR, it has been pretty hard for equity investors to lose money in 2007. The FTSE World index rose 8.7% in dollar terms over the first six months of the year. The leading markets (America,...

Portrait of a prince; Old Masters; Raphael's portrait of Lorenzo de' Medici.
July 9, 2007... A fleeting look at a rare Raphael FOR the past few weeks a sumptuous painting held court at Christie's headquarters in London. After travelling the world to visit interested buyers (as star lots do nowadays) it had come to rest in a quiet...

Prowling tiger; India seeks new ways to boost its economy; India and its special economic zones.
July 9, 2007... India pushes anew for special economic zones India's efforts to replicate China's conspicuously successful development of special economic zones (SEZs) began to generate controversy as soon as the policy came into force in early 2006....

The buildings speak of God; Hampshire diary; Our correspondent pays a call on the vicar.
July 10, 2007... Our correspondent pays a call on the vicar Monday | Tuesday Tuesday EVEN today, in most English villages, the vicar is a real figure. His life has changed, of course. He is no longer the minor grandee of Victorian and earlier...

The last battle; Taking on extremists in Pakistan; Breaking the siege in Pakistan.
July 10, 2007... A bloody end to the Islamabad siege IN THE early hours of Tuesday July 10th, after a week-long siege, Pakistan's security forces stormed the Lal Masjid, or Red Mosque, complex in central Islamabad, the capital. Inside were several dozen...

An unwelcome rise; The oil price is uncomfortably high once again; The risk from higher oil prices.
July 10, 2007... The risk from higher oil prices SO THE price of oil is creeping back up towards a record high. A barrel of the black stuff cost around $75 in London on Tuesday July 10th--or a few dollars less in America--as prices return to the heady days...

A Tiger in the boardroom; Golf and business; Why the fairway is just as important as the office.
July 10, 2007... Why golf is the sport of bosses HIS firm may have been flirting with disaster, but that did not stop James Cayne from playing his usual round of golf. Last month, as the boss of Bear Stearns pondered launching the biggest-ever hedge-fund...

Free rider not free market; Nicolas Sarkozy pleads for a bigger budget deficit; Nicolas Sarkozy wants to cut taxes and spend.
July 10, 2007... Nicolas Sarkozy wants a bigger budget deficit EU leaders may soon rue their initial enthusiasm for France's hyperactive new President, Nicolas Sarkozy. He has shamelessly invited himself to the July 8th-9th summit of eurozone finance...

The master forger; Hampshire diary; Our correspondent meets a man of iron.
July 11, 2007... Our correspondent meets a man of iron Monday | Tuesday | Wednesday Wednesday YOUR correspondent's nearest neighbour practises a very ancient country craft. Not quite, however, as countrymen used to practise it centuries, indeed...

King of the kleptocrats; Suharto; Paying tribute to one of Asia's biggest swindlers.
July 11, 2007... Another attempt to make a dent in Suharto's stash THE tenth anniversary this month of the onset of Asia's financial crisis is a good moment to pay tribute to one of its central figures: Suharto, Indonesia's president for three decades until...

Desperate times in Zimbabwe; Zimbabwe grows ever more wretched; Zimbabwe is a country at the end of its tether.
July 11, 2007... A country at the end of its tether ZIMBABWE is an increasingly wretched place and, sadly, will grow more miserable for some time yet. This week an outspoken Roman Catholic Archbishop, Pius Ncube, who has become the strongest voice of...

Corruption in Argentina; Corruption allegations against Argenitina's rulers; Argentina's government faces corruption claims.
July 11, 2007... More brouhaha for the government Following a string of recent corruption allegations, the administration of President Nestor Kirchner is being hit with a new brouhaha surrounding his economy minister, Felisa Miceli. The case could damage...

Keeping the guns happy; Hampshire diary; Our correspondent learns to hatch and dispatch.
July 12, 2007... Our correspondent learns to hatch and dispatch Monday | Tuesday | Wednesday | Thursday Thursday "THE droppings tell you if they're healthy. They should be firm, black with a touch of white. Frothy yellow, the birds are sick." That...

King of the kleptocrats; Suharto; A new lawsuit against Indonesia's former president.
July 12, 2007... Another attempt to make a dent in Suharto's stash THE tenth anniversary this month of the onset of Asia's financial crisis is a good moment to pay tribute to one of its central figures: Suharto, Indonesia's president for three decades until...

A glimmer of hope; Can Humpty Dumpty be put together again? A plan to bring gas from the Caspian to Europe.
July 12, 2007... The struggle for energy independence from Russia WESTERN failures in recent energy tussles with Russia have been persistent and spectacular. Key allies have drifted off into private deals. The big picture has been ignored. The gloomy drift...

Greening Florida; Florida's plan to cut greenhouse-gas emissions; Cutting Florida's emissions.
July 12, 2007... The rest of America may follow, eventually PERHAPS it is no surprise that Charlie Crist, Florida's Republican state governor, has just announced that he will sign into law some of the toughest emissions standards in America. The large...

A Tiger in the boardroom; Golf and business; Why the fairway is just as important as the office.
July 12, 2007... Why golf is the sport of bosses HIS firm may have been flirting with disaster, but that did not stop James Cayne from playing his usual round of golf. Last month, as the boss of Bear Stearns pondered launching the biggest-ever hedge-fund...

Energy for China; China's hunger for energy; China's more diverse energy supplies.
July 12, 2007... More diversity of supply, but demand is growing fast China's energy challenges are monumental. The economy is in the midst of a highly energy-intensive stage of growth, but domestic reserves--especially of oil--are far from adequate to meet...

The cradle of English cricket; Hampshire diary; Our correspondent meets the Hampshire hogs.
July 13, 2007... Our correspondent meets the Hampshire Hogs Monday | Tuesday | Wednesday | Thursday | Friday Friday FIVE miles south-east is Broadhalfpenny Down, 18th-century cradle of English cricket. Two miles east, in West Meon churchyard, lies...

Perpetual nonsense; Impossible science; Perpetual-motion machines.
July 13, 2007... There's no free lunch in supplying energy BEYOND the suburbs of science dwell all manner of amateur inventors, would-be Einsteins, saviours of the planet and other well-meaning crackpots. The one thing they invariably share is a...

Behind the Gazprom-Total deal; Gazprom strikes a deal with Total; Gazprom's deal with Total.
July 13, 2007... Beware Russians bearing gifts ON THE eve of Bastille Day Russia's president, Vladimir Putin, handed a royal present to the newly elected president of France, Nicolas Sarkozy, by allowing a national French company into Russia's mightily...

The French abroad; Nicolas Sarkozy and the Middle East; France and the Middle East.
July 13, 2007... Nicolas Sarkozy's vigorous diplomacy in the Middle East The French president, Nicolas Sarkozy, has given close attention to the Middle East and North Africa since his election in early May, receiving a succession of Arab leaders in Paris,...

Another squeeze on Iraq; Congress adds to the pressure on George Bush over Iraq; Putting pressure on George Bush over Iraq.
July 14, 2007... Congress piles the pressure on George Bush THE pressure continues to build on George Bush. On Thursday July 12th the House of Representatives voted to withdraw American troops from Iraq by April next year. In itself that changes nothing:...

Buckle your seatbelts; Ups and downs; Making sense of rollercoaster markets.
July 15, 2007... It's going to be a bumpy summer IT IS certainly shaping up to be a volatile summer. First the yield on the ten-year Treasury bond moved sharply higher, seemingly on the realisation that the Federal Reserve would not cut rates after all....

The final frontier; Digital technology is changing cinema; The rise of digital cinema.
July 15, 2007... Digital technology is changing cinema THERE is a scene in "Transformers", a blockbuster that came out last week, in which a mobile phone turns into a homicidal robot. In its astonishingly loud way, the film is a meditation on the dangers...

The week ahead; What may make the headlines; The coming days.(Calendar)
July 16, 2007... What may make the headlines • ANGLO-RUSSIAN relations are frosty these days and a row over the death of Alexander Litvinenko last year threatens to make them icier yet. Mr Litvinenko, who was murdered with a radioactive substance in...

Steam, shanks and spices; Our correspondent eats his way down Atlantic Avenue.
July 16, 2007... Our correspondent eats his way down Atlantic Avenue Monday I HAVE heard people express doubts about the Yemen Cafe. It looks unwelcoming, they say, dark and a little dingy. Yemeni men huddle over bone-littered tables, chattering at...

A proper temple; Indian art; An auction to benefit the Kolkata Museum of Modern Art.
July 16, 2007... Giving Indian modern art the museum it deserves THE new Kolkata Museum of Modern Art, or KMoMA, is anything but unambitious. It is intended to be India's answer to the Tate Modern, the Guggenheim and, of course, New York's Museum of Modern...

Losing sleep over climate change; Joining the fight; Involving poor states in the war against climate change.
July 16, 2007... Poor countries may be more worried than rich ones THE biggest problem in the fight against climate change is the issue of how to involve poor countries. Developing-country governments are reluctant to bear the costs of averting climate...

After the closure; After North Korea closes its Yongbyon nuclear reactor; North Korea closes its Yongbyon reactor. What next?
July 16, 2007... Now the Yongbyon reactor is closed "TRUST, but verify", was Ronald Reagan's approach to nuclear deals with the Soviet Union. America's experience with North Korea has been so maddening that the current attitude might be summed up as "Don't...

Reducing the EADS count; A welcome effort to reshape EADS; A step in the right direction for EADS.
July 16, 2007... Streamlining top management at EADS is a step in the right direction THE system of checks and balances deemed so vital to good government does not work so well in the realm of corporate governance. The recent troubles at Airbus and its...

Under bad management; Africa's bad management; The World Bank says that governance in Africa has improved, but only a little.
July 16, 2007... Despite some improvement, African governance is woeful After deteriorating between 1998 and 2005, governance in Africa appears to have improved somewhat in the last year. However, governance standards for the continent are far from ideal....

Maximum Chinatown; Our correspondent eats his way through Chinatown.(restaurants quality i)
July 17, 2007... Our food diarist eats an oyster as big as his hand Monday | Tuesday Tuesday THE ten-block walk from the subway along Eighth Avenue--Brooklyn's Chinatown, in Sunset Park--takes me past open-air fishmarkets selling turtles and blue...

Reducing the EADS count; A welcome effort to reshape EADS; A step in the right direction for EADS.
July 17, 2007... A step in the right direction THE system of checks and balances deemed so vital to good government does not work so well in the realm of corporate governance. The recent troubles at Airbus and its parent company, EADS, provide a fine...

The Forbidden latte; Starbucks and China; The coffee giant leaves the Forbidden City.
July 17, 2007... Do American brands face trouble in China? STARBUCKS is leaving the Forbidden City. It closed its store on July 13th, following a hugely popular online campaign led by Rui Chenggang, an anchorman for China's biggest TV network. He argued...

A chill from the east; Anglo-Russian relations grow ever more tense; Western relations with Russia are worsening.(Andrei Lugovoi accused for murder of Alexander Litvinenko)(Soviet Union. KGB)
July 17, 2007... Talk of a "new cold war" is overblown, but Western relations with Russia are worsening "THE Russian government," David Miliband, Britain's new, young foreign secretary, told Parliament on Monday July 16th, "has failed to register either...

Going private in Egypt; Privatising Egypt's banks; Selling off Egypt's state-owned banks.
July 17, 2007... A good start to bank privatisation, but will it continue? The Egyptian government has decided to offer the second of the original four state-owned commercial banks for sale to a strategic investor. However, the deal may not proceed quite as...

Putting the kitsch in kitchen; Our correspondent bathes in nostalgia at Brighton Beach.
July 18, 2007... Our diarist bathes in nostalgia at Brighton Beach Monday | Tuesday | Wednesday Wednesday BRIGHTON Beach began as a summer getaway for wealthy 19th-century New Yorkers, and stayed that way until the local railway was integrated...

A chill from the east; Anglo-Russian relations grow ever more tense; Western relations with Russia are worsening.(Andrei Lugovoi employee of Soviet Union. KGB accused for murder of Alexander Litvinenko)
July 18, 2007... But talk of a "new cold war" is overblown "THE Russian government," David Miliband, Britain's new, young foreign secretary, told Parliament on Monday July 16th, "has failed to register either how seriously we treat this case or the...

Land of the waving glove; Elections in Japan; A vote for the upper house of the Diet.
July 18, 2007... A most unpredictable general election campaign BETWEEN now and July 29th the right-wing goons who cruise the city streets of Japan in vans with imperial flags waving and loudspeakers blaring have innocent competition: politicians. Half...

A bumpier ride; Ben Bernanke testifies to Congress on America's economy; Ben Bernanke on the American economy.
July 18, 2007... Ben Bernanke's deft touch. Will it last? A YEAR ago, some in the financial markets had their doubts about Ben Bernanke. Inflation was rising and the boss of the Federal Reserve had fumbled his early communications with Wall Street. No...

Politics by other means; Pakistan's Pervez Musharraf wants to remain as a president in uniform; Pakistan's violent election year.
July 18, 2007... Pakistan's president, General Pervez Musharraf, says he will stay in uniform and seek re-election ELECTIONS loom and Pakistan's president, General Pervez Musharraf, has chosen his means of staying in power: war. His term as president...

Saying no to free trade; Congress turns down a free-trade deal with Colombia; Colombia won't get a free-trade deal with America.
July 18, 2007... Congress rejects a deal with Colombia The US Congress has postponed discussion of free-trade agreements (FTAs) signed with Peru and Panama for several months, while indicating that it will not consider the accord with Colombia at all at...

A bite of Bangladesh; Our correspondent eats a Bengali goat.(restaurants survey)(Viewpoint essay)
July 19, 2007... Our diarist eats a goat and chews on a spice rack Monday | Tuesday | Wednesday | Thursday Thursday KENSINGTON is the hub of New York's Pakistani and Bangladeshi communities, although, as with much of central Brooklyn, it contains...

The BBC's alleged kowtow; The BBC and the Kremlin; Dissidents complain over the coverage of Alexander Litvinenko's death.
July 19, 2007... Arguing over the coverage of the Litvinenko murder WHEN people like this complain, you take notice. Vladimir Bukovsky spent 12 years in Soviet prison camps before being deported in 1976. Oleg Gordievsky was Britain's top defector from the...

Politics by other means; Pakistan's Pervez Musharraf wants to remain as a president in uniform; Pakistan's violent election year.
July 19, 2007... General Pervez Musharraf plans to stay ELECTIONS loom and Pakistan's president, General Pervez Musharraf, has chosen his means of staying in power: war. His term as president expires in October and this week he revealed that he will seek...

An accident waiting to happen? Explaining the Brazil plane crash; Brazil's troubled aviation.
July 19, 2007... A crash raises troubling questions THE past year has been a terrible one for Brazil's airlines. On the night of Tuesday July 17th a packed Airbus 320 jet operated by TAM, the country's leading airline, overshot the runway at Sao Paulo's...

Jacques in the box; France's ex- president is questioned by a judge investigating graft; The trials of Jacques Chirac.
July 19, 2007... Jacques Chirac is interviewed by a judge investigating graft THE judicial trail is closing in on France's former president, Jacques Chirac. On Thursday July 19th a judge investigating a fake jobs scheme that allegedly benefited members of...

Hello world; Welcome to the worldwide phone; The solution to the traveller's dilemma.
July 20, 2007... Avoiding punitive roaming charges abroad WITH a six-month foreign assignment looming, your columnist has had to start thinking seriously about finding a mobile phone that will work--well--around the world. Huge changes in wireless...