News on 3.27.04
Taiwan The strait widens Mar 25th 2004 From The Economist print edition Taiwan's voters send a signal to China Getty Images THERE is plenty that remains uncertain about last weekend's presidential election in Taiwan, including the result. As The Economist went to press, a debate was raging over whether to hold a recount. Unusually, it was the incumbent president, Chen Shui-bian, who was pushing for one, even though the declared result of the election on March 20th had him ahead by about...
China and Taiwan Behind the mask China's economy Taiwan China Taiwan
Paying for the old Work, work, work Mar 25th 2004 From The Economist print edition Time to panic AP OLD age, said Maurice Chevalier, the dapper French crooner , For most of the elderly in rich countries, it is better than ever before. The triumph of the welfare state on both sides of the Atlantic is that the old are now no poorer than the young. Indeed in some countries, such as Germany, old people are typically better off, counting the value of all they receive from government, than...
Forever young Grey power Paying for the old
The murder that sparked the genocide Who shot down the presidents' plane? Mar 25th 2004 From The Economist print edition An unresolved mystery AFP Get article background EVEN now, nobody knows who lit the fuse. On April 6th 1994, two missiles struck a plane carrying Rwanda's Hutu president, Juvenal Habyarimana, and his Burundian counterpart, killing all aboard. Within hours, the genocide had begun. The Hutu fanatics who seized power blamed the Tutsi rebels of the RPF for the...
Lessons of a genocide Rwanda since the genocide The murder that sparked the genocide
Oil prices Shocking Mar 25th 2004 From The Economist print edition Oil prices are not as high as they look, nor yet a big threat to economic growth CRUDE oil prices topped $38 a barrel last week, their highest since October 1990. They have since slipped back slightly, but prices at America's petrol pumps are now at their highest ever. This has prompted some economists to start fretting about rising inflation or even a sharp slowdown in growth. They should relax the moment. This is not...
Oil Oil prices
Microsoft Different strokes Mar 25th 2004 From The Economist print edition Is the EU ruling against Microsoft merely a case of history repeating itself? Actually, no AP STOP us if you've heard this one before. Microsoft, the world's largest software company, has been found guilty of abusing its monopoly. Its crime was to stifle competition by including( ) another of its programs with every copy of its Windows operating system, which is installed on over 90% of PCsbiquity of Microsoft's...
Microsoft Microsoft
Israel and Palestine Has the death of the sheikh really changed anything? Mar 25th 2004 | GAZA AND JERUSALEM From The Economist print edition Reuters The assassination of Sheikh Ahmed Yassin should not divert attention from deeper changes in Israeli politics Get article background THOSE two tangled entitiesor to an even bloodier version of the stalemate that has long been a major cause of instability throughout the Middle East. The assassination by Israeli forces on March 22nd of...
Israel and Palestine Israel and Palestine
Malaysia's election Bravo Badawi Mar 25th 2004 | KUALA LUMPUR From The Economist print edition Dr Mahathir's old party has done better without him Get article background THE National Front coalition may have won every election since Malaysia's independence, but it has not won by such a crushing margin in decades. On March 21st, voters awarded it 90% of the seats in the national parliament, up from 77% in 1999. It also won control of 11 of the 12 state governments at stake, while its share...
Spain Spain, a week on Malaysia's election
The budget The gambler Mar 18th 2004 From The Economist print edition AP The chancellor was right, and most observers were wrong, about economic growth. He's gambling that the same is true of the public finances Get article background GORDON BROWN'S eighth budget was about politics, not economics. Given how fast the budget deficit has been growing, a prudent custodian of the public finances would be raising taxes or cutting spending. But, with an election likely next year, neither...
The British budget The budget
National security The blame game Mar 25th 2004 | WASHINGTON, DC From The Economist print edition Was Iraq a distraction from the war against America's real enemies? And could those enemies have been countered earlier? GEORGE BUSH is running as a war president, a man willing to take the hard decisions needed to defend America from existential threat. As evidence, he claims he took the danger of global terrorism very seriously even before the attacks of September 11th 2001, and that since...
Al-Qaeda National security
The Australian economy America's ugly sister Mar 18th 2004 From The Economist print edition Australia's economy looks suspiciously like America's just before its bubble burst Get article background IN LATE 1995, when Australia had a huge current-account deficit of 5% of GDP, The Economist suggested, tongue in cheek, that Australia looked rather like Mexico before its currency collapsed at the end of 1994. We predicted that the Australian dollar would also tumble. The Aussie dollar did...
Financial markets The Australian economy
Colombia Too much of a good thing Mar 18th 2004 From The Economist print edition ?lvaro Uribe and the dangers of elected autocracy AP SELDOM has there been such a divorce between the way a political leader is viewed by outsiders and how he is seen by his own people. Abroad, ?lvaro Uribe, Colombia's president since August 2002, is viewed by many as a fascistic ogre in league with right-wing paramilitaries to trample human rights. Most Colombians, by contrast, reckon their president has...
Ingrid Betancourt and Colombia's government Colombia
Iraq, a year on A glimmering of hope Mar 18th 2004 | BAGHDAD AND CAIRO From The Economist print edition Getty Though an awful lot has gone, and is going, wrong, Iraqis are much freer, and some other Arabs a tiny bit so too SITTING cross-legged in his Abu Ghraib mosque, an island surrounded by sewage, Sheikh Yasseen Zubaie, the Sunni imam, remembers pre-war Iraq with nostalgia. ?The council used to pump out the muck every three weeks. Now they promise, and do nothing,? he says. War...
After Madrid Iraq, a year on
There are 12 custers
China and Taiwan 4.5
Forever young 2.0
Lessons of a genocide 2.0
Oil 1.0
Microsoft 1.0
Israel and Palestine 1.0
Spain 1.0
The British budget 0.5
Al-Qaeda 0.5
Financial markets 0.5
Ingrid Betancourt and Colombia's government 0.5
After Madrid 0.5
closest distance: 0.26389160603564377
farthest distance: 0.9435207502270352
average distance: 0.7654238183610812
intercluster avg distance: 0.7695269858835816
intracluser avg distance: 0.4688767110530959
spread: 0.0072879700580765535
intracluster spread: 0.006073943751527058