News on 4.10.04
Central European nationalism Populist watch Apr 7th 2004 | VILNIUS From The Economist print edition A populist resurgence in central Europe Get article background AS IF by some compensatory principle, central Europe lost one pariah president this week just as another loomed into view. The departing figure was Rolandas Paksas, the scandal-swamped president of Lithuania, dismissed by a parliamentary vote on April 6th after 15 months in office. His main sin was to surround himself with...
Al-Qaeda National security The presidency Searching for John Kerry's economic policy Lexington Iraq Australia George Bush's credibility Iraq Lexington Science and the Bush administration Now what? Iraq Bagehot Central European nationalism
The Caribbean and Taiwan Easy money Apr 7th 2004 | TRINIDAD From The Economist print edition Communist money pays off capitalist debt ROOSEVELT SKERRIT, Dominica's 31-year-old prime minister, has plenty of reasons to be cheerful. Three months into office, he scored a landslide win in a by-election on April 5th. And last week, China promised him $122m in return for revoking his country's recognition of Taiwan. The switch will bring in more than a third of his government's normal revenue,...
China and Taiwan Behind the mask China's economy Taiwan China Taiwan Taiwan The Caribbean and Taiwan
Christians and Jews Russian table talk Apr 7th 2004 From The Economist print edition Spiritual divisions in a good Jewish family LEV RAZGON, a chronicler of the Soviet prison camps, was a humanist with no formal faith but a deep belief in human rights, such as freedom of conscience. Younger members of his extended family have taken full advantage of those freedoms. The writer's nephew, Alexander Razgon, is a devout Jew who has settled in Israel; Alexander's brother Leonid, like a small...
Christians and Jews Christians and Jews
Face value Desperate embrace Apr 7th 2004 From The Economist print edition AP Did Scott McNealy of Sun just make peace with an enemy, surrender, or cry for help? TO GEEKS everywhere, it was as momentous as, say, the Rabin-Arafat handshake once looked to normal peopleracing, and swapping Detroit Red Wings hockey jerseys with, Steve Ballmer (right), the boss of Microsoft, the Redmond-based software giant that, in the Valley's popularity polls, runs neck-and-neck with the antichrist. Mr...
Microsoft Microsoft Face value
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
Israel and Palestine Might Hamas ever negotiate? Apr 7th 2004 | JERUSALEM From The Economist print edition The violent Islamists of Hamas may be changing their tune Get article background HALFWAY through the Jews' eight-day Passover holiday, Israelis were nervously awaiting the lash of Islamist retribution. Palestinians expect more violence too. Penned inside their towns and territory by the Israeli army, restrictions against them have been tightened since Israel's assassination last...
Israel and Palestine Israel and Palestine Israel and Palestine
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
Europe's unpopular governments Reluctant reformers Apr 1st 2004 From The Economist print edition European leaders need to make a better case for reform AFP ACROSS the continent, Europe's voters are posing a conundrum for their governments. Most Europeans now accept, as a general proposition, that if their economies are to return to faster growth, and unemployment is to be cut, their bloated pension, welfare and health-care systems, and their rigid labour-market regulations, all need...
Spain Spain, a week on Malaysia's election Europe's unpopular governments
Arab democracy Imaginable? Apr 1st 2004 From The Economist print edition Despite its summit fiasco, the Arab world is groping for democracy AP NOTHING better illustrates the distress of the Arab world than the muddle, buck-passing and recrimination that attended this week's last-minute postponement of the Arab League's annual summit in Tunis. For sure, such meetings have in the past all too often distinguished themselves by the sanctimonious irrelevance of their declarations and a...
Arab democracy Arab democracy
Italy's economy Berlusconi's desperate gamble Apr 1st 2004 | ROME From The Economist print edition The prime minister's last-ditch hopes of pepping up a moribund economy may come to nothing Get article background HIS back to the wall, desperately thrusting and parrying, the hero leaps for the chandelier. His assailants look on as he swings out of reach. Silvio Berlusconi may hope that he has pulled off a similar stunt with a pledge to slash taxes as a way of reviving both Italy's...
The British budget The budget
Measuring America's economy Grossly Distorted Product Apr 7th 2004 From The Economist print edition Are official statistics exaggerating America's growth? DESPITE the welcome leap in American employment in March (see article), America's job market has been surprisingly weak in the past couple of yearserica's GDP figures, which have been strong, may be inaccurate, and may be exaggerating the extent of economic growth. In the two years to the fourth quarter of 2003 America's real GDP...
Financial markets The Australian economy Measuring America's economy
There are 11 custers
Al-Qaeda 12.5
China and Taiwan 5.5
Christians and Jews 1.0
Microsoft 1.0
Forever young 1.0
Israel and Palestine 1.0
Lessons of a genocide 1.0
Spain 1.0
Arab democracy 0.5
The British budget 0.5
Financial markets 0.5
closest distance: 0.23178018809998135
farthest distance: 0.9517857142857142
average distance: 0.7722276661044196
intercluster avg distance: 0.7784093544996074
intracluser avg distance: 0.46820099139563737
spread: 0.008735396147465763
intracluster spread: 0.006890485340233472