News on 4.17.04
Wal-Mart How big can it grow? Apr 15th 2004 | FRANKFURT, LONDON AND VALLEY OF THE SUN, ARIZONA From The Economist print edition AP The world's biggest retailer is defying its critics by continuing to grow vigorously Get article background AT A recent retail-industry convention, Wal-Mart's boss, Lee Scott, was asked whether his firm was trying to take over the world . Mr Scott replied with a smile on his face . How big can Wal-Mart grow? With $256 billion in sales in the year to...
China China and Taiwan Behind the mask Financial markets China's economy The Australian economy Lessons of a genocide Taiwan Malaysia's election China Grey power Taiwan Rwanda since the genocide Mercenaries Lexington Arab democracy Taiwan Europe's unpopular governments Research and development Muslims The Caribbean and Taiwan Face value Measuring America's economy Science and the Bush administration Bagehot French foreign policy India's election Trust me, I'm a banker Wal-Mart
Israel and Palestine Out of Gaza Apr 15th 2004 From The Economist print edition Has George Bush betrayed Palestine by his concessions to Ariel Sharon? Reuters A GREAT wail of indignation from the Arab world greeted George Bush's decision this week to endorse Ariel Sharon's plan to evacuate all of the Jewish settlements in the Gaza Strip. Of course a withdrawal is good, say the Palestinians, but at what price? The Israeli prime minister's transparent intention is to hold on all the more...
Palestine Israel and Palestine Israel and Palestine Israel and Palestine Israel's pull-out from Gaza Israel and Palestine
Iraq Another intifada in the making Apr 15th 2004 From The Economist print edition Having stepped to the brink, America would be wise to step back Getty Images IT IS quite plain what has gone wrong. The Americans are trying to foist democracy too quickly on a country that has no experience of it. Unless, that is, they are foisting it too slowly. They paid too much attention to the Shias and neglected the Sunnis. Or maybe they took the Shias for granted. They are too quick to use force;...
Iraq Iraq Iraq Iraq Iraq
George Bush makes his case Something of a quagmire at home Apr 15th 2004 | WASHINGTON, DC From The Economist print edition EPA The president's position is not as bad as it first appearsoldest clichi in the book to stay the course (whatever it is). Mr Bush did reasonably well. All the same, the aim of the press conference, only the third of his presidency and the first of any kind this year, was damage limitation. It took place at a time when he has been buffeted by an outbreak of...
Al-Qaeda National security The presidency George Bush's credibility George Bush makes his case
Iraq's neighbours We told you so, but what now? Apr 15th 2004 | CAIRO AND TEHRAN From The Economist print edition America's embarrassed allies, and agitated foes AMR MOUSSA, the Arab League's secretary-general, famously gave warning that an American invasion of Iraq woul d. Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, a former president of Iran, predicted a quagmire. And on the streets of pre-war Baghdad, a Palestinian resident assured your correspondent that ordinary Iraqis would sit tight for the...
After Madrid Iraq, a year on Now what? Iraq's neighbours
Terrorism in Europe Fighting back Apr 7th 2004 | MADRID From The Economist print edition The hunt for terrorists in Spain and France Thus the Spanish interior minister, Angel Acebes, the day after up to six Islamist terrorists suspected of carrying out the train bombings in Madrid on March 11th had blown themselves up after being cornered by police in a flat in the Madrid suburb of Leganis on April 3rd. Yet Mr Acebes's words did little to reassure Spaniards. Their mood was of nervous...
Spain Spain, a week on Australia Terrorism in Europe
Linux on desktop PCs More balls through Windows Apr 15th 2004 | SAN FRANCISCO From The Economist print edition Is Microsoft finally about to face real competition in desktop-computer software? Get article background FOR years, hope has ebbed and flowed among many in the computer business that Linux, a freely available computer operating system which uses a penguin as its symbol, would become a viable alternative to Microsoft's Windows, the near universal standard for the world's...
Microsoft Microsoft Linux on desktop PCs
Lexington When good news spells trouble Apr 7th 2004 From The Economist print edition The recovery isn't jobless after all. What should John Kerry do? Get article background OVER the past 70 years or so, one thing that has not changed is American politicians' readiness to make comparisons between the present times and the Great Depression. John Kerry, indeed, has built his candidacy for the White House on the technique. He campaigns against Georg e Bush for presiding ove r. This...
Lexington Searching for John Kerry's economic policy Lexington
AIDS in India Abating, or exploding? Apr 15th 2004 | CHENNAI From The Economist print edition Katz India's HIV epidemic is at a critical stage. If it is not brought under control soon, it may grow to African proportions Get article background INDIA'S first cases of HIV infection occurred among prostitutes in Chennai back in 1986, when the city was still known as Madras. That was two years after HIV was first reported in Thailand, where a large proportion of men habitually used...
AIDS in India AIDS in India
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
Cyprus A derailment coming Apr 15th 2004 | NICOSIA From The Economist print edition AFP Greek-Cypriots will sa y to a UN peace proposal and therefore march alone into the European Union Get article background ON THEIR side of the divided capital of Cyprus, young Turkish-Cypriots wearing T-shirts stamped with Evet (the Turkish for yes) are campaigning noisily in favour of reunifying the island. Hundreds of blue and yellow balloonsh-Cypriots think. All signs are that the Greek-Cypriots...
Cyprus Cyprus
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
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 Paying for the old
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...
Slovakia Central European nationalism
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
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
Footballers' lives B*nd it like B*ckham Apr 7th 2004 From The Economist print edition Will reports of infidelity damage Beckham Inc? PA Celebrating synergies, Beckham-style THE brands are intertwined. One is strong, the other failing and increasingly costly to run. What to do? From a business point of view, it has been hard for some time to see what David Beckham, Britain's best-known footballer, gains from his marriage. He has been lonely but successful playing football in Madrid. His...
David Beckham Footballers' lives
Mercenaries in Africa The fog and dogs of war Mar 18th 2004 | JOHANNESBURG AND MALABO From The Economist print edition An alleged coup plot and its murky aftermath IN A marketplace in Malabo, the capital of Equatorial Guinea, foreign traders cower. Since President Teodoro Obiang Nguema's government announced that it had foiled a foreign mercenary plot, the radio has been urging Guineans to report suspicious aliens, and the police have been rounding them up and beating them, or worse....
An African peacekeeping force Mercenaries in Africa
There are 18 custers
China 29.0
Palestine 5.0
Iraq 4.0
Al-Qaeda 4.0
After Madrid 3.0
Spain 3.0
Microsoft 2.0
Lexington 2.0
AIDS in India 1.0
Christians and Jews 1.0
Cyprus 1.0
Oil 1.0
Forever young 1.0
Slovakia 1.0
The British budget 1.0
Ingrid Betancourt and Colombia's government 1.0
David Beckham 1.0
An African peacekeeping force 1.0
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