Reading between the lines, and thinking outside the box . . .
Press review...
So far, the German economy has weathered the global financial crisis remarkably well. Figures released on Thursday showed the strongest growth in 12 years. The German press is not so impressed, saying things could still turn nasty.
According to a recent study, only the US and Russia export more military goods than Germany -- and the supposedly pacifist nation leads the EU in such sales. The rise in weapons profits is part of a global trend.
Wrapping up a 5-day visit to Russia, the German foreign minister told President Medvedev on Friday that German industry was prepared to help modernize the Russian economy and reduce its dependence on energy and commodities as the main engines for the country's recent growth.
Days after calling Chancellor Merkel a political descendant of Adolf Hitler, President Chavez shook hands with her on Friday and apologized. "I haven't come here to fight. I was pleased to shake hands with the German chancellor. I told her that I was sorry if I'd been harsh."
The EU executive will introduce 2 key proposals to the European Parliament gathered in Strasbourg this week: concrete measures for a review of the bloc's farm policy, as well as a basic framework for a proposed Mediterranean Union.
What Serbia's election says about the EU's enlargement.
The battle for "ownership" of the polar oil reserves has accelerated with the disclosure that Russia has sent a fleet of nuclear-powered ice breakers into the Arctic. It has reinforced fears that Moscow intends to annex "unlawfully" a vast portion of the ice-covered Arctic, beneath which scientists believe up to 10 billion tons of gas and oil could be buried
As ex-President Putin settles in to his new role as Prime Minister, he has every reason to congratulate himself. After all, he has not only written the script for his constitutional coup d'etat, but staged the play and given himself the starring role as well.
Despite the fact that Putin's Russia is increasingly autocratic and irredeemably corrupt, the man himself - their born-again Tsar - is overwhelmingly regarded as the answer to the nation's prayers.
(And: New jobs, old faces)
The media wing of Al-Qaida has announced that its leader Osama bin Laden will soon issue a new message addressed to the Islamic world. Al-Sahab posted today a banner on a militant Web site known for carrying the the terror network's messages that soon a "powerful speech to the Islamic nation," will be issued.
A Jordanian University lecturer recommended on Al-Jazeera television this week that suicide bombers be equipped with small nuclear bombs. According to a transcript, he said: "Whoever managed to get a martyrdom-seeker into Dimona, should consider how to get martyrdom-seekers into Dimona and elsewhere armed with non-conventional explosives - and perhaps even small nuclear bombs. We should think in this direction."
According to US Senate Intelligence Committee sources, the Bush administration initially green lighted the intended May 11 Israel "demonstration of solidarity" with the pro-Bush administration militias.
The Hezbollah rout of the militias in West Beirut plus the fear of retaliation on Tel Aviv, ruining 60th anniversary celebrations, forced cancellation of the supportive attack.
America and Israel have locked themselves into a Catholic marriage, they can have a spat, sometimes they do not talk for weeks but somehow, they always stay together.
Iran's foreign minister says Tehran sees no point in talking to Washington on Iraq's security when US planes pound Iraqi cities everyday. "Iraq has been in a special situation in the last month and the multinational forces in the country have not made things easier."
The leader of Sudan's main opposition party said Saturday that a recent attack on the capital by Darfur rebels may encourage other disgruntled Sudanese to rise up against the government. Hassan al-Turabi, the country's leading Islamist ideologue and an ally-turned-adversary of President al-Bashir, lambasted the government over its handling of the Darfur conflict.
"We're really in the perfect storm," said Jeffrey Sachs, a Columbia economist and top UN advisor. There's been a collision of troubles throughout the region: skimpy rainfall; disastrous harvests; soaring food prices; dying livestock; escalating violence; out-of-control inflation; and shrinking food aid because of many of these factors.
The true horror of Monday's earthquake is only just emerging and David Eimer has travelled to Beichuan, 60 miles from the epicentre, to find a town in ruins and a people engulfed in grief. As well as the dead — a number steadily rising, and widely expected to reach more than 50,000 — it has left an estimated 200,000 injured and almost 5 million homeless.
The region is also home to China's biggest nuclear weapons facility, as well as other top-secret nuclear sites, raising fears that earthquake damage may lead to radiation leaks.
A German parliamentary delegation from the Bundestag is due to arrive in Tehran today. According to the report of the Christian Social Union's public relations office, the chairman of the party and his deputy are in the delegation.
The delegation is to meet with Foreign Minister Mottaki, and head of the Majlis Foreign Policy commission. The German delegation will also pay a short visit to the city of Isfahan. They are also to meet with representatives of civil communities in the sections of culture, media and sciences.
In recent months, several parliamentary delegations from Iran and Germany have paid visits to each other country and have discussed issues of mutual interest.
Iran's Intelligence Ministry said on Saturday US agents had armed and trained those behind a deadly blast in a mosque last month and that pipelines in the country's oil-rich south were also among the planned targets.
President Bush's historic speech to the Israeli parliament was as telling for what it didn't say as for what it did. In 22 minutes, Bush offered one of the strongest demonstrations of support for Israel ever made by an American president.
And he reawakened lingering hopes among hawks in Israel or the US for a US military strike to thwart Iran's nuclear program. Israel's Army Radio reported that the possibility of an American strike on Iran was raised in private discussions during Bush's visit.
In a 'strongly' worded report delivered to the Kremlin today, Russia's Chief of Staff, General Yuri Baluyevski, has issued a warning to President Medvedev that the US President is 'fully preparing' for Armageddon. In an eerie coincidence of timing on Baluyevski's warning, President Bush was this week, indeed, overlooking the Mount of Megiddo.
Even more tragic and dangerous than the quagmires of Iraq and Afghanistan have been President Bush's usurping of power from the other 2 branches of government and the creation of the "hyperimperial" presidency. This would make the nation's founders jump out of their graves.
One has to wonder when listening to George Bush, Mike Huckabee and John McCain, how did these "men" get the positions they have when they are so obviously not in possession of their full mental faculties? Indeed, both Bush and McCain behave like sociopaths.
For all of America's shortcomings, we keep telling ourselves, "The system works." Now all bets are off.
The dollar fell the most against the euro since March as a drop in consumer confidence and record crude oil prices raised concern US economic growth will slow.
The Economist special report
Banks are bound to fail from time to time. But does the fallout have to be so painful?
A global slowdown, dearer oil, a strong euro and the credit crunch all start to bite
This could be a high-water mark for the euro-area economy. Businesses have suddenly become a lot glummer. A bellwether survey of German firms by Ifo, in Munich, showed confidence dropping in April to its lowest in more than 2 years.
The economic news for the euro area seems unlikely to get better. The worst of the credit crunch may be in the past, but there are tougher times ahead for the euro-area economy.
You read that right. You can buy a house in Atlanta for $10,000. That's if you're a high roller. How about one for $5,900? How can this be? It is true that we are somewhere in the unwinding of a housing market that has suffered from mania.
But this is more than unwinding. There are foreclosures. But how can prices fall this far? Aren't there any bidders at $10,000? The answer is simple: no. Are these houses abandoned? Probably.
High oil prices may yet damage the global economy
A couple of years ago, those who forecast that oil would reach $100 a barrel were seen either as doomsayers or publicity-seekers. Now some are predicting $200 oil—and are taken deadly seriously. So far oil has been the "dog that did not bark"; but it may yet give the global economy a nasty bite.
[CFR Opinion Roundup][Newseum][Global Incident Map][Earthweek][Day-Night Map][Tonight's Sky][Moon phase]
The new notion of global responsibility to alleviate suffering has struggled to win acceptance—and Myanmar will not be the place where it comes of age.
Tension between those two principles—sovereignty versus intervention—has been palpable for decades. Some countries stress the enforcement powers laid down by Chapter VII. Others (mostly in the poor world) insist that state sovereignty always trumps, even in humanitarian emergencies.
In practice, since the end of the cold war the UN has been intervening more often in conflicts within (as opposed to between) states. Sometimes it has happened with, and sometimes without, the consent of the governments concerned.
As if they didn't already have enough problems on their hands fat people are now being blamed for global warming. British scientists say they use up more fuel to transport them around and the amount of food they eat requires more energy to produce than that consumed by those on smaller diets -- and this adds to food shortages and higher energy prices.
Should a leader strive to be loved or feared? This question, famously posed by Machiavelli, lies at the heart of Joseph Nye's new book. Having analysed the use of soft and hard power in politics and diplomacy in his previous books, he has now turned his attention to the relationship between power and leadership.
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