Politics this week: 3rd - 9th March 2007

Lewis “Scooter” Libby, the former chief of staff to Vice-President Dick Cheney, was convicted on four out of five counts of lying to FBI agents and obstruction of justice. The charges had arisen from the leaking of the name of a CIA agent to the press, in an attempt to discredit an opponent of the invasion of Iraq. Mr Libby's conviction added to the administration's growing embarrassment about the war—and about Mr Cheney, one of its chief promoters. See article

Reports of dilapidated facilities and patient neglect at America's foremost military hospital, the Walter Reed Army Medical Center, where many casualties of the Iraq war are being treated, caused uproar in Congress. On March 1st the man in charge of the hospital, Major-General George Weightman, was fired, and the next day the army secretary, Francis Harvey, was forced to resign. President George Bush announced that he was setting up a bipartisan panel to look into the treatment of wounded soldiers. See article

Old wounds

Shinzo Abe, Japan's prime minister, caused offence in neighboring countries and elsewhere by suggesting there was no clear evidence that some 200,000 women who worked as prostitutes for the Japanese army in the 1930s and 1940s had been coerced. See article

China's parliament, the National People's Congress, opened its annual 12-day session. The budget was announced, including an unusual 18% increase in spending on defense. In his “work report”, Wen Jiabao, the prime minister, promised to reduce inequality. The NPC is expected to pass a controversial law enshrining private property rights. See article

A powerful earthquake struck the Indonesian island of Sumatra, near the city of Padang, killing more than 50 people. The next day, more than 20 died in a plane crash at Yogyakarta, on the neighboring island of Java. See article

After last month's agreement on steps towards ending its nuclear program, North Korea started bilateral talks on normalizing relations with both America and Japan. The talks with Japan ended abruptly on their second day, after a North Korean walkout, apparently in anger at Japan's stance on North Korea's abduction of Japanese citizens in the 1970s and 1980s.

Plans for peace

Jordan's King Abdullah gave an address to both houses of the American Congress, urging new diplomacy to solve the Palestinian conflict. Reports suggested that a quartet of Arab states—Egypt, Jordan, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates—could join Israel, the Palestinian president and the United States in talks.

After a slight drop in Iraq's sectarian killings, two suicide-bombers, presumed to be Sunni insurgents, killed at least 117 Shia pilgrims on their way to a festival in the holy city of Karbala, where more than 1m had gathered; at least 40 others were also killed in attacks en route. See article

A former deputy defense minister of Iran, Ali Reza Asghari, a retired general, was reported to have disappeared last month in Turkey; a Saudi newspaper claimed he was being questioned “in a northern European country” before being flown to the United States. It was not clear whether he had defected or been kidnapped.

The first African Union peacekeeping troops, from Uganda, arrived in Somalia's capital, Mogadishu, to replace Ethiopian troops who helped the country's transitional government defeat the Islamist militias earlier this year. They were greeted at the airport by mortar fire from insurgents.

Three Britons, a British-Italian woman and a French woman disappeared in eastern Ethiopia; their vehicles were found, shot up. Rebels of the Afar tribe were suspected of kidnapping them. See article

Côte d'Ivoire's president, Laurent Gbagbo, and the main rebel leader, Guillaume Soro, signed an agreement to end the divided country's civil war. The accord sets out a timetable for disarmament, voter registration and fresh elections. See article

The Nigerian ruling party's presidential candidate, Umaru Yar'Adua, who has a kidney illness, flew to Germany for a medical examination, casting more doubt on his suitability as the front-runner in next month's election.

Avuncular Sam

Before departing for a week-long trip to five Latin American countries, George Bush emphasized his commitment to helping the region with social justice, including health, education and housing.

Oscar Berger, the president of Guatemala, ordered a purge of the police. Four police officers, including the head of the organized-crime unit, were accused of the murder last month of three politicians from El Salvador; the police concerned were themselves murdered days later in jail.

An outbreak of dengue fever in central South America worsened. Ten people have died in Paraguay; Bolivia, Brazil and Argentina have also suffered outbreaks, prompted by heavy rains and flooding.

Once there were peers

Britain's House of Commons voted to create a fully elected House of Lords. Tony Blair, the prime minister, and Jack Straw, the Commons' leader, had favored a half-elected, half-appointed upper house. See article

European Union leaders held a summit in Brussels to discuss climate change, energy policy and the progress of economic reform.

Estonia's center-right prime minister, Andrus Ansip, is likely to remain in office after his party and its coalition partner took the most votes in the country's parliamentary election. This is a rare case of a government being re-elected in eastern Europe.

Planned job cuts at Airbus became an issue in the French presidential election. As some 15,000 workers went on strike in Toulouse, both of the main candidates, Nicolas Sarkozy and Ségolène Royal, promised to pump more public money into Airbus's parent company if need be to protect jobs in France.

Ramush Haradinaj, a former prime minister of Kosovo who was a leader of the Kosovo Liberation Army in the 1998-99 war, went on trial before the war-crimes tribunal in The Hague. The chief prosecutor, Carla del Ponte, gave warning that some witnesses against Mr Haradinaj were being intimidated.

Click here to see the original capsules from The Economist

Business this week: 3rd - 9th March 2007

America's economy betrayed signs of slower growth. Labor costs rose and factory orders hit a six-year low, with orders for big-ticket items falling. Meanwhile, the government reported that productivity gains slowed, with an increase in the final quarter of 2006 of about half of what economists had previously expected.

Alan Greenspan, former chairman of the Federal Reserve, said there is a “one-third probability” of an American recession this year. He also predicted (before the latest economic data were released) that the current economic expansion will not last as long as the previous one. But Mr Greenspan, who has been particularly outspoken lately, stands in contrast with his successor, Ben Bernanke, who recently told Congress the Fed believes that the American economy will strengthen this year. See article

Meanwhile Mr Bernanke continued the Fed's campaign to rein in the mortgage portfolios held by two government-sponsored enterprises, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. Mr Bernanke suggested that the companies' sizes and structures posed a risk to financial markets. He called for stronger regulation and supervision of the institutions.

Oil prices jumped after the American government reported an unexpected drop in crude-oil stocks amid the lowest import levels since 2005. Analysts had been expecting an increase.

Investigations into trading in the shares of New Century Financial, a big lender in the subprime-mortgage market, highlighted ongoing problems in the industry. Several big lenders have suffered from a growing number of defaults and late payments. See article

New limits on tax relief offered on shareholder loans in highly leveraged deals will reportedly be reviewed by Britain. The proposed change could have an effect on booming—and controversial—private equity.

Claims discounted

Eliot Spitzer, the former attorney-general of New York state, was criticized by a panel of retired judges. After a review, the group discounted his charges that Maurice Greenberg, the boss of American International Group, a big insurance company, had a conflict of interest that hurt his charitable foundation while benefiting AIG. Mr Spitzer is now New York's governor.

Thousands of Airbus employees went on strike in France to protest against a radical company restructuring that has drawn criticism from candidates in France's fiercely contested presidential race. The European aircraft-maker plans a total of 10,000 job cuts across the region in the next four years, including 4,300 in France. Politicians have made competing offers to save jobs.

Luc Vandevelde, the chairman of Carrefour, resigned in a feud with its controlling family. He was replaced by a member of that family. Meanwhile, a pair of activist investors, including Bernard Arnault, France's richest man, bought a big stake in the French-based retail chain.

Britain faced heavy lobbying from the European Commission to accept an “open skies” agreement that it struck with America. About 40% of US-European air traffic goes through London's airports. But Britain objects to the provisional air-travel accord, contending that America has failed to give European airlines sufficient access to its own market. See article

Citigroup announced a bid of ¥1,350 ($12) per share for Nikko Cordial, a Japanese brokerage firm. The deal values Nikko at up to ¥1.3 trillion. Citigroup was also reported to be in talks with the Bank of Overseas Chinese about buying a stake in the Taiwanese financial institution.

Slower motion

Research in Motion said Jim Balsillie was resigning as chairman of the technology company. The news came after the firm, which makes the BlackBerry, reported accounting errors on stock options of more than $250m. Mr Balsillie will stay on as a director and co-chief executive of the company.

Federal regulators charged that investors pocketed more than $5.3m in illegal profits from insider trading before TXU, an American utility, said it had agreed to be sold for $45 billion by a group led by big private-equity firms. The Securities and Exchange Commission, the market regulator, said the insider trading was undertaken through foreign brokers to conceal the investors' identities. See article

Bouncing back

The yen continued its volatile swings against the dollar. The Japanese currency had climbed rapidly against the dollar after falling slowly in January, but later gave up some of its gains.

Click here to see the original capsules from The Economist

Nonprofit Takes on Big Media

From the March 7th, 2007 edition of the Wall Street Journal,
By Amy Schatz

Hundreds of liberal activists are expected to pack the pews tonight at the Broad Street Presbyterian Church in Columbus, Ohio, to protest a Bush administration plan. It has nothing to do with Iraq. It is about rules governing how many properties media companies should be allowed to own in local markets.

Kevin Martin, the Republican chairman of the Federal Communications Commission, wants to loosen existing ownership limits on newspapers and broadcasters to allow them to own both in most markets. But his efforts have stalled, the result of a surprisingly energetic grass-roots opposition campaign guided by Free Press, a nonprofit with offices in Washington and Northampton, Mass.

“Such changes could have a serious impact on the diversity of viewpoints and coverage of local issues in every community,” the group argues in fliers and an Internet site under its “STOP BIG MEDIA” campaign.

For a relatively low-profile organization, Free Press is on a roll. Four years ago, it used old-fashioned grassroots organizing, along with basic Internet tools, to help derail the FCC’s years-long effort to relax media ownership rules. Last year, the group thwarted a multi-million dollar lobbying effort by the Baby Bells to rewrite the nation’s telecom laws over “net neutrality,” the idea that Internet providers can’t discriminate against any Internet traffic.

Progressive, left-leaning grass-roots activists have gotten more attention for their opposition against the Iraq war, but their bigger impact may have been on national media regulations and telecom policies. By mobilizing the progressive left to focus on media and telecom issues, Free Press has effectively blocked some of the most-wanted issues on corporate wish-lists.

The Free Press success is all the more remarkable, given the array of big-name media companies pushing for change. Technology has changed the competitive landscape, said a coalition of media firms — including Belo Corp., CBS Corp., News Corp.’s Fox Entertainment Group and NBC Universal Inc. — in a December letter lobbying the FCC to ease the rules. The FCC “should modernize its local ownership rules to reflect these dynamic changes in the media marketplace,” they say.

Media reformers have been working on these issues for years, but “they’ve never had traction among grass-roots America before,” says Mike McCurry, former press secretary for President Clinton. Mr. McCurry drew scorn from left-leaning bloggers last year after he helped launch a public-relations effort on behalf of phone companies hoping to kill net-neutrality rules.

Free Press, which launched in 2003, has 300,000 members, about two dozen full-time employees and an annual budget of roughly $2.5 million. Last year, it raised more than $5 million in funding, mostly from liberal-leaning private foundations, including George Soros’s Open Society Institute. In 2005, almost half of its funding — $755,000 — came from the Schumann Center for Media and Democracy, which at the time was overseen by its president, journalist Bill Moyers. This year, the group is hoping to raise $4.5 million and wants to hire more grass-roots organizers.

It is raising its ambitions as well. After stymieing efforts to loosen media rules, Free Press members believe they may be on the verge of changing the terms of the debate — to tightening regulations again.

“We’re going to use this opportunity to move the goal posts,” says Josh Silver, Free Press co-founder and executive director.

Unlike other watchdog groups that have focused on telecom and media-reform issues in the past, Free Press has successfully tapped into the grass-roots network dominated by MoveOn.org.

“We just have to remind them to talk about media reform, not the war,” says Amanda Ballantyne, Free Press’s field organizer who is in charge of getting people to show up tonight for the Columbus hearing, the 11th on the subject in the past two years. She helps coordinate similar events around the country, rounding up locals and tutoring them on the basics of media-ownership limits.

Recently, Ms. Ballantyne holed up at a Nashville Best Western for a week, trying to convince locals to attend an official FCC media-ownership hearing. With the help of local organizers, nearly 400 people showed up. Even with a strictly enforced two-minute time limit, it took seven hours for the FCC commissioners to listen to everyone.

In February, the group attracted more than 3,000 activists and bloggers to Memphis for three days of workshops and speeches from progressive and liberal heroes, including the Rev. Jesse Jackson and Mr. Moyers.

“If you watch TV news, it’s all car crashes, shootings and Brangelina. If we can’t create more hard-hitting journalism, then we have a real problem,” says Mr. Silver, a political activist who says he decided to form the group after becoming mad one night when a local newscast led with a story about the rising price of lobster. Local ownership of stations or newspapers leads to more accountability to citizens and better journalism, he says.

With the help of University of Illinois professor and media critic Robert McChesney, Mr. Silver soon launched a nonprofit group dedicated to media reform.

The current FCC chairman, Mr. Martin, had hoped to propose easing rules this year which would allow media companies to own newspapers and broadcast stations in most markets. But that proposal will have to wait until next year at least, FCC officials say. The agency will hold at least three more public hearings around the country and is awaiting 10 studies it commissioned on media-ownership issues, which have already cost more than $550,000.

Montoya wins race with a wild finish

By Liz Clarke
Washington Post

MEXICO CITY - NASCAR witnessed the birth of its next star in the most unlikely setting Sunday, as former Formula One ace Juan Pablo Montoya charged through the field at Mexico City's Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez for a victory that even ticket-holders will have to see again on replay to fully believe.

It wasn't simply that Montoya became the first Latin driver to win a NASCAR race by claiming the spoils of the Telcel-Motorola 200. It was the jaw-dropping manner in which he did it, passing 20 cars in just 17 laps to seize the lead with eight laps to go.

Montoya's last pass was his most controversial. And it likely will be the move that defines him for years to come, drawing both hosannas and disdain as stock-car racing's latest hard-charger who will stop at nothing to win.

After a disastrous pit stop relegated him to 21st in the 43-car field, Montoya blew past some of the sport's most dogged and experienced road racers, passing some two at a time, to work his way to second. In the lead was his teammate, Scott Pruett - the only driver that Montoya's car owners (as well as racing decorum) told him not to wreck if the two ended up dueling for the victory.

But Montoya did just that, bumping Pruett entering Turn 1 of the snaking road course to send him spinning across with track. In a flash Montoya yanked his steering wheel left to avoid plowing into Pruett, cut across a grassy bank at well over 100 mph and popped back onto the track in Turn 3, fully in command with eight laps remaining.

Montoya's feats of daring weren't over, however. He had to fight off defending race champion Denny Hamlin, who hounded him over the waning laps. But the Colombian hung on for the victory he wanted so badly.

"We about gave this race away," said Todd Parrott, Montoya's crew chief, who wept with jubilation and heartache, acutely aware of the hostility his driver's methods had caused. "What can you say? He's the best in the world."

Pruett saw it differently, giving a double thumbs-down after climbing from his car, having salvaged a fifth-place finish. "Of all the people to take you out - your teammate!" Pruett said on ESPN2. "That was just no-good, low, nasty, dirty driving! I just - I can't even put it into words. It's just so disappointing."

The Busch race was NASCAR's third in Mexico City, part of the sport's strategy for cultivating a broader fan base among Latinos. And although Montoya is Colombian, his victory was hailed as a triumph by Mexican fans.

Jorge Goeters posted the best finish of the eight Mexicans in the field, ending seventh.

"I'm very sorry for what happened with Scott," Montoya said, explaining that he thought Pruett would stay wide as he cut inside to make the pass. Instead, Pruett fought for position.

"I had nowhere to go," Montoya said. "I tried to back off, but there was nowhere to go."

Politics this week: 24th February - 2nd March 2007

In a shift of policy the Bush administration said it would take part in a regional meeting this month organized by Iraq's government, even though Iran and Syria would take part too. See article

The Iraqi government said its main factions had at last agreed to a draft law on how to regulate the oil industry and share out its revenue, though some final touches had still to be made.

The five permanent members of the UN Security Council plus Germany discussed ways of tightening UN sanctions against Iran, in the wake of its refusal to comply with previous UN resolutions ordering it to suspend its enrichment of uranium.

The African Union asked for extra cash to pay for its proposed peacekeeping mission to Somalia, where Ethiopian troops recently overthrew an Islamist government. Only Uganda has said it is ready to send troops, offering 1,500; Nigeria, Ghana, Burundi and Malawi may also chip in, bringing the number up to around 4,000, but the AU says 8,000 are needed.

The International Criminal Court at The Hague named its first two suspects to be summoned for alleged atrocities in the Sudanese region of Darfur: a former junior interior minister in Sudan's government and now its minister for humanitarian affairs; and a leader of the janjaweed militias that have killed thousands of civilians. See article

Sierra Leone's former defense minister, Sam Hinga Norman, who was being tried for war crimes at a UN-backed tribunal in Senegal, died before a verdict was due, apparently of a heart attack.

Senegal's president, Abdoulaye Wade, was re-elected in a landslide, with opponents crying foul.

A reprieve for Prodi

Italy's center-left government is back, after narrowly winning a vote of confidence in the Senate, where it lost a big foreign-policy vote last week. But few Italians expect the government to last for anything like its full term. See article

The International Court of Justice in The Hague ruled that Serbia was not directly responsible for genocide in Bosnia during the 1992-95 war. But it said that the massacre of some 8,000 Bosnian Muslims by Bosnian Serb troops at Srebrenica in 1995 did constitute genocide, and it denounced Serbia for failing to prevent it. See article

A surge of support for the centrist candidate for the French presidency, François Bayrou, unsettled the two front-runners. One opinion poll gave Mr Bayrou 19%, compared with 25.5% for the Socialist candidate, Ségolène Royal, and 29% for the center-right's Nicolas Sarkozy. See article

Two Picasso oil paintings with a combined value put at euro50m ($66m) were stolen from his grand-daughter's home in Paris.

Tipping the balance

Canada's Supreme Court revoked a law allowing foreign terrorist suspects to be detained indefinitely without trial while waiting for deportation. Later, Parliament voted against renewing two other anti-terrorist measures allowing suspects to be held for three days without charge and compelling witnesses to testify in terrorist trials. See article

Fidel Castro, Cuba's ailing president, spoke live on a radio program for the first time since falling ill last July. The 80-year-old leader, who is said to be suffering from diverticulitis, a bowel disease, said he was “gaining ground”, but did not say when, or if, he would return to work.

The war effort

America's vice-president, Dick Cheney, visited Pakistan's president, General Pervez Musharraf, and asked him to do more to tackle the Taliban and al-Qaeda fighters taking refuge in Pakistan's tribal borderlands, before an expected spring offensive by Taliban fighters against NATO forces in Afghanistan. See article

Mr Cheney went on to Afghanistan, where a Taliban suicide-bomber attacked the military base at Bagram where he was staying. Mr Cheney survived. The bomber and 11 others did not. Meanwhile, Britain followed America in announcing an increase—of 1,400 soldiers—in its commitment of troops to Afghanistan.

Pridiyathorn Devakula, Thailand's finance minister resigned, opening further cracks in the troubled military government that seized power in a coup last September. See article

India's ruling Congress party suffered electoral setbacks in two northern states, Punjab and Uttarakhand. Its loss of power in both states was blamed in part on popular anger at rising prices. Curbing inflation was a central theme of the annual budget, unveiled in Parliament by the finance minister. See article

Sixteen Indian soldiers were killed in a grenade attack on a convoy of army trucks in the north-eastern state of Manipur. The attack was blamed on one of many insurgent groups fighting Indian rule there. See article

Timor-Leste's prime minister, José Ramos Horta, said he would run for president in April's election. As instability in the country persists, he asked Indonesia to close its border with Timor-Leste, to prevent the flight of a group of army mutineers. See article

Straight talking on Letterman

John McCain confirmed on a talk show that he would run for president, but said he was saving a formal announcement until April. Earlier, Mr McCain received a fillip to his nascent campaign when he was endorsed by Senator John Warner, who is a strong critic of George Bush's policy of extra troops for Iraq, a policy which Mr McCain supports.

Virginia's legislature voted to express “profound regret” at the state's historical role in slavery. Separately, it emerged that the ancestors of the Rev Al Sharpton, a prominent black activist, were slaves owned by ancestors of the late Senator Strom Thurmond, a prominent segregationist.

Arthur Schlesinger died at the age of 89. The prolific historian wrote about the New Deal, the cold war and the Kennedy administration, to which he was an adviser, but he is best known for his 1973 book, “The Imperial Presidency”, which has experienced a revival of late.

Richard Daley shrugged off his opponents' accusations of corruption at City Hall and cruised to a sixth term as mayor of Chicago, winning more than 70% of the vote.

Click here to read the original political news summaries from The Economist

Business this week: 24th February - 2nd March 2007

Stockmarkets around the world fell precipitously on February 27th, sparked by a drop of 8.8% in the Shanghai Composite Index, which was triggered by a threat of tighter regulation on trading—later withdrawn. As investors in Asia and Europe took fright, American markets also digested comments from Alan Greenspan, the former head of the Federal Reserve, concerning a possible recession, as well as some poor economic data. The Dow Jones Industrial Average had its worst day in almost four years. See article

Yet another record was set for the biggest leveraged buy-out when a private-equity consortium led by Kohlberg Kravis Roberts and Texas Pacific Group agreed to buy TXU, a Texan power company, for around $45 billion. The private-equity firms stressed the deal's green credentials (bolstering support ahead of any potential regulatory scrutiny) by announcing that TXU would reduce the number of coal-fired power plants it was planning to build from 11 to 3. See article

Rejigging the engines

Airbus unveiled a long-awaited restructuring plan, which had been held up by last-minute negotiations between France and Germany. Some 10,000 jobs are to go over four years, split between Airbus and its contractors. New “industrial partners” and buyers are being sought for six factories. In order to win backing for the plan in France (where outraged unions called for industrial action), final assembly of the A350 XWB jet will be exclusively based in Toulouse, but Germany is to win increased production of the bestselling A320 narrow-bodied aircraft. After last year's woes, Airbus forecast that the plan would provide it with eventual annual savings of euro2.1 billion ($2.8 billion). See article

Italy's government increased the size of the stake it is selling in Alitalia to 39.9% (from the 30.1% announced last December). New conditions were also attached to any potential sale, such as retaining the loss-making airline's base in Italy.

Deutsche Telekom reported a surprise net loss of euro898m ($1.2 billion) for the fourth quarter. The company booked charges related to its effort to shed 32,000 jobs, but it is also suffering from the continued drain of customers away from its fixed-line business.

In a sign of the further strengthening of Ferdinand Piëch's hand at Volkswagen, the carmaker raised its stake in MAN, a German lorry-maker, to nearly 30%. Mr Piëch, VW's chairman, has proposed a merger of its heavy-truck division with MAN and Scania, a Swedish truck-maker in which VW also retains a large stake.

Co-operation on corruption

The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development barred a German engineering company from its contracts because of corruption in a project backed by the World Bank in Lesotho. It is the first time one development bank has barred a firm for mischief on another bank's project (the World Bank has already blacklisted the company).

Citigroup named Gary Crittenden as its chief financial officer. Mr Crittenden, who has spent the past seven years at American Express, joins the world's biggest bank amid criticism from shareholders that it has dampened profits by running up expenses. See article

Station Casinos agreed to an $8.8 billion buy-out from a group of investors led by Frank and Lorenzo Fertitta, respectively the company's chief executive and president. Operating casinos away from the Strip that cater to locals, Station also owns large tracts of lucrative undeveloped land around Las Vegas.

Blockbuster reported a 28% drop in fourth-quarter net profit compared with a year ago, as the promotion costs for its online service soared. The film-rental company also said it was trying to “resolve a disagreement” with its chief executive over his bonus.

Wal-Mart made an expansive move in China by acquiring 35% of the operator of Trust-Mart hypermarkets. The deal throws down a challenge to Carrefour, China's biggest foreign retailer. Trust-Mart's stores are located in city areas where space is at a premium.

Following last year's debacle over a Dubai company buying American port operations, the House of Representatives voted 423-0 to pass a bill, supported by the White House, that strengthens the government's scrutiny of foreign deals in the United States.

A range of properties

There was good news and bad news for America's housing market. Sales of existing homes rose to an annual rate of 6.46m in January, the highest level for seven months. But after increasing in December, the median price of an existing home fell by nearly 5%, to $210,600. Separate data for the smaller market in new homes showed that sales plunged in January by 16.6%, to an annual rate of 937,000—the biggest drop in 13 years.

Click here to read the original business news capsules

Politics this week: 17th - 23rd February 2007

Italy's prime minister, Romano Prodi, tendered his resignation after only nine months in office. He did so after a mutiny in his sprawling coalition led to the defeat in the Senate of government proposals to keep troops in Afghanistan. See article

Tony Blair said the number of British troops in Iraq would fall from around 7,100 at present to around 5,500 in the next few months, but that a British military presence would remain there at least into 2008, “for as long as we are wanted”. Denmark said it would withdraw all its 470-odd troops by August. See article

The commander of Russia's strategic forces warned Poland and the Czech Republic that they could be targeted with nuclear weapons if they agree to host American anti-missile defense bases. America says the radar and rockets are designed to counteract Iranian missiles, not Russian ones. See article

Poland's governing Law and Justice party is suing the country's former president, Lech Walesa, for defamation. Mr Walesa called the current incumbent, Lech Kaczynski, a “blockhead” in a row over a report on alleged criminal activity and Russian influence in the country's now disbanded military-intelligence service. See article

Ségolène Royal, the Socialist candidate for the French presidency, rejigged her campaign, promising more help for the low-paid and shuffling her advisers. Polling had shown her lagging Nicolas Sarkozy, her center-right opponent, by ten points.

European Union environment ministers agreed in principle to cut greenhouse-gas emissions by 20% from 1990 levels by 2020. The plan, and the list of countries which will take most of the burden, must be agreed to by heads of state.

Judicial review

An appeals court in America ruled that suspected terrorists held at Guantánamo Bay do not have the right to challenge their detention in a federal court. The decision upholds legislation passed by Congress last autumn that was written to clarify the law, but the issue may end up yet again in the Supreme Court.

The Democrats failed to break a Republican filibuster in the Senate that would have allowed a vote on a resolution criticizing George Bush's policy in Iraq. Seven Republicans, including John Warner, the former chairman of the Armed Services Committee, joined the Democrats. The House of Representatives passed a similar resolution last week.

John McCain went to Iowa and Florida, where he courted social conservatives by proclaiming his strong support for anti-abortion legislation. The Arizona senator is expected to announce his bid for the White House next month.

An attack on peace

Two bombs exploded on the Friendship Express, a train traveling from Delhi in India to Lahore in Pakistan. In the ensuing inferno, at least 68 people, mostly Pakistanis, died. Indian experts suspected Islamic militants with bases in Pakistan, but the two countries said the atrocity would not affect their peace process. Their foreign ministers went ahead with planned talks in Delhi, where the two countries signed an agreement on reducing the risk of accidental nuclear conflict. See article

A United Nations special rapporteur, Philip Alston, accused the army in the Philippines of being in a state of denial about a spate of extra-judicial killings “convincingly attributed” to the security forces.

Muhammad Yunus, founder of Grameen, a big microfinance institution, entered into Bangladeshi politics with the formation of a new party. Separately, the military-backed government said it would take eight to ten months to prepare the voter-identity cards needed for an election. See article

Too close for comfort

Colombia's foreign minister, María Consuelo Araújo, resigned after her brother, a senator, was arrested over allegations that he received cash from right-wing paramilitaries. The escalating scandal over links between the paramilitaries and pro-government politicians has brought criticism of the government of Álvaro Uribe from the United States Congress, which provides Colombia with around $600m a year in aid. See article

Jean Charest, the Liberal premier of Quebec, called a provincial election for March 26th. Opinion polls give the Liberals a five-point lead over the separatist Parti Québécois. See article

The crackdown on drug-traffickers by Mexico's president, Felipe Calderón, continued as 3,000 troops were sent to two states bordering the United States and an assistant state prosecutor was arrested over alleged links with a drug gang. Meanwhile, gunmen in the border city of Nuevo Laredo shot and wounded a federal congressman.

According to his niece, Fidel Castro is in “stupendous” condition and will be “very active” again as he recovers from stomach surgery that led him to hand over his powers as Cuba's president to his brother, Raúl.

Blowing another raspberry

Iran ignored a UN deadline to suspend its uranium-enrichment program by February 21st or face wider sanctions. After the International Atomic Energy Agency, the UN's nuclear watchdog, meets early next month, the UN Security Council will have to decide on further steps to try to squeeze Iran into compliance. See article

The American secretary of state, Condoleezza Rice, met the Israeli prime minister, Ehud Olmert, and the Palestinian president, Mahmoud Abbas, together in Jerusalem, but appeared to have made scant progress towards restarting a peace process in earnest. See article

Rival Palestinian parties, meanwhile, continued to argue over the interpretation of their agreement signed earlier this month in Mecca, where they were supposed to have settled the terms of a national unity government.

The UN Security Council authorized the African Union to send peacekeepers for six months to Somalia, where Islamists were routed last month by troops from Ethiopia. It was unclear how soon the troops would arrive. Meanwhile, mortars, presumably launched by Islamist remnants, killed 16 people in the capital, Mogadishu.

Speaking on his 83rd birthday, Zimbabwe's president, Robert Mugabe, seemed to confirm rumors of mounting intrigue within his ruling circle by accusing unnamed senior colleagues of plotting to oust him from office.

Click here to the original political news capsules from Economist.com

Business this week: 17th - 23rd February 2007

In a closely watched decision America's Supreme Court overturned punitive damages of $79.5m against Philip Morris that were handed down by a jury in 1999. The case centered on an Oregon man who had smoked for 42 years and died of lung cancer. The Supreme Court ruled that the jury's award to his widow had overstepped the mark by punishing the cigarette-maker for harm done to others, but it failed to set any limits on future punitive-damage awards and sent the case back to Oregon's state Supreme Court for a new hearing. See article

The European Commission slapped its biggest-ever antitrust fine, €992m ($1.3 billion), on five elevator manufacturers it accused of operating a cartel. Germany's ThyssenKrupp and America's Otis were among the companies the commission said had “artificially bloated” the construction and maintenance costs of buildings in European countries.

Transmission problems

After years of intense rivalry, Sirius and XM announced their intention to merge. Once considered the new kids on the block, the satellite-radio networks have been struggling to respond to competition from recent advances in broadcasting, such as through the internet. Their merger is far from certain; America's communications and antitrust regulators promised that the $4.6 billion deal will be heavily scrutinized. See article

Google encroached further into Microsoft's territory by offering businesses a new set of web-based word-processing and spreadsheet services. The internet company released a similar package to consumers last year.

Another effort is under way to combine Warner Music and EMI. Warner confirmed it had approached EMI after obtaining support from IMPALA, the trade group for independent music-labels in Europe. Last year IMPALA complained to the EU that consolidation among big music companies would hurt competition.

The board of Portugal Telecom rejected an improved €11.8 billion ($15.5 billion) bid from Sonae, a Portuguese conglomerate, and bolstered its defenses by announcing a €6.2 billion shareholder-remuneration package. The saga of what would be Portugal's biggest takeover has been rumbling on for a year.

Conquistadors

Banco Bilbao Vizcaya Argentaria made its biggest acquisition outside Spain when it agreed to buy Compass Bancshares in a $9.6 billion transaction. BBVA has been steadily increasing its business in the southern and south-western United States, on account of the region's growing Hispanic population. Compass, based in Birmingham, Alabama, operates more than 415 banks from Arizona to Florida, including 164 in Texas.

Sberbank, Russia's largest savings bank, looks likely to have raised $8.8 billion from its share offering, the country's second-biggest following last year's issue by Rosneft, an oil firm. Sberbank's sale raised a bit less than had been forecast by analysts. Some investors had grumbled that the prospectus was only available in Russian and that the bank (unlike Rosneft) won't be selling shares on foreign exchanges.

HSBC replaced the head of its North American unit, which has been reeling from losses in the subprime mortgage market. Meanwhile, the share price of NovaStar Financial plunged by 40% as it revealed losses in the subprime market.

EADS, the parent company of Airbus, delayed launching a long-awaited restructuring plan because of “cross-national” difficulties about job costs and workloads related to the A350XWB. Last year Airbus was beset by production delays surrounding its A380 super-jumbo; both projects are crucial to Airbus's future competition with Boeing.

A plan to merge India's two biggest state-owned airlines, Air India and Indian Airlines, came closer to fruition after it was approved by the country's aviation minister. The proposal will create a national carrier that could compete as one of the world's top 30 airlines. The minister also said that a promised merger announced last month between two private domestic carriers, Jet Airways and Air Sahara, would be permitted.

Sweden's Volvo agreed to buy the 81% of Japan's Nissan Diesel it does not own in a SKr7.5 billion ($1.1 billion) deal. The combined company will overtake DaimlerChrysler to become the world's biggest maker of heavy lorries.

Feeling less deflated

Japan's Topix stockmarket index (a broader measure than the Nikkei) reached its highest level since November 1991, helped by share prices of big banks which rose in response to the Bank of Japan's decision to raise interest rates by one-quarter of a percentage point, to 0.5%.

Click here to read the original business news capsules from The Economist

Payola & the State of Hip Hop/Urban Radio

The other week we alerted you about an urban music director in Chicago being arrested and fired from her job for allegedly taking payola in the form of a Porsche from a local artist. We promised to follow up that story with a more in-depth story/interview about payola and the state of urban/ Hip Hop radio.

What you will be listening to is conversation that took place in Memphis, TN last month (January 2007) at the Media Reform Conference. We caught up with longtime radio urban radio programmer Paul Porter of IndustryEars.com and Professor Jared Ball of Freemix Radio. Both gentlemen participated in the conference’s payola panel.

We kicked off our show with an excerpt from an interview we did with Quest Love of the Roots where he explains in great detail how the Roots went about getting their Grammy Award hit record ‘You Send Me’ on the radio. he says they had to pay almost 3/4 of a million bucks and the record label had to make a bunch of behind-the-scenes deals.

We talked to Porter about the role corporate media plays in keeping this practice alive and how it impacts urban radio and the urban community at large. He feels like the practice is too far gone and that the FCC caved into the big media giants.

Porter also talked about a couple of well publicized incidents including the beat down that Game and his crew were accused of giving to a Washington DC disc jockey (Xzulu) at Radio One headquarters). He feels that payola played a big role in keeping Game’s record on the airwaves in spite of the severity of what occurred.

Porter also talked about the racial make up of many of the nation’s popular urban stations including the fact that in many places you do not have Black programmers. He explains how that can have an impact on the African American community at large. He also talks about how what few Blacks they do have in key positions have sold out and not been responsive to community concerns.

We also spoke with Professor Jared Ball who gave an insightful historical breakdown about the current state of Hip Hop radio. He feels that its no mistake that mainstream Hip Hop has been suspended in state of adolescence. He connected current urban radio policies and practices with the Cointel-Programs that the FBI launched against Black leaders in the 60s during the Civil Rights era.

Click here to read the original notes from the audio interview from Davey D of Odeo.com

Would C-SPAN count?

Once again, Congress is flirting with the idea of censoring violence on TV. Once again, its efforts are misguided.

JUST WHAT, EXACTLY, constitutes a program that's too violent for kids to watch on TV? How about the story of a gun-blasting bounty hunter destroying a neighborhood as he tries to kill or capture his nihilistic offspring? That, after all, is what one sees in Walt Disney's "Lilo & Stitch," a hit movie for … kids, and a perfect illustration of the fundamental problems posed by Congress' flirtation with regulating violent TV programming.

Responding to a request from lawmakers, the Federal Communications Commission has drafted a report outlining what Congress might do to curb excessively violent programs. Objectionably violent shows, it says, could be banned during the hours that children are most likely to be watching TV (6 a.m. to 10 p.m.), just as indecent programming is. Congress could force cable operators to sell channels on an a la carte basis, rather than bundling them into packages that can't be customized. And the difficult task of defining excessive violence could be done by the federal government without violating the 1st Amendment.

There's plenty of evidence that television shows are more graphically violent than ever, both on cable networks and on free over-the-air TV. Simply noting this problem, however, doesn't prove that government censorship can solve it.

Requiring programs such as "24" to be aired after 10 p.m. wouldn't stop kids from watching a recorded version the next afternoon. Nor would it have much effect on the Internet, where networks are posting a growing number of reruns for viewers to watch on demand. And it's hard to imagine Congress barring news programs before 10 p.m., and there's no shortage of violence on the news.

A similar problem underlies the proposal to mandate a la carte cable pricing. It would be a boon to consumers if cable and satellite TV operators did business this way. But even in an a la carte regime, the channels with programming that distresses anti-violence activists are likely to be among the most frequently bought, simply because their programs are in high demand.

What censorship would do is deter networks from airing valuable but bloody shows that don't quite qualify as news, while generating lawsuits over what inevitably will be inconsistent standards for judging violence on TV. Would cartoons be treated the same way as live action? How about realistic historical fare? Would "Saving Private Ryan" get a pass? Then how about "The Passion of the Christ"? What about psychological violence?

The government shouldn't be making these calls; parents should. Online, there's plenty of help for parents trying to identify inappropriate shows for their kids, and there's technology in every TV set, cable converter box and satellite receiver to help screen out violent programming. If they still don't like how much violence their TV is bringing into their home, they should just turn it off.

Click here to read the original editorial from the Los Angeles Times

Poll: Bloggers, Citizen Reporters to Play Key Role in Journalism's Future

A new We Media/Zogby Interactive poll has found that most Americans think blogging and "citizen journalism" will prove vital to journalism in the future.

The national survey of 5,384 adults found that 55% thought blogging was an important aspect of American journalism in the future, while 74% said they believed amateur "citizen" reporters would play a key role.

When asked about the impact of the Internet on journalism, 53% said that Web-based media provided the most opportunity for the future of journalism. 72% of respondents said they were "dissatisfied" with the quality of journalism in the U.S., but 76% thought that the Internet's overall effect on the quality of journalism has been positive.

The poll also surveyed 77 members of the media at the recent We Media conference in Miami, finding that 55% of these media insiders were "dissatisfied" with American journalism today, while 61% thought that the media is out of touch with what Americans want from their news. 86% of those media industry insiders polled said that bloggers would be key to the future of journalism.

"We are now seeing mainstream acceptance of what we call the Power of Us -- the value, credibility, and vital expression of citizen and collaborative media," said Dale Peskin, a managing director of iFOCOS, the organization that conducts the annual We Media conference, in a statement. "We've arrived at a tipping point. A new definition of democratic media is emerging in our society."

The nationwide poll also found that dissatisfaction with the media is greater among those respondents who characterize themselves as "conservative," with 88% saying they were unhappy with the state of journalism. A full 95% of those saying they were "very conservative" expressing negative sentiments about the current state of journalism. 51% of liberal respondents said they were dissatisfied with the quality of American journalism.

Other key findings from the nationwide survey:

- 72% of those asked said journalism is important to their community.

- 81% said Web sites are an important source of news, followed by television (78%), radio (73%), newspapers (69%), magazines (38%), and blogs (30%).

Click here to read the original report from Editor & Publisher

Politics this week: 10th - 16th February 2007

After tense talks in Beijing, North Korea,which in October tested a nuclear weapon, promised to shut down its main nuclear reactor in return for fuel aid. The talks, involving America, China, Japan, Russia and South Korea, also led to an agreement to resume ministerial talks between the two Koreas, and to take steps towards normalizing America's relations with North Korea. But the agreement makes no explicit mention of nuclear weapons, dismantling nuclear facilities or disposing of nuclear materials. See article

The foreign ministers of India, China and Russia met in Delhi to discuss the state of the world. It was the first such high-level meeting between China and India since China alarmed potential adversaries by testing an anti-satellite missile last month.

In a surprising presidential election in Turkmenistan, Kurbanguly Berdymukhamedov won only 89% of the vote. Mr Berdymukhamedov had been acting-president since the death in December of Saparmurat Niyazov, who had ruled the country for more than two decades. The opposition was not allowed to field any candidates.

Malaysia's prime minister, Abdullah Badawi, held talks with the Thai junta and offered to mediate to help end the Muslim separatist insurgency in southern Thailand. See article

Ma Ying-jeou, chairman of the Kuomintang, Taiwan's main opposition party, resigned after being formally charged with corruption offences. But he also announced his intention to stand in next year's presidential election. See article

A house divided

The two main Palestinian factions, the Islamists of Hamas and the secular Fatah, agreed in Mecca to form a unity government in the hope of stopping bloodshed between the groups' militias and of ending a year-long international boycott of the Hamas-run Palestinian government. Hamas refused to recognize Israel but said it would “respect” (not precisely accept) past Palestinian agreements with it. See article

Just as Iraq's prime minister, Nuri al-Maliki, was making a speech to mark the anniversary of the bombing of one of the Iraqi Shias' holiest shrines, in Samarra, a huge bomb went off in Baghdad, killing at least 80 people. Other bombs continued to make sectarian mayhem, as America's promised “surge” of thousands of extra troops into Baghdad was set to begin. See article

Seven simultaneous bombings killed six people near Algeria's capital, Algiers. A group calling itself the al-Qaeda Organization in the Islamic Maghreb, perhaps a new version of the previously better-known Salafist Group for Call and Combat, said it was responsible, raising fears that al-Qaeda has activated a north African front.

Guinea's president, Lansana Conté, who has been facing growing demonstrations against his 25-year-old dictatorship, declared martial law amid increasing violence. Most businesses have shut down; some embassies have told their citizens to leave.

Ugandan MPs approved the contribution of 1,500 troops as part of an African Union peacekeeping force in Somalia. They are due to replace the Ethiopian troops that helped to overthrow Somali Islamist militias last year. Burundi, Ghana and Nigeria have also promised troops.

The default option

Ecuador's Congress voted to approve a proposal by the country's new leftist president, Rafael Correa, for a Constituent Assembly to write a new constitution. Meanwhile the government, which has talked of defaulting on its debt, said it would make a payment that falls due this week. See article

Bolivia's socialist president, Evo Morales, led troops into a tin smelter and declared its nationalization. The smelter's owners, Glencore, a Swiss mining firm, said they would claim compensation. The government claims the smelter's privatization in 1999 was fraudulent. See article

In need of sum ideas

The Socialist candidate for the French presidential election, Ségolène Royal, revealed a decidedly left-wing presidential platform. It included many promises of more public spending, but little on how to pay for it all. See article

French police arrested 11 suspected terrorists. Nine of them were allegedly al-Qaeda members thought to have been recruiting fighters to join the insurgency in Iraq. In Spain, the trial began of 29 people suspected of involvement in the 2004 Madrid train-bombings.

George Bush said Russia and America could still co-operate over many things despite an angry speech by Vladimir Putin, who denounced American militarism at a conference in Munich. See article

The European Parliament endorsed a report criticizing several European governments for complicity in secret CIA flights used for extraordinary renditions. These included the kidnap and transport of suspected Islamist terrorists to third countries, in some of which they were tortured.

Portugal is to legalize abortion during the first ten weeks of pregnancy, after 59% of voters backed the change in a referendum. The turnout was below 50%, so the result was not legally binding, but the government pledged to act on the result in any case.

No more rubber stamps

The House of Representatives held a debate on Iraq. If, as was expected, a non-binding resolution opposing the deployment of extra troops is passed (the Democratic majority was expecting the support of some Republicans as well), it would represent the first time Congress has repudiated George Bush's policy on the war.

Mitt Romney announced he was entering the race for president. The former one-term Republican governor of Massachusetts, who is a Mormon, has been steadily polishing his credentials with social conservatives, especially over the issue of gay marriage. See article

Meanwhile, Barack Obama officially launched his campaign from the steps of the Old State Capitol in Springfield, Illinois, the place where Abraham Lincoln forged his political career.

A year after Larry Summers said he was quitting the job amid a furore over his comments on differences between the sexes, Harvard University picked a new president. Drew Gilpin Faust is the first woman to hold the post.

Click here to read the original news capsules and more features from The Economist.com

Business this week: 10th - 16th February 2007

A cost-cutting program at Chrysler was unveiled. The troubled carmaker made an operating loss of $1.4 billion last year and now more than 13,000 jobs are to go. Chrysler's parent company, DaimlerChrysler, said it could find partners for its North American division, but a sale was not ruled out either. See article

The European Court of Justice's advocate-general rejected the German law protecting Volkswagen from takeovers. This was seen as boosting the potential of a bid for VW from its biggest shareholder, Porsche. It also solidifies the role of Ferdinand Piëch, who is a member of the Porsche family, as VW's chairman. The premier of Lower Saxony, which is VW's second-biggest shareholder, acknowledged this by changing tack and ending his opposition to Porsche having a third representative on VW's board.

FirstGroup, a British bus and train operator, expanded its American business by agreeing to pay $3.6 billion for Laidlaw, which specializes in school and inter-city bus services. If successful, the deal will give FirstGroup a sizable chunk of America's school-bus market, but there was speculation it may sell Laidlaw's other concern, the iconic Greyhound bus line.

It makes the world go round

A plan to boost the use of mobile money was unveiled at a telecoms conference. The project, set up between a group of mobile-phone operators and MasterCard, is targeted at migrant workers and enables funds to be securely transferred from one phone to another back home, where the credit can be spent. See article

Vodafone won the bidding to take control of Hutchison Essar, a mobile-phone operator in India, agreeing to pay $11.1 billion for the 67% stake held by a subsidiary of Hong Kong's Hutchison Whampoa. Arun Sarin, Vodafone's chief executive, said the deal would be “transformational” for his company, which thinks it can increase profits by acquiring phone operators in high-growth developing markets. But some of Mr Sarin's critics said he had paid too much.

A court in Brussels ruled that Google had infringed the copyright of Belgian newspapers by publishing links to their stories on Google News. The case, in which the newspapers argued that the internet company was giving away articles they were charging for, was closely watched by other press proprietors. Google is to appeal.

Delta Air Lines made a fourth-quarter net loss of $2 billion as it booked charges related to its bankruptcy- restructuring plans.

Better to have loved and lost

NASDAQ's $5.3 billion hostile bid for the London Stock Exchange was spurned by shareholders (fewer than 0.5% accepted the offer). It was the second time in less than a year that NASDAQ's advances had been rebuffed and it joins a long line of suitors seen off by the LSE because, it says, they have not valued it properly. Speculation turned to the possibility of future partners for both bourses.

Deutsche Börse agreed to take a 5% strategic stake in the Bombay Stock Exchange, underlining the fashion for consolidation among global exchanges.

EMI's share price hit a low note after it issued its second profits warning of the year. The music company has been particularly hit by poor sales in North America, where, it said, the market for CDs had declined by 20% this year.

With the share prices of big aluminum companies rising amid rumors of takeovers, India's Hindalco Industries said it would pay nearly $6 billion for Novelis, a Canadian maker of rolled aluminum used to make beverage cans. The deal is the second-biggest foreign acquisition by an Indian company and comes two weeks after Tata Steel won the battle for Corus.

SXR Uranium One and UrAsia Energy agreed to merge, creating the world's second-biggest uranium miner. The price of the raw material for reactor fuel has more than tripled over the past three years, in line with the increased enthusiasm for nuclear power.

Gazprom said its third-quarter net profit rose by more than half, to $4.6 billion. The Russian gas monopoly is benefiting from rising exports and the higher prices it charges to former Soviet republics.

Time for another row

America's trade deficit in goods reached $836 in 2006. Congressional Democrats seized on the figure to lambaste the Bush administration and called for “actions to stand up for America” by ending the “unfair trade practices” of the countries and regions that account for most of the deficit: China ($233 billion), the European Union ($117 billion) and Japan ($88 billion).

Click here to read the original article and more features from The Economist.com