Portugal has been given three years (till the end of 2008) to resolve its excess deficit situation. Portugal, like Italy only with less press attention, is in the midst of a serious economic slowdown. The decision to give Portugal slightly more time may be the result of a number of factors: it may be that [...]

I suppose by-now every right thinking and reasonably well read adult knows what the ‘poverty-trap’ is, even if most of us aren’t too clear about what there is to do about it. Being stuck in one of these traps could be thought to be like being stuck in a (not necessarily very deep) well with [...]

Drat! Comments still aren’t working. This may be part of the story. And just when the Economist has one of its most interesting supplements in ages.

With Turkish accession one of the most important issues facing the European Union, people interested in the question could do much worse than read these two recent, and reasonably short, books that focus on the country: Crescent and Star, by Stephen Kinzer, and The Turks Today, by Andrew Mango. Both illustrate and explain contemporary Turkey, [...]

After so many days of posting topics related one way or another with death, perhaps it is better to get back to life. One good excuse for doing this could be the 25th International Population Conference organised by the International Union for the Scientific Study of Population and which opened yesterday in Tours, [...]

The New York Times is running a story about a document prepared by the Joint Terrorist Analysis Center (the coordinating nerve centre of Britain’s anti-terrorism activity) in June of this year. The document was apparently furbished to the NYT by a ‘foreign security service’ and “was not disputed by four senior British officials who were [...]

A German man has canned the noxious-smelling exhaust fumes of East Germany’s cult Trabant car and is doing a brisk trade selling the scent to those nostalgic for the former Communist state.
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According to a new study released today by the commission, the EU’s image amongst its citizens is deteriorating and confidence in EU institutions is decreasing:
The EU’s image is worst amongst British (28%), Finnish (30%) and Austrian (30%) citizens but best amongst the Irish (68%), Italians (63%) and Luxembourgers (58%).
Support for the thorny issue of [...]

Strange story this one. But not without interesting implications for the future.

One day it might be worth writing a post on the life and times of Judge Balthasar Garzon. Today we might just note that he finally has ‘his man’: the US have just agreed to hand-over Lahcen Ikassrien to Spanish authorities. Ikassrien is being held in Guantanamo, but it is important to note that Garzon [...]