The Economist has a timely, and very sobre assessment, of the state of the Chinese company (or should that be the Chinese state company, in any event Howard French has posted the entire piece, just in case we get link-rot), Brad Setser has a very well argued post on how China effectively seems to [...]

Global Voices has a story (Hat Tip Financial Times and Simon World) about how China dissident Shi Tao has more than a little cause to be angry with Yahoo. Reporters Sans Frontiers, on analysing the text of the verdict in Shi Tao’s case (he was sentenced to 10 years in April for �divulging state [...]

Don’t blame me, blame Alex for this, since he’s the one who started me thinking about all those other issues associated with the German elections - apart that is from the economic ones. Like this in today’s FT:
“It must have seemed like a good idea at the time. ….Last week, she (Angela Merkel) named Heinrich [...]

The Guardian today carries yet another article by Jonathan Steele on how badly the Ukrainians have hurt Vladimir Putin’s feelings, here. Putin, at a “two-and-a-half hour meeting with academics and journalists in the Kremlin” apparently had this to say:
” One of the parties cannot be cornered by means of unconstitutional activities. Otherwise other people in [...]

Naturally enough, following the US model, the really important thing in the (quasi-)presidential debate isn’t what happens during the debate, but the post-debate exploitation of whatever happens then. So no surprise to find that the SPD and the Greens are jumping all over a claim that Angela Merkel, as well as quoting Reagan, was being [...]

Well, it seems my guest stint is going to be along the lines of “All German Election, All The Time”, but some more things have come up! In last night’s TV debate between Schr�der and Merkel, it seems, the CDU leader used some words that weren’t entirely her own. According to Der Standard (or should [...]

Until a couple of days ago, I was very nearly incommunicado for two weeks. We took the kids to Italy on holiday, you see, and found ourselves in a place with no television, no internets, not even mobile-phone reception. The tiny shop at the site doesn’t even stock English-language (or any other non-Italian) newspapers, and [...]

While the debate rages about who are what has been ultimately responsible for the plight of all those poor, largely black, people who got left behind when New Orleans went ‘under water’, this reuters article raises some fascinating points.
“If refugees end up building new lives away from New Orleans, Hurricane Katrina may prompt the [...]

From the AP via CNN:
Anti-flood measures will be reviewed in all Dutch regions below sea level in light of Hurricane Katrina’s aftermath to ensure they would be adequate in an emergency, the government said Sunday. …
The government is planning to spend $3.7 billion over the next ten years on new projects against the threat from [...]

AP reports that the Russian navy does not have the funds this year to buy underwater rescue vessels of the type Britain sent to Russia to save the lives of seven men trapped in a mini-sub in the Pacific last month:
“We do not have the money at the moment,” but the navy expected to obtain [...]