How many of you understand the relevance of domestic/global news and use this to help form decisions?
Here, this is for your "education"
**********************************************************************
Welcome to Politics This Week
A summary of the world's main events from The Economist
Also available at economist.com
**********************************************************************
IN THE ECONOMIST THIS WEEK
Already Bill Clinton is an unwanted and diminished president, and he may soon be in worse trouble * After the PC: the coming era of pervasive computing * The case against capital controls * Russia on the rocks * Why Rupert Murdoch should be allowed to buy Manchester United * Could mobile phones replace fixed lines? * America and cultural imperialism *
You can read these articles, and many more, in the free area of The
Economist Web Edition, at economist.com. Subscribers can also read 60 more new articles.
COMING NEXT WEEK
Time runs out: a nine-article survey on the millennium bug (or Year 2000 problem), available at economist.com from September 17th.
**********************************************************************
HIT HARD
+ Kenneth Starr, the independent counsel, delivered to Congress his
report on PRESIDENT CLINTON'S MISCONDUCT. Prosecutors said it contained "substantial and credible information" that might support impeachment. The president's lawyer dismissed this as "allegations". Mr Clinton, in Florida, admitted he had let the country down.
+ The attorney-general, JANET RENO, ordered a 90-day inquiry (the first step towards the appointment of an independent counsel) into whether Mr Clinton circumvented federal election laws in 1996.
+ Mark McGwire of the St Louis Cardinals broke a major-league baseball record with his 62ND HOME RUN of the season.
+ With its stockmarket slumping, dollars flooding out and the real at risk, BRAZIL's government rammed up interest rates and promised to cut spending. Bad news for President Fernando Henrique Cardoso, who is
seeking re-election next month? Probably the reverse: voters trust him in a crisis.
+ ARGENTINA's arms-for-Croatia/Ecuador scandal widened. Who knew of these long-past, but illegal and controversial exports? The labour minister, Erman Gonzalez, defence minister in 1991-93, was already under fire. A new report named the foreign ministry. We told the armed forces, said its minister, Guido Di Tella. The generals growled.
+ Colombia announced new policies to stop COCA growing in the country.
NEW MAN
+ President Boris Yeltsin nominated YEVGENY PRIMAKOV, his acting foreign minister and a former spymaster, as prime minister. Russia's lower house of parliament, the Duma, had for the second time rejected Viktor Chernomyrdin, his previous choice. The Communists said they would back Mr Primakov, raising hopes that the country would end its political crisis.
+ Civil strife in DAGESTAN, a Russian republic in the northern Caucasus, worsened after a bomb in the capital, Makhachkala, killed 18 people.
+ A Ukrainian-made ROCKET CRASHED during its launch in Kazakhstan,
destroying 12 communications satellites.
+ Eddie Fenech Adami, leader of MALTA's Nationalist Party, won an
election and became prime minister. He renewed the island's application to join the European Union.
+ Two American officials sent to KOSOVO, where ethnic Albanian
separatists are fighting Serb rule, said they had seen "horrendous
human-rights violations" by government forces. An EU ban on Yugoslav
flights came into force. NATO said it had completed contingency plans,
in case it was told to intervene.
+ LASZLO KOVACS, a former foreign minister, became leader of Hungary's Socialist Party, succeeding Gyula Horn, prime minister until the party's defeat in a general election this summer.
+ A breakaway republican group, the Real IRA, responsible for last
month's bomb in Omagh in NORTHERN IRELAND, announced a permanent ceasefire.
BATTLING ON
+ Presidents of the five countries actively involved in CONGO'S CIVIL WAR met in Zimbabwe in pursuit of a ceasefire. They failed. Their defence ministers continued the search at a meeting in Ethiopia.
+ Iran deployed elite troops on its frontier with Afghanistan in a bid to make the Taliban divulge the fate of ten IRANIAN DIPLOMATS and a journalist seized last month when the Taliban took Mazar-i-Sharif.
Expressing concern, America urged Iran to solve the matter peacefully.
+ A Nigerian court freed 20 OGONI ACTIVISTS imprisoned in 1994 (together with the writer Ken Saro-Wiwa who was later executed) on charges of murdering four pro-government chiefs. Two of the original detainees died in prison. All charges have now been dropped.
+ An Amnesty International report criticised Israel's routine TORTURE of Palestinian suspects under interrogation, a practice legitimised by the country's Supreme Court. The Palestinian Authority was also damned for its arbitrary arrests, summary trials and torture.
+ DENNIS ROSS, America's special envoy, returned to Israel for the first time since May in yet another bid to restart the Israeli-Palestinian peace process, stalled for 18 months.
+ The UN Security Council suspended its regular reviews of IRAQI
SANCTIONS for as long as Iraq refuses to co-operate with UN inspectors.
DASHED HOPES
+ Prospects faded for an early revival of JAPAN'S ECONOMY as the
government and opposition clashed over plans for more spending and tax
cuts.
+ Cambodia's strongman, HUN SEN, tightened his grip on the country,
ordering the destruction of a "democracy camp" in Phnom Penh. Sam
Rainsy, an opposition leader, went into hiding, as fighting spilled
onto the streets.
+ MYANMAR's ruling military junta blocked an attempt to convene a
parliament elected in 1990 by arresting 300 opposition politicians and
supporters.
+ Kim Il Sung, who died in 1994, was named president of NORTH KOREA forever. The country also celebrated its 50th anniversary.
+ The number of Bangladeshis who have died as a result of FLOODS rose to over 700. About 20m homes have also been swamped.
******************************************************************
ADVERTISEMENT
Access Oxford's famous academic bookstore,
specialising in business, research and technical books.
Search & order from 1.5 million titles.
Blackwell's Online Bookshop
bookshop.blackwell.co.uk
******************************************************************
If you find our summaries service useful, please tell your friends.
Invite them to subscribe by forwarding this e-mail to them.
*******************************************************************
This is a free newsletter published by The Economist newspaper.
To find out where best to direct queries to The Economist, send a
blank e-mail message to help@economist.com
If you are having problems receiving this list, send an e-mail
explaining the difficulty you are having to
list-support@economist.com
To cancel your subscription, send an e-mail with the
message "leave economist-politics" to newscaster@postbox.co.uk
To start receiving Politics This Week, send an e-mail with the
message "join economist-politics" to newscaster@postbox.co.uk
Alternatively, you can cancel your subscription (or subscribe at
any time)by visiting:
postbox.co.uk
|
