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President-elect Lee Myung-bak occupies Seoul's Blue House soon, amid concern over his "house of the Lord" Christian faith. Many South Koreans fear he may pack his cabinet with members of his church's congregation, at the expense of Buddhists and non-believers. - Sunny Lee (Jan 31, '08)
Nepal's twice-postponed polls are scheduled for April 10, but there are severe doubts whether they can take place amid an atmosphere of political instability. Maoists, royalists, political opportunists of all stripes, the military, religious tensions, fears of Indian influence as well as a lack of security in rural districts put the process in dire peril. - Dhruba Adhikary (Jan 31, '08)
Just as threats to the pound forced Britain to climb down during the Suez canal crisis in 1956, pressure on the dollar could force a change in the United States' attitude towards Iran - Alan G Jamieson (Jan 31, '08)
Alan Greenspan's small though gradual interest rate changes limited the risk of damaging the economy. His Fed successor, Ben Bernanke, shows no such restraint as big rate cuts pile up in quick succession. But there will come a time when he will have to stop. - Julian Delasantellis
Senior Exxon-Mobile, BP and Chevron executives turned up in London this month, all hoping to buy oil-hunting rights in India. They've tried before and failed. This time the doors are being thrown open, with investments worth up to US$8 billion at stake. - Indrajit Basu
A pioneering mainland China fund manager is taking a lone path once more - by turning his back on what many in the business still believe is a bull market with legs.- Candy Zeng
The bright brains on Wall Street and elsewhere have mixed a brew so noxious the world is holding its breath as the poison seeps out of the US financial system. "Globalization" now has its first truly global financial crisis.
Look at how high stock prices are, they say. The people who own stocks must be making money. But according to The Mogambo's math, the majority must lose so that a minority can gain, as it is a zero-sum game. And that minority is usually Wall Street insiders, banks and government-parasite industries.
When, in April 1937, the German Condor Legion dropped 45,000 kilograms of explosives on the Spanish town of Guernica, international outrage followed, and Pablo Picasso was inspired to paint his now famous Guernica. When the US Air Force recently loosed 45,000 kilograms of bombs on a small Sunni farming district in Iraq, there was hardly a peep. These days, only "insurgent" suicide bombings warrant media attention, while the US's air "surge" is politely played down. - Tom Engelhardt (Jan 31, '08)
The new-wave United States counter-insurgency approach looks a lot like old-school peacekeeping as the military reaches out to Afghanistan's younger generation. Troops on the ground tell Philip Smucker that taking the fight to the enemy these days is not simply a matter of firing off bombs and bullets. (Jan 31, '08)
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