Leon Panetta and the state of American intelligence

OUTSIDERS have typically had a hard time running the CIA. So why has Barack Obama chosen 70-year-old Leon Panetta for the top job? Mr Panetta was Bill Clinton’s chief of staff and he ran the budget bureaucracy, but he has no background in...

The Blagojevich saga drags on, embarrassing the Democrats just when they should be celebrating

THE 111th Congress is sworn in on Tuesday January 6th. The 435 representatives will take their places with a minimum of fuss, but the more august chamber, the Senate, is bogged down in the sort of machinations...

Cuba's Raul Castro has made overtures to Barack Obama

In the wake of the 50th anniversary of the Cuban Revolution, President Raul Castro has made overtures to the US president-elect, Barack Obama. Seizing on Mr Obama’s statements on the campaign trail that he would be willing to meet with Cuban officials...

Russia has cut supplies of gas to Ukraine, but a deal will soon be reached

Russian gas supplies to south-eastern Europe have been disrupted by the now customary dispute over pricing between Ukraine and Russia which has led the latter to cut supplies to the Ukrainian domestic market. The two sides...

Fighting continues within the Gaza Strip, as Israeli soldiers push into the territory

ISRAELI forces pushed deeper into the Gaza Strip on Monday January 5th, the second full day of their ground assault. Israeli troops have encircled Gaza City and are gingerly moving against Hamas fighters who are entrenched in...

Big elections, a battle against the economic downturn, the hunt for a deal to replace Kyoto and more

• IN JANUARY America welcomes Barack Obama, its 44th president, to the White House. Americans will hope that he can revive the economy and lift the gloomy mood at home while improving the...

Soon Barack Obama will have to explain how he would tackle the problems of Israel and Palestine

ISRAEL continued to strike the Gaza Strip on Wednesday December 31st, and Hamas continued to send rockets into Israel, despite assorted calls for a ceasefire. As the conflict has wound on, Barack Obama has...

Israel's assault on Hamas in the Gaza Strip continues for a fourth day

“BY THE time we’re finished,” Israel’s deputy chief of staff, General Dan Harel, told a group of mayors from towns close to the Gaza Strip on December 29th, “there won’t be a Hamas building left standing in Gaza.”...

Bangladesh enjoys a pretty clean election and a decisive result

IT WENT better than anyone dared hope. On December 29th Bangladesh held its first general election for seven years. It was well-attended, with a 70% turnout, well-organised, largely peaceful and, despite some vote-buying and other malpractice, far cleaner than its predecessors....

Israel continues its assault on the Gaza Strip, killing over 280 people

A SECOND day of Israeli bombing in the Gaza Strip on Sunday December 28th took dozens more Palestinian lives—lifting the reported total death toll above 280 people—but failed to staunch Hamas rocket fire into Israel. Ground incursions into Gaza...

Israel responds to rocket attacks with a massive air raid on Hamas targets in the Gaza Strip

NOBODY should have been surprised by the massive air raids Israel launched on Hamas targets in the Gaza Strip on the morning of Saturday December 27th, in which the Palestinians say some 195 people...

Global consensus on climate change is maddeningly elusive

IMAGINE that some huge rocky projectile, big enough to destroy most forms of life, was hurtling towards the earth, and it seemed that deep international co-operation offered the only hope of deflecting the lethal object. Presumably, the nations of the world would set...

George Bush bails out America's carmakers temporarily—now they are Barack Obama's problem

IN THE run up to George Bush’s announcement on Friday December 19th that he would bail out Detroit’s beleaguered carmakers rumours abounded that perhaps something more drastic was in the offing. Maybe the president would insist on an orderly...

The new head of the SEC will have to repair its battered reputation in the wake of the Madoff affair

IT WILL be anything but steady-as-she-goes. Moments after officially nominating Mary Schapiro to run the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), America’s main markets watchdog, on Thursday December 18th, Barack Obama, America’s...

Spain's government has countered earlier claims of inaction with a flurry of initiatives, but recession in 2009 is unavoidable

Government policy has undergone a marked shift in focus over the past two months, in response to the escalating global credit crisis and increasing evidence that the Spanish economy is plunging into...