Welcome to The world this week: Politics
A summary of the world's main events from The Economist.
Also available at http://www.economist.com

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- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -  IN THE ECONOMIST THIS WEEK -

How the mood of America has changed * In praise of whistleblowers *
Zimbabwe's new laws * Rebuilding Afghanistan * Wall Street and small
investors * Reforming Britain's House of Lords * Haute couture *
New York's skyline

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JITTERS IN EUROPE

ITALY'S foreign minister, Renato Ruggiero, resigned after several other
senior ministers had made hostile remarks about the EU and the euro,
and Silvio Berlusconi, the prime minister, failed to slap them down.
Some European leaders feared Italy's government would turn
Eurosceptical. No way, said Mr Berlusconi, who took on the foreign
ministry himself. But it was clear Italy would defend its national
interests more strongly.

- - - - - See article: Will Italy really change its policy toward the European Union?
http://news.economist.com/cgi-bin1/flo?y=eRp0UBQN0T70qZS0Au

Goran Persson, Sweden's prime minister, said his country might hold a
REFERENDUM ON THE EURO next year. Polls suggest that Swedish public
opinion, hitherto hostile, has recently swung in favour of joining the
single currency.

ESTONIA'S market-minded coalition government, led by Mart Laar,
collapsed.

FRANCE'S family doctors stayed on intermittent strike, amid increasing
signs that the government would surrender to their pay demands.

In SPAIN, government-imposed reforms to the country's universities came
formally into force, despite the protests of many academics and
students.

- - - - - See article: Spain's contested university reforms
http://news.economist.com/cgi-bin1/flo?y=eRp0UBQN0T70qZT0Av

FORCE FOR PEACE

A British-led, UN-mandated, international force designed to provide
security in AFGHANISTAN, was gradually building up to a strength of
4,000-5,000. Turkey and Bulgaria were the latest countries to promise
soldiers. Meanwhile, America said that it intended to build a long-term
Central Asian base in Kirgizstan.

American forces took prisoner 364 men said to be members of the TALIBAN
or the al-Qaeda organisation and proposed to fly them to a camp in the
American base at Guantanamo in Cuba, for questioning. Afghan tribal
leaders protested at the deaths of civilians killed by American bombs,
said to outnumber the 3,000 people who died in New York on September
11th.

In an effort to please India, President Pervez Musharraf of Pakistan
dropped the term "freedom fighters" in a reference to attacks in
Indian-held KASHMIR and said he rejected all terrorism. But India
continued to build up its forces on its border with Pakistan.

- - - - - See article: Islam in Pakistan
http://news.economist.com/cgi-bin1/flo?y=eRp0UBQN0T70qZU0Aw

The Pakistani authorities found 630kg (1,390lb) of HEROIN being carried
by a camel caravan in the south-east of the country, one of the largest
seizures of the drug.

MYANMAR'S military government freed five opposition members, including
a cousin of Aung San Suu Kyi, the opposition leader.

A peace-making team from Norway arrived in SRI LANKA at the start of a
new effort to end the 18-year civil war between the separatist Tamil
Tigers and the government.

- - - - - See article: The wounded Tigers of Sri Lanka
http://news.economist.com/cgi-bin1/flo?y=eRp0UBQN0T70qZV0Ax

SHRINKING SURPLUS

As estimates of America's long-term fiscal surplus shrank, Tom Daschle,
the Democratic Senate majority leader, accused President George Bush of
MISHANDLING THE ECONOMY by pushing through last year's $1.35 trillion
tax cuts. Mr Bush promised that "not over my dead body" will the
Democrats raise taxes.

- - - - - See article: A battle over numbers
http://news.economist.com/cgi-bin1/flo?y=eRp0UBQN0T70qZW0Ay

The Supreme Court reduced the scope of the AMERICANS WITH DISABILITIES
ACT by ruling that an impairment must have a significant effect on a
person's daily life in order to qualify as a disability under the law.
The controversial ruling could make it harder for people with
afflictions such as carpal-tunnel syndrome (repetitive-strain injury)
to get special treatment from their employers.

The Bush administration said it may need to resume UNDERGROUND NUCLEAR
TESTING at some point to maintain the safety of its scaled-back
nuclear-weapons arsenal. The option would form part of the
"nuclear-posture review", which outlines the country's justification
for reducing the number of strategic warheads by two-thirds over the
next ten years.

GOING DOWN

ARGENTINA devalued the peso by 29%25 for most trade and capital
transactions. For other purposes, the currency will float. Eduardo
Duhalde's government converted most dollar loans to pesos, but has said
dollar bank deposits will (eventually) be honoured. Critics feared that
the banking system would collapse.

- - - - - See article: Argentina's bankrupt economy
http://news.economist.com/cgi-bin1/flo?y=eRp0UBQN0T70qZX0Az

CHILE'S president, Ricardo Lagos, appointed as defence minister
Michelle Bachelet, a member of his Socialist party and the daughter of
an air-force general who died after being imprisoned and tortured
during General Augusto Pinochet's dictatorship. She is the first woman
defence minister in Latin America.

COLOMBIA'S three-year peace process came to a halt. President Andres
Pastrana gave the FARC guerrillas 48 hours to leave their
"demilitarised" zone, after they had refused to drop their opposition
to military surveillance of the zone.

- - - - - See article: A halt to Colombia's peace process
http://news.economist.com/cgi-bin1/flo?y=eRp0UBQN0T70qZY0A1

BY HOOK OR BY CROOK

ZIMBABWE'S PARLIAMENT was set to pass laws to prevent the presidential
election, due on March 9th and 10th, from being free or fair, or being
won by anyone other than Robert Mugabe. Making doubly sure, the army
chief hinted that he would not recognise the opposition candidate,
Morgan Tsvangirai, if he won.

- - - - - See article: Democracy, who needs it?
http://news.economist.com/cgi-bin1/flo?y=eRp0UBQN0T70qZZ0A2

A senior aide to NIGERIA'S chief judge was found dead, apparently
murdered. Bola Ige, the justice minister, was murdered last month.

The South African government promised to set up a commission of inquiry
into the COLLAPSE OF THE RAND. The country's currency lost 37%25 of its
value last year. South African businessmen have accused speculators of
foul play.

The government of BURUNDI promised to pull troops out of Congo in
return for a Congolese promise to stop supporting rebels in Burundi.

After a three-week diminution in the violence between ISRAEL AND THE
PALESTINIANS, Israel seized a ship allegedly carrying weapons to
Palestinian militias, and two Hamas gunmen attacked an army base,
killing four Israeli soldiers before they themselves died.

- - - - - See article: Arms and the man
http://news.economist.com/cgi-bin1/flo?y=eRp0UBQN0T70qZa0AA

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -  GET THE STORY BEHIND THE STORY -

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What's going on in Kashmir? Or Macedonia? Or Nepal? What went wrong with
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are they bad? What led to California's power crisis?

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