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Blocked at home, what can Barack Obama achieve abroad? United States Nov 22nd 2010 | WASHINGTON, DC | from The World In 2011 PRINT EDITION Thanks to the Republicans’ gains in the mid-term elections, the Democrats will find it harder to push legislation through Congress in 2011 (see article). That means that if Barack Obama wants to make a mark in the coming year, he will have to do so in the w..

North Korea’s belligerence stiffens the South’s spine Tensions on the Korean peninsula Dec 9th 2010 | SEOUL | from PRINT EDITION A PHOTOGRAPH of Chung Ok-im above her desk shows the most vocal hawk within the ruling Grand National Party (GNP) firing a pistol. Ask her what the target was and she says without batting an eyelid: Kim Jong Il. A few weeks ago, many leftish South Koreans would ha..

Speculation about a change in Chinese policy towards North Korea seems at best premature Dec 2nd 2010 | from PRINT EDITION THE lecherous old lush is still on the cognac, even if there is sadly no news of the Swedish masseuses. That Kim Jong Il, North Korea’s dictator, has an abiding proclivity for the bottle has now been attested (at second hand) by a senior member of the Chinese government. B..

Aspirin continues to amaze Dec 9th 2010 | from PRINT EDITION FOR thousands of years aspirin has been humanity’s wonder drug. Extracts from the willow tree have been used for pain relief in folk medicine since the time of the ancient Greeks. By 1897 a synthetic derivative (acetyl salicylic acid) of the plant’s active ingredient (salicin) was created. This allowed aspirin to become the most w..

Even those who back more disclosure should hesitate before condoning WikiLeaks’ torrent of e-mails Dec 2nd 2010 | from PRINT EDITION YOU don’t have to be Julian Assange, the man behind WikiLeaks, to think that governments have a nasty habit of abusing their powers of secrecy. Or that, whether governments are corrupt and malign or merely negligent and incompetent, then sunlight is often the b..

As demand for life-saving transplant surgery grows, the idea of paying donors is gaining support Oct 9th 2008 | from PRINT EDITION “PLEASE don’t take your organs to heaven,” reads the American bumper sticker. “Heaven knows that we need them here on earth.” Last year more than 7,000 Americans died while awaiting an organ transplant—almost double the number of American soldiers killed..

MY FREEDOM-LOVING colleague is absolutely right to defend the institution of WikiLeaks, and in case my earlier post was unclear, let me re-emphasise that I think we're all better off having an institution where leakers can anonymously submit important information, have it verified and get it published if it checks out. I certainly don't think Julian Assange should be prosecuted for doing this (..

IF THE world sniggered to see Kim Jong Un, with his fat-faced boyishness, thrust forward as the dictator-to-be of North Korea, it is not laughing now. A 65-minute-long artillery barrage on November 23rd rained down upon the tiny South Korean island of Yeonpyeong, marking the first time since the war of 1950-53 that the North has fired shells at civilian targets on land. Four South Koreans—two..

ONCE again, Aung San Suu Kyi, leader of the Burmese opposition, is in theory at liberty. Her latest spell of house arrest ended on November 13th, when she came briefly out of her home in Yangon, where she had been detained, to greet a crowd of thousands of delighted supporters. In the past, such spells of freedom have been illusory. The junta has placed such strict limits on her activities that..

A special report on smart systems It's a smart world The real and the digital worlds are converging, bringing much greater efficiency and lots of new opportunities, says Ludwig Siegele. But is it what people want? Nov 4th 2010 WHAT if there were two worlds, the real one and its digital reflection? The real one is strewn with sensors, picking up everything from movement to smell. The digital one,..