The Economist 2004 January-December I-IV. [antikvár]

The world this week The Econoraist Oanuary 3rd 2004 Politics An earthquake hit the Iranian town of Bam, í.oookm (621 miles) south-east of Tehran, the capital, on December 26th, killing at least 28,000 of its 80,000 people. The quality of the government's response may affect the outcome of a power struggle between reformere and reactionaries. | Libya's ruler, Muammar Qadí dafi, admitted that his government had been secretly trying to develop weapons of mass i destruction, promised to stop doing so, and said that inter| national inspectors could come and look. Mohamed El! Baradei, the head of the un's | nuclear watchdog, toured four I secret sites, and said that Libya ; had stiil been years away from \ a nuclear bomb. On December 27th, in one of | the deadliest attacks of the \ month in Iraq, suicide bom¦ bers and other insurgents | killed 19 people-five Bulgar. ian and two Thai soldiers and j 12 Iraqis-in the Shia Muslims' ^ holy city of Karbala. Israel's prime minister, Ariel Sharon, ordered the dismaní tlingof four Jewish settlement outposts in the Palestinian territories. The Palestinian Authority dismissed it as a publicity stunt. Criminal past Extrémé nationalists staged a comeback in the Serbian elections. The Radical Party, nominally led by Vojislav Seselj, an indicted war-criminal suspect, jailed in The Hague.won 27% of the vote; the party of the former dictator, Slobodan Milosevic (alsó indicted and in jail), did well too. More moderate parties will now struggle to form a government. Opponents to Vladimir Putín in the Russian presidential election in March look like being thin on the ground. Two veterans from previous elections, Vladimir Zhirinovsky of the misnamed Liberal Democrats, and Gennady Zyuganov of the Communist Party, have announced that they will not run. Mr Putin is expected to win re-election by a landslide. The European Union presidency passed to Ireland. The Irish prime minister, Bertie Ahern, will now try to pick up the pieces left after the collapse of negotiations on a new eu constitution at December's Brussels summit. Letter bombs were sent to various senior European officials, including Romano Prodi of the European Commission and Jean-Claude Trichet at the European Central Bank. Nobody was injured. Buying office Three former aides of South Korea's president, Roh Moohyun, were charged with collecting illegal funds for his election in 2002, a further blow to the scandal-wracked administration. A gas explosion killed more than 230 people in southern China. An assassination attempt against President Pervez Musharraf of Pakistan, the fourth since 2002 and the second in less than two weeks, narrowly failed. The president later reached a deal with the country's parliament in a long-running dispute over their relative powers under the constitution, after agreeing to step down as the head of Pakistan's army at the end of this year. Beef banwatlop America confirmed its first case of "mad-cow disease" at a farm in Washington state. In response, somé two-dozen nations slapped a ban on American beef imports. America upgraded its national security alert from "elevated" to "high" amid fears that alQaeda was planning further terrorist attacks. Somé commercial flights between Los Angeles and Paris were cancelled and patrols were stepped up around oil facilities in Alaska. Heavy rains caused a mudslide that swept through a campsite near San Bernardino, California, killing 14 people, mainly children. Meanwhile, an earthquake hit the state's central coast, killing two people. A winning performance Oscar Berger, a conservative businessman, was elected as Guatemala's new president. He won 54% of the votes cast in a run-off ballot against Álvaro Colom, from a centre-left coalition. In an extraordinary session, Mexico's Congress approved the government's budget, but rejected its plans to levy vat on exempt items, including food and medicines. Colombia's Congress approved tax increases worth somé $700m a year. This was less than the amount requested by President Álvaro Űribe, but may be enough to help the government meet its fiscal targets. Earlier, left-wing guerrillas released five foreign tourists they had held for three months. Business Parmalat justified its nomination as "Europe's Enron": the Italian dairy-goods firm was declared insolvent; Calisto Tanzi, its founder and former boss, was held; and its shares were suspended. A judicial inquiry began into a non-existent €4 biliion ($5 biliion) bank account; the size of the hole in Parmalat's books is put at over €10 biliion. Vivendi Universal andjeanMarie Messier, the French média group's former chief executive, agreed to settle fraud charges brought by America's Securities and Exchange Commission. The company will pay $50m; Mr Messier agreed to forgo a controversial €2im ($26m) severance package and will pay $im. But Vivendi could still face civil action by disgruntled shareholders. kpmg quit as auditors of Hollinger Incorporated, the Canadian holding company that controls Hollinger International, an embattled média group. Hollinger Inc refused to make management changes requested by the accounting firm. Its chief executive, Lord Black, stepped down as boss of Hollinger International in November and is under investigation by the sec. In a seasonal gesture, Ford handed $1.6 biliion to Visteon, a car-parts firm that it used to own. The money is to help Visteon meet pension and health care costs inherited from the car giant. But Ford raised its estimate of profits for 2003 by 10%, thanks to cost-cutting and improvements to its credit business. Its shares rose by 10%. Lehman Brothers was reportedly poised to revive a deal to acquire Le Meridien Hotels and Resorts. The American investment bank is set to exercise an option to match a rival bíd of L7oom ($1.2 biliion) from Goldman Sachs to buy the heavily indebted British hotel group. Bottom dollár? Oollar against the euró l.oo The dollar's decline deepened. The currency hit a new record low against the euró, breaking the $1.25 mark for the first time; it alsó feli against the yen and sterling. Other economic data and news can be found on pages 72-74