Brazil overtakes UK as sixth-largest economy
UK relegated to seventh place in world league of leading economies in 2011, according to team of economists
Brazil has overtaken the UK to become the world's sixth-largest economy, according to a team of economists. The banking crash of 2008 and the subsequent recession has relegated the UK to seventh place in 2011, behind South America's largest economy, which has boomed on the back of exports to China and the far east.
Russia and India are expected to benefit from a surge in growth over the next 10 years and push the UK into eighth place. Like most economies, India is struggling with high inflation and slowing growth, but its highly educated workforce and skills in growth areas from IT and services to engineering will push the economy into fifth place. After a decade of selling oil and
How the West was caught out by the Arab Spring
The Year of Revolution: In the first of a series of articles on the Middle East's tempestuous year, Donald Macintyre explains how decades of diplomatic strategy was undone by the popular risings
To understand the momentousness of 2011, it's worth remembering that this time last year no one knew that, within weeks, revolution would sweep across North Africa, including the most populous and important country in the Arab world. True, the uprising had already started in Tunisia. But it was impossible to predict that by the end of the year we would have seen the ignominious flight of one tyrant, Zine El Abidine Ben Ali, that a second, Hosni Mubarak, would have been imprisoned and on trial, that a third, Muammar Gaddafi, would have been extra-judicially executed, that a fourth, Yemen's Ali Abdullah Saleh, would have been forced to announce his own departure, and a fifth, Bashar al-Assad, would still be trying to escape his nemesis by sacrificing the lives of thousands of his fellow citizens in a gruesome but increasingly precarious exercise of power
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The Perils of Journalism in Pakistan
Living in Fear of Intelligence Agents
By Hasnain Kazim in Islamabad
Hamid Mir leans back in his office chair, staring at his moblie phone. "Afraid? Am I afraid?" he asks. He shakes his head back and forth. "It would be a lie to say no." Since nearly midnight on Tuesday evening, his life has been turned upside down. His Blackberry rings, indicating he has received a text message. It reads, in broken English:
"I have not seen a real bastard than you. I wish somebody comes and strip you naked. I hope some Army man has not done real dirty with your dear ones."
Funeral invitations sort near from dear for North Korean leader
Justin McCurry
December 26, 2011
As North Korea prepares for the funeral of Kim Jong-il, speculation over the guest list has reached Shakespearean levels of intrigue.
The few non-Koreans to be invited include a Japanese magician, Princess Tenko, who performed in Pyongyang at Kim Jong-il's invitation in 1998 and 2000 and is said to have had private dinners with him.
One of Mr Kim's relatives had invited her, reports said, adding that she had yet to decide whether or not to attend Wednesday's ceremony in Pyongyang.
Syria under scrutiny as Arab League mission arrives
MARIAM KAROUNY BEIRUT, SYRIA - Dec 26 2011 07:20
General Mohammed al-Dabi's arrival coincided with fresh violence in the restive central city of Homs and followed twin suicide bombings that killed 44 people in Damascus on Friday.
Syria has endured daily bloodshed for months as security forces struggle to suppress a popular uprising, at first peaceful but now increasingly violent, against President Bashar al-Assad whose family has ruled for more than four decades.
In his Christmas Day address, Pope Benedict called for "an end to the violence in Syria, where so much blood has already been shed".
Tension over Israeli proposal to commemorate Armenian genocide
REPORTING FROM JERUSALEM -- Israeli lawmakers plan to discuss the possibility of setting a day to commemorate the Armenian genocide of 1915-18. But the initiative is causing tension ahead of the discussion, scheduled for Monday, because of concerns over the reaction by Turkey, which denies a genocide took place.
Until now, similar commemoration proposals have been referred to parliamentary committees that meet behind closed doors. This will be the first time the subject will be discussed at a committee whose meetings are public.
If it takes place.
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