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<dc:date>2009-11-06T04:47+33:00
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<title>

        Kass: Chicago Fire gets stronger players</title>
<link>http://feeds.chicagotribune.com/~r/chicagotribune/opinion/~3/bsKn3ypmT1w/chi-kass-06-nov06,0,410431.column</link>
<description><![CDATA[Did you know that Chicago actually has a team in the playoffs?


   
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</item>

<item rdf:about="http://feeds.chicagotribune.com/~r/chicagotribune/opinion/~3/w4HatookYEI/chi-oped1106vaccinenov06,0,4464736.story">
<title>

        Ehrenreich: The vaccine screw-up</title>
<link>http://feeds.chicagotribune.com/~r/chicagotribune/opinion/~3/w4HatookYEI/chi-oped1106vaccinenov06,0,4464736.story</link>
<description><![CDATA[Where are all those promised H1N1 doses?
                        
                    
                    
                        If you can't find any swine flu vaccine for your kids, it won't be for a lack of positive thinking. In fact, the whole flu snafu is being blamed on "undue optimism" on the part of both the Obama administration and Big Pharma.


   
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</item>

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<title>

        Schmich: Text alerts curb parking tickets</title>
<link>http://feeds.chicagotribune.com/~r/chicagotribune/opinion/~3/fKnAvARHsa0/chi-schmich-06-nov06,0,2253594.column</link>
<description><![CDATA[Greg Bukowski is living the impossible dream, Chicago style.


   
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</item>

<item rdf:about="http://feeds.chicagotribune.com/~r/chicagotribune/opinion/~3/T_LDHFiLegU/chi-oped1106zornnov06,0,997005.column">
<title>

        Zorn: The mysterious stroller incident</title>
<link>http://feeds.chicagotribune.com/~r/chicagotribune/opinion/~3/T_LDHFiLegU/chi-oped1106zornnov06,0,997005.column</link>
<description><![CDATA[Shameful.


   
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</item>

<item rdf:about="http://feeds.chicagotribune.com/~r/chicagotribune/opinion/~3/lAIFqxITzvA/chi-oped1106willnov06,0,542837.column">
<title>

        Will: Searching for a unicorn in Kabul</title>
<link>http://feeds.chicagotribune.com/~r/chicagotribune/opinion/~3/lAIFqxITzvA/chi-oped1106willnov06,0,542837.column</link>
<description><![CDATA[--  Actress Cate Blanchett, who has played Queen Elizabeth I, is performing here, portraying someone less than regal  --  flurried, anxious Blanche DuBois, in Tennessee Williams's "A Streetcar Named Desire." If Obama administration officials involved in formulating Afghanistan policy see her, they should wince when she speaks DuBois' signature line: "I have always depended on the kindness of strangers."


   
]]></description>
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<title>

        Editorial: A new Cook County tax?</title>
<link>http://feeds.chicagotribune.com/~r/chicagotribune/opinion/~3/mzPsWw9fkds/chi-1106edit1nov06,0,5697009.story</link>
<description><![CDATA[Last week, state lawmakers approved a bill that could finally lead to the repeal of Cook County Board President Todd Stroger's sales tax increase.


   
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</item>

<item rdf:about="http://feeds.chicagotribune.com/~r/chicagotribune/opinion/~3/0aq-2_9c-ps/chi-1106edit2nov06,0,6090226.story">
<title>

        Editorial: A deal for Honduras</title>
<link>http://feeds.chicagotribune.com/~r/chicagotribune/opinion/~3/0aq-2_9c-ps/chi-1106edit2nov06,0,6090226.story</link>
<description><![CDATA[The parties responsible for Honduras' constitutional crisis have been offered a do-over.


   
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</item>

<item rdf:about="http://feeds.chicagotribune.com/~r/chicagotribune/opinion/~3/yEN-pj4FyeI/chi-kass-05-nov05,0,7886134.column">
<title>

        Kass: During GOP debate, keep 2 in mind</title>
<link>http://feeds.chicagotribune.com/~r/chicagotribune/opinion/~3/yEN-pj4FyeI/chi-kass-05-nov05,0,7886134.column</link>
<description><![CDATA[Illinois Republicans running for governor are breaking a sweat these days, thwacking former Democratic Gov. Rod "Dead Meat" Blagojevich for corruption and ridiculous hair.


   
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</item>

<item rdf:about="http://feeds.chicagotribune.com/~r/chicagotribune/opinion/~3/3yLJ1i2TAUQ/chi-1105edit1nov05,0,4910575.story">
<title>

        Editorial: War: Meeks vs. CTU</title>
<link>http://feeds.chicagotribune.com/~r/chicagotribune/opinion/~3/3yLJ1i2TAUQ/chi-1105edit1nov05,0,4910575.story</link>
<description><![CDATA["Chicago Public Schools have a gang problem. The gang, however, is not the BDs (Black Disciples), the gang is not the GDs (Gangster Disciples), the gang is not the Vice Lords and the gang is not the Four Corner Hustlers. The gang is the Chicago Teachers Union."


   
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<item rdf:about="http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/economist/news_analysis_and_views/~3/f6SKcrBQKa0/story01.htm">
<title>Going global</title>
<link>http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/economist/news_analysis_and_views/~3/f6SKcrBQKa0/story01.htm</link>
<description><![CDATA[Articles mentioning &#8220;globalisation&#8221; in The Economist&#8220;GLOBALISATION&#8221; is a relatively recent term. A search in the archives of this newspaper, perhaps the one most closely associated with globalisation, shows the word first used in 1961 in an article on the need for economic reform in Spain. Only in the 1980s did the term get the meaning it now has, when Theodore Levitt, a Harvard academic, used it to refer to the spread of corporations around the world. By the end of the decade, with the Berlin Wall in pieces, the number of articles (and letters to the editor) mentioning globalisation surged. Protests in Seattle in 1999 and in Genoa two years later encouraged more uses of the term, as did global trade negotiations in 2006. But with the current recession, the term is somewhat out of fashion. ...
   
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<item rdf:about="http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/economist/news_analysis_and_views/~3/It4INk5eweI/story01.htm">
<title>Green November</title>
<link>http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/economist/news_analysis_and_views/~3/It4INk5eweI/story01.htm</link>
<description><![CDATA[Iran's opposition takes to the streets againTHIRTY years ago, the world was mesmerised by pictures of 52 blindfolded Americans being taken hostage in their embassy in Tehran by Iranian students. This week&#8217;s anniversary provided more gripping scenes, as Iranians used the official celebration of that event to take to the streets once again, this time to protest against their own government and their country&#8217;s controversial president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, whose re-election in June they still hotly dispute.The green movement, as the opposition calls itself, had held no big rally since Jerusalem Day in mid-September, when protesters turned an officially sponsored event into an anti-government one. On November 4th they did it again. Thousands came on to the streets, despite dark warnings from the authorities. There were big demonstrations in Tehran, and reports of others in provincial cities such as Arak, Isfahan, Mazandaran, Rasht, Shiraz and Tabriz. The internet hummed with tales of opposition protests, replete with videos and photographs. It was hard, however, to assess the size of the crowds. ...
   
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<item rdf:about="http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/economist/news_analysis_and_views/~3/RzWwg8OtMXE/story01.htm">
<title>An easterner to the front</title>
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<description><![CDATA[Could a former president of Latvia make it as the European Union president?OPTIMISTIC Latvians are thin on the ground these days. The combination of fractious politics and a dismal economic outlook blunts the enthusiasm of even the most cheerfully patriotic soul. All the more reason, therefore, to applaud the announcement that the country&#8217;s former president, Vaira Vike-Freiberga, is running for the job of president of the European Union.At first sight, Ms Vike-Freiberga&#8217;s chances seem vanishingly slim. And at a second glance they don&#8217;t look much fatter. On the plus side, she speaks perfect French. She is a woman. And she has no big enemies. Observers of Latvian politics in the years 1999-2007 (admittedly, not exactly a mainstream hobby in Brussels) remember her as an uncommonly effective president of that country. She proved a powerful bulwark against over-mighty tycoons bent on suborning Latvia&#8217;s independent institutions and a strong defender of probity in public office. ...
   
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<item rdf:about="http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/economist/news_analysis_and_views/~3/0zn0G823By4/story01.htm">
<title>Handbrake turn</title>
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<description><![CDATA[GM&#8217;s decision to keep Opel causes anger in GermanyTHE decision by General Motors to abandon its sale of a controlling stake in Opel to a consortium led by Magna, an Austrian-Canadian partsmaker, has embarrassed and angered the German government and alarmed workers. After months of negotiations, and with an agreement about to be signed, GM made a last-minute handbrake turn, unexpectedly announcing on Tuesday November 3rd that it will now hang on to all of its carmaking operations in Europe except Saab of Sweden, and try to revive them. Germany&#8217;s economy minister, Rainer Bruderle, denounced GM&#8217;s behaviour as &#8220;completely unacceptable&#8221;. Equally angry German trade unions are calling a strike at Opel, fearing that GM&#8217;s turnaround plans, unlike Magna&#8217;s, will involve huge job cuts. GM is likely to demand substantial state aid for its restructuring plan; the German government, having assured the European Commission in writing that the aid it had offered to Magna was available to anyone seeking to save Opel, may find it awkward to resist this. ...
   
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<item rdf:about="http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/economist/news_analysis_and_views/~3/0WmvTRpG59c/story01.htm">
<title>The glow fades</title>
<link>http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/economist/news_analysis_and_views/~3/0WmvTRpG59c/story01.htm</link>
<description><![CDATA[Public enthusiasm for democracy and capitalism is waning in many former communist countriesTHE fall of the Berlin Wall in November 1989 marked the beginning of the end of communism in Europe and, for many, the dawn of a new, democratic era. Two decades later, however, enthusiasm for democracy and capitalism east of the former Iron Curtain appears to have waned considerably. In a survey of nine countries in 1991, large majorities of citizens in each said they approved of the move from a single-party state to a multi-party political system. But a new poll shows support has now fallen drastically, especially in poorer countries such as Ukraine and Lithuania. And in every country, fewer people now approve of the change to a free-market economy. The belief that the changes have benefited business and political elites far more than ordinary people is widespread. ...
   
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<item rdf:about="http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/economist/news_analysis_and_views/~3/sTVurQSBlPs/story01.htm">
<title>The shine coming off</title>
<link>http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/economist/news_analysis_and_views/~3/sTVurQSBlPs/story01.htm</link>
<description><![CDATA[Voters punish Barack Obama and the Democrats in two states, but offer solace in New YorkA YEAR after winning America's presidential election, Barack Obama and the Democrats have suffered two big defeats in governors races in Virginia and New Jersey. Last year Mr Obama won in Virginia in a particularly sweet moment for his party. This time the Republican, Bob McDonnell, trounced the Democrat, Creigh Deeds, by 59% to 41%. In northern corners of the state, which form part of Washington's suburbs and are vital to Democratic chances in statewide contests, the Republican did even better in some places, winning Loudoun county by 61% to 39% for example. In the much deeper-blue state of New Jersey, the loss was narrower for the Democrats. Chris Christie, the Republican, won with 49% of the vote, defeating Jon Corzine, the incumbent governor, who picked up around 45%. There were also various mayoral contests on Tuesday November 3rd. In New York Michael Bloomberg won a third term, but by a much narrower margin of victory than had been expected. Mary Norwood led the field in Atlanta but faces a run-off on December 1st, which if she wins will make her the first female white mayor in the historically black city. And in Houston Annise Parker picked up 31% of the vote and faces Gene Locke in a run-off on December 12th, which if Ms Parker wins would make her the first openly gay person to be elected to the mayor's office in Texas's largest city. ...
   
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<item rdf:about="http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/economist/news_analysis_and_views/~3/adrEDs2kzLc/story01.htm">
<title>How to change the system</title>
<link>http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/economist/news_analysis_and_views/~3/adrEDs2kzLc/story01.htm</link>
<description><![CDATA[In praise of the ideas of Russ AckoffIT IS hard to imagine a less enticing title for a book than &#8220;Introduction to Operations Research&#8221;. Yet Russ Ackoff, one of the authors of this tome of 1959, who died on October 29th aged 90, did not just help to define a nascent branch of industrial engineering. He wrote 30 other books, becoming one of the most influential management gurus of the 20th century in the process. His ideas about systemic thinking are vitally important today if the world is to come out of the current economic crisis in better shape than it went into it.Today&#8217;s crisis is the result of a catastrophic failure, primarily in the financial system but also of our economic and political systems. Mr Ackoff spent most of the past half-century as the premier evangelist of systemic thinking, which he contrasted with the reductionist, atomistic thinking that had long dominated humanity&#8217;s approach to problem-solving in his view. Time and again, he would point out, decision-makers faced with crises failed to heed Albert Einstein&#8217;s warning that &#8220;we can&#8217;t solve problems by using the same kind of thinking we used when we created them.&#8221; ...
   
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<item rdf:about="http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/economist/news_analysis_and_views/~3/3uhuI2oqGDI/story01.htm">
<title>An electoral test</title>
<link>http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/economist/news_analysis_and_views/~3/3uhuI2oqGDI/story01.htm</link>
<description><![CDATA[&#8220;Mini mid-term&#8221; elections get under way in America, with Democrats braced for bad newsVOTERS were at the polls to elect governors in New Jersey and Virginia on Tuesday November 3rd and others were voting in a special election to fill a vacant congressional district in upstate New York. Together, these three races (numerous mayoral contests and state referendums are also taking place) provide the biggest political test for the parties since last year's presidential election. A year since Barack Obama won that prize, these elections will be studied for clues about the electorate's mood. Facing what looks likely to be a heavy defeat for the Democrats in Virginia and a fight to keep the governor's mansion in New Jersey, the president would be wise to remind people of Tip O'Neill's famous dictum that &#8220;all politics is local&#8221;. But Mr Obama will not be able to avoid some of the finger-pointing if things go very badly.At the weekend Mr Obama supported Jon Corzine, the embattled governor of New Jersey, appearing at two rallies. Over the summer polls suggested that Mr Corzine was trailing Chris Christie, his Republican challenger, by large margins. Mr Christie attacked Mr Corzine's record on the local economy and found some traction on ethics issues. Mr Christie has been embarrassed in the last days of campaigning by a bizarre political advert he made featuring a Monty Python sketch. Michael Palin, who appeared in it, criticised the advert and said he was surprised that Mr Christie, a former federal prosecutor, was not aware about copyright infringement. ...
   
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<title>Red alert</title>
<link>http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/economist/news_analysis_and_views/~3/jG9rP271UFg/story01.htm</link>
<description><![CDATA[The number of species in danger of extinctionMORE than a third of the 47,677 species of plant and animal surveyed this year by the International Union for Conservation of Nature were found to be at risk. The IUCN's latest &#8220;Red List&#8221; includes 17,291 species in some degree of danger. This is an increase from 2008, although since more species are examined each year, more are found to be endangered. A further 875 species are considered extinct including 66 that are extinct in the wild. Habitat loss or a change in land use are frequently to blame. One of the six species categorised this year as being extinct in the wild is the Kihansi Spray Toad, which was last seen in its natural habitat in Tanzania in 2004. Nearly a third of all amphibians assessed by the IUCN are under threat, though that pales by comparison with the three-quarters of plant species found to be in danger.  ...
   
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<title>Putting competition first</title>
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<description><![CDATA[Lloyds and Royal Bank of Scotland are forced to sell businessesAT THE height of the banking crisis, restoring financial stability was paramount for the British government. Worries about limiting the taxpayer&#8217;s exposure came second. Ensuring that banking customers continued to enjoy a competitive market was a distant third. Indeed, the government waived competition rules to let Lloyds TSB take over Halifax Bank of Scotland (HBOS), Britain&#8217;s biggest mortgage lender, in what proved to be a disastrous move for Lloyds, as the merged group then required a massive state bail-out. Now that the crisis has abated, fostering a competitive banking market is becoming more significant again, though mainly because of the intervention of Neelie Kroes, the European Union&#8217;s competition commissioner. Last week she forced ING, a rescued Dutch bank, to split its banking and insurance operations. She also imposed restrictions on lending and deposit-taking at Northern Rock, a nationalised mortgage lender which the British government is splitting into a &#8220;good&#8221; bank, to be privatised, and a &#8220;bad&#8221; part, to be wound down. ...
   
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<title>Tricks of the trade</title>
<link>http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/economist/news_analysis_and_views/~3/l_RRXfSrouQ/story01.htm</link>
<description><![CDATA[Can the world stop governments from paying for the over-exploitation of fish?OVERFISHING erodes future prosperity by destroying today a resource that could yield benefits indefinitely. Yet it is subsidised by billions of taxpayer dollars, euros and yen. Now a new chance to halt this insanity has emerged in the unlikely form of climate-change negotiations.Landlubbers hand pots of money to fishermen. Rashid Sumaila, a researcher at the University of British Columbia, estimates that in 2003 (the most recent year for which data are available), the world&#8217;s fishing subsidies were $25 billion-30 billion. The value of fish landed in the same year was $82 billion. Furthermore, Dr Sumaila reckons that $16 billion of the subsidies either promote overcapacity by helping fishermen buy new or bigger boats or encourage overfishing by subsidising fuel. ...
   
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<title>A prepackaged pratfall</title>
<link>http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/economist/news_analysis_and_views/~3/T3LT7Xp_oz0/story01.htm</link>
<description><![CDATA[CIT, a lender to thousands of small businesses, files for bankruptcyTHE most gut-wrenching failures may be over, but the financial crisis continues to claim the occasional big victim. CIT, a lender to small and medium-sized businesses, from clothing retailers to Dunkin&#8217; Donuts franchisees, filed for bankruptcy on Sunday November 1st after failing to garner enough support for a debt-restructuring plan. With $71 billion in assets, the century-old firm is only one-ninth the size of Lehman Brothers, which collapsed in September 2008. Nevertheless, its Chapter 11 filing augurs ill for America&#8217;s corporate minnows, whose financing options have narrowed dramatically over the past year.Financial-services firms have a harder time than most bouncing back from bankruptcy, because their business relies so heavily on trust, which has a tendency to evaporate in such situations. CIT has improved its chances by securing the support of the vast majority of its bondholders for a &#8220;prepackaged&#8221; filing that will reduce its debt by $10 billion while allowing its subsidiaries to go on operating. Among those persuaded to come on board is Carl Icahn, a veteran corporate gadfly who had been trying to derail CIT&#8217;s restructuring in the hope of profiting by picking through its entrails; he has even offered a $1 billion back-up loan. The firm&#8217;s advisers say it could emerge from bankruptcy by the end of the year. ...
   
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<title>Out of the running</title>
<link>http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/economist/news_analysis_and_views/~3/tc5eUkeD5hE/story01.htm</link>
<description><![CDATA[Abdullah Abdullah pulls out of the presidential race, deepening the political crisis in AfghanistanTO THUNDEROUS applause Abdullah Abdullah announced yet another twist in Afghanistan&#8217;s convoluted path to finding a new leader. The second-placed candidate for the presidency announced on Sunday November 1st, to a tent full of thousands of his supporters, that he would not participate in a run-off vote set for Saturday. Virtually all the conditions he set for reform of Afghanistan&#8217;s blatantly partisan Independent Election Commission (IEC) had been rejected out of hand. So had his requests for the suspension of some of Hamid Karzai&#8217;s cabinet ministers in the run up to the vote. But as his flag-waving audience roared approval, diplomats across Kabul groaned at the prospect of a run-off vote with just one candidate, Mr Karzai, in contention. ...
   
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<title>The week ahead</title>
<link>http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/economist/news_analysis_and_views/~3/4ayQaqFeVSU/story01.htm</link>
<description><![CDATA[Marking a year since Barack Obama's victory in the presidential election&#8226; THE first anniversary of the general election that brought Barack Obama to the American presidency will be marked on Wednesday November 4th. Democrats and Republicans will have a chance to guage the public mood in some states the day before, when voters in 380 cities&#8212;including New York, Boston and Houston&#8212;elect mayors. Polls for governors will take place in Virginia and New Jersey and a special election is scheduled in New York's 23rd congressional district. With America's economy apparently leaving recession in the third quarter, the next statistic to be studied will be the monthly report on unemployment, which is due to be published on Friday. See article &#8226; AFGHANS are set to go back to the polls to decide whether to re-elect Hamid Karzai as president for another five years on Saturday November 7th. The election may go ahead without Abdullah Abdullah, Mr Karzai's only competitor, who withdrew from the poll after demands he made about the running of the election were not met. Such was the fraudulence of the first round that UN investigators threw out more than a million votes, enough to force Mr Karzai into a run-off. But little has been done to prevent a repeat of the fraud, prompting Mr Abdullah's decision. If the election is cancelled it is unclear whether Mr Karzai will retain the presidency. See article ...
   
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<title>Out from storage</title>
<link>http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/economist/news_analysis_and_views/~3/BP9QdL5Yr5w/story01.htm</link>
<description><![CDATA[A successful Romano sale in Florence proves there are exceptions to recessionary rulesSotheby&#8217;s recent four-day sale of the Salvatore and Francesco Romano collection in Florence contained more than 1,800 lots. International interest in the auction was keen, even though there was not a single masterpiece among the antique statues, Old Master paintings, textiles, pieces of furniture or objets d&#8217;art. Many foreign dealers and collectors who had come to Italy for the sumptuous and lively Biennale dell&#8217;Antiquarioto (which ended on October 4th) crossed the Arno to the Palazzo Magnani Ferroni for a look even before the official public viewing began. (The auction, which went from October 12th to the 16th, was timed with the Biennale in mind.) Once the sale started, as many as 22 employees worked the phones, taking bids from Italy and elsewhere in Europe, America and Russia. The first-floor terrace of the palace was tented for the event, and rows of folding chairs were occupied by a changing cast of paddle wielders, many of them dealers. Others loitered in the vast, art-filled, adjoining rooms waiting for their chosen lots to come up. By its end, the sale made more than &#8364;10.5m ($15.5m), exceeding the low estimate by a little more than &#8364;72,000. Sotheby&#8217;s says it is delighted and so are the consigners. ...
   
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<title>Back in his old hat?</title>
<link>http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/economist/news_analysis_and_views/~3/RdmdbSqZjKU/story01.htm</link>
<description><![CDATA[A deal brings hope of an end to the political crisis in HondurasFOUR months after Manuel Zelaya was hauled out of bed at gunpoint, flown to Costa Rica in a military plane, and replaced by Roberto Micheletti as president of Honduras, negotiators for the two sides have reached an agreement to put an end to the country&#8217;s political crisis. On Thursday October 29th, representatives of both the deposed and de facto presidents declared they would ask the Congress&#8212;which voted to name Mr Micheletti president after Mr Zelaya was exiled&#8212;to hold a new vote on whether to reinstate him for the remaining three months of his term. They pledged to abide by the result. The deal was hailed for its importance in the consolidation of democracy in the region. There is no doubt that the agreement represents a significant victory for foreign leaders, and particularly for Barack Obama, whose decision to send a high-level diplomatic mission to Honduras two days earlier provided the decisive push to conclude the talks. It establishes both a path for a possible return to office for Mr Zelaya and stops him from calling a constituent assembly, a body with the job of rewriting the constitution. His opponents say this would have enabled him to eliminate the country&#8217;s ban on presidential re-election. ...
   
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<title>Seeing in the dark</title>
<link>http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/economist/news_analysis_and_views/~3/TW3eTngaI1Y/story01.htm</link>
<description><![CDATA[Car headlamps that turn night into dayONE of the most enduring urban myths is how the patent for an ever-lasting light bulb pioneered by a lone inventor was snapped up by a cartel of lighting manufacturers, who promptly secreted it away to protect their hugely profitable replacement business. The fact is, lots of long-life bulbs have been invented over the years since Thomas Edison borrowed the best from the dozen or so different light-bulb designs patented during the early days of electrification and came up with a winner. Practically all the improvements in terms of life and brightness since then have come from the bulb-makers themselves. One of the most recent was Philips&#8217;s incandescent light bulb that lasts for 60,000 hours. ...
   
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<title>This week&#x27;s top stories [30 October 2009]</title>
<link>http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/economist/news_analysis_and_views/~3/TCi3ZDNS0zQ/story01.htm</link>
<description><![CDATA[Our top articles ranked by reader popularity.Climbing backPoor circulationIn the runningThis week's top stories [23 October 2009]The week aheadDeadline missedBreaking upCash for votesBerlusconi bluesBloodbath in Baghdad
   
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<title>Hot air</title>
<link>http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/economist/news_analysis_and_views/~3/Dl2mEVHq_dg/story01.htm</link>
<description><![CDATA[The change in greenhouse-gas emissions in industrialised countriesTHE volume of greenhouse gases emitted by 40 industrialised countries that report under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change increased by 1% in 2007 and by 3% from 2000 to 2007. But measured from 1990, the base year for Kytoto protocol targets, emissions fell by 4%. Britain has improved by switching from coal- to gas-fired power stations. But countries with significant primary industries, such as mining or forestry, tend to emit far greater quantities of greenhouse gases. Australia&#8217;s emissions are greater than France&#8217;s, though its economy is much smaller.  ...
   
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<title>Liberty, equality&#x26;#8212;not impunity</title>
<link>http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/economist/news_analysis_and_views/~3/Vm0fEh2n2pA/story01.htm</link>
<description><![CDATA[Jacques Chirac, a former president of France, faces trial for corruptionA DECISION by an investigating judge to send Jacques Chirac, a former president, to stand trial in a court is without precedent in modern French history. Mr Chirac is accused of &#8220;misappropriation of public funds&#8221; during his time as mayor of Paris. The decision comes in a month in which the entrails of France&#8217;s one-time ruling elite have been spilling out. A former interior minister, Charles Pasqua, was this week sentenced to a year in prison (and a suspended sentence of two years) for involvement in arms trafficking to Angola. A former prime minister, Dominique de Villepin, has also been tried in connection with a smear campaign and is awaiting a verdict. The case against Mr Chirac concerns 21 &#8220;fake jobs&#8221; that were allegedly created for friends at the Paris town hall, where he held office between 1977 and 1995. As long as he was president, from 1995 to 2007, Mr Chirac was immune from prosecution, and his lawyer has argued that he remains so for acts carried out during his time in office. This has frustrated various investigating judges over the years, who have compiled numerous dossiers concerning Mr Chirac, all of which have been dropped, in some cases because the statute of limitations had expired. ...
   
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<title>Chameleon at rest</title>
<link>http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/economist/news_analysis_and_views/~3/Sn-VQ590vpw/story01.htm</link>
<description><![CDATA[Commemorating a populist with shades of truth and memory&#8220;OF COURSE I knew Mr Haider personally!&#8221; says Mr Berger, taking a break from his singing. He had been accompanying a melancholy Alpine choir at the opening of a museum commemorating Jorg Haider, an Austrian far-right politician who died in a drunken car crash on October 11th 2008.Mr Berger pulls a collection of photos from his jacket pocket to prove his point. They show him in lively conversation with Haider at some kind of party. Mr Berger is not especially famous or politically active, he explains, but in Carinthia, Haider made it his business to know everybody. He had an irrepressible bonhomie, a shrewd networking sense and an uncanny memory for names and faces. For a party trick he sometimes surprised people by knowing their names even before being introduced to them. ...
   
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<item rdf:about="http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/economist/news_analysis_and_views/~3/3qVkoQEvg8c/story01.htm">
<title>Jostling for position</title>
<link>http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/economist/news_analysis_and_views/~3/3qVkoQEvg8c/story01.htm</link>
<description><![CDATA[Who will be president of Europe? Not Tony BlairTONY BLAIR&#8217;S long career as a political chameleon caught up with him on Thursday October 29th, as European Socialist bosses helped to block his bid to become the first full-time president of the European Union, describing him as an unwelcome vestige of the &#8220;Bush and Iraq&#8221; era. As leader of the Labour Party Mr Blair won three general elections in Britain but served as a centrist who pursued a close alliance with George Bush. That Faustian pact was called in by his nominal allies from the European centre-left, who made clear in a tense meeting before an EU leaders&#8217; summit in Brussels that they would not back him. The new president&#8217;s job involves chairing summits of the 27 national leaders of the EU, and representing them in meetings with other world leaders. The post will be created by the Lisbon treaty, which is now inching towards ratification. At the summit Europe&#8217;s leaders offered a written reassurance to the Czech Republic&#8212;the only country that has not yet signed the treaty&#8212;that nothing in Lisbon can lead to fresh property claims by ethnic Germans whose descendants were expelled from Czechoslovakia after the second world war. The fiercely Eurosceptic Czech president, Vaclav Klaus, has given what senior officials call a &#8220;political guarantee&#8221; that he will drop his opposition to Lisbon and sign the document, shortly after the Czech constitutional court gives it a green light at a hearing set for November 3rd. ...
   
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<title>Out of puff</title>
<link>http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/economist/news_analysis_and_views/~3/FpUHoz1exoQ/story01.htm</link>
<description><![CDATA[Where smoking kills most peopleCorrection to this articleNEARLY one in five deaths in rich countries is caused by smoking, according to new data released this week by the World Health Organisation. In 2004, the latest year for which data are available, tobacco use killed an estimated 5.1m people worldwide, or one in every eight deaths of adults aged 30 and over. Residents of richer countries are suffering more now because they have been smoking longer: cancers and chronic respiratory diseases caused by tobacco use take a long time to develop. Deaths in poor countries, where many more people have taken on rich-world smoking habits in recent decades, are predicted to rise dramatically in the next 20 years. ...
   
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<title>A joyless recovery</title>
<link>http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/economist/news_analysis_and_views/~3/0B_0E2OLafk/story01.htm</link>
<description><![CDATA[New figures suggest that America has at last moved out of recessionTHE American government reported on Thursday October 29th that gross domestic product rose at an annualised rate of 3.5% in the third quarter compared with the second. This was the first increase since the second quarter of 2008. It backs up other evidence that the recession ended in the third quarter or just before, though the official decision, by the National Bureau of Economic Research, a group of academic economists, is still some way off. Robert Gordon, a member of this group, is confident that the recession, which began in December 2007, ended in June. But at 18 months that would still make it the longest since 1933.Consumers are sceptical. Their confidence fell in October, according to the Conference Board, a research group. A poll for The Economist by YouGov found that 35% of respondents think the economy is getting worse; just 28% think it is getting better. Unemployment is still rising, and even a White House adviser, Christina Romer, predicts it will remain &#8220;severely elevated&#8221; throughout next year. ...
   
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<title>A public row</title>
<link>http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/economist/news_analysis_and_views/~3/A11nhcULjJk/story01.htm</link>
<description><![CDATA[Democrats are trying to revive the idea of a government-run health plan&#8220;IT&#8217;S not really a public option, it&#8217;s a consumer option.&#8221; So declared Nancy Pelosi, speaker of the House of Representatives, this week. Her effort to rebrand the hugely controversial proposal to add a government-run insurer (usually called a &#8220;public plan&#8221;) to the health reforms now being negotiated seems ridiculous at first blush. In fact, it is part of a concerted and clever push by the political left that could&#8212;just possibly&#8212;revive an idea that had seemed dead and buried.When Mrs Pelosi revealed, on October 29th, the House's version of a health-reform bill, there were no real suprises; as expected, a public plan featured prominently. The real suprise had come three days earlier. Until very recently, it had looked as though the proposal to tack on a public plan was, despite fervent support among the left, politically doomed. First came Barack Obama&#8217;s slippery but clear efforts to back away from it. Then came a crucial vote of the Senate Finance Committee, which rejected the public plan. The final congressional health bill must reconcile the versions coming out of the full House and Senate, and the powerful Finance Committee&#8217;s rejection had appeared to be a final nail in the coffin. ...
   
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