How do you turn an annual salary of $25,000 into a fortune worth more than $250 million?Become the governor of a Nigerian state.The BBC reports that James Ibori, a former governor of the oil-producing state of Delta, pleaded guilty in a UK court to ten counts of money-laundering and conspiracy to defraud.Ibori spent his ill-gotten […]

When last we checked in with the chief of the ankle-biters, Venezuela’s Hugo Chávez was claiming Jesus had told him he was cured of cancer (thus foiling a nefarious Western plot). Something malignant appears to have resurfaced, according to the Washington Post, and cancer experts (who haven’t had access to this patient) say this is […]

The FT is reporting on a new study that casts doubt on some of the core assumptions of the green movement: that we currently live in the best of all possible climates, and that any departure from that ideal state due to global warming is necessarily a bad thing: But it also forecasts several benefits of global warming, […]

The UK and Germany are divided on many things, but on one they are agreed: both Chancellor Merkel and Prime Minister Cameron are hoping that French President Nicolas Sarkozy defeats his socialist rival Francois Hollande in the upcoming French presidential election.Merkel has offered to make campaign appearances for her EU partner; now comes word that […]

Two weeks after the ruling of the Spanish Supreme Court that convicted Baltasar Garzón and led to his disbarment as a magistrate, the media is close to unanimous in portraying the case as a Francoist assault on the democratic institutions in Spain and the revenge of malicious peers, envious of Garzón’s international standing.   In […]

More trouble is brewing around Tehran’s nuclear initiative. Reuters reports: Iran is still relying on old technology to expand its nuclear program, in what may be a sign it is having difficulties developing modern machines that could speed up production of potential bomb material. . . .“It appears that they are still struggling with the […]

A fatal train crash near Buenos Aires has killed 50 people and injured more than 700, drawing attention to the disastrous conditions of some of Argentina’s train lines, which benefit from generous concessions from the government.Public largesse, which amounts to some 4 percent of GDP in subsidies to Argentine services, transport and utility companies, has produced […]

The Peterson Institute for International Economics has just released a report that many Americans (and doubtless many Chinese as well) will find shocking: Estimates of Chinese GDP by Purchasing Power Parity (PPP) have been revised upward, and China may have already surpassed the United States.While this is news, it may not be particularly meaningful from […]

Huey Long once said to a crowd of Louisianans, so the story goes, “If you aren’t getting something for nothing, you aren’t getting your fair share.”More and more Americans seem to be buying into that logic. According to this piece in the New York Times (with accompanying interactive map), the share of government benefits in personal […]

A quick survey of some recent stories reveals a perplexing pattern: Israel signs $1.6 b arms deal with Turkish ally Azerbaijan Turks and Azeris rally against Armenian massacre of Azeris Turkey restricts use of its air space by Israeli cargo flights Turks thank Israelis for relief flights after earthquake Iran accuses Azerbaijan of cooperating with […]