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/ 9 June 2008

Greener and leaner

The world food crisis is a tragedy frequently and passionately foretold. For years food experts warned that chronic under-investment in agriculture in developing countries, by governments and donors alike, would one day spell disaster.

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/ 4 January 2008

Six-week delay in elections

President Pervez Musharraf said recently that troops would stay on the streets of Pakistan’s tense cities at least until a new election date of February 18. Parliamentary elections, intended to provide a transition to democracy after more than eight years of military rule, had been scheduled for January 8, but a controversial six-week delay was announced by the country’s election commission.

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/ 20 August 2007

Rove’s departure the true end of an era

Karl Rove’s departure from the White House to spend more time with his family and to write his memoirs marks the end of the dominant political partnership of the past decade in United States politics. Rove took George W Bush under his wing when he was no more than the figurehead of a Texan baseball team, the wayward son of a political dynasty who was not expected to amount to anything.

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/ 16 July 2007

Iraq: the options

The last good options in Iraq evaporated long ago and getting out is likely to be more complicated and bloodier than going in. Whether they go north or south, the 160 000 American troops now in Iraq would probably have to fight their way out against disparate enemies keen to claim a military victory.

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/ 22 March 2006

Weapons of mass detection

The Pentagon is trying to develop "insect cyborgs" able to sniff out explosives, or "bug" conversations, by lurking unseen in enemy hideouts with micro-transmitters strapped to their bodies. Their most immediate task could be spotting and identifying the location of roadside bombs in Iraq.

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/ 6 August 2004

The state that cried wolf

United States officials last week insisted they were right to raise the alert over a potential terrorist attack against a US financial target, despite the fact that much of the information that prompted the warning was years old. But amid claims of political motives in the handling of the alert and scaremongering, is the US government’s high alert justified?

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/ 7 June 2002

FBI, CIA row over Sept 11

An acrimonious rift opened between the CIA and FBI this week over which agency was more to blame for failing to prevent the September 11 attacks. An extraordinary finger-pointing battle broke through the usual wall of secrecy surrounding intelligence matters.