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◆On the cover
Staying at the top: Mao and the art of management

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◆Leaders
The credit crunch
Postcards from the ledge
Global warming
Some like it cool
Democracy in Africa
For all its flaws, an example to others
The presidential race
In praise of the primaries
Genetically modified wine
Unleash the war on terroir
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◆Letters
On spelling, universities, ships, Britain, Bangladesh, pigs, German words
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◆United States
Iowa
The nightmare before Christmas
The campaign trail
Primary colour
Ghost towns
History in a half-brick
The beer crisis
Trouble brewing
Health
Scalpel, please
Lexington
The spirit of Christmas

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◆The Americas
Mexico
Running just to stand still
Cuba
Fidel's last riddle
Brazil
The cheque bounces

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◆Asia
Thailand's election
South-East Asia's Pakistan?
Recalculating China's GDP
Clipping the dragon's wings
Death by overwork in Japan
Jobs for life
Myanmar
Burmese maze

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◆Middle East & Africa
Kenya's election
Down to the wire
South Africa
Zuma comes out on top
Iran and the Arabs
Friendlier hands across the Gulf
Yossi Beilin
A dove departs
Turkey and Iraq
Raids across the border

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◆Europe
The German economy
The beguiling path of non-reform
Ukraine's government
Return of the orange princess
Poland's new foreign policy
A winter honeymoon
Turkey and its Christians
The cross and the crescent
Charlemagne
A summit to nowhere

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◆Britain
Northern Rock
Slouching towards nationalisation
The Liberal Democrats
The third man
The British army
Beating the retreat
Missing data
Learning the embarrassing way
Bagehot
The tipping points

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◆International
The World Bank
First the mutiny, then the silver
Climate change and forests
So hard to see the wood for the trees
Russia, Iran and nuclear fuel
Dangerous liaisons

Poker
A big deal
The poignancy of piers
The end of the pier
Falling off high places
Human lemmings
Beauty and success
To those that have, shall be given
Mormons
From polygamy to propriety
Counting people
Census sensitivity
Charts
Worth a thousand words
American spirituality
Where “California” bubbled up
The Bible v the Koran
The battle of the books
Urban poverty in India
A flourishing slum
Recycling
A soul-searching business
Japanese sea-drifters
When Japan was a secret
The sex life of the panda
Black and white and red all over
China and Taiwan
Pandaplomacy
Retailing
Birth, death and shopping
Fraud and financial innovation
The match king
Staying at the top
Mao and the art of management
Kitchens
Downstairs Upstairs
Hunter-gatherers
Noble or savage?
18th-century climate change
The summer of acid rain
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◆Business
The European car industry
Collision course
Cement
Concrete proposals needed
Takeovers in Japan
Hostility, of sorts
Prosecco
Fizzy or still?
Face value
The accidental innovator

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◆Finance & Economics
Mortgage-industry lawsuits
The finger of suspicion
Buttonwood
Swan songs
Health care in Africa
Of markets and medicines
Goldman Sachs
Modern Midas
Economics focus
The new (improved) Gilded Age
Correction: The walking dead

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◆Science & Technology
Particle physics
Merry Christmas, Dr Heuer
British physics
Newton's law of funding
Grape genetics
Vine times

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◆Books & Arts
Atlantic salmon
Ruler of the river
World trade
Genghis the globaliser
Chemistry in cooking
Molecular gastronomy

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◆Obituary
Ike Turner

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◆Economic and Financial Indicators
Overview
Output, prices and jobs
The Economist commodity-price index
GDP growth forecasts, 2008
Trade, exchange rates, budget balances and interest rates
Markets
Budget balances