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◆On the cover
Learning the hard way
Barack Obama may at last be getting a grip. But he still needs to show more leadership, at home and abroad:




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◆The world this week
Politics this week
Business this week
KAL's cartoon

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◆Leaders
The American presidency
Learning the hard way
The G20 summit
London calling
Saving America's banks
Only halfway there
The war in Afghanistan
Say you're staying, Mr President
Emerging-market multinationals
Not so nano


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◆Letters
On Barack Obama, legalising drugs, Kenya, Handel

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◆Special Report
Barack Obama's progress
Coming down to earth
Correction: Drugs


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◆United States
Populism
Will there be blood?
New York state politics
Taking the battle upstate
The budget
Ammunition for the critics
Cowboy poetry
Laureates of the lariat
Power from chocolate
The mighty bean
Energy research
Energiser money
Homelessness
Shelter from the storm
Public health
Out of the mouths of babes
Lexington
A tale of two barons


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◆The Americas
Argentina's election
The Kirchners make a dash for it
Venezuela's budget cuts
Hard landing
Brazil
Governors under fire
Canada's indigenous peoples
A policy that is outdated, expensive and unworkable
Correction: Brazil's banks


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◆Asia
Afghanistan
Reflecting on the Taliban
Afghanistan
Further into Taliban country
Japan's embarrassed opposition
Money politics, continued
Nepal under Maoism
War without bloodshed
China and Tibet
Rejoice, damn you
Nepal's royal palace
Versailles in green nylon
Australia’s foreign policy
Rudd floats an Asian balloon
Malaysia
Um, no change
The Indian Premier League
Re-hyphenated


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◆Middle East & Africa
America and Iran
The tantalising prospect of reconciliation
Iraq
Still tread softly
Israel's new government
Not as far-right as it might have been
Israel and Egypt
A chillier peace
Madagascar and Africa
A coup that is not yet irreversible


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◆Europe
Germany's Constitutional Court
Judgment days
Religious education in Germany
God and Berlin
France's ethnic minorities
To count or not to count
The Italian right
Rendering unto Caesar
The Hungarian prime minister
Gyurcsany goes
The Czech prime minister
Topolanek toppled
Charlemagne
Those exceptional British

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◆Britain
London economic summit
Gordon's Big Top
Economic performance
Snakes and ladders
Crowd control at the G20
Brace yourselves
Fighting terrorism
Getting metaphysical


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◆International
NATO and its future
Have combat experience, will travel
Correction: OECD

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◆Business
The Tata Nano
The new people's car
Inside the Tata Nano
No small achievement
Shipbuilding
Sink or swim
Oil mergers
Well matched
Mobile telecoms
Sharing the load
The internet
Connecting up
Co-operatives
All in this together
Face value
Reading between the lines


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◆Special Report
Globalisation and trade
The nuts and bolts come apart

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◆Finance & Economics
America's toxic-asset plan
Dr Geithner's bank rehab
American banks
It takes two to tango
The dollar as a reserve currency
Handle with care
Buttonwood
Searching for value
The European Central Bank
Liquidity carrier
Japanese stocks
Wide girls
The G20 and tax
Haven hypocrisy
Economics focus
An economic bestiary
Marjorie Deane internship


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◆Science & Technology
Table-top fusion
The beast that will not die
Geo-engineering
Who ate all the algae?
Medical journals and ethics
Pity the messenger
Animal behaviour
Reputations in the mist


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◆Books & Arts
Toil, toil
The pleasures and sorrows of work
Wars, guns and votes
Democracy in difficult places
Palestinian poetry
On the waste land
The Oxford-Cambridge boat race
Shock and oar
Divorce and children
Dragons’ den
Contemporary art in Russia
Top guns


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◆Obituary
Jade Goody


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◆Economic and Financial Indicators
Overview
Output, prices and jobs
The Economist commodity-price index
Asylum-seekers
Trade, exchange rates, budget balances and interest rates
Markets
Top exporters