BHP Billiton is proposing to buy Rio Tinto for US£120bn. They are the two largest mining and commodities companies in the world, with turnovers for 2007 of US$32.2bn and US$25.4bn respectively. Combined, that is US$57.6bn, which would, if it were a state, put it 59th out of 180 countries, between Vietnam and Slovakia, by GDP [...]

Those missing CDs
Apart from providing endless fodder for fake eBay auctions and amusing photos, one thing that I hope comes out of Revenue-gate is a desire to keep tabs on data protection, privacy and computer security in all public bodies. To that end, I think the Government should cause to be published, all in one [...]

The King of Spain, Juán Carlos I de Borbón y Borbón, recently told Hugo Chávez, President of Venezuela to, in no uncertain terms, shut up, after the latter called the former Spanish Prime Minister, José María Aznar, a fascist. Now, I am no fan of Aznar, but Chávez’s comments are not just mistaken but actually [...]

I agree with Ewan Watt that the US House of Representatives’ Foreign Relations Committee should not have recognized the Armenian Genocide as such, but perhaps for slightly different reasons. Ewan is, in foreign policy terms, very much a realist and I do agree that the results of the Committee’s decision have already been profoundly negative [...]

Russia does come across as an old aristocrat, now living in greatly reduced circumstances, that feels the desperate need to maintain appearances. If we can call Russia a person, it does seem to have moved on from communism by selling not just the family silver, but the estate’s mills, mines and factories. A lot of [...]