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Articles flagged with this icon are printed only in the British edition of The Economist International Global health The price of being well Holy sites Places apart About sponsorship Politics this week Aug 28th 2008 From The Economist print edition Reuters The Democrats gathered for their convention in Denver, which was dominated by the reluctance of Hillary Clinton supporters to throw their weight behind Barack Obama. Mrs Clinton (and husband Bill) backed Mr Obama unequivocally, and in a dramatic gesture of support the narrow loser of the primary elections moved to suspend the floor count of delegates and confirm Mr Obama’s nomination by acclamation. The candidate himself prepared to deliver his acceptance speech in front of a huge stadium crowd. See article Earlier, Mr Obama picked Joe Biden as his choice for vice-president. Mr Biden has represented Delaware in the Senate since 1973 and is currently chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee. See article The Census Bureau reported that 45.7m people were without health insurance in the United States in 2007. This was down from 47m the previous year, but higher than in 2000, when 38.4m had no health cover. America’s poverty rate stood at 12.5%; Mississippi was the poorest state, with more than a fifth of its residents under the poverty line. See article Law of the jungle Peru’s Congress voted to scrap two decrees that made it easier for outsiders to buy land in the country’s Amazon jungle after a fortnight of protests by Amazonian Indian groups. See article Honduras , traditionally an ally of the United States, joined the Bolivarian Alternative for the Americas, an anti-American pact led by Venezuela’s Hugo Chávez. Its other members are Cuba, Bolivia, Nicaragua and Dominica. In Cuba , Gorki Aguila, a punk-rock musician, was arrested as he was preparing to record an album, reportedly on a charge of “social dangerousness”. His band, Porno Para Ricardo, often writes lyrics that are critical of the communist regime. Divided government Zimbabwe’s opposition Movement for Democratic Change, which has held most seats in Parliament since an election in March, managed to elect its nominee as speaker. This gives the MDC the main say in setting the legislative agenda, at least in principle. President Robert Mugabe still holds executive power, despite negotiations, recently stalled, over sharing power. See article Somali Islamists said they had captured Kismayu, the southernmost port in seemingly ungovernable Somalia . A Sudanese commercial airliner was hijacked after taking off from the Darfuri town of Nyala bound for Khartoum, Sudan’s capital. The hijackers diverted the plane to Libya, where they surrendered after freeing the passengers. Darfur’s main rebel groups denied the Sudanese government’s claims that they were responsible. Moscow calls the shots EPA Russia’s president, Dmitry Medvedev, gave formal recognition to Georgia’s breakaway enclaves of Abkhazia and South Ossetia as independent countries. The Russians were also keeping troops inside Georgia proper. Mr Medvedev insisted that Russia had invaded Georgia only to protect lives and uphold peace. He also said that Russia was not afraid of a new cold war. See article Western countries condemned Russia’s unilateral recognition of the two Georgian enclaves. The European Union called an emergency summit to reconsider its relations with Russia. George Bush demanded that Russia reverse its “irresponsible decision”. See article Eurostat, the EU’s statistical office, released population forecasts suggesting that by 2060 Britain will have the biggest population among current EU members. The EU’s total population is expected to stand at 506m in 2060. See article Bertrand Delanoë, the popular mayor of Paris, confirmed that he would stand for the leadership of France’s Socialist Party in October. He will be a strong challenger to Ségolène Royal, the favourite for the job. Power vacuum The Pakistan Muslim League (N), or PML (N), withdrew its support for Pakistan’s governing coalition. It was protesting at the failure of the coalition leader, the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP), to reinstate all the judges sacked last year by Pervez Musharraf, who recently resigned as president. The PML (N) also objects to the decision of Asif Zardari, the PPP’s leader and widower of Benazir Bhutto, a former prime minister, to stand in the indirect election to choose Mr Musharraf’s successor, to be held on September 6th. See article Following further huge pro-independence protests in Srinagar, capital of Indian-administered Kashmir , the government imposed an indefinite curfew and arrested a number of separatist leaders. At least four people died when the security forces fired on demonstrators trying to break the curfew. At least 11 people died in clashes between Christians and Hindus in India’s eastern state of Orissa . The violence started with the killing of a Hindu leader, blamed by the police not on Christians but on Maoist rebels. The United Nations representative in Afghanistan said the organisation had credible information that 90 civilians, including 60 children, had been killed in an American bombing raid near the western city of Herat on August 21st.