Welcome shiyi18 Search The Economist My account Manage my newsletters Log out Sunday September 5th 2010 Site feedback Home Print edition September 4th 2010 This week's print edition The web's new walls Previous print editions Subscribe Daily news analysis How the threats to the Aug 28th 2010 Subscribe to the print edition Opinion internet's openness can be Aug 21st 2010 All opinion Or buy a Web subscription for averted: leader Aug 14th 2010 full access online Leaders Aug 7th 2010 Letters to the Editor Jul 31st 2010 RSS feeds Columns KAL's cartoons More print editions and Receive this page by RSS feed Correspondent's diary covers » Economist debates The world this week World All world Politics this week Politics this week Business this week International KAL's cartoon United States Technology Quarterly The Americas Asia Leaders Monitor Africa Memory upgrade Middle East The internet Europe The web's new walls Monitor Britain An online medic Pakistan's cricket scandal Special reports Crossing the boundary Monitor Business and finance Powering up All business and finance South Africa's politics Business this week Zuma's two bad calls Monitor Economics focus A suit that can sing and hear Global economic policy Business education Monetary illusions Monitor Which MBA? 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Click here Conduct Risk Canary Implementation MANAGER (On for more information Wharf Various roles Contract) Click here to apply Canary Wharf, For more information London visit our web site About The Economist online About The Economist Media directory Staff books Career opportunities Contact us Subscribe Site feedback Copyright © The Economist Newspaper Limited 2010. All rights reserved. Advertising info Legal disclaimer Accessibility Privacy policy Terms & Conditions Help Politics this week Sep 2nd 2010 The first direct Israeli-Palestinian peace negotiations in 20 months began in Washington. Binyamin Netanyahu and Mahmoud Abbas began talks urged on by President Barack Obama along with President Hosni Mubarak of Egypt, King Abdullah of Jordan and Tony Blair for the “Quartet”. See article In the run up to the talks, four Israeli settlers were shot dead and two injured in two separate incidents in the West Bank. Hamas claimed responsibility for the attacks. Mexico’s federal police arrested Édgar Valdez Villarreal, known as “La Barbie”, one of the country’s most powerful and violent drug traffickers. Mr Valdez is the fourth top gang leader to fall in the past year. The Mexican authorities hope he will provide intelligence on the various mobs that he has worked with during his criminal career. See article Franklin Brito, a 50-year-old farmer, died after a hunger strike to protest against Venezuela’s government authorising squatters to occupy his land. He had been held at a military hospital in Caracas since December. Drilling began to rescue the 33 workers trapped in a collapsed mine in Chile. Fidel Castro, Cuba’s former president, gave a rare interview to a Mexican newspaper. He said the intestinal illness he has suffered in recent years had left him “at death’s door”, and expressed regret for having officially persecuted gays in the 1960s and 1970s. A destructive influence Ichiro Ozawa, long a kingmaker in Japan but never its prime minister, campaigned to usurp Naoto Kan as leader of the governing Democratic Party of Japan, ahead of a party vote on September 14th. Mr Ozawa announced a populist platform which included proposals for tearing up a deal with America on a military base on Okinawa, increasing spending, with subsidies to farmers, and intervening in currency markets to constrain the rocketing yen. Mr Kan is trying to present himself as a responsible and realistic leader. In Sri Lanka the cabinet agreed on a proposal to rewrite the country’s constitution to allow the president, Mahinda Rajapaksa, to seek a third term. Mr Rajapaksa has been in office since 2005 and his current term ends in 2016. He enjoys the support of two-thirds of parliament and so is likely to get the necessary legislation passed. Kim Jong Il, the Dear Leader of North Korea, completed a trip by armoured train to China, his second in only four months. Many speculated that he used the visit to prepare the way for his third son, Kim Jong Un, for eventual succession to the leadership ahead of a conclave of the North Korean Communist Party early in September. China is North Korea’s most important ally. See article Pakistanis and cricket-lovers were mortified after a newspaper sting appeared to show members of the Pakistani test side agreeing, through an agent, to rig parts of a game against England in exchange for £150,000 ($230,000).