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Venezuela:
Oil royalties hiked |
| The
government’s decision to increase royalties on oil joint ventures
highlights the growing risk of discretionary state treatment of
foreign companies operating in Venezuela. |
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Uruguay:
Leftist set to win |
|
Tabare Vazquez has a good chance of winning the
presidency in the first round on October 31st. This would give him a
firmer mandate than had until now been expected. |
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Chile:
A woman’s world? |
|
Two women from President Ricardo Lagos’s cabinet
have resigned and plan to vye for the presidency in 2006, an
unprecedented development in this socially conservative country. |
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Venezuela:
Media assault |
|
President Hugo Chavez is preparing an assault on
privately owned television and radio stations with a new bill that
will increase government control of the media. |
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Russia:
Yukos, rest in pieces? |
|
Russia's authorities have ordered the break-up of
embattled oil company Yukos, and want a "loyal" Russian firm
to buy its chief subsidiary. Is there any future for Yukos as a
smaller oil producer? |
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Taiwan:
Olive branch? |
|
Is Taiwan softening or hardening its position
towards China? This is a reasonable question to ask given the
confusing political signals that have emerged from the island since
late September 2004. |
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Australia: Howard victorious |
| John Howard won a fourth consecutive term as prime minister with surprising ease. His government will be in a stronger position to push through legislation on labour rights, media ownership and privatisation. |
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Iraq: Election wheels turn |
| Momentum is beginning to build for Iraq’s parliamentary election, scheduled for January 2005. Most Iraqi political figures appreciate that a postponement would constitute a victory for the insurgents. |
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Lithuania:
Tethered populists |
|
The new, populist Labour Party has triumphed in the
first round of Lithuania's parliamentary election, but it will
probably be pegged back in run-off votes and thus denied a majority in
the legislature. |
