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The leadership in South Africa has held on to power despite a series of political events which has jeopardised it. Pres FW de Klerk has given Nelson Mandela, the African National Congress leader power over law and order in the country, which signifies the loss of white monopoly over power. He aims to prevent total rule by blacks, however, and has insisted on retaining powers of veto over future governments. The people of South Africa want stability, but this may be incompatible with the introduction of democracy.

Changes have taken place rapidly in Russia, although a democracy has not yet been established there and state companies have not yet been sold. Half of small businesses have been privatised and there are plans to privatise medium and large sized companies in future. Furthermore, there are impending environmental disasters and Russia still has its nuclear weapons. These problems are counterbalanced by positive aspects, however, such as lack of violence and protests, more open society and the determination of Pres Boris Yeltsin to continue economic reforms.

The government of Singapore, Goh Chok Tong, is warning his people that the future may not be as prosperous. He claims that the country may lose its competitive advantage through wage rises and of its position within Asia. The warnings come against a background of economic success, where the economy has sustained growth rates of 6%, is richer than any other Asian country, has full employment and political stability.

Reformation in Poland has not run smoothly because of the weakness in the fragmented coalition government, but conditions are better there than in the former soviet republics. Living conditions have improved and there are no cultural or religious divisions amongst its people. In addition, the finance minister, Andrzej Olechowski, has devised a budget approved by the International Monetary Fund.

Politicians often do and say silly things when they come into contact with celebrities. So it was last Thursday when a star-struck Andy Burnham, Britain's secretary of state for Culture, [...]

From Mr Andrew Gowers. Sir, While endorsing Michael O'Leary's sentiments about the horrors of BAA's 'monopoly airports' (Letters, June 15), am I alone in finding such criticism somewhat hypocritical coming [...]

Alocal television advertisement for LG Electronics of Korea features a father and son on a sofa watching football. They watch as Park Ji-sung, the Korean Manchester United player, lines up [...]

Hyundai has come a long way in recent years. Jay Leno, the American TV host, once quipped: 'Did anyone see the luge? It's a three-foot long little vehicle that has [...]

SEOUL -- Samsung Electronics, the world's second-largest maker of liquid crystal displays, says it will consider significantly scaling back its multibillion-dollar investment in flat screens if profitability continues to slide [...]

SEOUL -- South Korea's finance minister has robustly defended his country's treatment of foreign investors, saying international capital is both welcome and needed. But Han Duck-soo warned that investors should [...]

SEOUL -- * Confirmation of interest means Dollars 2bn asking price for stake may not be met * Deal would be one of South Korea's biggest this year Hyundai Motor [...]

No one has done more to announce India's arrival on the international business stage than Ratan Tata, chairman of the Tata group, the country's largest conglomerate. Last week the group [...]

BERLIN -- Germany has much to learn about tax reform from central European countries and about labour market flexibility from Britain, according to the leading candidate to become the country's [...]

BERLIN -- Angela Merkel is sometimes portrayed as a political outsider: a rare woman in the male world of German corporatism, her exotic curriculum vitae formed under the Communist regime [...]

Tony Blair's allies say one of the prime minister's defining characteristics is that when other politicians see a crisis, he sees an opportunity. Judging by his performance in yesterday's interview [...]

* PM accepts parts of treaty must be salvaged * Call for debate on economic reform * Hope for action over climate change Tony Blair yesterday sought to mend fences [...]

Thabo Mbeki, when he is in Pretoria, views the world from a hilltop eyrie of rarefied beauty. The South African president's official residence, a Cape Dutch replica decorated with Delft-style [...]

PRETORIA -- South Africa's president has launched an outspoken attack on US efforts to exert pressure on Zimbabwe and asserted that his country can assist its neighbour to hold free [...]

PRETORIA -- South Africa's president has attacked US efforts to exert pressure on Zimbabwe and expressed confidence that his country can assist its neighbour to hold free elections next month. [...]

BRUSSELS -- * EU Commission head plans business-friendly reforms * Raising research capabilities is top priority for Europe Jose Manuel Barroso will today set out a more business-friendly programme as [...]

Visitors to Jose ManuelBarroso's 13th-floor office at the European Commission in Brussels soon ask themselves a question: what is this man doing here? The new Commission president speaks colourless, managerial [...]

DAVOS and WASHINGTON -- John McCain, the influential US senator, yesterday gave voice to resistance in the Republican party to the use of force in Iran, signalling that the US [...]

LONDON -- * Coalition aims to give up control of stable areas * 'Consensus agenda' proposed for G8 meetings Tony Blair has signalled that the US and Britain will beginhanding [...]

Tony Blair is nothing if not an optimist. During the past two years, histhesis that theUS and Europe must come together to face the great threats of the day - [...]

WASHINGTON -- Charles Grassley, the Repub-ican chairman of the powerful Senate finance committee, is forging ahead with his own proposals for tax reform and will not wait for the conclusions [...]

Yassir Arafat, who has died at the age of 75, never achieved his childhood dream of 'liberating' Palestine from the Israelis. He did not even succeed in his later, lesser [...]

Dear Reader, The Financial Times this week became the first international newspaper to print in Australia. This is an important step in our global expansion and reflects our belief in [...]

As George W.Bush challen-ges the United Nations to live up to its responsibilities and face down Saddam Hussein, his secretary of state sitting close by begins visibly to panic. The [...]

Gerhard Schroder has barely sat down for coffee in the garden of the German ambassador's Belgrave Square residence in London when it starts raining on the small group of guests. [...]

LONDON -- Germany will seek to ratify the European constitution before the end of the year and could be the first country in the European Union to adopt the text, [...]

LONDON -- Chancellor Gerhard Schroder yesterday pledged to jump-start the process of ratifying the European constitutional treaty, saying he would secure parliamentary approval in Germany by the end of the [...]

PARIS and BRUSSELS -- France must rethink its foreign policy in an enlarged European Union, moving away from an 'exclusive' dialogue with Germany and working with other big countries, according [...]

Nicolas Sarkozy possesses the confident aura of unstoppable ambition. As he strides into the dining room of his private apartment in the French finance ministry he exudes pugnacious energy. His [...]

BEIJING -- A senior Chinese official has acknowledged for the first time that the country is planning to introduce flexibility into its exchange rate system, allowing the renminbi to fluctuate [...]

BEIJING -- Beijing is preparing a series of measures to cool down China's booming economy including a possible rise in interest rates, according to senior officials. Wang Mengkui, director of [...]

BEIJING -- * Measures could include interest rate rises * Officials say trade deficit probable this year The Chinese authorities are preparing measures to cool their booming economy, including a [...]

What I am about to say may seem perverse, even shocking, at the end of a week like this one. But here goes: British journalists owe Andrew Gilligan a debt [...]

DAVOS -- The global economy may be recovering from prolonged underperformance. But even after much of the doubt, hesitation and pain of the past two years has lifted, many corporate [...]

It was Christmas 2000. We were living in Hamburg, but we'd come to England for Christmas: me, my husband Andrew, our son Daniel and Madeleine, who was three months old. [...]

Few relationships have been as subject to rumour,speculation, treachery or counter-theory as those between India and Pakistan. For more than 56 years the two countries have blown hot and cold [...]

NEW DELHI -- Negotiations between India and Pakistan over the disputed territory of Kashmir will begin as planned next month in spite of India's impending general election, says Yashwant Sinha, [...]

Anil Agarwal says Vedanta, the name of his London-quoted mining company, means 'spiritual knowledge in Hindu holy books, which if repeated daily brings peace'. There has been little peace at [...]

WASHINGTON -- President George W. Bush has said US forces will not pull out of Iraq and Afghanistan until they have found Saddam Hussein and Osama bin Laden. As Mr [...]

Most days from about 7.30am, clusters of excited tourists queue at a gate on Washington's Pennsylvania Avenue for a guided tour of the White House - but only if they [...]

DUBLIN and BRUSSELS -- Ireland has raised the temperature in its attempt to quash moves towards tax harmonisation in the European Union before Dublin assumes the EU presidency next January. [...]

Chancellor Gerhard Schroder knows how to take a joke. When at the beginning of an interview with the Financial Times this week he was presented with a bottle of Italian [...]

BERLIN and FRANKFURT -- Gerhard Schroder, German chancellor, yesterday issued a veiled call for the European Central Bank to intervene in the currency markets to reduce the value of the [...]

Jacques Chirac is in conciliatory mood as he prepares to host next weekend's summit of the Group of Eight major industrial nations at the lakeside town of Evian. But in [...]

PARIS -- French president Jacques Chirac has urged the Group of Eight leaders of the world's major industrial nations to put their differences behind them to restore confidence in renewed [...]