The Economist week 1 Feb 2007

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Scientific research has a lot to give to Africa, and it is just starting to do so

ONCE upon a time, not so many centuries ago, there was a poor continent. Its name was Europe. Then it discovered three things: the free market, the rule of law and science-based technology. Now it is rich. A little simplistic perhaps, but the same thing happened in North America, with the same consequences, and it is now happening in Asia. What about Africa?

for the first time in its history the African Union, meeting this week in Addis Ababa, put science and technology close to the top of the agenda.

African science is still a young and fragile plant, but it is now being genetically modified to fit its environment. Let it grow.

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As a token of China's growing interest in Africa, its president, Hu Jintao, began an eight-country, 12-day tour of the continent. Attention will be focused on his trip to Sudan where he will discuss international efforts to make peace in Darfur.

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India cannot run as fast as China without further reform

Over the past year the Indian economy has grown by an impressive 9.2%, not far behind China's 10.4%. At some point this year India's growth rate could even outpace China's; and if you measure things by purchasing power parity, India should soon overtake Japan and become the third-biggest economy, behind only America and China.

there are so many alarming signs of overheating (see pages 77-79). Across India prices are rising fast, factories are at full capacity, loans are piling up. Yes, the economic reforms of the early 1990s spurred competition, forced firms to become more productive and boosted India's trend--or sustainable--rate of growth. But the problem is that this new speed limit is almost certainly lower than the government's one. Historic data would suggest a figure not much above 7%--well below China's 9-10%.

Inflation has risen to 6-7% (compared with 2.8% in China);

So far, reform in India has focused on setting its inventive private sector free from the world's most fearsome bureaucracy. This has unleashed entrepreneurial talent, but more change is needed. Now is the time to tackle the public sector itself. Infrastructure, such as roads and power, and public services, such as education and drinking water, are woefully inadequate and limit growth. Even as the economy has been booming, many public services have worsened.

Around half of all Indian women are illiterate, compared with a ratio of around one in seven in China.

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Why China should insist on UN peacekeepers for Darfur, Sudan

All over Africa a commodity-hungry China is winning friends by building roads, ports and railways

For China not only buys about 80% of the oil exports that are making parts of Sudan rich. It also shields Sudan from being held to account in the UN Security Council for one of the largest atrocities of recent times: the killing of some 300,000 people and the uprooting of more than 2m in Darfur

many ways China's growing involvement in Africa has been good for all. In exchange for the oil and raw materials that are fuelling its economic rise, China has been building up Africa's neglected infrastructure. One thing that has added to China's popularity throughout the continent is that, unlike the Western helpers who append a miscellany of irksome conditions, the Chinese say they will not interfere in Africa's politics

Invest in the future, too

That is because the fighting in Darfur is not just a humanitarian disaster that should rend the conscience of the world (though it should). It is also a threat to the newly established peace in the south of the country, and therefore to Sudan's future as a dependable supplier of oil and other commodities both to China and to the wider world. As it happens, most of Sudan's best oilfields are in disputed areas between the north and the south. As China's economic interests and dependencies spread, it is going to have to learn the need to invest in peace as well as pipelines. Sometimes that will require it to put unwelcome pressure on its trading partners.

Right now, Chinese pressure on Sudan could make all the difference to the prospects of inserting UN peacekeepers into Darfur. Such pressure will not be welcome in Khartoum. But the rest of Africa is repelled by the slaughter of Darfuris and by the circles Mr Bashir has run round the UN and the African Union. In Khartoum Mr Hu has a rare opportunity to combine self-interest with statesmanship. He should grab it.

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Asia: Royal gala performances; Thailand's film industry

Thailand's film industry is ahead in their political predictions

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Asia: Old soldiers who refuse to fade away; Indonesia, causing difficulties for Indonesia democracy

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Asia: Colonial yokes are not bad for all; India's rickshaws

Indians would rather laboring on rockshaws than having no jobs at all

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Asia: Still Tibetan after all these years; Tibet

Tibetans insist on their Tibet citizenship, working for Chinese govt only for the maximum salary they can get, but without internal acceptance

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Asia: Weird but wired; North Korea and the internet

Kim Jong Il trusts in the advancement of technology though still hindering his people from a wide range of World wide webs

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Britain: A rough patch for the special relationship; Bagehot

While caring for the relationship with America, British leaders lose confidence with his own people

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Can anything revive Detroit after its long, depressing slide?

CALL it a tale of two bars. When Sean Harrington opened the Town Pump Tavern in the mid-1990s, downtown Detroit was going through some of its worst times yet. The urban population had already fallen from 1.8m in 1950 to less than 1m in the 1990s, and the tax base with it, after decades of middle-class flight (both black and white) to the suburbs. The American economy was booming, but Detroit's prospects were grim. Poverty, high unemployment, crime, racial tensions and an air of abandonment all seemed unfixable in a city that was tied to domestic carmakers, shrinking rapidly and written off by suburbanites.

Detroit is heading in the right direction, but it has only gone a little way along what is clearly a long and difficult path. To outsiders, that may not seem much worth celebrating. But to some locals, who know how bleak life was before, it is a good enough reason to enjoy a few martinis and go and see a show.

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IT MAY come to be seen as the Motorola shock. The world's second-largest maker of mobile phones seemed to have been restored to health last year, thanks to its RAZR and other slimline handsets. But it stumbled badly in the last three months of 2006. In January it said its operating profits had fallen by 56% in the quarter compared with a year earlier, and operating margins had narrowed sharply. And this week the pressure intensified on Ed Zander, Motorola's boss. Carl Icahn, a renowned activist investor, said he had taken a 1.4% stake in the company, and demanded that Motorola start disgorging cash to shareholders.

Apple has produced something truly new, whereas Motorola is merely making incremental improvements.