Angela Merkel has long resisted all warnings to ease up on austerity and reform the EU’s banking system, inlcuding form the IMF’s Christine Lagarde. The reason lies in domestic politics, and the fears of the German people

Anders Behring Breivik’s trial has ended, a year after he mass killings that shocked Norway. The country’s prosperity ,masks a growing social inequality that has allowed the ante-immigrant populist right to harness the frustrations of those who feel they have been left behind

The war may be over but Libya is far from quiet. Oil production is back to normal, but that is all. The constituent assembly alected in July will be working in an atmosphere dominated by ever more powerful tribal leaders and conflict