Economist Covers

The World This Week...

Beset by difficulties of co-ordination and transport, a massive relief operation to help victims of Haiti's earthquake moved with excruciating slowness. A week after the quake, only 200,000 people had received food aid; perhaps 1m need it. But medical care was improving, and the United Nations, American troops and aid agencies were working to set up a supply chain. Some 200,000 people are feared to have been killed in the disaster.

A Republican won a special election for Ted Kennedy's old Senate seat in Massachusetts. Scott Brown?s victory, in a state that has not elected a Republican senator for Congress since 1972, was a huge upset for the Democrats and came after Barack Obama had thrown his full weight behind the Democratic candidate in an effort to get out the vote. The Democratic defeat was widely interpreted as a repudiation by independent voters of many of Mr Obama?s policies, one day before the first anniversary of his inauguration.

Kraft Foods won a four-month battle for Cadbury after substantially raising its offer for the venerable British confectioner, to £11.9 billion ($19.4 billion). The American food giant?s pursuit of Cadbury led to a debate in Britain about the demise of manufacturing.