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NATO Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen, who supports Obama's call for more European troops in Afghanistan, says it's important to tell the "true stories of what's going on. Both the setbacks and the achievements." As Prime Minister of Denmark until last April, Rasmussen went out of his way to explain the reasons Danish troops were in Afghanistan. As a consequence, he says, support for the mission has held up better in Denmark than elsewhere. The British might learn a lesson from that. Gordon Brown has frequently tried to explain the Afghanistan mission. But David Davis, a prominent...
...amused by his obsessive interest in the workings of government, Rasmussen went straight from university to parliament. He became known for a meticulous, almost robotic style. Danes didn't love him, but they respected that he got things done. As Prime Minister from 2001 until last April, Rasmussen pushed Denmark to the right by freezing tax increases and cutting immigration numbers, even as he safeguarded its liberal positions on issues like gay marriage and climate change. He oversaw the complex negotiations that led to the last big intake of new countries to the E.U. and boasts, if his straightforward delivery...
...biggest immediate challenge is Afghanistan. Though the war is becoming deeply unpopular in Europe, Rasmussen - leaning forward and cutting the air with his hands for emphasis - says taking on the Taliban "is not only Obama's war." NATO contributions are a personal issue: Denmark's military has one of the highest casualty rates in Afghanistan. "Our mission in Afghanistan is really a multilateral mission," he says. "Besides the United States, 41 nations have contributed ... around 30,000 troops." At the same time, he "would very much like to see further contributions from the European side" - perhaps, he says...
...Sweden, Denmark and Finland all imposed similar levies as early as the 1990s, but France - should its lawmakers approve the plan - will become the biggest country yet to try taxes to slow global warming. Initially set at $25 per ton of emitted carbon dioxide (CO2), the tax on the use of oil, natural gas and coal would nudge up the cost of a liter of petrol by $0.06 ($0.23 a gallon), Sarkozy said, and diesel by a little more, helping generate roughly $4.4 billion in annual revenues. A pledge to return that money to taxpayers through various new rebates...
...energy intensity of India's GDP falling from 0.3 kgoe (kilogram-of-oil equivalent) per dollar of GDP in 1980 to 0.16 kgoe in 2004. This, it adds, is an achievement on par with über-green Germany and is bettered only by Japan, the U.K., Brazil and Denmark...