In case you had not noticed, Germany has spent this Sunday electing a new government and judged by the incoming bulletins the current chancellor Angela Merkel will be getting another term, with another coalition mind, and thus the dubious honor of leading Germany out of its worst recession in a long time, here is the BBC's Gavin Hewitt; 

From the moment the first exit polls appeared, the celebrations began at the Christian Democrats' Headquarters in Berlin. Every good result was met with whoops and a clinking of beer glasses. They even managed to offer sausages with "CDU" branded on them! Angela Merkel's supporters had grown nervous in recent days that they might have to continue their awkward partnership with the Social Democrats.

Soon it sunk in that Germany would have a centre-right government. It was more than many at Mrs Merkel's party headquarters had dared to hope for. One woman

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The following is a press release being distributed today on behalf of the Mikhail Khodorkovsky defense team:

OVERWHELMING MAJORITY OF ITALIAN PARLIAMENT VOTE TO SUPPORT MIKHAIL KHORDOKOVSKY

Rome, September 23, 2009 - The Italian parliament today voted in favour of a motion urging the Italian Government "to activate all diplomatic channels, together with other European partners, to guarantee the respect for human rights and the right of defence for Mikhail Khodorkovsky and Platon Lebedev and for all Russian citizens". The motion, presented at the Lower Chamber by Pier Ferdinando Casini, leader of the Christian Democrat Party (UDC), received overwhelming support: out of 478 MPs attending the plenary session, 430 voted in favour. During the debate, Alfredo Mantica, Undersecretary of State for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, expressed support for the motion on behalf of the Government and called for unanimous adoption

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The high for gold came at about 1:30 p.m. in Hong Kong yesterday…which was half past midnight Tuesday morning in the Eastern time zone. From there, gold got sold off about $15…and never fully recovered the rest of the day. An attempt to break out early this morning (Wednesday) met with the usual fate in Far East trading.

Silver was similar…but far more volatile. Unlike gold, it managed to finish positive on the day…even over $12. Let’s see if that lasts into today.

As I said yesterday…today is options expiry…and I’m ready for anything…both before and after the close of trading on the Comex this afternoon.

The open interest on Monday was a little more subdued. Gold o.i. rose 1,568 contracts to 361,473…and silver o.i. rose 300 contracts to 88,899 contracts.

The usual N.Y. commentator had the following yesterday, which I thought was worth sharing…”Since gold’s recent low nearby Comex close of $807.30 on

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German unemployment continued to defy the global financial crisis, and the slowdown in the German economy itself in October, and fell below 3 million for the first time in 16 years, extending its longest drop since reunification. The unadjusted number of people out of work fell to 2.99 million, according to data from the Federal Labor Agency. That's the first time since November 1992 it breached the 3 million mark and down from a post-World War II peak of 5.3 million in February 2005.The number of people out of work, adjusted for seasonal swings, dropped 26,000 to 3.15 million after falling 29,000 in September. The seasonally adjusted unemployment rate fell to 7.5 percent, a 16-year low.According to the latest comparable data from the Organization of Economic Cooperation and Development, Germany's jobless rate was 7.2 percent in August. France, Germany's ...

German unemployment continued to defy the global financial crisis, and the slowdown in the German economy itself in October, and fell below 3 million for the first time in 16 years, extending its longest drop since reunification. The unadjusted number of people out of work fell to 2.99 million, according to data from the Federal Labor Agency. That's the first time since November 1992 it breached the 3 million mark and down from a post-World War II peak of 5.3 million in February 2005.The number of people out of work, adjusted for seasonal swings, dropped 26,000 to 3.15 million after falling 29,000 in September. The seasonally adjusted unemployment rate fell to 7.5 percent, a 16-year low.According to the latest comparable data from the Organization of Economic Cooperation and Development, Germany's jobless rate was 7.2 percent in August. France, Germany's ...

by Manuel Alvarez-Rivera, Puerto RicoFor many countries in Latin America, the wave of democratization that swept the region during the 1980s offered yet another opportunity to establish constitutional arrangements that had proved to be short-lived on many previous occasions. However, for Chile the restoration of democracy in 1990 was the continuation - after an authoritarian parenthesis of seventeen years - of a long and proud tradition of constitutional rule that had been the norm throughout most of the 140 years prior to 1973, when a right-wing military coup overthrew the democratically elected but militantly Marxist government of President Salvador Allende Gossens.Nonetheless, Chile's transition to democracy was an obstacle race of sorts. Following a less-than-transparent 1980 referendum, the armed forces were able to impose not only a restrictive constitution that would remain in force after they left power, but also a timetable for the transition to civilian ...