Europe

When I set out to visit the smallest countries in Europe, I put Luxembourg at the top of the list. Then I opened my atlas and found that Luxembourg is in sixth, behind Andorra, on a list of Continental Europe's dinkiest nations. It is almost as big as Rhode Island, with an area of 998 square miles and nearly half a million people. You can drive across the grand duchy in 30 minutes. It looks so much like neighboring Germany, France and Belgium that you'd miss it if you didn't know it was there.

Encamp, Andorra: In a Sept. 28 Travel section article about the small countries of Europe, a town in Andorra was called Encampin. It is Encamp.

Encamp, Andorra: In a Sept. 28 article about the small countries of Europe, a town in Andorra was called Encampin. It is Encamp.

As the $700-billion U.S. financial system bailout gets underway, Europe is struggling to contain its own banking turmoil. After European leaders failed to agree Saturday on a comprehensive plan to deal with rising bad loans and crumbling banks, German Chancellor Angela Merkel said Sunday that the government would guarantee all personal bank deposits -- a bid to prevent a meltdown of consumer confidence.

The tsunami of global stock sell-offs swept through Europe on Friday as shareholders deserted the markets in droves, pushing down stock prices in a frenzy some dubbed Red October. Exchanges that had hit record highs just a year ago plunged almost from the moment they opened. London's FTSE 100 lost 10% of its value within half an hour of the opening bell.

Charles Goodhart is professor emeritus of banking and finance at the London School of Economics and an expert on European monetary policy. He spoke to The Times about Europe's handling of the economic crisis and the role of the European Central Bank, which joined Wednesday with central banks around the world in lowering interest rates. It was the ECB's first rate decrease in five years, from 4.25% to 3.75%, after keeping the rate elevated to ward off inflation.

Like soldiers falling into step, governments across Europe offered up a series of sweeping bailout plans for their banking systems Monday, pushing past $2 trillion the amount of taxpayer money that has been pledged to shore up the continent's floundering financial sector. Markets responded positively to the news, with stock exchanges gaining back some of the ground lost in last week's selling binge.

On Veterans Day, Americans are asked to do something for the country besides voting and paying taxes: We are enjoined to think of those who fought in faraway places -- the Philippines, North Africa, Europe, Vietnam and Iraq. Most of them came home, but some did not, even in death. The remains of more than 120,000 war dead rest in American military cemeteries abroad, beneath rows of white marble crosses and Stars of David.

Months before the global financial meltdown this fall, the talk in the boisterous cafes of Rome and Madrid had turned from sports and politics to economic woes. Despite increasingly bleak outlooks, however, the international financial panic did not hit Italy and Spain as hard as other European nations. Unlike France, Britain or Germany, there have been no major bank failures or rushed bank rescues south of the Alps or the Pyrenees. Why?

A dirty brown haze sometimes more than a mile thick is darkening skies over vast areas of Asia and in the Middle East, southern Africa and the Amazon Basin, changing weather patterns and threatening health and food supplies, the United Nations reported. The so-called atmospheric brown clouds are a mix of particles, ozone and other chemicals that come from cars, coal-fired power plants, burning fields and wood-burning stoves and fireplaces. A report commissioned by the U.N. Environment Program said the clouds dim light by as much as 25% in some cities, including Karachi, Pakistan; New Delhi; Shanghai; and Beijing.