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Syrian army seizes ancient Christian town near Lebanon border

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By Firas Makdesi. Islamist fighters, some from the al Qaeda-linked Nusra Front, had taken over part of the ancient Christian town in December and held several nuns captive until releasing them in March in a prisoner-exchange deal. Government forces have recaptured several rebel-held areas and border towns in recent months, closing off supply routes from Lebanon and securing the main highway leading north from Damascus toward central Syria, Homs and the Mediterranean.

Simply put, it is a machine for creating trust.

UN monitors in Syria 'fired on' near Haffa

To understand the power of blockchain systems, and the things they can do, it is important to distinguish between three things that are commonly muddled up, namely the bitcoin currency, the specific blockchain that underpins it and the idea of blockchains in general. Napster itself was swiftly shut down, but it inspired a host of other peer-to-peer services.

Many of these were also used for pirating music and films. Yet despite its dubious origins, peer-to-peer technology found legitimate uses, powering internet startups such as Skype for telephony and Spotify for music streaming —and also, as it happens, bitcoin. The blockchain is an even more potent technology. In essence it is a shared, trusted, public ledger that everyone can inspect, but which no single user controls.

The participants in a blockchain system collectively keep the ledger up to date: it can be amended only according to strict rules and by general agreement. It is what makes possible a currency without a central bank. Blockchains are also the latest example of the unexpected fruits of cryptography. Mathematical scrambling is used to boil down an original piece of information into a code, known as a hash. Any attempt to tamper with any part of the blockchain is apparent immediately—because the new hash will not match the old ones.

'Situation dire'

In this way a science that keeps information secret vital for encrypting messages and online shopping and banking is, paradoxically, also a tool for open dealing. Bitcoin itself may never be more than a curiosity. However blockchains have a host of other uses because they meet the need for a trustworthy record, something vital for transactions of every sort.

Dozens of startups now hope to capitalise on the blockchain technology, either by doing clever things with the bitcoin blockchain or by creating new blockchains of their own see article. One idea, for example, is to make cheap, tamper-proof public databases—land registries, say, Honduras and Greece are interested ; or registers of the ownership of luxury goods or works of art. Documents can be notarised by embedding information about them into a public blockchain—and you will no longer need a notary to vouch for them.

Financial-services firms are contemplating using blockchains as a record of who owns what instead of having a series of internal ledgers. A trusted private ledger removes the need for reconciling each transaction with a counterparty, it is fast and it minimises errors. Twenty-five banks have just joined a blockchain startup, called R3 CEV, to develop common standards, and NASDAQ is about to start using the technology to record trading in securities of private companies.

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A group of vetted participants within an industry might instead agree to join a private blockchain, say, that needs less security. Blockchains can also implement business rules, such as transactions that take place only if two or more parties endorse them, or if another transaction has been completed first.

As with Napster and peer-to-peer technology, a clever idea is being modified and improved.

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In the process, it is fast throwing off its reputation for shadiness. Even as some banks and governments explore the use of this new technology, others will surely fight it. But given the decline in trust in governments and banks in recent years, a way to create more scrutiny and transparency could be no bad thing.

In the meantime regulators should stay their hands, or find ways to accommodate new approaches within existing frameworks, rather than risk stifling a fast-evolving idea with overly prescriptive rules.

The notion of shared public ledgers may not sound revolutionary or sexy. Neither did double-entry book-keeping or joint-stock companies. Yet, like them, the blockchain is an apparently mundane process that has the potential to transform how people and businesses co-operate. Bitcoin fanatics are enthralled by the libertarian ideal of a pure, digital currency beyond the reach of any central bank.

The real innovation is not the digital coins themselves, but the trust machine that mints them—and which promises much more besides. The country relies almost entirely on its big southern neighbour for its oil and gas, along with much else. In the capital, cars and lorries sit idle. Hotels and restaurants have run out of cooking gas.

Young middle-class families cannot buy nappies. Kathmandu is supposed to be celebrating Dashain, the biggest Hindu festival of the year, in honour of Durga, the goddess of power. But blackouts loom. The new coalition government of Khadga Prasad Sharma Oli, a veteran politician who was made prime minister on October 11th, after a long-debated constitution was finally passed, has been born into crisis. The Madhesi, in particular, have strong links with Indians in the nearby states of Bihar and Uttar Pradesh. Every day they march to the beat of drums. Sometimes an elephant leads their rally.

A few weeks ago the Terai saw ugly violence. Protests broke out as the protracted process of drawing up a constitution—the seventh since —came to an unexpectedly rapid close. But then four major parties, among them monarchists, Communists and Maoists, came together after a devastating earthquake in April, each eyeing a swiftly enacted constitution as a route to furthering its interests.

It looked like a stitch-up among the upper castes. In particular, the people of the Terai felt that proposed new state boundaries gave them less political representation than they had been promised. They want the constitution to guarantee diversity in all state bodies. In August violence flared with the killing of eight policemen and a ruthless and at times indiscriminate response by police and paramilitary forces. Over 40 died. Yet the constitution was adopted on September 20th.

Protesters in Birgunj say they will continue demonstrating until the government treats them as equal citizens. The constitution will surely have to be amended if Nepal is not to suffer further chaos. But Nepal now badly needs Indian help. It was anything but. Mr Modi did promise to help divert lorries to other border crossings untroubled by protests. But as the snows approach, hardships from the blockade are likely to worsen.

In Nepal, many will pin blame on India. Some politicians in Kathmandu fantasise about playing a China card, by asking for help from a northern neighbour that is always angling for influence in Nepal. But China can do little, says Prashant Jha, author of a recent book on Nepal. Pressure will therefore grow on Mr Oli to offer concessions.

He will demur: before he came to office he had been vitriolic in denouncing Madhesis and Tharus critical of the constitutional process. He will have to do more than simply bite his tongue if he is to rescue Nepal from winter calamity. At home, however, his words had resonance too. Last month it was announced that Song Lin, a former chairman of China Resources Group, a state-owned conglomerate, was being prosecuted. On October 7th came news that Su Shulin, a former chairman of Sinopec, a state-run oil company, was under investigation.

Mr Su had been serving as governor of Fujian province, making him the first incumbent of that rank to be targeted in this campaign. Five days later Jiang Jiemin, the former head of PetroChina, another state-controlled petroleum firm, was sentenced to 16 years in jail. On October 13th Chinese media reported the arrest of Sam Pa, a middleman in resource deals done in Africa by Chinese state-owned firms. Hurun Report , a rich list, shows there are now more dollar billionaires in China than in the United States Some of these fortunes were earned honestly, but some surely were not.

A Chinese property tycoon who has not been accused of wrongdoing says many fellow billionaires are akin to corrupt robber barons in America over a century ago. Crooked businessmen have reason to be nervous. But some analysts worry that the recent arrests of business leaders signal a broader anti-corporate campaign. They see the recent arrests as the possible start of a long-running reign of terror waged by an anti-business regime. Such fears are overblown. Businessmen targeted so far are mostly senior managers of state-owned enterprises SOEs , not private firms.

In China powerful SOE bosses are also important figures in the Communist Party, so there are likely to be political reasons as well as economic ones for many of the arrests. Of more than , people indicted for graft since Mr Xi became leader in , most are politicians and officials—not private businessmen.

Some of them, like Mr Pa, have been caught up in the crackdown.

Conservatives’ hit-list

But the purge has so far mostly steered clear of the private sector. Internet giants have been encouraged to expand into the provision of government-related services, such as booking hospital appointments and processing utility bills. They have been kept largely clear of antitrust scrutiny. The government has slashed red tape and made more credit available to startup firms.

In his dealings with business, Mr Xi is no Putin. His campaign is very clearly an effort to clean up the party; going after crooked SOE bosses is a necessary part of that.

What the Quran says

Mr Xi is different. Economic growth has been hurt by bureaucratic paralysis. Fearful of being branded corrupt, officials have become reluctant to facilitate deals. In the long term, however, a cleaner and more predictable business environment will help. The property tycoon says he believes Mr Xi will soon have no need to keep lashing out, having already made it clear that he will not tolerate corruption. His Liberal Party came from behind to win a clear majority in the House of Commons, ending the decade-long reign as prime minister of Stephen Harper, a Conservative.

See article. The two sides plan to sign a final accord by March. But they came close, injuring him in a chase as he fell off a small cliff, it has emerged.

The head of the Sinaloa drug gang is still on the run.

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