Mahathir, who has said he may stay on beyond 1999, demonstrated he remains a forceful leader who knows how to sway the party.

CNN: Straight from the Heart

If it is true, as the whispers in Ankara suggest, that a three-sided coalition led by Mr Ecevit might delay the election supposed to take place by April, and hang on to power beyond 1999, that concern may well deepen.

ECONOMIST: Turkey

Action 2000, a body set up by the government to co-ordinate its campaign to beat the bug, says that in the past year about 15% of the microchip-controlled production lines in factories have failed tests of whether they can cope with dates beyond 1999.

ECONOMIST: The bill for the millennium bug keeps going up

Where Mr Nevins moves on to more troublesome ground is when his book attempts to enlarge the circle of blame for all three atrocities, 1975, 1991 and 1999, beyond where it most obviously belongs with the Indonesian armed forces and government.

ECONOMIST: East Timor

Balkoski said he had mixed feelings about the situation because Ambrose's books have done so much to interest the public in World War II books, and because Ambrose wrote the forward to a 1999 softcover edition of Beyond the Beachhead.

FORBES: More Controversy For Stephen Ambrose

Anyway, the similarities between that late 1999 moment and now are beyond eerie, there is a tangible sense of deja vu that cannot (should not?) be ignored.

FORBES: Pro Athletes Funding Startups. Uh oh.

Even that would be beyond reach after a real devaluation, and 1999 would bring recession or slump, if Argentina went on trying to hold its parity.

ECONOMIST: The battle royal for Brazil��s real

By the time Beckham and Victoria were married in 1999, interest in him had extended far beyond the football fraternity.

CNN: David Beckham: Rise of the metrosexual