Now, Amazon is extending Whispersync to professionally narrated audiobooks - customers can start reading a book on their Kindle, and seamlessly switch to listening to their corresponding Whispersync for Voice-enabled audiobook from Audible on their phone or tablet, picking up exactly where they left off.

ENGADGET: Amazon announces $119 Kindle Paperwhite with illuminated, capacitive touch display

Picking up the pieces in the Middle East, trying to make its voice heard in the war on terror, under pressure to do much more to sort out the problems of regions that were seen, in the past, as mere targets of trade opportunity all these demands are forcing Europeans to think how they might better orchestrate their dealings with the outside world.

ECONOMIST: Europe in the world