US President Barack Obama's fortunes will sink further and nuclear threats will grow, but the world economy will bounce back in the turbulent Year of the Tiger, Chinese soothsayers predict.

The Copenhagen Climate Change Conference was an unmitigated disaster for the European Union. Instead of the EU claiming center stage, as its leaders assumed it would, the key actors were the United States, Brazil, South Africa, India, and China. Indeed, when the accord was reached, the EU was not even in the room.