CONSOLIDATED BALANCE SHEETS (Parentheticals) (USD $) In Thousands, except Share data, unless otherwise specified	Mar. 31, 2012		Dec. 31, 2011
Amortized cost of Fixed maturities	$ 26,695,459	[1]	$ 25,771,715	[1]
Cost of Equity securities	593,168		480,685
Amortized cost of Short-term investments	212,393		359,378
Fair value of held to maturity securities	$ 2,994,429		$ 2,895,688
Class A ordinary shares, shares authorized (in Shares)	999,990,000		999,990,000
Class A ordinary shares, par value (in Dollars per share)	$ 0.01		$ 0.01
Class A ordinary shares, shares issued (in Shares)	311,667,649		315,645,796
Class A ordinary shares, shares outstanding (in Shares)	311,667,649		315,645,796

[1] Included in the table above are Tier One and Upper Tier Two securities, representing committed term debt and hybrid instruments, which are senior to the common and preferred equities of the financial institutions, at their fair value of $411.2 million and $386.1 million at March 31, 2012 and December 31, 2011, respectively. These securities are reflected in the table based on their call date and have net unrealized losses of $78.1 million and $108.8 million at March 31, 2012 and December 31, 2011, respectively.