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November 26, 2024

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COMMENTARY

May 2, 2002

'Third way' to stay in power

By Sarah Benton

LONDON -- New Labour baffles just about everybody who comes across it. Is it "new" simply in the sense that a relaunched soap powder is new -- essentially the same plus a claim to have stronger power to wash away sins? Or is it really new, with just the Labour bit being misleading? And what on earth...

COMMENTARY / THE VIEW FROM NEW YORK

May 2, 2002

The life and times of a Manchurian girl

By Hiroaki Sato

NEW YORK -- The New York Times' recent reprinting of a cartoon showing Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat gagged and bound to a chair while Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon presses him to "say something! do something!" made me think of Rikoran, known today mainly as Yoshiko Yamaguchi.

COMMENTARY

May 1, 2002

Economic sense clashes with security concerns

By Frank Ching

HONG KONG -- Taiwan is coming to grips with a paradox: China is both its best friend and its worst enemy. In recent weeks, the island has been debating what its priority should be -- to enhance its economy by taking advantage of what China has to offer, or to safeguard its political security by restricting...

COMMENTARY

May 1, 2002

Le Pen victory a dark sign of the times

By David Howell

LONDON -- Political experts of all shades have been professing surprise and amazement that Jean-Marie Le Pen, with his wild mixture of views, some overtly racist, should have collected around 17 percent of the votes in the first round of the French presidential elections. But the real surprise is that...

COMMENTARY

Apr 30, 2002

How long will Koizumi last?

By Hugh Cortazzi

LONDON -- Voter disillusionment with Junichiro Koizumi's performance as prime minister has grown from an apparent lack of progress in clearing up bad bank loans, his inability to force through privatization of public corporations, limited action on deregulation and his failure to reform the Liberal Democratic...

COMMENTARY / World

Apr 29, 2002

Another train trip in the cards for Kim?

By John Barry Kotch

SEOUL -- In the wake of South Korean presidential envoy Lim Dong Won's recent and apparently successful visit to Pyongyang earlier this month, there is renewed optimism not only over resuming inter-Korean dialogue but also on realizing the promised reciprocal visit of North Korean leader Kim Jong Il...

COMMENTARY

Apr 29, 2002

The virtue of keeping mum on Taiwan

By Tom Plate

LOS ANGELES -- From Beijing's perspective, the only acceptable U.S. public statement on Taiwan is no statement at all.

COMMENTARY / World

Apr 29, 2002

Possibility of Osama's escape haunts U.S.

By Michael O'Hanlon

WASHINGTON -- Was Osama bin Laden in the mountains of Tora Bora in the first half of December? And did the U.S. decision to rely on Afghan militias and Pakistani troops, rather than American forces, to seal off escape routes from those mountains permit bin Laden to escape during the intensive bombing...

COMMENTARY / World

Apr 28, 2002

America's own 'rogue state'

By David Hirst

BEIRUT -- Since the Taliban's defeat in Afghanistan, the United States has been focusing on that long-standing "rogue state" and newly anointed member of the "axis of evil," President Saddam Hussein's Iraq, as the next target of its "war on terror."

COMMENTARY / World

Apr 28, 2002

Latest Chinese puzzle has experts baffled

By Harvey Stockwin

HONG KONG -- For China-watchers, the puzzling China contrast is between a nation that sends the capsule Shenzhou 3 into space and one that drags a seemingly useless rusty hull halfway around the globe. China's first aircraft carrier has finally arrived in port, but the mystery remains as to what conceivable...

COMMENTARY

Apr 28, 2002

Can Musharraf stabilize what he wins?

By Farhan Bokhari

ISLAMABAD -- Gen. Pervez Musharraf, Pakistan's military ruler, is set to position himself for a five-year term following Tuesday's referendum, but questions are mounting over his ability to give much needed stability to South Asia's second-largest country. Pakistan remains under the global spotlight...

COMMENTARY

Apr 27, 2002

Pyongyang prod that works

By Ralph Cossa

HONOLULU -- "Our firm stance toward North Korea is working!" So goes the conventional wisdom in Washington these days, as supporters of President George W. Bush's "hardline" policy claim credit for Pyongyang's recent decision to resume its dialogue with Seoul.

One of the many entrances to the Kabukicho neighborhood in Tokyo’s Shinjuku Ward.

Kabukicho: Tokyo’s ‘stadium of desire’

Totopa in Tokyo’s Shinjuku Ward was picked by consultants TTNE as the best sauna of the year.

Japan’s sauna movement: Relax, refresh, repeat

By Greg Dvorak

SUSTAINABLE JAPAN

The celebrated artist ‘updating’ the kimono

The celebrated artist ‘updating’ the kimono

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