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January 31, 2025

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COMMENTARY

Mar 3, 2006

The black hole for U.S. aid

By Brahma Chellaney

NEW DELHI -- Despite making the spread of freedom the rallying cry of his second term, U.S. President George W. Bush has found it difficult to visit the world's largest democracy, India, without also stopping to meet the Pakistani president, Gen. Pervez Musharraf.

COMMENTARY / World

Mar 2, 2006

Diplomatic reposturing in the Mideast

By Eric Teo Chu Cheow

SINGAPORE -- Certain Middle East nations are repositioning themselves diplomatically, a move that holds great significance in the international arena.

COMMENTARY

Mar 2, 2006

Solving the energy puzzle

By David Howell

LONDON -- Energy security and politics do not mix well. Energy security requires huge long-term investment, freedom from political interference and social tranquillity. Politicians live in the short term, love to interfere and tend to deliver nasty surprises that economic forecasters usually fail to...

COMMENTARY

Mar 2, 2006

Blow to Philippine democracy

By Ronald Meinardus

MANILA -- In democracies, governments have a constitutional right, even an obligation, to protect the democratic order against the enemies of the state. In line with this basic principle, Philippine President Gloria Arroyo recently justified the imposition of emergency rule as a preemptive action against...

COMMENTARY

Feb 28, 2006

Thoughts better left buried

By Tom Plate

LOS ANGELES -- Japan offers the world a culture of surpassing elegance, intellect, literature and political achievement, but it still remains something of an enigma. The great novelist Haruki Murakami understands, perhaps as well as anyone, this aspect of his country. His recent "Kafka on the Shore,"...

COMMENTARY

Feb 27, 2006

Nuclear carrier unwelcome

By Kiroku Hanai

The U.S. Navy recently announced a decision to deploy a nuclear-powered aircraft carrier at Yokosuka Naval Base in Kanagawa Prefecture, dismaying residents of the area. Following the decision -- made in conjunction with the reorganization of U.S. forces in Japan -- the mayor of Yokosuka, the prefectural...

COMMENTARY / THE VIEW FROM NEW YORK

Feb 27, 2006

Criticism of Japan skips the finer points

By Hiroaki Sato

NEW YORK -- By way of criticizing Taro Aso as "Japan's Offensive Foreign Minister," a Feb. 13 New York Times editorial came up with a sweeping condemnation of the Japanese and their society by asserting that "public discourse in Japan and modern history lessons in its schools have never properly come...

COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT

Feb 26, 2006

Has America's conscience fallen victim to 9/11?

By Roger Pulvers

On the 15th of this month, the Australian television station SBS broadcast one of the most awful and horrendous programs I have ever seen. The images aired -- many for the first time anywhere -- were still photographs and raw videos of abuses at Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq. These were abuses committed...

COMMENTARY

Feb 24, 2006

Insults reserved for Islam

By Gregory Clark

Recently, when a Danish newspaper published cartoons offensive to Muslims, Muslim protests met claims that our Western democracies had to uphold the sacred principle of free speech. Under no circumstances could we Westerners be expected to give up that important right simply because others objected to...

COMMENTARY / World

Feb 23, 2006

PLA officers get a whiff of the right stuff

By Richard Halloran

HONOLULU -- The U.S. Pacific Command and the People's Liberation Army of China have quietly begun an exchange of military officers that is intended to reduce the chances of a miscalculation leading to hostilities between the established power in the Pacific and the rising power of East Asia.

COMMENTARY / World

Feb 22, 2006

It's not right for the West and Israel to isolate Hamas, the Palestinians' best hope

By Cesar Chelala

NEW YORK -- As the son of a Lebanese pacifist, I am dismayed by the widening gap between Palestinians and Israelis that make a possible solution to the con- flict between them seem even more distant.

COMMENTARY / World

Feb 21, 2006

Empire of debt has its limits

By Kevin Rafferty

HONG KONG -- Recent news about U.S. current-account deficits with the rest of the world gives grim pause for thought from Beijing and Tokyo to London, and especially in Washington, for it shows the United States approaching the financial equivalent of a nuclear meltdown.

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

Kabukicho: Tokyo’s ‘stadium of desire’

Ayumi Matsuki, a priestess at Yoshiwara Shrine, shows off some "o-mamori" charms. She says visitors to the shrine have increased since the NHK drama “Unbound” began airing this month.

Tracing Tsutaya Juzaburo, Edo’s media maverick

By Alex K.T. Martin

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