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COMMENTARY

Aug 16, 2010

Lebanese flaunt reopened bridge amid worry that something's up

By Ramzy Baroud

BEIRUT — Jamal is a Lebanese driver in his late 50s. He appeared unshaven and terribly exhausted as he drove his old passenger van from the airport in Beirut to the Bekaa Valley.

COMMENTARY / World

Aug 15, 2010

SOS for world disaster victims

By Kevin Rafferty

HONG KONG — Television pictures tell terrible stories of the week: swirling floodwaters gobbling up people, cattle, homes, bridges, communications systems and threatening up to 20 million people in Pakistan; torrential rains triggering landslides in northwestern China; while dense smog suffocates Moscow,...

COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT

Aug 15, 2010

Opposite ends in poll scrabble wildly for Aussie middle ground

By Roger Pulvers

This is the winter of a discontented electorate in Australia. Less than a week before Aug. 21's general election, the voters are deeply disgruntled and proving decidedly hard to please, while the main parties appear to be heading for a close finish.

COMMENTARY / World

Aug 14, 2010

North Korea's 'Dear Leader' cleans house

By Lee Byong Chul

SEOUL — There was a time, not long after the Cold War's end, when almost everyone assumed that North Korea would soon collapse. The sudden death in 1994 of Kim Il Sung, the founder of the tyrannical, economically disastrous North Korean experiment, reinforced this belief. That was then.

COMMENTARY

Aug 14, 2010

Iran will test U.S.-China ties

By Michael Richardson

SINGAPORE — Relations between the United States and China — already under serious strain over trade and economic issues, human rights and, most recently, the Yellow Sea and the South China Sea — are about to be tested anew over Iran's controversial nuclear program.

COMMENTARY

Aug 13, 2010

The rule of law wins a few against the wicked after all

By Gwynne Dyer

LONDON — Naomi Campbell may be dimwitted and self-centered, and the poor schmuck she gave the diamonds to 13 years ago is in deep trouble even though he never tried to turn them into cash, but she certainly is useful. If she hadn't been forced to testify, nine out of 10 people wouldn't even know who...

COMMENTARY / World

Aug 13, 2010

Russia's fires fueled partly by political apathy

By Yevgenia Albats

MOSCOW — For over a month, Moscow has been boiling in 40-degree-Celsius heat and heavy, sticky, eye-burning smog. Carbon monoxide levels have reached crisis levels, at six times the maximum allowable concentration. Other toxic substances in Moscow's air are at nine times the normal level.

COMMENTARY / World

Aug 12, 2010

Aussie election going from bizarre to farcical

By Alan Goodall

SYDNEY — The most bizarre election in Australia's history staggers into farce as voters go to the ballot boxes in what promises to be a knife-edge decision between a divided government party and an angry opposition.

COMMENTARY / World

Aug 12, 2010

Japan's experience highlights perils for China

By Mamoru Ishida

Until the global financial crisis hit, China had achieved export-led high economic growth by keeping its currency at an undervalued level. It is now abundantly clear that the growth model is not sustainable. The People's Bank of China reinstated the "managed floating exchange rate regime with reference...

COMMENTARY / World

Aug 12, 2010

Age of stunted expectations

By Kenneth Rogoff

CAMBRIDGE, Mass. — As the United States and European economies continue to struggle, there is rising concern that they face a Japanese-style "lost decade." Unfortunately, far too much discussion has centered on what governments can do to stimulate demand through budget deficits and monetary policy....

COMMENTARY

Aug 11, 2010

Can Japan's politics change people's despair to hope?

By Shinji Fukukawa

The outcome of the July 11 Upper House election symbolized voters' distrust of national politics in Japan. The ruling Democratic Party of Japan led by Prime Minister Naoto Kan took only 44 of the 121 contested seats against its pre-election share of 54 seats due for contention and the DPJ-led coalition...

COMMENTARY / World

Aug 11, 2010

A lesson in global civics

By Hakan Altinay

ISTANBUL — The reality of the world's epic interdependence is well known. We have seen how financial engineering in the United States can determine economic growth in every part of the world; how carbon-dioxide emissions from China end up influencing crop yields and livelihoods in Vietnam, Bangladesh,...

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

Kabukicho: Tokyo’s ‘stadium of desire’

Wealthier women in the prewar era had been the targets of various media-related health campaigns that mistakenly encouraged them to avoid everything from riding bicycles to reading novels when their monthly cycles came around.

Menstruation in Japan: Breaking the silence, slowly

By Tomoko Otake

SUSTAINABLE JAPAN

Challenging spirit and teamwork keep ANA flying high

Challenging spirit and teamwork keep ANA flying high

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