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COMMENTARY

Jul 18, 2008

Cliches won't rescue Earth

By Hugh Cortazzi

LONDON — The recent Group of Eight summit in Hokkaido was one of the least memorable summit meetings. Every G8 spews out cliches; the Hokkaido meeting was no exception. Leaders at the meeting were generally a mediocre lot.

COMMENTARY

Jul 17, 2008

New world order is long overdue

By Frank Ching

George Herbert Walker Bush, when he was president of the United States, used to talk a lot about a "new world order" emerging after the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991. Seventeen years later, that new order is still not in place as the countries that dominated the old order refuse to make way for...

COMMENTARY

Jul 17, 2008

Let's hope it's over soon

By David Howell

The world is now in the grip of a first-class financial crisis. Some will be hit harder than others, but no one is going to escape. Final confirmation of this has arrived with the news that the two giant mortgage companies, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, pillars of American life that underwrite, or insure,...

COMMENTARY / World

Jul 17, 2008

Anti-Chavez axis emerging in Latin America

By Charles Tannock

BRUSSELS — The rescue of Ingrid Betancourt and 14 other hostages who had been held for years by FARC guerrillas marks more than a turning point in Colombia's long war against its drug-running, Marxist guerrillas. It also confirms the emergence of a new troika of Latin American leaders — Colombia's...

COMMENTARY

Jul 16, 2008

The odds are stacked against an Iran attack

By Gwynne Dyer

The Iranians have clearly concluded that all the American and Israeli threats to attack them are mere bluff. Israel could not destroy all of Iran's nuclear facilities unless it was willing to drop large numbers of nuclear weapons on Iran. The United States could do the job using only conventional weapons,...

COMMENTARY / World

Jul 16, 2008

Al Gore and the green inquisition

By Bjorn Lomborg

COPENHAGEN — When it comes to global warming, extreme scare stories abound. Al Gore, for example, famously claimed that a whopping 6 meters of sea-level rise would flood major cities around the world.

COMMENTARY / World / SENTAKU MAGAZINE

Jul 15, 2008

Keidanren hedging bets on LDP

The Japan Business Federation (Nippon Keidanren) is showing signs of changing its unflinching support for the ruling Liberal Democratic Party, as it seeks closer ties with the No. 1 opposition Democratic Party of Japan.

COMMENTARY / World

Jul 15, 2008

With loss of life affordable, it's sink or swim

By H. Harry L. Roque Jr.

MANILA — The June 21 tragedy of the sinking of the Princess of the Stars ferry in the waters off Romblon in the Philippines — with hundreds of corpses still believed trapped inside — is proof that the country is prone not only to natural calamities but to man-made ones as well. The decision to...

COMMENTARY

Jul 15, 2008

Guantanamo ruling may end the nightmare

By Cesar Chelala

NEW YORK — The recent U.S. Supreme Court ruling that recognizes the rights of Guantanamo detainees to challenge their detention in U.S. civilian courts is a serious rebuke of the controversial detention policies of the administration of U.S. President George W. Bush. It also may pave the way for the...

COMMENTARY / World

Jul 13, 2008

Ukraine's path will set the course for Russia

By Andrei Piontkovsky

MOSCOW — Russia and the West are losing each other yet again. The magnetic attraction and repulsion between the two has been going on for centuries. Indeed, historians have counted as many as 25 such cycles since the reign of Czar Ivan III.

COMMENTARY

Jul 13, 2008

Cigarettes, lies and impressionable film fans

By Gautaman Bhaskaran

MADRAS, India — Humphrey Bogart used to seduce women through his smoke rings. In a movie like "Casablanca," much of this Hollywood star's playboy persona came from the cigarette he held between his fingers. That the tobacco stick finally finished him is something that all his fans, especially female,...

COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT

Jul 13, 2008

Self-praise abounds in the pages of wheeler-dealers' own obituaries

By Roger Pulvers

Japanese politicians are known for their perseverance and ingenuity, and the Diet may well be the last place in the country still offering lifetime employment.

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

Kabukicho: Tokyo’s ‘stadium of desire’

Passengers that were on a morning train attacked by members of the Aum Shinrikyo group wait for medical assistance outside Kasumigaseki Station on March 20,1995.

The day a religious cult brought terror to Tokyo

By Alex K.T. Martin

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