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COMMENTARY

Aug 24, 2007

Howard feeling the squeeze

By Tom Plate

LOS ANGELES — John Howard, often the most patient and sure-footed of Western-style political leaders, is reported to be losing patience with the current Iraq government and mulling over options for an Australian troop withdrawal.

COMMENTARY

Aug 24, 2007

The unending humanitarian nightmare

By Cesar Chelala

NEW YORK — In August 2002, Brent Scowcroft, national security adviser under Presidents Gerald Ford and George H.W. Bush, wrote a prescient article in The Wall Street Journal warning of the dire consequences of invading Iraq. His predictions are confirmed in a new report by Oxfam, the British aid agency...

COMMENTARY

Aug 23, 2007

China tightens grip on Tibetan Buddhism

By Frank Ching

HONG KONG — China announced last month new regulations governing Tibetan Buddhism, including a stipulation that senior monks, known as "living Buddhas," cannot be reincarnated without government permission.

COMMENTARY

Aug 23, 2007

Britain's retreat from Iraq

By Gwynne Dyer

LONDON — "The British have given up and they know they will be leaving Iraq soon," said Muqtada Al-Sadr, head of the Mahdi army, the country's most powerful militia group, in an interview with the Independent. "They have realized this is not a war they should be fighting or one they can win."

COMMENTARY / World

Aug 22, 2007

Japan's bureaucrats versus Shinzo Abe

By Masahiro Matsumura

OSAKA — Much has been made of the massive defeat Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's Liberal Democratic Party suffered in the July 29 Upper House elections. But as the smoke from the vote dissipates, it has become clear that the real victor is neither the leading opposition Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ)...

COMMENTARY / World

Aug 22, 2007

Nuclear deal fueling opposition to Singh

NEW DELHI — Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's political future has come under a cloud over a controversial civil nuclear cooperation agreement with the United States that has helped isolate his party in Parliament.

COMMENTARY / World

Aug 21, 2007

Islam's message of tolerance

By Mohammad Habash

DAMASCUS — I am often invited by religious authorities in the Persian Gulf countries and Saudi Arabia to attend meetings that are held to urge people to follow Islamic faith and law, while avoiding any debate connected to politics or political rights. Political rights, my hosts insist, are maintained...

COMMENTARY

Aug 20, 2007

Know that the devil is in the derivative

By Tom Plate

LOS ANGELES — Although Warren Buffet does have — I reluctantly admit — more money than I do (like maybe $50 or so billion more?), we do share a pair of common traits. The first is that this internationally famous investment banker (known as the "Sage of Omaha") tends to favor cautious, carefully...

COMMENTARY / THE VIEW FROM NEW YORK

Aug 20, 2007

Why can't Americans give up their guns?

By Hiroaki Sato

NEW YORK — Is there anything comparable to the numbing obstinacy, the utter blindness to reality, that politicians display toward the consequences of untrammeled gun ownership in this country? So I wondered, once again, when I stumbled upon President George W. Bush's answer to what some now call "the...

COMMENTARY / World

Aug 19, 2007

Why not let doping close the gene gap?

By Peter Singer

PRINCETON, New Jersey — There is now a regular season for discussing drugs in sports, one that arrives every year with the Tour de France. This year, the overall leader, two other riders and two teams were expelled or withdrew from the race as a result of failing, or missing, drug tests. The eventual...

COMMENTARY / World

Aug 19, 2007

Something's up as 'buy' confidence slips

By Robert J. Shiller

NEW HAVEN, Connecticut — The sharp drop in the world's stock markets on Aug. 9 — after BNP Paribas announced that it would freeze three of its funds — is just one more example of the markets' recent downward instability or asymmetry. The markets have been more vulnerable to sudden large drops than...

COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT

Aug 19, 2007

Can justice possibly 'flower' in Japan's new courts?

By Roger Pulvers

A new poster at subway stations in Tokyo shows a smiling young woman confidently clutching her handbag along with the slogan: "About the time I turn 20, the courts will change. I guess both the law and the courts will become more familiar then."

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

Kabukicho: Tokyo’s ‘stadium of desire’

Professional cleaner Hirofumi Sakurai takes a moment to appreciate some photographs in a Gotanda apartment whose occupant died alone.

The last cleanup: Life and death in a lonely Japan

By Johan Brooks

SUSTAINABLE JAPAN

Yamagata’s Zao Onsen Ski Resort is a classic beauty

Yamagata’s Zao Onsen Ski Resort is a classic beauty

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