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November 27, 2024

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COMMENTARY / THE VIEW FROM MOSCOW

Feb 10, 2002

TV sports trump freedom; public loses

By Constantine Pleshakov

MOSCOW -- There is no television broadcast in Russia anymore that is independent of the Russian government. Having applied the poisonous gas of legal niceties, the Kremlin has shut down the last stronghold of dissent, the vocal and opinionated TV-6. It was the coup de grace in Russian President Vladimir...

COMMENTARY / WASHINGTON UPDATE

Feb 10, 2002

Battle begins for security, 'other stuff'

By Bob Keefe

WASHINGTON -- In his first formal State of the Union address, President George W. Bush portrayed the terrorism threat in stark detail, disclosing that American forces in Afghanistan have found diagrams of U.S. nuclear power plants and suggested that "tens of thousands of trained terrorists are still...

EDITORIALS

Feb 9, 2002

Lackluster debate hinders reform

Japan faces an urgent need to make a sweeping transition comparable in magnitude to the periods that followed the Meiji Restoration and the end of World War II. But judging from the plenary debates conducted in both Houses of the Diet this week, Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's program of national...

COMMENTARY

Feb 9, 2002

French election an open race

By Andre Fontaine

PARIS -- The first round of the French presidential election will take place in less than 100 days. Strange as it may seem, neither of the two main contenders, Prime Minister Lionel Jospin and President Jacques Chirac, has formally declared his candidacy.

COMMENTARY

Feb 9, 2002

Can U.S. find the right voice?

By David Howell

LONDON -- The United States is the predominant force in the world -- more so than ever. Its military reach is awesome (as Afghanistan has proved), its technology at the forefront, its universities the most advanced, its Nobel laureates the most numerous, its production now back to almost 30 percent of...

COMMENTARY / World

Feb 9, 2002

Diplomats: more than traveling salesmen

By George Sioris

CHIANG MAI, Thailand -- Recently, the order of a prominent European political leader to his country's ambassadors to begin acting as salesmen made waves all the way to Asia. This is not an isolated case: To various degrees, politicians from Europe to Asia and Oceania are now calling for a new diplomacy...

EDITORIALS

Feb 8, 2002

Enron's third strike

A fter being pilloried in the press and made the new poster child for capitalist excess, Enron is being handed the final indignity: The Houston Astros baseball team has gone to court to take the company's name off its stadium. The humiliation is now complete: The former energy giant is being stripped...

COMMENTARY

Feb 8, 2002

No nation-state to rebuild in Afghanistan

By Doug Bandow

PESHAWAR, Pakistan -- "Why are you letting them in," screamed the Afghan refugee. Her burqa hid her age but not her anger: "The Americans are not good. They are hurting our people in Afghanistan."

EDITORIALS

Feb 8, 2002

Let the Games begin

The 2002 Winter Olympics begin today. More than 2,000 athletes from 80 countries have descended on Salt Lake City, Utah, for the XIX Winter Games. This year's Olympiad takes place in the shadow of the Sept. 11 terror bombings. The games are a vital reminder that competition among nations may be inevitable,...

EDITORIALS

Feb 7, 2002

An optimistic economic outlook

How will Japan's economy develop from fiscal 2002 through 2006? The official answer, in a nutshell, is that it will stage a slow but steady recovery led by private demand. Under the circumstances, that is probably the most the government can hope for. The big question is whether this scenario will come...

COMMENTARY / World

Feb 7, 2002

Canberra sticks to its policy on illegal immigrants despite growing protests

By Alan Goodall

SYDNEY -- Just as Australian Prime Minister John Howard was addressing world economic leaders in New York on the profits to be made from investing here, Afghan asylum seekers held in detention camps in the Australian desert were trying to die in hunger strikes.

COMMENTARY / World

Feb 7, 2002

Table topics for Bush, Jiang

By Bonnie Glaser

HONOLULU -- U.S. President George W. Bush's decision to include China as part of a three-nation Northeast Asia tour later this month underscores his personal commitment to start building a more "constructive, cooperative" relationship with Beijing.

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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