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COMMENTARY / World

Jun 30, 2010

Canberra's bloodless coup

By Alan Goodall

SYDNEY — Women rule. Or so it seems in Australia where the first female prime minister has ousted a male colleague, where a woman is the governor general, still another runs the main state, New South Wales, and another presides over that state's capital city, Sydney. Topping all, an Australian woman...

COMMENTARY / World

Jun 30, 2010

Eurozone isn't doomed yet

By Hans-Werner Sinn

MUNICH — Despite huge rescue packages, interest-rate spreads in Europe refuse to budge. Markets have not yet found their equilibrium, and the governments on Europe's southwestern rim are nervously watching how events unfold. What is going on?

COMMENTARY / World

Jun 30, 2010

Korean peace still elusive, six decades on

By Denny Roy

HONOLULU, EAST-WEST WIRE — The tragic Korean War, which began 60 years ago, resulted from the post-World War II division of Korea by the United States and the Soviet Union — intended to be temporary — and from the political struggle that developed between Seoul and Pyongyang. After the division,...

EDITORIALS

Jun 30, 2010

Mr. Kan meets Mr. Obama

At their Sunday meeting on the fringe of the G20 summit in Toronto, Canada, Prime Minister Naoto Kan and U.S. President Barack Obama agreed that the Japan-U.S. alliance is a cornerstone of peace and prosperity in the Asia-Pacific region. Their first meeting took place after bilateral ties had become...

COMMENTARY

Jun 29, 2010

Maradona casts spell at world's crossroads

By Cesar Chelala

NEW YORK — I can still hear the Mexican sportscaster shouting in the radio for more than a minute — "Dieguitooooo, Dieguitoooooo, Diego Armando Maradonaaaaaaa!" — after the Argentine soccer player scored his second goal against the British during the 1986 World Cup that Argentina would go on to...

COMMENTARY / World

Jun 29, 2010

China and India competing over Sri Lanka

By Harsh V. Pant

LONDON — The recent visit of Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa to New Delhi appeared successful. India and Sri Lanka signed a range of agreements including loans for major infrastructure projects, sharing of electricity and cultural exchanges. India has extended a $200 million credit line to assist...

EDITORIALS

Jun 29, 2010

Plan for gender equality

The government's Council for Gender Equality is scheduled to submit by the end of this month a proposal for the third basic plan to build a gender-equal society. Two such plans have been written on the basis of the Basic Law for a Gender-Equal Society, which went into effect in 1999. The draft for the...

COMMENTARY

Jun 29, 2010

Turkey warms to new role of daring to chastise Israel

By Ramzy Baroud and Rabah Arezki

BANDAR SERI BEGAWAN — "Even despots, gangsters and pirates have specific sensitiveness, (and) follow some specific morals," said Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan in a recent speech following the deadly commando raid on the humanitarian aid flotilla to Gaza on May 31.

EDITORIALS

Jun 29, 2010

Devolution on the move

The Cabinet on June 22 adopted a devolution strategy outline that covers the next two to three years. The decision is good news for local governments because it had been feared that following the sudden resignation of former Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama, who was eager to push devolution, the Cabinet...

EDITORIALS

Jun 28, 2010

Loans for the indebted

Toward the end of 2006 the Diet enacted the Money- Lending Business Law to help solve the problems of consumers who have multiple debts. Since then, the government has taken steps to impose restrictions on the methods of collecting loans and to raise the barrier for entry into the consumer loan business....

EDITORIALS

Jun 28, 2010

Deleting child pornography

The law against child prostitution and child pornography bans posting the posting of child pornography images on the Internet. In 2009, the police took action in more than 500 child pornography cases on the Internet, twice the corresponding figure for 2008.

COMMENTARY / World

Jun 28, 2010

Challenges of social progress for Brazil, India, South Africa

By Lyal White and Manmohan Agarwal, Hany Besada

WATERLOO, Canada — Governments from the South are assuming leading roles in decisions on global issues such as climate change, health governance, trade regimes, and water and food security.

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

Kabukicho: Tokyo’s ‘stadium of desire’

Japan's growing ranks of centenarians are redefining what it means to live in a super-aging society.

What comes after 100?

By Tomoko Otake

SUSTAINABLE JAPAN

Tsukuba massif granite, one of the world’s few heritage stones

Tsukuba massif granite, one of the world’s few heritage stones

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