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EDITORIALS

Jun 10, 2001

Labour wins a mandate to carry on

The crushing victory of Britain's Labour Party in Thursday's general elections presents Prime Minister Tony Blair with his greatest challenge. His progress since becoming party leader almost a decade ago has been remarkably smooth, and his remodeled party now enjoys a dominance in British politics equivalent...

COMMENTARY

Jun 10, 2001

Restarting Korean peace talks

By Ralph Cossa

Stop blowing up the balloons. Put away the ribbons and confetti. There is unlikely to be any major celebrations as we mark the first anniversary of the historic June 13-15, 2000 summit meeting in Pyongyang between South Korean President Kim Dae Jung and North Korean chairman Kim Jong Il.

EDITORIALS

Jun 9, 2001

Secret fund is still under wraps

The Foreign Ministry, responding to a recent embezzlement scandal involving a senior ministry bureaucrat, has put together a package of measures designed to "reform" its secrecy-shrouded diplomatic war chest. The package falls far short of public expectations, largely because the ministry has not disclosed...

COMMENTARY / THE VIEW FROM MOSCOW

Jun 9, 2001

Putin picks a new gas czar

By Constantine Pleshakov

Behold, Russia has got a new czar. No, the Romanovs did not rise from their graves. No, the Russian people did not invite a Romanov cousin, Prince Charles, to claim the throne of his Russian ancestors. No, the authoritarian Russian president, Vladimir Putin, did not crown himself Vladimir I. He just...

COMMENTARY

Jun 9, 2001

Beijing should mind its own business

By Doug Bandow

Taiwanese President Chen Shui-bian has finished his trip to the United States, and the Chinese government is upset. It considers Taiwan part of China, so how dare Washington allow the head of a "renegade province" to land in the U.S., even if he is only on his way to and from Latin America.

COMMENTARY / World

Jun 9, 2001

Is Japan tilting toward China?

By Ted Galen Carpenter

WASHINGTON -- Key officials in the Bush administration, especially Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage, have long been on record as urging Japan to play a more substantial role in East Asia's security affairs. Some of them even want Japanese leaders to repeal, or at least modify, Article 9 of...

EDITORIALS

Jun 8, 2001

No answers in Nepal

The mountainous little Himalayan country of Nepal exploded into the headlines last week on the strength of an incident as bizarre, as mysterious -- and as bloody -- as the final scene of "Hamlet." On Friday, June 1, Nepal's King Birendra Bir Bikram Shah Dev was shot to death along with his wife and seven...

COMMENTARY / World

Jun 8, 2001

A prince who loved women and guns shatters course of a dynasty

By Gautaman Bhaskaran

NEW DELHI -- The massacre in Nepal's royal palace is intriguing to the core.

COMMENTARY

Jun 8, 2001

Reform easier said than done

By Gregory Clark

Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi replaced former Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori on the grounds that he was a reformist and Mori was not. Yet Koizumi's first move was to cancel one of Mori's sensible reforms -- the bid to settle Japan's Northern Territories dispute with Moscow by first accepting the two...

EDITORIALS

Jun 7, 2001

Move ahead on postal privatization

Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi is a longtime advocate of postal-service privatization. This week his dream has taken a first step toward coming true. At its first meeting on Monday, the postal committee, an advisory panel to the prime minister, confirmed that the three postal services (mail, savings...

COMMENTARY / WASHINGTON UPDATE

Jun 7, 2001

Jeffords bombshell overshadows tax bill

By Bob Keefe

It has been interesting to watch the blame game explode in the week since U.S. Sen. James Jeffords decided to leave the Republican Party. In the immediate aftermath, there was a sense of disbelief, mixed with a bit of "we'll get a Democrat to switch and all will be well."

COMMENTARY / World

Jun 7, 2001

Can democracy live in the Muslim Mideast?

By Gwynne Dyer

LONDON -- "No stable system of government can be established unless it is popular." It would be an unremarkable statement in most parts of the world, but in Iran it is a subversive remark faxed by a man who has been under house arrest since 1997. The fact that he is Ayatollah Hussein Ali Montazeri, one...

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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