With excerpts, these are a few of the global headlines about the United States posted by WORLDMEETS.US within the last 48 hours:
Liberation, France: By Sounding So European, Obama Challenges Europe
Here, Bernard Guetta, a member of Liberation’s board of trustees, warns Europe that just as Bush’s failure to lead the free world forced Europe to step up, Obama’s promise of restored U.S. leadership and his European style looks likely to put Europe in the shade again:
“Black, young and intellectual, he is also so European in his political approach that he presents a formidable challenge to Europe. … Unless Europe learns, as quickly as possible, how to accelerate its unification and speak and act together, it risks passing again into the shadow of an America to which intelligence has returned.”
La Stampa, Italy: Of Women, Rape and Old Politicos
This article is a reaction to a comment made last weekend by Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi. On Sunday he suggested that Italian women are so beautiful that they need military escorts to avoid being raped. The author uses this latest gaffe to give the lay of the global media landscape:
“If the final attack by the old dying age of information and politics were the photos of Hillary Clinton’s wrinkled face (no one would have attempted to demolish a male leader because of his ugliness), today’s TV screens and news headlines inform us that the new is represented by the lithe Obama and his Michelle, who isn’t just a wife but a co-protagonist, capable of showing off a pair of charming green gloves without diminishing her stature.”
News of the World, U.K.: Swimmer Michael Phelps Allegedly Photographed Smoking Marijuana Bong
This article from British scandal sheet News of the World provides photos and asks, ‘Will this ruin Phelps’ career?’
“THIS is the astonishing picture which could destroy the career of the greatest competitor in Olympic history. In our exclusive photo Michael Phelps, who won a record EIGHT gold medals for swimming at the Beijing games last summer, draws from a bong.
This quite surprising editorial from Iran’s state-controlled press unequivocally calls upon Iranian leaders to take advantage of Obama’s proverbial ‘outstretched hand.’
“War is a hideous phenomenon, but removing Saddam Hussein and the Taliban were both positive actions carried out by United States. … Now that the leader of the United States has taken a positive step toward Iran, the Islamic Republic’s leaders should seize on the chance and work for a positive outcome.”
Daily North Korea, South Korea: North Korea Expects Obama to Send Special Envoy
This article, from the Daily North Korea – a publication staffed largely by North Koreans who have escaped that prosion nation, provides coverage of a Pyongyang-controlled newspaper in Japan, which outlines what the Kim Jong-il regime expects from the Obama Administration, and repeats its latest 100-yard moving of the diplomatic goalposts that might lead to denuclearization of that nation.
“The U.S. must accept North Korea as a nuclear state and address the North Korean nuclear issue within the context of bilateral disarmament talks after normalizing relations.”
Jerusalem Post, Israel: In the Age of ‘Honest Obama’ …
This article By Caroline Glick of the Jerusalem Post laments the age of ‘Honest Obama’:
“The most sympathetic interpretation of Obama’s desire to move ahead with diplomatic engagement in spite of the mullocracy’s preconditions is that he has simply failed to countenance the significance of Iran’s demands. In other words, it is apparent that Obama remains convinced that the US is indeed to blame for the supposed crisis of confidence that the Islamic world suffers from in its dealings with America. By this reasoning, it is for the US, not for Teheran, to show its sincerity, because the US, rather than Teheran, is to blame for the dismal state of relations prevailing between the two countries. “
We are also posting the key speeches and round-table discussions from the World Economic forum. This morning, we posted Al Gore’s spirited promotion of restored U.S. leadersip on the climate front:
