Message to America: A bewildered man emerges Wednesday from a restaurant in Peshawar, Pakistan, to a scene of utter devastation. The Taliban have claimed responsibility for the attack, which killed at least 107. If this editorial from Pakistan’s The Nation is anything to go by, Hillary Clinton’s “hearts and minds” visit to Pakistan is, as the headline says, “falling flat” – and making matters worse was the Taliban terrorist bombing that greeted her. As we’ve...

Amid the torrent of news, one might have missed one of the largest drug busts in history just days ago – against La Familia – Mexico’s most deadly narco-trafficking mafia group. Confiscated by over 3,000 agents from emergency and security services in 19 states were 1,100 pounds of marijuana, 770 pounds of methamphetamine, 138 pounds of cocaine, $3.4 million, 144 weapons of various calibers, 109 automobiles – and payment receipts for 4,000 assassinations. According to this...

It was a busy weekend and I’d like to give people at the Moderate Voice a heads up on some of what we’ve been covering. From Pakistan’s The Nation Newspaper, the editorial headlined Hillary Clinton Should Mind Her Own Media! attacks the secretary of state for criticizing Pakistan’s media coverage of the huge U.S. aid bill to that nation. Then for Pakistan’s Pak Tribune in an article headlined, In Waziristan, Americans Must Now Stand Aside, columnist Anwaar Hussain...

It would appear from this angry article in Iran’s rigidly state-controlled Kayhan newspaper, that when it suits its own interests, the leadership in Tehran condones listening to the music of the Rolling Stones. With allusions to the all-seeing-eye of the Freemasons and a section on how Americans abuse women, this is the regime’s latest verbal assault on the United States. The author, Kian Mokhtari, writes in part: “We allowed it to introduce itself – and it was neither of...

Mural to the dead: Revolutionary Guard members look at pictures of commanders and colleagues killed in Sunday’s suicide bombing. Who is responsible for Monday’s devastating attack on members of Iran’s elite Revolutionary Guard? According to Iran and others, the U.S. and Britain are responsible, since they back the Sunni group that has claimed responsibility and is fighting for an independent Baluchestan. But this article from Kuwait’s Al Seyassah charges that the Iranians...

Consolation prize?: Vice President Joe Biden and Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk in Warsaw, Oct. 21. Has America agreed to station U.S. forces in Poland to ease the pain of canceling the construction of elements of an anti-missile shield in that country? In addition to discussing the new version of the U.S. anti-missile shield with its East European allies, according to this article by Andrzej Talaga of Poland’s Dziennik newspaper, an agreement is likely to be signed involving the construction...

Could it be that the United States is somehow behind or involved with the suicide attack on a meeting that included senior members of Iran’s Revolutionary Guard? According to this editorial from Pakistan’s Frontier Post, which is published right along the Afghan-Pakistan border, there is every reason to believe that the attack, claimed by the Sunni group Jundallah which is fighting for an independent Balochistan, was launched from Pakistani territory with the full knowledge of the CIA...

In regard to Afghanistan, should Russians indulge in a little schadenfreude - a German word meaning taking pleasure in the pain of others – or should it help the United States out of its predicament. For Russia’s Kommersant newspaper, columnist Sergey Markedonov asks his readers: “Should we be happy over the misfortune of our ’sworn friend’ the U.S. – particularly against the background of the current reset of bilateral relations? …” After pointing...

Continuing with our look at Obama’s Nobel Prize through a global prism, this article from Syria’s state-controlled Thawra Al Wada shares the rest of the world’s surprise with the award – but with a distinctly anti-Israel Syrian twist. For Thawra Al Wada, Khalaf Ali Al Moftah argues that Obama has time to earn the award, as long as he does a few things no American chief executive is ever likely to do – and in any case, would cripple him politically. After suggesting...

Some of Iran’s top military commanders were killed in a terrorist attack on Sunday, and according to this article from Iran’s state-controlled Kayhan newspaper, the regime holds the U.S. and Britain responsible. The Kayhan news item says in part: “A terrorist blew himself up at a meeting of tribal elders in southeastern Iran Sunday, martyring at least 31 people, including top commanders. The attack took place in the city of Pisheen near the border with Pakistan in Sistan and Baluchestan...

After being invaded by the previous U.S. administration based on faulty information, how do Iraqis feel about the current president of the United States winning the Nobel Peace Prize? In the first translation on the subject we’ve had from Iraq, Abd Al Razzak Al Rabihi doesn’t spare the use of exclamation points in his understandable outburst of exasperation. He writes for Iraq’s Kitabat newspaper in part: “In the same way that America fought Iraq ‘thinking’ it...

GENIE ASKS UNCLE SAM: ‘WILL IT BE A MILITARY BASE, A COCA BASE OR A DATA BASE?’ How do Colombians feel about the seven military bases the United States intends to build on their nation’s land? According to this off-color tongue-in-cheek column by Colombian writer and art professor Lucas Ospina, it’s alright with him – with one important proviso. For Colombia’s Semana newspaper and basing his proposal on the classic book, “A Confederacy of Dunces,” Lucas...

Roman Polanski and his victim, Samantha Geimer, as she looked as a thirteen-year-old in 1977. One of the interesting side effects of the arrest of film director Roman Polanski is the soul-searching it has set off in the other countries that claim him as one of their own – in this case, Poland. Why are people defending a man who committed, in the eyes of most civilized people, one of the worst crimes imaginable – pedophilia? In this wide-ranging interview from Poland’s Gazeta Wyborcza,...

If one were to point out a central theme for most of the global reaction to President Obama’s Nobel Peace Prize win, it would be the fear on the part of the overwhelming percentage of the planet’s population that our young leader will be hamstrung by the award. This article by Olivier Picard of France’s Dernieres Nouvelles d’Alsace puts it this way in part: “Barack Obama cannot yet boast of results. He is, however, the leader of a country at war in two countries. And...

What’s so lucrative about selling chicken to China? We sell them parts of the bird that we won’t eat – like the feet. Worth just a few cents a pound in the U.S., American chicken feet fetch 60-80 cents a pound in China. From the Xinjingbao of the People’s Republic of China, this strategy session from Chinese researcher Xue Chung explains more than you ever wanted to know about what China does with American chicken, why the trade is so lucrative for the United States and how...

So what do the Swedes – the custodians of every other Nobel Prize – think of the Norwegian Nobel Committee’s decision to award the Peace Prize to President Barack Obama? This editorial from Sweden’s Dagens Nyheter says in part: “That the Norwegians got carried away with euphoria over Obama’s election is understandable, but that doesn’t make their decision any more justifiable. By rewarding Obama with a Nobel Prize, the Norwegian committee has managed to raise...

Americans aren’t alone in thinking that President Obama’s Nobel Peace Prize was nothing more than a West-European rejection of the polices of President Bush. For Italy’s Corriere della Sera, columnist Franco Venturini gives vent to his fear that this Nobel may have ben erroneously awarded: “If not an indictment of his predecessor, what is this Nobel for Barack Obama, which has no relation to hard and fast accomplishments and isn’t to celebrate his more than credit-worthy...

Shock and surprise – but not necessarily dismay – have spread across the world after the announcement that Barack Obama is to be awarded the 2009 Nobel Peace Prize. The first French translation we’ve posted on the subject is from France’s Rue 89. For the Rue 89, Pierre Haski writes in part: “We salute the intention, the bold words and perhaps mostly the man himself and his journey … Did jurors want to give Obama a boost in his difficult battle over to reform of the...

Is it possible that the People’s Republic of China is in fact not aggressive at all, and wants to create ‘harmonious international relations?’ According to Fyodor Lukyanov of Russia’s Gazeta newspaper, Western countries – including Russia, may be superimposing their own ways of thinking on the Chinese, and hence, drawing the wrong conclusions. For Gazeta, Fyodor Lukyanov writes in part: “In global politics, China is concerned about one thing – increasing...

Is it time for the U.S. military to leave Afghanistan and that nation’s security to an international peacekeeping force? In this surprisingly forthright op-ed credited to the deputy general of the China Council for National Security Policy Studies, the Beijing leadership definitively wades into the question of what should be done to fix Afghanistan. For the China Daily, Deputy General Li Qinggong writes in part: “The United States should put an end to the war. The war on terror,...

There seems to be an emerging trend in the Muslim world, in which all leaders regarded as despots are called ‘worse than Saddam’, ‘as bad as Saddam’, or the ‘new Saddam.’ Yesterday we posted ‘Muammar Qaddafi is No Better than Saddam,’ from the newspaper Sotal Iraq. Today, from Kuwait’s Arab Times, we have this article that warns about Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad being the ‘new Saddam.’ Coming from Kuwait, a nation Saddam...

Libyan Despot Muammar Qaddafi succeeded in amusing and ticking off quite a few people last week with his rambling speech at the United Nations, which he made, according to him, not due to his role as dictator of Libya or president of the U.N. Security Council [yes - Qaddafi presently holds the rotating presidency of that body], but in his capacity as African Union chairman. According to Noor al-Harby, a columnist for the newspaper Sotal Iraq, before and after becoming African Union chairman,...

Since despite having angered President Obama, the Israelis have succeeded in rejecting his demand that they halt settlements on Palestinian land, is it time the Palestinians took a page from Israel’s book and anger President Obama as well? According to K. Selim of Algeria’s Le Quotidien d’Oran, by failing to reject Obama’s request to have his photo taken with Israeli Leader Benjamin Netanyahu last week, Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas made only the latest in decades of tactical...

Continuing our foreign press coverage of the Roman Polanski saga, this news item from Switzerland’s Le Temps reports that an embarrassed Swiss foreign ministry is denying any deal related to the UBS scandal and that the people of Switzerland ‘can be proud’ that Polanski has been nabbed by Swiss authorities. The article also offers a description of how Polanski’s arrest was set in motion. By correspondent Valentine Zubler, the Le Temps article says in part: “’Our...

For those who have been following the European reaction to President Obama’s decision to ditch the Bush-era anti-missile shield, you know that the divide between East and West Europe has been stark. This article by Bartosz Weglarczyk of Poland’s Gazeta Wyborcza, in very cool-eyed fashion, councils Poles on some down home truths and urges people in that nation to accept the inevitable end of a period of unusually close cooperation with the United States. But not, however, to give up...