OBAMA’S BLACKBERRY: ‘AHMADINEJAD WOULD LIKE TO FOLLOW YOU ON TWITTER’ CAPTION: ‘AHMADINEJAD WANTS TO FOLLOW OBAMA’ Can the United States expect Russia to help Washington approach the Iranian regime – and if so, what can they do for us? In an attempt to answer these questions, we’ve posted this Iran-centric interview with Victor Kremenyuk, the deputy director of the Institute of the USA and Canada at the Russian Academy of Sciences. In regard to the election...

Swiss neutrality is an article of faith among the people of that country, which is why something of a civil war has erupted between Switzerland’s collective head of state and its judiciary over whether documents, which are rumored to show CIA meddling in Swiss national affairs, should be destroyed. In a nutshell, the documents involve Swiss nationals who helped Pakistan nuclear scientist A. Q. Khan develop the Islamic bomb – and whether the Swiss, in collusion with the CIA, have sought...

As all Moderate Voice readers are no doubt fully aware, this weekend, President Obama made his first visit to sub-Saharan Africa since becoming President of the United States. Below are a few of the best articles we found from the Ghanaian press about the trip. In an article from Ghana Web, headlined Mr. Obama: It’s Time for America to Give Back to Africa, columnist Kojo Tamakloe lowers the boom by reminding the president that the CIA toppled Ghana’s beloved first post-colonial leader,...

What do Russians think of the United States – and is this a problem? In offering this psychoanalysis, which is quite sympathetic to the U.S., political scientist Leonid Radzihovskiy tells readers of the Rossiyskaya Gazeta that if Russians ever hope to build a new relationship with Americans, they had better eject whatever they’ve heard about us from Russia’s state media, which he characterizes as ‘brainwashing.’ To illustrate his point, Radzihovskiy writes in part: “In...

After President Obama’s visit to Russia, it would appear that East Europeans are resting just a little bit easier. For Poland’s Rceczpospolita, columnist Jerzy Haszczynski writes in part: “We still don’t know whether plans to build components of an anti-missile shield in our country will remain plans and nothing more. But we know, pressure from Russia notwithstanding, that the project is yet to be buried, meaning that Obama didn’t offer Medvedev the greatest gift. If he...

With ousted Honduran President Manuel Zelaya and Venezuelan leader Hugo Chavez appearing to call for armed U.S. intervention in Latin America, this editorial from Venezuela’s Tal Cual seems to be asking proverbially, ‘has the world turned upside down?’ Referring to the two leaders as ‘Chacumbeles’, which is a Cuban expression that means roughly “people who do themselves in,” the Tal Cual editorial says in part: “For once in its long history of outrages...

Once again, the Russian newspaper Gazeta, which is partly owned by Mikhail Gorbachev, says what few other Russian media outlets will: that Russia today is little match for the power of the United States. This cold-eyed assessment by Gazeta, published Tuesday morning, says in part: “Russian-American relations, even without the anti-American hysteria that was consciously cultivated by the Russian government throughout the 2000s – is one of unequal powers not especially interested in...

It’s an American product that most people consider as pure as rain and as wholesome as apple pie. Is it possible to criticize Disneyland as a ‘gigantic world encompassing brain-washing facility’? After attacking the insidious way that Disney stories have soft-peddled destructive Western man to the globe’s children, this article from Mexico’s La Jornada criticizes a new Mexican theme park called Excarat for aping Disney’s treatment of the natural world. For La...

Could it be that Lance Armstrong, the American that continues, year after year, to win France’s most renowned sporting event, has been using banned substances all along? Is this a legitimate gripe or just sour grapes? This article by Fabrice Rousselot of France’s Liberation would lead one to believe that after all these years, Armstrong has lost none of his capacity to raise the hackles of his apparently unwilling hosts at the Tour de France. Rousselot writes in part: “Perhaps...

Will President Obama’s first summit meeting with Dmitry Medvedev actually manage to ‘reset’ relations between the former Cold War foes? Columnist Fyodor Lukyanov of Russia’s Gazeta newspaper warns not to expect more than atmospherics from the two-day summit that begins today, and outlines why when it comes to the mistakes of the decades since the fall of the Soviet Union, the Kremlin holds Washington entirely responsible for all that’s gone wrong. For Gazeta, Lukyanov...

Excitement over President Obama’s impending visit to Africa – particularly in Ghana – is reaching a fever pitch. According to columnist Christian Agubretu of Ghana’s My Joy newspaper, one reason for hope is that the president has requested a tour of Ghana’s infamous Cape Coast Castle, a major embarkation point for Africans who were kidnapped and sold into slavery. For My Joy, Christian Agubretuwrites in part: “Clearly, the dungeons where the slaves were kept...

A montage of Chinese newspaper front pages on June 27, the day after Michael Jackson’s death. As has already been well-established, huge portions of the world are in mourning over the death of Michael Jackson. This news item from the state-controlled SC News, a Web site of the Chung Shan Daily News Newspaper Group, recounts Michael Jackson’s first and only visit to Mainland China, which took place in 1987. The report consists of an interview with Michael Jackson’s tour guide...

Is Michael Jackson – and along with him U2 and Madonna – the last vestige of a music industry in its death throes? For Switzerland’s Nachrichten newspaper, Patrik Etschmayer writes in part: “Ever since Michael Jackson, King of Pop, extra-terrestrial, and whatever else he was dubbed, shuffled off this mortal coil, commentators around the world have absolutely flipped. “What’s rarely mentioned is that Jackson, along with the other giants of the 1980s, such as...

With the White House launching the U.S. military into its first big offensive in Afghanistan since President Obama took office, this angry and sarcastic article from Iran’s state-controlled Kayhan newspaper cannot be good news. Writing for Kayhan, Kian Mokhtari writes in part: “On Saturday, Obama rather swiftly brushed off a call by President Ahmadinejad for an apology for Washington’s ‘meddling in Iran’s internal affairs. ‘Obama replied ‘I don’t...

The planetary Rorschach test that is Michael Jackson’s death continues with this article from Brazil’s Folha newspaper. For Folha, Joao Pereira Coutinho delves into the inevitable conspiracy theories surrounding Jackson’s death – and how the singer failed to grasp the myths he himself adopted and altered for his own purposes. Joao Pereira Coutinho writes in part: “Poor Michael Jackson. The man dies as we all die. Only more radically. With his heart prosaically saying...

The remarkable global outpouring of emotion and opinion about Michael Jackson’s death shows no sign of abating. Questions about his relationships with children, his decades-long attempt to whiten his skin, and his tendency to do everything most people do in reverse, are all touched upon by Le Figaro’s Yann Moix, in this thought-provoking defense of Michael Jackson and the way he was compelled to live. In regard to the issue of pedophilia, Moix writes in part: “At seven-years-old,...

Has the Chinese government, to its own detriment, carelessly labeled people, particularly Americans and specifically House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, ‘anti-China’? That is the somewhat starling conclusion of this article published in China’s state-controlled Global Geographic Times. First published in Singapore’s United Morning News, Xue Haipei writes in part: “The tendency to overuse the idea of ‘anti-China influences’ continues to push people who aren’t...

As in North America, Asia, Africa, Latin America, Europe and Oceania are united in at least one way: shock over the death of Michael Jackson. As part of our coverage of this cultural border-shattering event, we present this editorial by Sebastien Le Fol of France’s Le Figaro newspaper, which investigates why Michael Jackson’s demise has had the incredible impact reverberating around the world today. For Le Figaro, Sebastien Le Fol writes in part: “What fascinates us most of all...

Is it conceivable that Iran and the United States have been working together in Iraq all along? At WORLDMEETS.US, we have documented over the years that there are a good number of people in Iraq that are fully convinced of this – often pointing to the fact that Iran is the country that has gotten the most out of the Iraq invasion. This op-ed from Iraq’s Al Iraq newspaper charges not only that Washington and Tehran have cooperated in tearing Iraq to pieces, but that the United States...

Why is German Chancellor Angela Merkel in town in part to dispel rumors that U.S.-German relations are strained – and that President Obama is less enamored by the Old Continent than his predecessors? Financial Times Deutschland columnist Thomas Klau surmises that at the root of President Obama’s “casual willingness to snub” Merkel and French President Nicolas Sarkozy is that individually, European nations no longer warrant the attention they once did. According to Klau, the...

Could it be that CNN is overdoing its coverage of Michael Jackson’s death – pushing aside more pressing issues? If you said yes – then you are in agreement with Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, who charges that a challenge to the authority of his ally in Honduras, President Manuel Zelaya, is being ignored in favor of Jackson’s passing by the American cable news network, due to the ‘negative values of capitalism.’ This news item from Mexico’s El Universal...

Perhaps unaware that it was using a phrase taken from the nightmarish, counter-intuitive language known as Newspeak from George Orwell’s novel 1984, the Iranian regime today complimented President Obama for his restraint – and lowered the boom on Great Britain. This article by Kian Mokhtari of the Islamic Republic’s conservative, state-controlled Kayhan newspaper says in part: “We thought the world had seen the last of slimy, underhanded British attempts to take over the...

Commenting on the criticism President Obama has been receiving for not more roundly condemning the Iranian regime after the June 12 election, this article from Russia raises the question: Is it an advantage for Russia that it’s President can meet with the likes of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, because it ‘doesn’t try to preach to others or impose morality’? According to this article for Russia’s Novosti News Agencyby analyst Dmitriy Babich, America has cornered itself diplomatically...

Have the ripple effects of President Obama’s Cairo speech now reached Latin America? Many people now believe that the elections in Lebanon and Iran were a direct or indirect result of the president’s speech to Muslims. This article by columnist Artemio Cruz of Nicaragua’s El Nuevo Diario shows that that beyond the fact that President Obama’s two speeches to Muslims [from Ankara and Cairo] are having an impact on people far removed from the Middle East or the Arab World,...

‘FEARFUL TIMES’ Since the advent of Barack Obama, has there been a growing expectation around the world that candidates like him are bound to emerge? Calling this group psychosis ‘Obamanization,’ Folha of Brazil’s Joao Pereira Coutinho writes in part: “I am sick of the Obamanization of the world. Now I’ve invented a word. You know what it means to ‘Obamanize?’ It consists of substituting fantasy for reality, hoping that out of the four corners...