TOP CARTOON: IN 1994, KIM JONG-IL GRINS AS UNCLE SAM OFFERS A LIGHT WATER REACTOR AND 500,000 TONS OF FUEL OIL A YEAR IN RETURN FOR THE NORTH’S DISMANTLEMENT OF ITS NUCLEAR PROGRAM. BOTTOM CARTOON: IN 2008, KIM JONG-IL TURNS HIS BACK ON THE SAME OFFER, SAYING: ‘THAT’S NOT ENOUGH. NOW WE HAVE NUCLEAR WEAPONS.’ Are Seoul and Washington planning to invade North Korea, and/or shoot down its ‘peaceful’ communications satellite? As the annual U.S.-South Korea war exercises...

Unidentified members of Iran’s ‘Assembly of Experts’ – the body that is designated to elect and ‘oversee’ the Supreme Leader. In some quarters of Iraq, there is growing alarm about the impending withdrawal of the United States and Iran’s ongoing effort, as Aziz Al-Hajj of Iraq’s Sotal Iraq newspaper writes, to “swallow up Iraq politically, economically and socially.” Al-Hajj writes in part: “We believe Iraq will need American forces...

So how is Hillary Clinton’s visit to the Middle East playing in the Arab world? According to this editorial from Egypt’s most widely-read newspaper, Al Gomhuria, America has a lot to prove before the Arab world can take it seriously as an honest broker between Israelis and the Palestinians: “America have to understand that security must be conditioned upon returning the land and rights that have been stolen from the Palestinians, an end to the expansion of Jewish settlements on...

Days ago it emerged that President Obama had written Russian President Medvedev with a proposition: If Russia were able to use its influence with Iran and get it to give up its nuclear weapons program, the United States would halt the construction of the U.S. missile shield in Eastern Europe. According to this editorial from the Financial Times Deutschland, the Obama foreign policy is finally becoming clear – and his proposal to Medvedev is a bit of a coup: “The offer to Russian President...

Those of us who thought Russian press freedom was dead may have to reconsider after this article from Novaya Gazeta that not only praises President Obama’s ambitious agenda and “prays” for his success, it strongly criticizes President Putin’s piece-meal approach to addressing the crisis in Russia. After explaining to Russian readers that the markets haven’t responded well to “Plan Obama,” Alexander Polukhin, the Economics Editor for Novaya Gazeta, writes...

Continuing with our theme this evening of Latin America reaction to U.S. drug policy, this article from Excelsior argues that Mexico should legalize marijuana by adopting a strategy that Washington won’t be able to oppose. José A. Crespo of Mexico’s Excelsior writes in part: “What Mexico could do to alter its failed drug policy – with a view to sapping the economic power of the cartels, which translates into political power, corruption and the capacity to mount armed attacks...

Is Michael Phelps being crucified on the alter of a false morality? Or he is just the latest victim of America’s penchant for watching the mighty fall? Felipe Restrepo Pombo of Colombia’s Semana newspaper writes that as the American establishment continues to wallow in hypocrisy and misinformation, the real victims are dying across the hemisphere every day. Pombo writes in part: “The entire matter is nothing more than pathetic proof of the double-standard that exists in the United...

Days ago, to the apparent shock of Washington, the president and parliament of the nation of Kyrgyzstan decided to evict the United States from the Manas Air Base near the Kyrgyz capital of Bishkek – threatening one of the most secure supply routes to NATO forces in Afghanistan. Why was the United States so blindsided, or in other words, what’s behind this revolting development? According to this analysis from Russia’s Vremya newspaper – what’s behind the move is the...

Reports on Hillary Clinton’s Asia trip are almost universally positive – including this editorial from The Hankyoreh of South Korea. But what The Hankyoreh counts as a virtue, many people in this country, particularly human human rights activists, see as a monumental disappointment. The editorial says in part: “Clinton brought up nothing to make the nations she visited uncomfortable, instead focusing on easing concerns about the new U.S. administration. An example of this is...

The Swiss are up in arms today because of the fear that the IRS – along with the European Union – is about to put an end to legendary Swiss bank secrecy. Who among us hasn’t seen films or TV programs that featured this most prized commodity – a secret Swiss bank account? Well that may all be over soon. The issue causing the controversy is that UBS, Switzerland’s largest bank, paid $780 million in fines and agreed to hand over to the IRS client data on 250-300 customers...

President Obama’s decision to lift the federal ban on funding for groups that allow for a woman’s right to choose to have an abortion has created a bit of an uproar in largely Catholic Latin America. In this harshly worded op-ed from Guatemala’s Siglo Vientiuno, José Joaquín Camacho writes in part: “It is obvious that ensuring the right to life, and in a manner equal to all, is a duty on which the future of the humanity depends. When a society allows abortion – child-killing...

Just how real is the current economic crisis? With all the talk about ‘restoring confidence’, what is implied is this: Our current difficulties may be due more to psychology than actual economic conditions. Taking on this question for Germany’s Financial Times Deutschland is Nicholas Adjourim, managing director of Adjouri Brand Consultants – a European leader in branding and marketing – who thinks letting a tried and true brand like Lehman Brothers fail caused almost...

In analyzing the economic turmoil roiling the world, have we missed something essential about the causes? According to Thomas Klau of the Financial Times Deutschland, we not only missed the dangers of how IT was transforming the financial sector, we are now standing by as IT has an equally unpredictable and potentially devastating impact on the media – and on how information is disseminated within democracies. Thomas Klau writes in part: “Unbridled greed, hyperactive government deregulation,...

Do we in the outside world have it wrong about Kim Jong-il? While most of the planet regards him as a ruthless totalitarian who rules the equivalent of a nation-sized concentration camp, North Korea’s fanatically controlled state press tells a different story. On the occasion of the his 67th birthday, the Korean Central News Agency published this article lauding the historic achievements of the ‘Dear Leader,’ who it says miraculously protected the nation from the evil imperialists...

Has the long-awaited European disappointment with the Obama Administration already begun? Writing for the publisher of Germany’s Die Zeit, Josef Joffe, relates how the appearance of Vice President Joe Biden at the Munich conference on Security was anything but encouraging. Joffe writes in part: “At the Munich Conference on Security, Joe Biden received the longest and loudest applause – despite an imperial performance that would have elicited a “Mamma mia!” from Mussolini....

Now that President Obama is safely in office, will the Europeans kick in the troops Washington says it needs in Afghanistan? A quick read of this editorial from France’s Dernieres Nouvelles d’Alsace might lead one to wonder. Editorialist Jean-Claude Kiefer writes in part: “Why these reinforcements? Why the pressing appeal to Europeans to furnish new contingents, above all combat troops? This insistence on extending the engagement in Afghanistan remains the most obscure point...

The startling influence of the United States seems to know no end – and it emerges in the oddest ways and places. Say what you will about Larry Flynt, the man knows how to squeeze every drop of PR usefulness out of an issue. By calling for a federal bailout of the adult entertainment industry, he not only made headlines across the United States – he has had an impact around the world. Take for example this article by Francisco Javier Gutierrez of Nicaragua’s Le Prensa, which...

Here’s a Russian take on the battle which has been raging in the U.S. Congress between the dwindling Republican minority and the majority Democrats: In the midst of the greatest economic crisis since the Great Depression, should market forces and economic discipline rule the day, or should the government intervene as Obama [and Bush] have decided it should? Maksim Sokolov of the Russian newspaper Izvestia warns that while rigorous economic orthodoxy might shorten the time to recovery, there...

It’s an old debate that has resurfaced since President Obama suggested it as a priority: Should the nations of the world, particularly the major nuclear weapons states, make a serious attempt to cut or eliminate nuclear weapons? Within the past 24 hours, the people of WORLDMEETS.US have translated two articles on the subject – one from Austria’s Die Presse and the other from Poland’s Wprost. In an article with the headline ‘A World Without Nuclear Weapons? It’s...

Is the U.S. legal system one to emulate – particularly in regard to white collar crime? Given the accusations against some of America’s leading bankers and financiers and cries from the public that the majority are getting away with grand theft, one might be surprised to find that some across the Atlantic think things are even worse over there. For Portugal’s Jornal de Negocios, Jorge Brito Pereira writes in part: “In the United States, financial crimes are punished with...

As ‘Old Europe’ anticipates President Obama’s first visit, jockeying over what E.U. leader will be at the head of the European spear is in high gear. In France, President Nicolas Sarkozy has been lobbying for months to be to chief interlocutor with the new American administration, and this editorial from Le Figaro explains what he’s been up to and why his activities are bearing fruit. For Le Figaro, Pierre Rousselin writes in part: “France will not let the historic...

Is the current financial crisis worse, as bad, or not as bad, as the Great Depression of the 1930s? That seems to be the meme-question of our economic times. According to Wolfgang Munchau of Germany’s Financial Times Deutschland, the situation may not only be worse than the Great Depression, we might have to come up with a new word to describe its severity. In this sobering analysis, Munchau writes in part: “Is it too early for a new superlative? At first we spoke of the worst economic...

Is a trade war about to brake out between the United States and the People’s Republic of China? U.S. talk of Chinese currency manipulation has raised hackles in Beijing, and they have responded. This article from China’s strictly-controlled China Daily might be summarized this way: “You [the U.S.] had better not start a trade war – but if you do, America will be hurt more than China will.” Or in the words of Deng Yuwen, the author of this article: “China will...

Did the ‘change’ promised by Barack Obama include the ouster of Afghan President Hamid Karzai, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and ‘all Bush collaborators’ in the other Arab nation President Bush chose to invade, like Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki? That seems to be what at least some Iraqis think, based on this op-ed article by Fawaz al-Ajami of the Iraqi News Agency. Al-Ajami writes in part: “If a news item reported by Britain’s The Independent is...

It’s a question that obsesses the Muslim world from Southeast Asia to the Persian Gulf: Where will President Obama deliver his much anticipated speech to a ‘Muslim capital’? Benjamin Dierks of Germany’s Financial Times Deutschland penned this op-ed on the subject, and concludes that the obvious choice is probably the right one. Dierks writes in part: “No sooner had Barack Obama announced his desire to deliver a speech in an important Muslim city, than many began to...