UPDATE: The New York Times: After the shooting the police seized a 32-year-old Norwegian man on the island, according to the police and Justice Minister Knut Storberget. He was later identified as Anders Behring Breivik and was characterized by officials as a right-wing extremist. The man was arrested in connection with both attacks. CNN: [Update: 10:20 p.m. ET, 4:20 a.m. Oslo] At least 80 people are dead as...

For a nation recovering from one of the greatest series of cataclysms in recorded history, the victory of the Japan women’s national football team over Team USA in the FIFA World Cup was an invaluable elixir. According to this editorial from Japan’s Mainichi Shimbun, what made Japan proudest was when Japan’s national team circled the stadium with a huge banner thanking the world for its backing...

Do Mexicans have a right to feel intruded upon, now that the United States has admitted allowing high-powered weapons to be sold to representatives of the Mexican drug cartels? Excelsior columnist Jesus Ortega Martinez writes that the recent U.S. sting operation ‘Fast and Furious’ undermines the Mexican state, violates international law and endangers innocent people on both sides of the border. For...

Is it time that a law be passed rewarding or punishing politicians based on their performance in office? The idea, suggested by American comedian Andy Borowitz, sounds appealing. Unfortunately, as columnist Patrik Etschmayer of Switzerland’s News laments, who would pass it? For Switzerland’s News, Patrik Etschmayer writes in part: In one of the very amusing articles on his Web site The Borowitz...

Is the last shoe in the global debt crisis about to drop? Folha columnist Patricia Campos Mello writes that with a possible slowdown on the horizon and a municipal debt crisis that may amount to 30 percent of China’s GDP, the ‘bond buyer of last resort’ for both America and struggling E.U. countries may no longer be capable of coming to the rescue. For Folha, Patricia Campos Mello writes in...

Have Republicans gone too far with their absolutest positions on raising the U.S. debt limit and demanding tax cuts without any new revenue? Try as one might, there are precious few people abroad who see the economic world like the Republican Tea Party faction does. Salzburger Nachrichten columnist Thomas Spang writes that U.S. Republicans have already lost their attempt to ‘get Obama into trouble,’...

For columnist Fyodor Lukyanov of Russia’s Gazeta, America’s ugly debate about raising the U.S. debt ceiling serves as a disturbing counterpoint to Greece’s flirtation with bankruptcy. According to Lukyanov, it is precisely the sense of fruitless confrontation in Washington that is the greatest source of American discouragement. For Gazeta, Fyodor Lukyanov writes in part: On the day the Greek...

It is time to celebrate – that is, unless you are the ‘Great Satan’ or any other devil in human form. Because today is the birthday of the Mahdi, also known as the Muslim Messiah. And according to Iran’s state-run Kayhan, it’s time to prepare ourselves for his return. Kayhan columnist Seyyed Ali Shahbaz informs us of the Mahdi’s imminent arrival – along with Jesus...

Does the U.S. political crisis demonstrate what Beijing has been saying for years: that it is dangerous for U.S. creditors to allow the dollar to continue as the global currency of choice? According to this article by Li Xiangyang for the state-run People’s Daily, until the dollar is dethroned, holders of U.S. sovereign debt ‘must either endure the enormous immediate financial risk brought about...

Is the United States doing enough to put an end to the drug violence south of the border? According to this editorial from Mexico’s El Universal, while the Obama government has taken tiny steps in the right direction, opposition from the U.S. gun lobby and the legalization of marijuana in 15 U.S. states has hindered progress. The editorial from El Universal says in part: The weapons that kill thousands...

Is there any truth to the notion that it would be no big deal if the U.S. Congress failed to lift the debt ceiling? According to Die Zeit columnist Christoph von Marschall, the world is cowering in fear over the fact that there are some U.S. lawmakers who fail to acknowledge the catastrophe of such an unprecedented event. For Die Zeit, Christoph von Marschall writes in part: The clock is ticking relentlessly....

When it comes to the question of the U.S. defaulting on its debt, it seems that the old adage ‘when the U.S. coughs, the world catches cold’ isn’t completely outdated. According to this editorial from Brazil’s O Globo, the fortunes of billions may depend of the vicissitudes of America’s cartoonish yet deadly serious political debate. The O Globo editorial says in part: On the...

Is the burgeoning rivalry between China and the United States destined to worsen the split between North and South Korea? This editorial from South Korea’s Hankyoreh warns that the territorial disputes in the East and South China Seas may put Korean unification even further out of reach than it already is. The Hankyoreh editorial says in part: The question of whether China will support North Korea militarily...

Director Roman Polanski may have narrowly escaped yet another attempt to extradite him to the United States on charges that he raped a San Francisco 13-year-old 33 years ago. According to this article by Ewa Siedlecka of Poland’s Gazeta Wyborcza, Polanski canceled a visit to a film festival in his native country of Poland at the last minute, leading many to believe he feared the long arm of American law. For...

Pakistani frustration and resentment continued to mushroom yesterday, when, due to its displeasure with a lack of Pakistani cooperation, the U.S. announced a cut of $800 million in aid to Islamabad. According to this editorial from Pakistan’s Frontier Post, U.S. aid has brought the country nothing but misery and insecurity, and in any case, amounts to much less than Washington claims. The Frontier Post...

South California, a conservative’s utopia: Accusing Sacramento of pillaging local governments to feed its runaway spending and left-wing policies, a Riverside County politician is proposing a solution: He wants 13 mostly inland, conservative counties to break away to form a separate state of “South California.” Supervisor Jeff Stone, a Republican pharmacist from Temecula, called California...

Recently in Hungary, an organization named after Hungarian-American and former Congressman Tom Lantos was inaugurated. So far so good. But according to this angry editorial from Hungary’s Barikad newspaper, there are many Hungarians who were offended by the praise heaped on the former U.S. lawmaker, a man they regarded as something of a Hungarian turncoat who was more loyal to the U.S. and Israel than...

Could it be that after years of protecting Dr. Abdul Qadeer Khan, also known as the father of Pakistan’s nuclear weapons program, Islamabad may be preparing to prosecute him for providing nuclear technology to rogue states? According to this editorial from Pakistan’s Frontier Post, a letter allegedly passed on by Dr. Khan to a British researcher may be a CIA forgery. If genuine, however, the document...

With the release of former IMF chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn from house arrest in New York, it seems that the soul-searching that had descended on French media over giving the influential a pass on their personal behavior has almost completely reversed itself. For Les Dernières Nouvelles d’Alsace, columnist Olivier Picard laments that when it comes to being neutral observers of events, French journalists...

Talk about a dream lawsuit and an idiotic reaction from the bank. The story is that 28 year old Ikenna Njoku received a first time homebuyer tax credit and asked the IRS to deposit the refund in his Chase bank account. The IRS sent the $ 9,000 to Chase but Njoku’s account was overdrawn, so Chase deducted the amount he owed and sent him a check for $ 8,400. He took the check to Chase to cash but the teller...

Although rape charges against former IMF chief Dominique-Strauss Kahn may be dropped, the case has triggered a reawakening among French feminists, and according to Le Monde special correspondent Catherine Simon, they have issued a set of demands to put to all candidates in France’s 2012 presidential election. For Le Monde, from the Summer conference of Feminist Movements in Evry, France, correspondent...

In what has been cropping up as a pretty consistent narrative from Europeans since President Obama announced that U.S. forces are withdrawing from Afghanistan, Enrique Arias Vega of Spain’s El Semanal writes that after all that America has done for Europe, Europe must step up and fill the security void the U.S. is about to create – or cede the ground to Beijing. For El Semanal, Enrique Arias Vega...

Is China the victim of a campaign mounted by the United States to turn the nations adjacent to the South China Sea against Beijing? According to columnist Liang Fengming of China’s state-run Huanqui, the U.S. is seeking to demonize China by inflaming territorial disputes between China and other states like Vietnam, Taiwan, the Philippines, South Korea and others – which are none of America’s...

It may be the Independence Day holiday, but according to Financial Times Deutschland Wall Street correspondent Jens Korte, U.S. citizens have precious little to celebrate this year. So does the dismal economic climate and waning U.S. influence spell the end for the United States? Korte writes – not by a long shot. For Germany’s Financial Times Deutschland, Jens Korte writes in part: This year,...

Are things so dire on the eve of America’s 234th Independence Day, that the United States needs Europe to step in to preserve all that Western civilization holds dear? According to this article from columnist Clemens Wergin of Germany’s Die Welt, after decades of taking a ‘free ride’ on America’s dime, it is time for Europe to fill the security gap while the United States licks...