• The Age, Melbourne, U.S. and North Korea • The Times, London, on the 2012 Olympic Games • Corriere della Sera, Milan on Kyoto Protocol The Age, Melbourne, U.S. and North Korea In a curious twist, the United States has
• The Age, Melbourne, U.S. and North Korea
• The Times, London, on the 2012 Olympic Games
• Corriere della Sera, Milan on Kyoto Protocol
The Age, Melbourne, U.S. and North Korea
In a curious twist, the United States has shrugged off the first outright declaration by North Korea that it has nuclear weapons. Here is a nation with one of the most erratic leaderships in the world declaring that it has weapons of mass destruction and the US response — at least that of new Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice — is glib dismissal. Saddam Hussein must be wondering where he went wrong. …
Having declared North Korea an “outpost of tyranny” last month, Dr. Rice has made her position clear enough. It is a long way from the more hopeful scenes just four years ago when then-secretary of state Madeleine Albright sat at the table in Pyongyang with Kim Jongil to negotiate in person. The U.S. appeared to have a plan at that point. It no longer does.
After several years of famine, a crumbling economy and increasing isolation this failed Stalinist state is running out of survival strategies. The Pyongyang regime staves off collapse largely due to the goodwill of its neighbor China which, having spent years trying to mediate between the U.S. and North Korea, now finds itself uncomfortably wedged between the two. China has already impressed upon Kim Jongil the need for economic and political reforms. It has also said the six-nation talks, which it hosts, should continue. North Korea should heed that counsel, while the US might learn a little from the quieter diplomacy of the Chinese.
The Times, London, on the 2012 Olympic Games
It is not the taking part that counts on this occasion, it’s the winning.…Britain cannot win the bid for the 2012 Games this week but it can lose it.…
Already the bid alone has seen the city promised new athletics and cycling stadiums and a 63 million-pound aquatic centre. The 900 million pounds needed to extend the East London line has been secured. The bid has given fresh impetus to Crossrail, and were the Games to come to the capital, regeneration of the Thames Gateway, along a 40-mile stretch of the river east of the Dock-lands, would be assured.
If the world’s greatest sporting event comes to Europe, Europe’s most exciting city should be the one to host it. Nowhere else can match London for diversity, history and style, and nowhere else would the Games legacy be more vividly memorable. …
Corriere della Sera, Milan on Kyoto Protocol
The Protocol is an imperfect instrument, it doesn’t consider the pollution produced by China and by developing countries and ignores the voices of the scientists that still don’t see proof of the greenhouse effects.
Washington must however keep in mind…that one quarter of the noxious gases of the world are ‘made in the USA.’
Better instead for all, starting from the G8 meeting in July at Gleneagles in Scotland, to work on the mediation of the American senators McCain and Hagel that, even if they don’t endorse the Kyoto Protocol, propose a common ecological plan.
Kyoto is not the panacea against pollution, but it indicates the correct path, there is no contradiction between development and environment.
The best thing is not to make a new case of it and divide ourselves, but to discuss together how to confront the criticism of the Protocol.
