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What the World Is Reading
October 31, 2008 9:17 AM
By CLARK BENTSON, ABC News Rome
The countdown to the historic U.S. election filled newspapers and dominated Web sites again this week. One might wonder what everyone will write about after Tuesday. Read on. Click the links to various foreign publications to see what is making news in other parts of the world.
Changing Faces in Chile
Chile’s CIPER, a Spanish-language investigative journalism Web site, published a lengthy article on a 1985 meeting between Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet and Republican candidate John McCain. The Santiago Times called the meeting between Pinochet, “a dictator and …one of the world’s most notorious violators of human rights,” and McCain a contradiction of his campaign pledge that he wouldn’t sit down with dictators without preconditions.
Chileans are seeking change in big numbers, the Santiago Times reports in the same edition. One in three Chileans would like to have plastic surgery and nearly one in 10 have already undergone a procedure.
Medvedev the Mediator: Remember Nagorno-Karabakh?
Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili shook up his Cabinet this week, designating a little-known diplomat named Grigol Mgaloblishvili to be the next prime minister. This was just days after the European Union had pledged $4.5 billion to help strengthen the Georgian economy after its war with Russia in Abkhazia and South Ossetia, according to Georgia Today newspaper.
Russian President Dmitry Medvedev ignored the criticism by the United States and other Western countries for what the West saw as Russian aggression in the region. The Russian parliament approved friendship pacts with the two disputed regions, the Kommersant paper reported, paving the way for permanent Russian military bases in the two territories.
Yet, during a recent state visit to Armenia, Medvedev declared that all territorial disputes in the Caucuses region should be resolved diplomatically. The recent Russian military conflict with Georgia has shown the need to settle territorial disputes through negotiation, he added. Putting words to action Medvedev announced he will host diplomatic talks between the presidents of Armenia and Azerbaijan over the disputed territory of Nagorno-Karabakh. More than 30,000 people were killed when fighting erupted after the breakup of the old Soviet Union. A fragile cease-fire took hold in 1994. The chances of progress will be tough. The AzerNews agency had little to report on the meetings, leaving it to a British analyst to assess the chances of success.
Armtown, the Armenian news site, carried brief comments by Armenia’s president saying the opportunity for success depended completely on the Azeris. “Resolution of the conflict is possible if Azerbaijan recognizes the right of Nagorno-Karabakh people to self-determination,” said Serzh Sargsyan.
As for the Karabakh press (referred to as the Garabagh by the Azeris) they had a prominent story in the Artsakhtert newspaper site about the celebration of a mass wedding of 700 ethnic Armenian couples and the need to repopulate Nagorno-Karabakh with Armenians because the war killed a great number of its reproducing age population nearly 20 years ago. The editor says that the conflict has left the region with a demographic concern – calling it a national security issue to protect Karabakh from returning to Azerbaijan’s control. Medvedev is going to have to prove his diplomatic skills.
Attitude in the Arab World; I Think You Misunderstand Me…
In the Middle East headlines this week there were condemnations of the United States for its cross border attack into Syria, speculation on Israel’s political fortunes now that an election has been asked for, and more on the U.S. presidential elections.
But there were also headlines about changing attitudes in the Arab community regarding the treatment of women and how attitudes need to be changed where ignorance prevails.
Cairo Now, on Internet news service, had a breaking news story on its home page about a man who was sentenced to three years in jail for sexually harassing a woman on the streets. In Egypt, where many women don’t cover themselves as more conservative Muslim women do, leering and jeering men have been a daily obstacle that women to date have had to endure.
The home page of the Bahrain Tribune carried a story about the presentation of a book from American academic Mary Coons titled “Culturally Speaking: Promoting Cross-Cultural Awareness in a Post-9/11 World. Coons interviewed Bahrainis and Americans about their knowledge and attitudes of the other’s culture in an effort to promote dialogue through understanding. The findings of the author, as the headline of the article suggests, is that Americans remain ignorant of Arab culture.
Can’t Go Home/Chagos Islanders' Home Considered Too Strategic
The weekly Mauritius Times carries a blog about the disappointment of the residents of the Chagos Islands after losing their legal battle for the right to return home. The British government resettled all of the Chagos residents in the 1970s before leasing the main island of Diego Garcia to the United States where the Americans maintain a highly restricted naval facility. Planes have used Diego Garcia as a base during bombing runs over Iraq and Afghanistan. The British foreign office says since Sept. 11 the base has been regarded by the United States as a "defense facility of the highest importance.” Many of the Chagossians were resettled in Mauritius and the Seychelles.
Despite the ruling by the Lords in favor of the British government, the residents vowed to continue their efforts to return home. Lord Hoffman noted that the government had said it was acting "in the interests of the defense of the realm, diplomatic relations with the U.S. and the use of public funds in supporting any settlement on the islands." A full review of the Law Lords decision and the arguments were presented in the L’Express, another Mauritius-based publication.
Read more blogs from Clark Bentson
October 31, 2008 in Clark Bentson | Permalink | User Comments (3)
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A nice article. I love checking out foreign news sites to see what's happening in other countries, what people are talking about there. Many foreign countries have English-language papers and sites, so that those who do not speak foreign languages can still get an overview of whatever is going on.
We can't afford to isolate ourselves from the world. Not in this day and age.
Posted by: Eleonora27 | Oct 31, 2008 10:38:42 AM
About the treatment of women not entirely covered in Egypt. In 1999, a 22-yr old American woman I met on a Nile cruise was traveling with her Egyptian parents, who had emigrated to America 30 years before. She had met her relatives in Cairo and said that she was screamed at every time she walked down the street in American clothing. On the cruise ship, she quickly received the attention of the young men in the Egyptian crew - many of whom were lawyers but the cruise paid them well! And they all thought she must be a woman of poor morals because she was American.
Posted by: Mickey | Oct 31, 2008 1:01:17 PM
I check all the news papers in my area to see whats going on sometimes, you might find some more news not on TV mentioned.
Posted by: Gene | Nov 2, 2008 1:35:31 PM
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