BRITAIN

The Independent, London, May 8: Ronald Biggs, the Great Train Robber, is a sick man. Now age 71, he has run out of money; in Brazil, where he has lived for the past 35 years, he could not afford the medical treatment that he needs. After three decades as a semi-celebrity in Rio, posing with topless lovelies on Copacabana Beach, he wants to come home to the country of Marmite and warm beer to die in peace. How very touching. Not. Almost all the players in this tawdry saga have acted with hypocrisy.
Showman: Biggs has shown himself to be the showman you might expect. He has never expressed remorse for his crime, in which the train driver suffered injuries from which he never recovered. The whole affair leaves a deeply unpleasant taste in the mouth. Prison would not normally be an appropriate place for a sick old man. In this case, however, the sheer gall of Biggs's behavior -- unrepentant defiance for the past three decades -- means that he should serve every possible remaining day of his 30-year sentence.
Any other outcome would be a horrible reward for this "wisecracking fugitive" -- the soft-soap tabloid phrase for a cynical criminal.
ARGENTINA
Buenos Aires Herald, May 5: The preliminary step of reaching agreement with the International Monetary Fund was enough to boost the confidence of a stock market which could not fall any further and brought the country risk back down into three digits.
Hostile reality: With Argentina still seeking $12.3 billion of financing needs, it remains to be seen how the agreement matches a hostile reality. A growth rate agreed upon in the accord of over two percent looks over-optimistic.
The government's fourth agreement with the IMF is reassuring for the markets, but Argentina shows no real sign of ererging from its chronic insolvency since 1995. With foreign currency reserves sliding in the last six weeks, the government cannot put off much longer the drastic steps which will have to be taken with or without the IMF.
CANADA
The Toronto Star, May 8: Pope John Paul II seems driven to preach conversion of heart, spirituality, simplicity and charity to a world besotted with power, fame, wealth and self-gratification.
And to preach healing to a world bedeviled by too much history.
On Sunday in Damascus, he became the first pope to set foot in a mosque, built atop an early Christian church which itself was built on an ancient temple. Back in 1986 he was the first pope to visit a synagogue. He urged "brotherhood and friendship" among Christians, Muslims and Jews.
Church politics: There is pragmatic church politics in this. He wants his flock of 1 billion Catholics to be free to worship everywhere. Good relations with other faiths can help ensure that.
But John Paul also believes that 3 billion Catholics, Protestants, Eastern and Orthodox Christians, Muslims and Jews share a Biblical heritage and a moral imperative to respect each others' faiths.
John Paul's prayers alone will not reform the world. They do point the way for the half of humanity who profess a common Creator, and who regard themselves as spiritual kin.
If other leaders echo his words, the fanatics will have a harder time citing religion to legitimize violence.
What is needed is some political resolve from all sides to the conflict, especially from Sharon, and a push from President Bush to devise a practical and coherent Middle East peace policy that would incorporate such constructive inputs such as the Mitchell Report.
SWEDEN
Dagens Nyheter, Stockholm, May 9: It can be said that the United States has deserved a real ticking-off. Its engagement in the United Nations has been surprisingly low, at times it has been arrogant. The Bush administration has not yet succeeded in getting a U.N. ambassador in place, something that says quite a lot about where the global organization is on the list of priorities. The large U.S. debt remains unpaid.
Upper hand: The real danger is that the anti-U.N. forces in Congress will gain the upper hand, something that in the long run can lead to the permanent marginalization of the U.N. If a future world order is to work it requires that the United States is active and involved, and prepared to take its responsibility. President Bush has so far done his best to do the opposite. It would be, to say the least, most unfortunate if he was helped by the U.N. Economic and Social Council that recently voted to strike the U.S. off the U.N. human rights commission.