ITALY

ITALY
La Stampa, Milan, April 12: Now that it has a majority, however small it may be, the center-left must try to govern Italy. "Try," that is, because no one can hide the extreme difficulties related to the nature of the coalition that the ballot has selected. The center-left must do this, however, by reappraising the moderate forces and by stressing the weight of the extreme wings. But there aren't any alternatives.
Weak victory
This is required, on one hand, by the rules of the democracy: Romano Prodi's coalition, even if it obtained a politically weak victory -- because weak is the supporting consensus -- has beaten the center-right in any case. On the other hand, the country demands it: at the end of an intense (electoral) campaign, you cannot delay facing problems. It's up to the center-left to demonstrate that it is capable of resolving them.
JAPAN
Yomiuri Shimbun, Tokyo, April 12: The husband of Megumi Yokota, who was abducted by North Korea, was most likely a South Korean who was also abducted to North Korea, according to the results of a DNA test.
Without showing the least sincerity in working toward a resolution of the abduction issue, North Korea has repeatedly made false explanations on all aspects of the matter.
The number of South Koreans abducted to North Korea totals 485. The Japanese government needs to work closer with South Korea in investigating the contemptible state terrorism of North Korea.
When Japan and North Korea held talks in September 2002 in Pyongyang, North Korean leader Kim Jong Il told Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi that the abductions were conducted "by special intelligence agents driven by irrational impulses and heroism."
Organized abductions
However, based on verbal statements made to investigators, including one made by repatriated abductee Hitomi Soga, there are other abductees in North Korea from countries such as Thailand and Romania. These statements are proof the abductions were conducted in an organized way by the state.
Although Yokota's husband has been finally identified, many things remain unclear. The government should not let North Korea stamp the abduction issue "closed." Investigations into the issue must continue and bring to the fore the real picture of what North Korea has done and is doing.
BRITAIN
Financial Times, London, April 11: The revelation that George W. Bush approved the leak of classified information about Iraq's chimerical nuclear programme is unlikely to snowball into another Watergate. Mr. Bush's contention that anything the president says (or leaks) is declassification by other means -- and therefore legal -- might just be tenable. Yet it is hardly credible.
Mr. Bush approved the selective leak in July 2003 of a portion of the U.S. National Intelligence Estimate in an attempt to discredit allegations he had misused intelligence to bolster the case for invading Iraq. The leak was exposed last week in documents submitted by the prosecution in the trial of Scooter Libby, Dick Cheney's former chief of staff, who is accused of lying about another leak in which the name of a serving CIA officer was disclosed.
The officer, Valerie Plame, is married to Joseph Wilson, who had been sent in 2002 to Niger to ascertain whether Saddam Hussein had sought to buy uranium. Mr. Wilson found no evidence of a secret Iraqi nuclear program. His decision to publicise this in July 2003 -- three months after the invasion -- coincided with growing awareness that the U.S. was unlikely to find weapons of mass destruction in Iraq.
Mr. Bush is hardly the first U.S. president to leak classified information for short-term political gain.
Plain-speaking guy
However, Mr. Bush has staked his public persona on being a plain-speaking kind of guy. "Whether you agree with me or not, you know where I stand," he told the electorate in 2004. The public, less than half of which now describe Mr. Bush as "honest" in opinion polls, is aware of the fact the president recently launched a campaign to stop the culture of leaking in Washington. Officials in numerous departments have taken polygraphs in the hunt to find who was behind numerous leaks, including the administration's decision to conduct wire-taps without informing the courts.
Mr. Bush will probably shrug off opposition charges of hypocrisy. But the outlook would alter drastically if the Democrats gained control of one or both houses of Congress at elections in November. Should that happen, it is a sure bet Democrats would use their subpoena powers to get officials to testify about the alleged misuse of intelligence in the build-up to war. On Sunday Arlen Specter, a senior Republican senator, called on Mr. Bush to come clean about the leaks. One way Mr. Bush could respond while also pre-empting a Democratic backlash would be to call on the Senate to resume its inquiry into the manipulation of intelligence before the war. The inquiry was shelved in 2004 because of fears it might hinder Mr. Bush's re-election. Now would be a good time for the Senate to resume its work.