How the world sees it: India

INDIA
The Hindu, Madras, India, July 24: Russia demonstrated to the world its restored power and global status when it played host to the Group of Eight summit at St. Petersburg. President Vladimir Putin greeted his guests on the steps of a sumptuously refurbished 18th century imperial palace as the leader of an ascendant world power with a booming economy, which produces more energy than any other country, has built up some of the world's largest currency reserves, and made its currency fully convertible.
Over the past five years, real wages across the Russian Federation have risen 75 percent and the budget surplus is running at 12 percent. The West needs Russia's oil and gas, and its cooperation in dealing with new challenges, whether it be energy security, terrorism, Iran's nuclear program or escalating violence in West Asia.
Integrating economy with the West
President Putin has outlined a matching strategic goal of integrating Russia with the world economy, but has also made it clear he will not tolerate any patronizing. It was gratifying that Russia's Western partners in the G-8 seem to have left behind at home their lectures to Mr. Putin on the state of democracy in his country, although it must be noted that influential sections of the Western media spared no effort to discredit Russia's G-8 membership during the run-up to the summit.
Nobody, friend or foe, has the slightest doubt that resurgent Russia is dealing from a position of strength. Mr. Putin coolly asserted his agenda, getting the G-8 to issue an unexpectedly positive statement on global energy security. Among other things, this sets the goal of providing billions of people in developing countries sustainable access to fuels. Drawing on its new economic strength, Russia has moved to assume a bigger role and responsibility for global affairs. ...
DENMARK
Kristeligt Dagblad, Copenhagen, July 25: There was no lack of reciprocal accusations between the European Union and the United States yesterday after the WTO talks between the United States, the European Union, India, Brazil, Australia and Japan about a new global free trade agreement collapsed. ...
The accusations show exactly the two partners' lack of format.
Everyone knows that it is decisive that both the United States and the European Union give way in the so-called Doha Round that was started in 2001, if the national subsidies should be phased out and the tax barriers in 146 WTO member states should be reduced.
Nevertheless the governments don't dare to do it because they do not want to risk offending some voters.
Instead the Doha Round has been suspended without any prospects to a global free trade agreement and thereby better trade conditions for the world's poor countries.
JAPAN
Asahi Shimbun, Tokyo, July 25: A shift has become evident in the public's perception of Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's visits to Yasukuni Shrine where 14 Class-A war criminals from World War II are honored along with the nation's war dead. The latest figures indicate that public opinion has clearly swung from approval to disapproval.
There may be any number of reasons for this change, but one major factor must be the recent disclosure of a memo, kept by a former grand steward of the Imperial Household Agency, which revealed that Emperor Hirohito, posthumously called Emperor Showa, who was offended by the enshrinement of Class-A war criminals at Yasukuni Shrine in 1978.
Hirohito stopped visiting Yasukuni after 1978. Now we know why.
A question for candidates
Is it appropriate for the prime minister, the nation's top elected representative, to visit such a shrine? The memo's significance is irrefutable, in that it most likely prompted people to ask themselves this question without being sidetracked by "nationalistic" arguments to the effect that Japan should not bow to pressure from China and South Korea on this issue.
There is simply no way the LDP (Liberal Democratic Party) can sidestep the Yasukuni issue in the presidential election. Whether for or against, each candidate must state his position on the prime minister's visits to Yasukuni.
BRITAIN
Daily Telegraph, London, July 26: Europe is broiling under the July sun, and nowhere is that causing more concern than in France.
The temperature in Paris may be akin to that in Berlin, Madrid, Rome or London, but the French are haunted by what happened in August 2003. Then, a heat wave in which the mercury rose to over 40C (104 degrees Fahrenheit) is estimated to have killed 15,000 elderly people. ...
President Jacques Chirac was criticized for not emulating his prime minister by cutting short his holiday. The head of the emergency doctors' association said the elderly were "dropping like flies." The country's senior health official resigned. And the government requisitioned a refrigerated warehouse in the wholesale food market at Rungis as a temporary morgue. The shockingly high toll caused political tremors. But it also led to a more general questioning of the values of a society in which families abandoned grandparents to go on holiday, and the bodies of 57 of those who died remained unclaimed.
France responds
Since then, nervous ministers have approved a series of measures aimed at identifying the vulnerable and ensuring that they are properly cared for. In French statist fashion, it is all very top-down. But the main responsibility for prevention should rest with the families of those who live on their own, not with politicians and bureaucrats.
The current heat wave has to date killed about 40 people, a minute fraction of the total three years ago. But what is normally the hottest month is yet to come, and la canicule (taken from the Italian for "little dog") has been vying with the Middle East crisis for media headlines. The coming weeks will be a test of what French society has learned from the scandal of 2003.