JAPAN

JAPAN
Asahi Shimbun, Tokyo, Feb. 28: The 20th Winter Olympics drew to a close in Turin. As we look back, we could say that most of the most favored athletes could not win.
Some of the favorites apparently had difficulty reaching their peak physical condition at the Games. Others, perhaps, could not handle the heavy pressure brought upon them by the world's attention.
This is what makes the Olympics, held once every four years, so interesting.
Doping problem
However, the potential depth of a doping problem could cast a pall on these Games. At the center of the storm were the Austrian cross-country and biathlon teams. There is strong suspicion of teamwide doping among the Austrians, who are always strong in the Winter Games.
What is even more striking is that Italian law-enforcement agencies are actively investigating the suspected doping case. In Italy, back-to-back revelations had been made about doping in bicycle races and soccer. The country enacted an anti-doping law that stipulates prison terms for violators, including Olympic athletes.
One requirement of hosting the Olympic Games is that severe measures are in place against doping. Now that Japan has embarked on its bid to host the Games in 2016, anti-doping measures are an urgent matter for the country.
NORWAY
Bergens Tidende, Bergen, Feb. 28: The opposition to the American occupation has been turned into an internal battle for Iraq, with Al-Qaida fanning the flames.
The destruction of a Shiite holy site has ignited a bigger and stronger fire, and the claims that Al-Qaida is behind make sense. But it could have been others. The attack launched bloody rounds of attacks and reprisals with such a speed that it looked like the civil war that has been feared had begun.
The period after the U.S. removed Saddam Hussein's regime has been a continuous illustration of the Bush administration's underestimation of the problems of a power vacuum in Iraq.
The battle against the American occupation came both as an armed Iraqi resistance and as a new front for Al-Qaida.
Deepened split
The Americans imagined a solution based on an alliance between the three dominant groups, the Shiites, the Sunnis and the Kurds. But the attempt at building a new political order through elections instead deepened the split.
When everything is reduced to the politics of revenge, the hope must be that Shiite and Sunni religious and political leaders are interested in avoiding a collapse that would make everyone losers.
BRITAIN
The Observer, London, Feb. 26: More than four years after the American detention camp at Guantanamo Bay opened, the range of voices calling for it to close is widening. Overseas, it runs from the Democrat former U.S. President Jimmy Carter, through U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan and the International Committee of the Red Cross, to the conservative Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi. Here, advocates of closure now include the Lord Chancellor, Lord Falconer, Attorney-General Lord Goldsmith, the Northern Ireland Secretary, Peter Hain, the Liberal Democrats and numerous members of the higher judiciary.
Last week, the Commons foreign affairs committee urged the government to make its opposition to Guantanamo "loud and public," describing the camp as "outside all legal regimes;" it both diminished America's moral authority and hindered its fight against terrorism, said the committee. The prime minister has declined to go further than previously when he described Guantanamo as an "anomaly." He prefers to make his objections known in private, he has said.
Tony Blair's reticence is understandable, particularly given the importance he places on the transatlantic alliance. But the case for voicing a stronger opposition is becoming overwhelming.
Grave breach
This is a grave breach of international law and human rights. It is difficult to see how the harm done to America's image, and the outrage inspired throughout the Muslim world, can have been outweighed by any harvest of intelligence.