ITALY

ITALY
La Repubblica, Rome, April 26: Not even Osama bin Laden's nonsense can wake the U.N. Security Council up, although it has done all it could: it condemned the civil war in Darfur, Sudan ... and on Tuesday, it adopted sanctions against four people involved in the massacres. It is not allowed to do more by the two friends of Khartoum: China, which relies upon Sudanese oil, and Russia that sells weapons to Khartoum
Human rights violations
Nevertheless, the U.N. had laid the premises for a change: its Commission had identified the serious violations of human rights, committed mainly by Khartoum, and those responsible (for them) ... And surprisingly, the Council then accepted the request to defer the issue to the International Criminal Tribunal. But this is where it all went aground. Twelve months have passed, and the Chief Prosecutor has still not formally asked Khartoum to allow investigations in Sudan. Truly a wasted occasion.
JAPAN
Asahi Shimbun, Tokyo, May 2: Wednesday marks the 60th anniversary of the start of the International Military Tribunal for the Far East, commonly called the Tokyo War Crimes Tribunal. The proceedings tried more than two dozen Japanese wartime leaders.
These 14 wartime leaders convicted by the Tokyo Trial are the Class-A war criminals often cited in debate over Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's visits to the Yasukuni shrine.
In recent years, Koizumi's controversial visits have led to questions about the legitimacy of the war crimes tribunal.
Historical debate
While it is fine to conduct a historical debate of the problems with the trial, no responsible politician should engage in fruitless arguments over the legitimacy of the war crimes tribunal, clouding the issue with current political problems. Denying the Tokyo Trial's legitimacy does not free Japan from its responsibility for its past actions.
A recent Asahi Shimbun poll produced some shocking findings. About 70 percent of the respondents, and 90 percent of those in their 20s, said they know nothing about the Tokyo Trial. And significantly, the survey also showed that people with little knowledge about the war crimes tribunal and the war in general tend to be more supportive of the current state of Yasukuni Shrine.
It is impossible to judge the past without accurate knowledge of history.
BRITAIN
Financial Times, London, May 3: The political ramifications of the European Union's expansion to the east have been far-reaching: for enlargement was one of the reasons behind the drafting of a new constitution (to help the Union cope institutionally with more members) and one of the reasons why that constitution went down to referendum defeats last year in France and the Netherlands (where voters feared job competition from the east). But enlargement has proved a solid economic success, according to a report published by the European Commission two years after eight east European countries plus Cyprus and Malta joined the Union.
Unjustified fears
Naturally, enlargement's benefits are bigger for the new EU-10 -- which represent less than 5 per cent of total EU gross domestic product -- because its impact on them is so much larger. The newcomers have all seen their national income, trade and inward investment accelerate, as one would expect. But this has not been at the expense of the older member states, whose fears, says the commission, are "not justified". The EU executive finds little overall evidence of jobs being moved east (though Peugeot's decision to shift car production from the UK to Slovakia is one sign of this) and is generally dismissive of the argument that lower tax rates in the east are distorting investment within the EU.
This report ought to help governments, especially among the EU-15, recover a sense of nerve and balance about further enlargement. The next entrants will be Romania and Bulgaria, though there are doubts about the latter's ability to combat organised crime. There is no reason to rush this process. Nor, however, is there any cause to pull up Europe's drawbridge and abandon a policy that has been remarkably successful in spreading prosperity and stability.
JORDAN
Jordan Times, Amman, May 3: As if there were a need, the fact that at least 150 temporary laws are currently waiting to be promulgated, or rejected, by Parliament adds urgency to the need for a serious national debate on the extension of the ordinary session of the Lower House of Parliament.
Recent reports that a comfortable majority of deputies has already signed a petition to His Majesty King Abdullah to convene a summer extraordinary session is a clear indication that lawmakers themselves feel short of time and are well aware of the need to catch up with the load of work.
Legislative reforms
Jordan is about the only country in the world with such a short ordinary session of Parliament, four months only, usually from the beginning of November to the end of March or the very first days of April.
With all the crucial bills slated to be introduced on fiscal and pension reforms, political development and public life in general, and a host of important economic matters, how can the Lower House adequately carry out its legislative functions and carry out its yearly workload in four short months, which end up being even shorter when national and religious holidays are factored in?
The debate over the need to prolong ordinary sessions of Parliament has so far been curbed by the fact that such a move would require a constitutional amendment. In principle, we cannot agree more that our Constitution needs to be enforced, rather than amended. But we do not share the blind opposition to any sort of constitutional change.
We are embracing change in many fields. It would only be natural for Parliament to adapt to all these changes, too.