JAPAN

JAPAN
Yomiuri Shimbun, Tokyo, Feb. 19: In recent years, China has been stepping up efforts to secure natural resources from African countries in exchange for massive aid and investment.
In its single-minded effort to secure energy resources from African countries, China has kept silent about iron-fisted rule and the suppression of human rights in these nations. Beijing's diplomatic approach has aroused deep distrust among Japan, the United States and European nations.
Even some African nations have also become increasingly cautious about China's diplomatic drive. In recent years, China's exports to Africa have greatly exceeded its imports from that part of the world, as shown by a deluge of Chinese clothes and electrical home appliances flooding African markets. This has been coupled with a massive influx of Chinese into Africa because of their country's foreign aid.
Stark fact
The critical attitude taken by the international community toward China must be seen as a reaction to Beijing's aid-for-resources diplomatic drive. China has never disclosed information about how and where its foreign aid is used. This has aroused global concern about China's external assistance, which has increased by 20 percent annually in recent years. China must face this stark fact.
BRITAIN
The Independent, London, Feb. 20: The madness of the overfishing of our oceans shows no signs of abating. A research paper presented at the American Association for the Advancement of Science in San Francisco yesterday shows that, as fish stocks in coastal waters become more and more depleted, trawlers are moving further out to sea.
Fishing fleets are also wrecking marine biodiversity in the areas in which they operate. Bottom trawling is responsible for the loss of more than 95 per cent of the coral from deep-sea reefs. The dragnets of the trawlers destroy in the space of a few hours pristine ecosystems that have often taken thousands of years to grow. In the process, the homes of countless rare species are lost. The destruction of the coral also destroys a valuable natural record of the earth's changing climate. This is ecological vandalism.
End the subsidies
What makes this rape of the seas even more outrageous is that our governments are subsidizing the process. ... The desire of governments to support their fishing communities is understandable. But it makes no sense to sponsor overfishing. There is only one sane course of action: the subsidies should end, bottom trawling should be outlawed and a system of strict international regulation for high seas fisheries must be established.
The warnings of what will happen otherwise are unequivocal. According to a major scientific study last year there will be virtually nothing left to fish from the seas by the middle of the century if current fishing trends continue. We are at risk of wiping out one of mankind's oldest sources of food and doing untold damage to one of our planet's fundamental ecosystems.
AUSTRALIA
The Sydney Morning Herald, Feb. 22: Newly bald Britney Spears has checked herself back into rehab after a weekend of excessive partying and unsavory exhibitionism, just another young woman self-destructing in front of our eyes.
There has been no sign of the 25-year-old singer's two young sons amid the crotch-flashing, mascara-smeared, vomit-specked night-clubbing that preceded her impulsive head-shave at a Los Angeles salon -- an act psychologists have interpreted as an existential cry for help.
But Spears' meltdown is more than just her personal tragedy. Sexualized almost since her days as a Disney child star, she is the canary in the coal mine of troubled young womanhood.
Something's wrong
As other celebrity car crashes -- Lindsay Lohan, Nicole Richie, Paris Hilton and Anna Nicole Smith -- pile up, it is clear something is terribly wrong with the fairer sex.
Spears's increasingly desperate exhibitionism, nonstop inebriation and casual couplings with numerous forgettable men were chronicled in lascivious detail by gossip Web sites and magazines. We have so normalized self-destructive slutty behavior that Spears's antics were considered the natural reaction of a young woman letting down her hair after a marriage breakdown.
In a world saturated with pornography, when women treat themselves like sluts, why would men treat them any differently? Mutual respect between the sexes, romance and a legacy of chivalry by men entranced by the feminine mystique have been trashed in the name of female equality and sexual liberation.
ESTONIA
Eesti Paevaleht, Tallinn, Feb. 12: So what did Putin say? He said that the United States has exceeded the bounds in all spheres: military, economic and even cultural. While the United States has justified crossing these borders by doing a good deed for the world, in reality Putin sees this as causing only bad things.
This hardly surprises anyone. The United States has also received similar criticism from other European nations and left-wing intellectuals around the world. But it is important to ask why did he (Putin) come out with such a statement now and why a speech given by the same Putin in September 2001 contradicts it.
It would be naive to think that Putin wants to reduce the supremacy of the United States in order to bolster democracy and common understanding in the world. ... Russia wants to retake its position as a great power, and this is precisely how Putin's speech should be understood.
... It would be naive and sign of self-denial to think that Putin's criticism on the United States is based on some kind of positive view of a better world.
ITALY
The Corriere della Sera, Milan, Feb. 21: Within the next two months, there will probably be war in Afghanistan. Not the asymmetrical war between a conventional military force and guerrilla warfare, but a traditional one between two armies. On one hand, the Taliban -- launching an offensive against NATO troops -- on the other hand, NATO commands that already have planned their own offensive against the Taliban. There, military planners are preparing their moves to respond to the enemy. In Rome, our political leaders are preparing their words to keep a divided coalition together.
Rules of engagement
Until now, they said that our contingent was deployed in Afghanistan as a "peace force." It was not using weapons, even if it had them. Adhering to the same rules of engagement in real war and under a unified command will be difficult, or at least little consistent with other NATO forces that fight with guns.