1. CANADA

1. CANADA

The Toronto Star, April 30: European leaders were slow to act on the danger and now Greece’s fiscal crisis risks going viral. It has morphed into a major test of Europe’s political credibility, with global implications.

And Canadians, like everyone else, are exposed. Bank of Canada Governor Mark Carney warned that Athens’ problems borrowing money to service its heavy debt could hurt growth here by driving up interest rates and suppressing demand for our exports.

Yet despite the risk, European leaders fiddled as Athens and the euro burned. From Greece, the contagion has spread to debt-saddled Portugal and Spain, and it threatens others.

2. BRITAIN

The Daily Telegraph, London, May 3: A flurry of diplomatic activity heralds yet another attempt to resolve one of the world’s most intractable problems, the absence of an Israeli-Palestinian peace settlement. Recently, Benjamin Netanyahu was in Sharm-el-Sheikh for talks with Hosni Mubarak, the Egyptian president. The Arab League gave its backing to American mediation between the two sides as a prelude to direct negotiations. And George Mitchell, U.S. President Barack Obama’s Middle East envoy, is due to begin meetings with Israeli and Palestinian leaders soon.

The attempt to revive a moribund process reflects a new dynamism in American foreign policy following the passage of health care reform through Congress, Obama’s foremost domestic challenge. Obama has spoken about the absence of a settlement costing America blood and treasure in Afghanistan and Iraq. There has also been talk of his calling an international summit.