The former US president Bill Clinton tells journalist Diane Salvatore in an interview there are two factors "that can keep Iraq from becoming a Vietnam” : ensuring effective participation in government for the Sunni minority, and successfully training Iraqi forces to defend themselves against insurgents. "Having said that, it could go wrong. Since the end of World War II, the only major foreign power that succeeded in putting down an insurgency was the British putting down the Malay insurgency, but the British stayed 15 years. So you can say for historical reasons, the odds are not great of our prevailing (in Iraq). Whether it will succeed or not depends upon whether those two things happen before Americans feel tired of American young people dying over there.” (20/12/2005)

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Más de la revista de prensa sobre el tema » Relaciones internacionales, » Oriente Próximo y Medio
Todos los textos disponible de » Bill Clinton

In a guest commentary the foreign policy spokespersons of Denmark's two main opposition parties call for the new government to draw up plans for the withdrawal of Danish troops stationed in Iraq. According to Social Democrat spokesman Jeppe Kofod and Liberal Morten Helveg Petersen, Danish soldiers can make no further contribution to stabilising the situation in Iraq; it's now the task of the Iraqi authorities to guarantee the safety of their citizens. "Danish soldiers must leave Iraq. However, that's not to say that Denmark should reduce its international involvement as a whole. Unfortunately, Danish soldiers are urgently needed in Africa and Afghanistan... Lives can be saved by transferring the resources currently bound up in Iraq to other places. And what's more, this type of involvement would be more in keeping with Denmark's traditional brand of foreign policy." (20/12/2005)

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Más de la revista de prensa sobre el tema » Relaciones internacionales, » Oriente Próximo y Medio
Todos los textos disponible de » Jeppe Kofod, » Morten Helveg Petersen

Aleksandras Matonis comments on the initiative of Lithuanian parliamentary president Arturas Paulauskas and his fellow MP Petras Grazulis to withdraw Lithuanian troops from Iraq. "Until now, the only argument put forward to justify the participation of Lithuanian soldiers in the war in Iraq has been 'what else should we do? Yet Spain, Portugal, Italy, Ukraine and now Poland, all former US allies, have either withdrawn their troops from Iraq or drastically reduced their numbers, either for national populist reasons or out of serious political and economic considerations." Lithuania also needs to engage in a national debate and take a joint stance on the future of its troops in Iraq, the commentator concludes. (20/12/2005)

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Más de la revista de prensa sobre el tema » Relaciones internacionales, » Oriente Próximo y Medio
Todos los textos disponible de » Aleksandras Matonis

Multiculturalism has always been an embattled idea but the battle has grown fiercer of late," observes the writer Salman Rushdie. "And, yes, as a result, the argument about multiculturalism has become, for me, an internal debate, a quarrel in the self. (...) In our swollen, polyglot cities, we are all cultural mestizos. (...) Multiculturalism, however, has all too often become mere cultural relativism, a much less defensible proposition under cover of which mucht that is reactionary and oppressive -of women, for example- can be justified. The British multiculturalist idea of different cultures peacefully coexisting under the umbrella of a vaguely defined pax Britannica was seriously undermined by the July 7 attacks and disaffected ghetto culture from which they sprang." (20/12/2005)

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Más de la revista de prensa sobre el tema » Sociedad, » Gran Bretaña
Todos los textos disponible de » Salman Rushdie

In one of the last Nazi war crime trials to take place in Germany, a court in Munich has acquitted Ladislav Niznansky, who stood accused of murdering over a hundred civilians. The judges ruled that there was no conclusive evidence that Niznansky, a Slovak by birth, had participated in the slaughter of 164 civilians. The acquittal has triggered heavy protest in Slovakia, not least from the last living survivors of the massacre. In his commentary Vladimir Müller questions the wisdom of the judges' ruling but is pleased that the trial, which was instigated by Slovakia, took place at all. "Regardless of its outcome this trial makes an important point, namely that the slaughter of civilians constitutes a war crime. In investigations of such crimes, the time factor plays an important role. This will also serve as a warning to those who have committed crimes in the former Yugoslavia, Rwanda, Iraq and Argentina." (20/12/2005)

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Más de la revista de prensa sobre el tema » Historia, » Eslovaquia
Todos los textos disponible de » Vladimir Müller

The ten million Roma living in Europe constitute one of its largest minorities. Founded last year, the ERTF (European Roma and Travellers Forum) has held its first conference. The Hungarian sociologist Angela Kocze takes stock. "Under the Copenhagen Criteria, countries that have applied for EU membership are required to respect minority rights, yet older members are not doing so. The EU has introduced a 'Roma Day' but the mass murder of European Roma during the Second World War has yet to be given its rightful place in European history books. EU member states haven't even reached a consensus on how to define the term 'national minority', or whether immigrants with a common cultural background, for example Arabs, Kurds or Roma, belong to one." (20/12/2005)

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Más de la revista de prensa sobre el tema » Sociedad, » Europa
Todos los textos disponible de » Angela Kocze

Polish President Aleksander Kwasniewski's ten years in office come to an end on Thursday. According to Zdzislaw Krasnodebski, Kwasniewski sybolises today's Poland. "Kwasniewski stands for the Poland that emerged after the Round Table Agreement of 1989; for its successes, ambitions and hopes, but also its weaknesses, unsolved problems and darker aspects. The Third Polish Republic could not have had a better president." Krasnodebski sees Kwasniewski's transformation from an apparatchic into a true statesman as symbolic of Poland's transformation and the Western ambitions of its elite. However, he also points to the many scandals which have plagued Poland's political elite since 1995 and in which Kwasniewski was also involved to a various extent. "His political ties and certain dubious acquaintances from the past have prevented him from implementing far-reaching reforms to the system and state institutions. He leaves this great challenge to his successor." (20/12/2005)

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Más de la revista de prensa sobre el tema » Política interior, » Polonia
Todos los textos disponible de » Zdzislaw Krasnodebski

In order to prevent young muslims from becoming radicalised, imams have to get more involved in mosques, according to the Union of Moroccan Mosques in Amsterdam and the Dutch Federation of Islamic Organisations." The two muslim associations have just held a joint news conference in Amsterdam. "In order to feel like they are part of the mosque, young people must be able to trust their spiritual leaders," writes the Dutch daily. According to one of the organisers, "imams have to reach out more to young people. (...) It is important for imams to have a knowledge of Dutch language and society. Few young muslims understand arabic." (20/12/2005)

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Más de la revista de prensa sobre el tema » Sociedad, » Holanda
Todos los textos disponible de » Tom Kreling

Following the resignation of the governor of the Bank of Italy after months of financial scandal, the Roman daily's founder, Eugenio Scalfari, expresses concern over the functioning of Italy's institutions and the collusion between the political and buisiness spheres. "Antonio Fazio has stepped down, and if I am tempted to say 'finally' it is not with a sense of joy but a feeling of deep sadness. (...) Over the past few months, the government has demonstrated its worrying inability to take decisions, torn between friends and foes of the governor and a Council president who is always on the run. (...). The government makes laws, institutions uphold them. When they are violated, judges intervene. That is how democratic regimes operate and that is what we want for our country." (20/12/2005)

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Más de la revista de prensa sobre el tema » Política interior, » Italia
Todos los textos disponible de » Eugenio Scalfari

Since Germany's Minister for the Interior, Wolfgang Schäuble, voiced his opinion that German investigators should be allowed to use information obtained from terrorist suspects using torture, the work of the secret services is being debated in Germany. Questions include whether German investigators should be allowed to interrogate prisoners in Guantanamo. Tom Koenigs, Commissioner for Human Rights for the German government, comments. "I don't think we should discontinue our work with the secret services of other countries at a time when we are confronted with the great challenges of international terrorism. At the same time, it is the task of Germany's politicians to demand that others – including our allies – respect the standards established under international law. (20/12/2005)

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Más de la revista de prensa sobre el tema » Política interior, » Alemania
Todos los textos disponible de » Severin Weiland

"A war is raging in contemporary Polish poetry, the ferocity of which literature has not seen in years." These are the dramatic opening words of Piotr Sliwinski's analysis of a literary debate triggered by the recent publication of two books on the Polish market. It's a battle between the "conceptualists", who believe in pure lyrics untethered from the description of reality, and the "realists" who see this as their duty. "Perhaps the real conflict is between those who regard language as an insatiable monster that devours people and the world, and those who make use of language despite this, to give the world a voice, even if it's only a superficial one," Sliwinski speculates. In the end, it's all the same – whether you use stylistic games to describe reality or write as if you didn't believe you were doing anything more than simply writing a poem, he concludes. (20/12/2005)

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Más de la revista de prensa sobre el tema » Cultura, » Polonia
Todos los textos disponible de » Piotr Sliwinski

"Let's keep it short: God lives in your brain". This is how Felix Hasler begins his report on the efforts of brain researchers to explain religious visions and mystic experiences on the basis of neurology. "For years now, the Canadian brain researcher Michael Persinger has been investigating the effects of weak but complex magnetic fields on the brain, and in effect the inner world of human experience. Electromagnetic coils are placed directly on the sculls of test persons to manipulate the brain. When blindfolded and exposed to the 'Thomas pulse' for a certain period of time, something amazing happens to over 80 percent of the test persons. They get the intense feeling that somebody or something very powerful is with them in the room." (20/12/2005)

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Más de la revista de prensa sobre el tema » Cultura, » Global
Todos los textos disponible de » Felix Hasler

"Splendid. There is no other word to describe this Hall of Mirrors, the jewel in the crown of the Palace of Versailles," writes Bernard Delattre, the daily's Paris correspondent. Eighteen months after it was launched, the restoration of the world-famous gallery is half complete. (...) All the facets of the Hall, built between 1678 and 1684, have been gone over with the restorers' fine-tooth comb - and with their aesthetic sensibility. Jules Hardouin-Mansart's sumptuous architectural decor has been entirely restored. (...) Sixty restorers were mobilised for Charles Le Brun's giant decorative frescoes alone: 'a total artwork', France's largest pictorial assemblage - a miracle of allegories, perspectives, gilt-work, stucco and trompe-l'oeil paintings, spread over 1000 square metres, all glorifying the highlights of the first seventeen years of Louis XIV's reign." (20/12/2005)

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Más de la revista de prensa sobre el tema » Cultura, » Francia
Todos los textos disponible de » Bernard Delattre

Florence's Uffizi Gallery is hosting an exhibition of 36 precious artworks dedicated to the male and female nude, all presented to the public free of charge for the first time, through the end of January. According to the journalist Wanda Lattes, "It is a unique opportunity (...) The exhibition, 'In the gardens of Eden and the forests of Olympus', presents works unknown to the public that have been conserved along with 2500 other items in the museum's repository." These works had been put away in storage because some holier-than-thou and idiotic Grand Duke of the 17th century had led a rebellion and outlawed these nude paintings." The journalist finds this prudishness amusing given that Florence "has the world's most famous nude as its symbol - Michelangelo's David." (20/12/2005)

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Más de la revista de prensa sobre el tema » Cultura, » Italia
Todos los textos disponible de » Wanda Lattes

The paper defends the Australian TV presenter Rolf Harris, whose official portrait of Queen Elizabeth II was unveiled on Monday, against criticism he lacks the pedigree for the job. "There will doubtless be a collective groan from the fine art establishment that this ever energetic Australian who introduced a generation of British children to 'art' through speed cartoons was let loose on such a stately subject as the Queen, and for such a landmark occasion as her 80th year. (…) But quibbling about the craftsmanship, the depiction of Her Majesty's fingers or Mr Harris's impressionistic style misses the point. The painting succeeds because of its honesty. Mr Harris believes the result 'looks like your favourite auntie': hardly surprising, because he set out in search of personal warmth and humanity rather than regal airs or ceremonial pomp.” (20/12/2005)

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Más de la revista de prensa sobre el tema » Cultura, » Gran Bretaña

"The Greeks have not heeded the advice of the archbishop of Athens concerning the sending of Christmas greeting cards, starting with the politicians," the daily admonishes. "Mgr Christodoulos's message was nonetheless clear: It is imperative that 2005 greeting cards, in paper or electronic version, bear a representation of the nativity scene. As a result, childrens' faces, elks, or images of Santa Claus - none of which are recognised by the Orthodox church - are forbidden. (...) But nobody has obeyed these instructions," the journal notes ironically. "The archbishop of Athens has denounced what he sees as an attack on Christianity and has once again called to order the Greeks, who have forgotten the meaning of Christmas." (20/12/2005)

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Más de la revista de prensa sobre el tema » Sociedad, » Grecia
Todos los textos disponible de » B. Nelos