2007-01-04T05:00:00Z A Daily Survey of What the International Online Media Are Saying tag:blog.washingtonpost.com,2007:/worldopinionroundup//74 Copyright (c) 2006, WashingtonPost.Newsweek Interactive 2007-01-04T05:00:00Z tag:washingtonpost.com,2006-12-08:/worldopinionroundup/2006/12/relaunching_the_roundup.html

World Opinion Roundup is evolving. With the rise of the Internet in the late 1990s, a new global discussion of international news events took shape. The World Opinion Roundup, from its inception in 2001, has sought to leverage an ever-growing online medium to capture different perspectives from throughout the global community for washingtonpost.com readers. Such growth and the advent of blogging have enormously expanded and deepened the discussions surrounding some of the most important issues...Please click on the title to continue reading this entry.

washingtonpost.com 2007-01-04T05:00:00Z tag:washingtonpost.com,2006-12-06:/worldopinionroundup/2006/12/jimmy_carter_palestinian_sympa.html

Jimmy Carter has emerged as the most prominent pro-Palestinian public figure in America. In a new book, the former president offers a passionate defense of Palestinian aspirations rarely heard in the U.S. media and unprecedented from someone who once occupied the Oval Office. Entitled "Palestine: Peace Not Apartheid," Carter's book has won him praise in the international online media and scathing criticism from U.S.-based Israel supporters. In the Israeli media, the reaction to Carter's defense...Please click on the title to continue reading this entry.

2007-01-04T05:00:00Z tag:washingtonpost.com,2006-12-05:/worldopinionroundup/2006/12/beyond_civil_war_lebanons_choi_1.html

As Middle East newspapers were warning this weekend that Lebanon is on the brink of civil war, Beirut enjoyed a moment of civility. As tens of thousands of anti-government demonstrators began an indefinite occupation of the city's center last weekend, thousands of marathon runners skirted the massive protests without incident. Amidst the country's worst worst political crisis since the end of a bloody civil war 15 years ago, Lebanon also displays habits of accommodation that...Please click on the title to continue reading this entry.

2006-11-27T20:34:45Z tag:washingtonpost.com,2006-11-27:/worldopinionroundup/2006/11/world_opinion_roundup_hiatus.html

Jeff Morley is away temporarily for a family emergency and hopes to resume World Opinion Roundup soon....Please click on the title to continue reading this entry.

washingtonpost.com 2006-12-11T05:00:00Z tag:washingtonpost.com,2006-11-16:/worldopinionroundup/2006/11/nasrallahs_brinksmanship_1.html

It has been just over three months since the United Nations brokered a cease-fire in the month-long war that left Lebanon battered and made Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah a hero to many in the Arab world. But Nasrallah's success is costing Lebanon potentially more than the 1,200 civilians killed by Israeli attacks. Commentators see a political quandary that has brought the country to the brink of war. Nasrallah, supported by a majority of the country's...Please click on the title to continue reading this entry.

2006-12-11T05:00:00Z tag:washingtonpost.com,2006-11-15:/worldopinionroundup/2006/11/doubting_baker.html

While many in Washington expect former secretary of state James Baker to engineer a shift in U.S. Iraq policy, a variety of international online commentators doubt he can do it. Baker and former Democratic congressman Lee Hamilton lead the Iraq Study Group, a bipartisan panel expected to issue a report in the coming weeks on the rethinking of American strategy in Iraq. Along with incoming defense secretary Robert Gates, Baker's group marks the return of...Please click on the title to continue reading this entry.

2006-12-11T05:00:00Z tag:washingtonpost.com,2006-11-14:/worldopinionroundup/2006/11/futile_ritual_seen_in_us_veto.html

The U.S. veto of a U.N. Security Council resolution condemning the Israeli attack that killed 20 Palestinian civilians last week has incensed Middle East commentators, including some Israelis. "This resolution does not display an evenhanded characterization of the recent events in Gaza," said U.N. Ambassador John Bolton on Saturday. A spokesman for Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas replied that the veto "will encourage Israel to continue its escalation against the Palestinian people." The Palestinian victims,...Please click on the title to continue reading this entry.

2006-12-11T05:00:00Z tag:washingtonpost.com,2006-11-10:/worldopinionroundup/2006/11/in_rumsfelds_fall_hope_and_rec.html

Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld's resignation is being welcomed the world over as a sure sign that U.S. policy on Iraq will change. Iranians expressed hope for avoiding confrontation with the United States as a result of Rumsfeld's departure, according to an AP report from Tehran. The Guardian's reporter in Tehran sent back a similar dispatch: "Sources close to the Islamic republic's theocratic leadership said yesterday that the replacement as US defence secretary of the hawkish...Please click on the title to continue reading this entry.

2006-12-11T05:00:00Z tag:washingtonpost.com,2006-11-09:/worldopinionroundup/2006/11/sandinistas_set_to_join_chavez.html

The victory of Sandinista candidate Daniel Ortega in Nicaragua is likely boost to the so-called Bolivarian axis in Latin America, according to Central American media. Hugo Chavez's dream of building an anti-U.S. bloc in the Americas had lost some of its luster in recent months and the defeat of leftist candidates in Peru and Mexico suggested to some that the populist crusade of the Venezuela's president was losing momentum. But Ortega's victory has given Chavez...Please click on the title to continue reading this entry.

2006-12-11T05:00:00Z tag:washingtonpost.com,2006-11-08:/worldopinionroundup/2006/11/in_arab_world_bitterness_over.html

News of Saddam Hussein's death sentence has drawn mixed reaction from throughout the world. But in the so-called "Arab Street," the reaction has been a unified bitterness. Azzaman and Al-Sabah, two of the biggest circulation papers in Baghdad, published news stories about the death penalty for the former president -- but no commentary. Inside the Green Zone, U.S. Ambassador Zalmay Khalilizad hailed "an important milestone." Outside, it is too dangerous to express a viewpoint one...Please click on the title to continue reading this entry.

2006-12-11T05:00:00Z tag:washingtonpost.com,2006-11-06:/worldopinionroundup/2006/11/saddams_sentence_1.html

The death sentence handed down Sunday for Saddam Hussein's role in the execution of 148 Shiite villagers in 1982 provoked strong media reaction the world over. The strongest expressions of approval came from two groups who don't often agree: Iranian online commentators and supporters of the U.S.-led invasion in 2003 that lead to Hussein's capture. The sharpest criticism came from Arab observers who saw the trial and verdict as tailored to U.S. interests and from...Please click on the title to continue reading this entry.

2006-12-11T05:00:00Z tag:washingtonpost.com,2006-11-01:/worldopinionroundup/2006/11/the_cauldron_of_oaxaca.html

Brad Will, an American freelance journalist, was filming a street battle in the Mexican city of Oaxaca last Friday when a burst of gunfire took his life. The footage he took in the last moments of his life, viewable at indymedia.org, captured the chaos and danger of a long-running conflict that few people outside of Mexico had been paying attention to. The deaths of three people, including the 36-year-old activist and freelancer from San Francisco,...Please click on the title to continue reading this entry.

2006-12-11T05:00:00Z tag:washingtonpost.com,2006-10-31:/worldopinionroundup/2006/10/firestorm_over_australian_cler.html

An Australian cleric's comparison of Muslim women who forgo the veil to pieces of "uncovered meat" has sparked yet another controversy pitting Islamic fundamentalism against Western opinion. The Australian reported last week that the cleric, Sheik Taj Aldin al-Hilali, made the remarks during a Ramadan sermon in Sydney, telling worshipers that women were "weapons" used by "Satan" to control men and alluding "to the infamous Sydney gang rapes, suggesting the attackers were not entirely to...Please click on the title to continue reading this entry.

2006-12-11T05:00:00Z tag:washingtonpost.com,2006-10-26:/worldopinionroundup/2006/10/tensions_in_latin_america_over.html

The uneasy relationship between the United States and the rest of the hemisphere reverberates in three stories generating headlines and fueling commentary throughout Latin America -- the final approval of a U.S.-Mexico wall, Hugo Chavez's ongoing fight for a seat at the United Nations, and rumors that have spun out of a visit by Jenna Bush to Paraguay. 'The Wall of Lies' With President Bush's signing of legislation authorizing the construction of a 700-mile border...Please click on the title to continue reading this entry.

2006-12-11T05:00:00Z tag:washingtonpost.com,2006-10-25:/worldopinionroundup/2006/10/more_on_counting_civilian_casu.html

The online debate continues about a recent report in a British medical journal estimating 655,000 civilian deaths since the U.S. led invasion in March 2003. After my column on the study last week, lead author Gilbert Burnham defended its methodology in a discussion with readers. Three British academics argue in Science.com (by subscription) that the study suffers from "main street bias." "By only surveying houses that are located on cross streets next to main roads...Please click on the title to continue reading this entry.