In The News

Each Nation for Itself?

July 28, 2003
The World Trade Organization's 146 member nations will have a lot to talk about when they sit down in Cancun, Mexico in early September. With 23 categories of trade issues on the agenda, says this editorial in Singapore's Straits Times, one may reasonably wonder how much agreement can be reached in five short days. Member nations seem to be more divided than together, with heavy...

Beijing is Losing the People's War in Cyberspace

John Gittings July 21, 2003
While Beijing spends hundreds of millions of dollars installing surveillance equipment to restrict access to “harmful” information, an emerging civil society is gaining more and more freedom. To this increasingly demanding and sophisticated public, it's a choice between hearing rumors on the street and “going on the web,” and they increasingly choose the latter. Moreover, the growing...

It's a Fat World, After All

Alison Langley July 20, 2003
Americans are not the only overweight people anymore. Thanks to food companies such as McDonald's and Kellogg, Americans are exporting their corpulence to the outside world. But the rising incidence of chronic, diet-related health problems such as diabetes and heart disease are leading to greater scrutiny of companies that manufacture processed foods. As with other goods, American food...

Two Top Hong Kong Ministers Resign

Mary Kwang July 17, 2003
Coming on the heels of massive street protests, two of Hong Kong's top appointed officials resigned yesterday. The Security Secretary and the Financial Secretary said they were leaving office as soon as possible. Both officials were targets of angry protests over a proposed sedition law that threatened to restrict Hong Kong people's rights of assembly and free speech. Protestors have...

A Miserly Response to a Global Emergency

Jeffrey Sachs July 17, 2003
Yesterday, 15,000 Africans died of AIDS, tuberculosis, and malaria as rich countries praised themselves for their 'generous' contributions to the UN fund set up to fight these diseases. Writing in the Financial Times, Jeffrey Sachs says that rich countries like the US, Britain, France, and Japan all agree that these three health crises are out of control. And yet their governments...

Can the Third World Spend the AIDS Money Well?

Alan Beattie July 13, 2003
At the upcoming international conference on AIDS, much of the discussion will focus on ways to improve how the developing world utilizes funds for AIDS education, prevention, and treatment. In the past, similar concerns over the use of anti-AIDS funds led to the creation of the Global Fund, which allows aid to bypass weak and often corrupt governments in developing countries. This centralized...

Critical of U.S. Policies, Africans Are Giving Bush Chilly Reception

Dana Milbank July 10, 2003
African commentators refuse to tip-toe around the tough topics. Though US President Bush and South African President Mbeki carefully avoided contentious issues at their meeting, newspapers refused to muffle criticism of America's foreign policies and continued to express doubt about the sincerity of the superpower's interest in Africa. In general, says this Washington Post article,...