Clinton's magic act: He won't disappear
Bill Clinton's re-appearance on the national stage in the last few weeks to publicize his memoirs reminds one of that old Victorian ad for retiring actors in the lost days of vaudeville: "In his positively final appearance."
Tuesday, June 29, 2004
New free trade alliance could be the ticket for Turkey
President Bush scored larger successes at both the Irish summit between the European Union and the United States and the Istanbul summit of NATO than most diplomatic observers had either predicted or expected.
Tuesday, June 22, 2004
Serb election should pave way for return of the king
BELGRADE, Serbia -- Belgrade is a city where contrasts meet -- East and West, Hapsburg and Ottoman, Turkish coffee and espresso. If Serbs are renowned in Europe as fiercely nationalistic, that is because they had to fight so many occupiers over so long a period for their independence. They won those battles -- the last of which was the Second World War in which Serbs were on the side of the allies against the Germans, though Serb communist Partisans and Serb monarchist Chetniks fought against each other at least as fiercely in order to control postwar Yugoslavia.
Tuesday, June 15, 2004
Apathetic voters send message to Europe elites
ROME -- Sunday was Election Day across Europe. Twenty-six nations in the European Union held joint elections for its European Assembly. This is reckoned to be the largest transnational election in history. Yet if the behavior of Romans was any guide, the voters managed to keep their enthusiasm under firm control. A few tattered election posters decorated spare walls.
