Pacific Views

UK Press

Guardian:

Labour turns away from US for social inspiration, looks to Sweden for ideas on national child care. Some very interesting points, including EU envy over high test scores, and a birth rate that's the only one in western europe to break the pattern of decline.

A columnist contemplates the awful possibility that British officials ignored serious legal questions about the war.

Reuters:

A beautiful image from Hubble.

German IMF head to step down, speculation rife about replacement.

Chinese premier lays out plan to help the rural poor and narrow the widening wealth gap in the country. He spoke before the yearly session of the National People's Congress, who are expected to make the fourth adjustment to the Chinese constitution since its adoption in 1954. Previous changes included the 1982 removal of life terms for party members. The new changes deal with human and property rights. (Who will be astonished if, as elsewhere, the property rights are more vigorously enforced?)

Hans Blix joins those who doubt the legality of the Iraq war. His criticisms may be waved off in the US, but they'll find an audience elsewhere in the world.

BBC:

The African press is paying plenty of attention to Haiti.

A Canadian rights organization releases a report on female child soldiers around the world, many of whom are sexually abused and often become pregnant.

The Namibian government expects to begin land seizures very soon, but intends to offer fair compensation, and has resisted pressure to allow the sort of mob violence that swept Zimbabwe.

Egypt uses wiretaps and informants to persecute its gay community.

The father of a suicide bomber speaks out against violence, saying that he would never have approved of a suicide bombing. His son was the household's wage earner, and the IDF destroyed their home the night he killed himself and 10 others, leaving the family living in a tent among the rubble.

In Nepal, Chinese supported Maoist rebels mount a serious offensive, leaving dozens killed when they stormed a communication tower.

Sri Lankan Buddhist monks stand for parliamentary elections. The Tamil Tiger rebel group inside the country has recently split into two factions, possibly threatening ongoing peace negotiations.

Christians in India's Orissa province reconverted to Hinduism. Last year, according to a related story, Gujarat enacted a bill making it a criminal offense to convert away from Hinduism without permission. The bill was targeted at preventing Dalits from being lured away by the promise of escaping the caste system.

A British after school program has started teaching the Sindarin dialect of Elvish, as left by J.R.R. Tolkien. A few readers' comments follow the article, which you'll probably enjoy if you're interested enough to bother clicking through in the first place.