Stitching Things Up
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In an interview with the
Financial Times of London,
Madeleine Albright said Thursday she had run out of metaphors to describe the
state of the Middle East peace process. But this did not prevent her from
saying of the 1993 Oslo accords, "Instead of glue, it's been sandpaper." She
seemed to be siding with Yasser Arafat against Benjamin Netanyahu when she said
1) the Palestinian Authority chief had done his best to improve security for
Israelis against Palestinian terrorism ("We have stated over and over again
that 100 percent effort [by Arafat's police] may not always bring 100 percent
effect") and 2) Netanyahu, despite admitted political difficulties at home, was
"in a pretty strong position in his cabinet." But when asked if the United
States was finally putting pressure on Israel, Albright replied, "It's not our
policy."
The
merger between Chrysler and Germany's Daimler-Benz led the front page of the
FT and all German newspapers. In an editorial page analysis, the
FT said that "without a successful merger of minds, the transaction
could rapidly turn sour." "Or as Janis Joplin put it in 'One Night Stand':
'Just because we loved tonight, please don't think it's gonna stay that way,' "
the FT concluded. La
Stampa of Turin, Italy, home of Fiat, lauded the marriage as a "union
without conquest" and attributed this to the launch of the euro. "The single
currency is bringing the two shores of the Atlantic closer together," it said.
Le Monde of Paris said
the negotiations reflected the increased power of the German automobile
industry.
Italian newspapers all led on the fatal mudslides in
southern Italy, with the predictable comment that political incompetence was
partly responsible. But they also gave big play to the meeting in Washington
between President Clinton and Italian Prime Minister Romano Prodi, who
described their encounter as "a magic moment" in U.S.-Italian relations. But
Ennio Caretto, Washington correspondent of Corriere della
Sera of Milan, noted the president had inserted "a premeditated and cunning
note" into his condolences about the mudslides. Prodi said U.S. aid for the
victims would come from Aviano, the U.S. air base out of which an American
plane recently sliced a ski-lift cable, killing 20 people and starting a wave
of anti-Americanism in Italy.
Le
Monde led Thursday with the headline "Cancer: a Hope From America." The
subject: Judah Folkman's encouraging experiments in Boston on mice. This was a
huge story around the world this week. France-Soir , the Paris evening
newspaper, led by contrast with a story of a revolt by about 100 French
dentists against mercury fillings, which they claim to be dangerous. They are
asking all their fellow dentists to sign an appeal against such fillings (even
though, unfortunately, they are already in the teeth of around 30 million
French people).
In London Thursday, the Evening
Standard led with the news that the dean of Westminster Abbey in London was
under attack for giving money from TV companies to the Princess of Wales
Memorial Fund when it should have been given to "the choristers of Westminster
Abbey Choir as a result of their participating in the Princess's funeral
service." The choirboys and their parents didn't receive any money in expenses,
even though "a number of parents spent hundreds of pounds cutting short
holidays to return their sons to sing at the service, which was broadcast live
to hundreds of millions of viewers across the world," the newspaper said.
Amid growing hopes of
success for the Ulster peace agreement, the Irish Independent of Dublin
said in an editorial titled "Peace in their grasp" that "Tony Blair made an
excellent move when he invited his predecessor, John Major, to campaign with
him in Northern Ireland for a Yes vote in the May 22 referendum." "A united
front of the present and former British prime ministers must have a powerful
impact," it said. Spanish newspapers led with a new Basque terrorist murder,
El País reporting this
side by side with a report from Dublin about the IRA agreeing that its
political wing, Sinn Fein, might participate in an Ulster parliamentary
assembly.
