Blair Distracts Critics with Swerve toward Home Policy/UK-New WMW

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WORLD MEDIA WATCH FOR MAY 3, 2004

1//The Scotsman, UK--BLAIR DISTRACTS CRITICS WITH SWERVE TOWARD HOME POLICY (Tony Blair yesterday ended a frantic weekend of engagements with an attempt to refocus the political agenda on domestic affairs as criticism of his foreign policy intensified…It appeared last night that the demands for ministers to close ranks and support Mr Blair had finally been heeded, with several heavyweights making clear their support for him as Prime Minister if Labour wins the next general election.)



2//Deutsche-Welle/dw-World.de, Germany--GERMANY TO SHORTEN MISSIONS ABROAD, STOP GUARDING U.S. BASES (German Defense Minister Peter Struck calls for shortening the length of military missions abroad and removing guards from U.S. bases by the end of the year in order to save money. The German military, the Bundeswehr, has more troops deployed in peacekeeping missions abroad than any country apart from the United States. From Kosovo to Afghanistan and the Horn of Africa, some 7,700 German soldiers participate in international security forces. But the country is undergoing massive cost-cutting reforms, and the finance ministry has targeted the defense department as one of the areas where the government needs to cut back.)



3//Inter Press News Agency Service, Italy--EUROPEAN UNION: THE WORLD’S NEW LEADING ECONOMIC POWER (According to figures from Eurostat, the Statistical Office of the European Communities, the EU's combined Gross Domestic Product (GDP) will grow to 12.1 trillion dollars, slightly higher than the 12.04 trillion dollar GDP of the United States, which will thus lose its position as the world's leading economic power…Nevertheless, Sarfield Cabral says the enlargement process has been accompanied by doubts with respect to the future of the EU.
He says the most frequent questions are ''whether it will be diluted into a mere free trade area, the objective of many opponents of integration who have nonetheless applauded the expansion. Or will a directorate of the big members (France, Germany, Italy and the UK) be in control, leading to a loss of the sense of community?'')


4//The Philippine Daily Inquirer, Philippines--IMAGE RELOADED, MACAPAGAL NOW ON WINNING STREAK ("No way can you say this has been stage-managed. This is a very spontaneous outpouring of emotion for the President, and believe me, it is like this all over the country," says Kashiwahara, an award-winning movie and television director and now the President's campaign coordinator, who should know her real scenarios from the reel. "How can you simulate this when you see it at countryside crossings, in areas where it is hard to muster a crowd?" Eight days before the elections on May 10, Kashiwahara had reason to be happy.
Ms Macapagal had been on top of survey charts in the last few weeks, and "positive" (if cautionary) reports of her impending victory from two US-based firms had come out in the papers, along with long-awaited support from the influential local business community which said it chose her because of her proven track record. Palace officials were clearly elated, calling the lead of the President over her closest rival, actor Fernando Poe Jr., "insurmountable.")



5//The Independent, UK--OUTCRY AS ITALY STARTS TO SELL OFF ITS HERITAGE (Italy's great asset-strip has begun. Desperate for revenue, Silvio Berlusconi's government has already made billions of euros out of amnesties to illegal builders and tax evaders. Now it plans to sell off the family silver, starting today…As a result, some extraordinary properties are going to come on the market. It may not be immediately obvious what one can do with a well- preserved 2,000-year-old nymphaeum (shrine of the nymphs) in central Rome or the Auditorium of Mecenate, which was once the property of the Emperor Tiberius. But these, along with a former convent and an ex-monastery, various disused barracks and some thundering 19th-century public buildings, are among the first 21 assets to be put on the list.)



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