What the world is reading

The recent shoot-out at the screening of The Dark Knight Rises in Aurora,Colorado,has once again drowned out voices that have raised the issue of gun control in a country where there is barely any control at all,legislation depends on individual states,and an unknown person with mental troubles can order any kind of arsenal over the internet,writes Mariano Aguirre. Another problem the authorities in the US do not address is the culture or subculture of violence in the electronic entertainment era. This time,the killer has been dramatically obvious,says Aguirre. He imitates the character of Joker,who,in the first two parts of this Batman series,kills people for the sake of killing them. He dyed his hair,bought an arsenal,prepared booby traps in his flat for Gothams police and went to match the fictional Joker Bane in this film and take on Batman in combat as in The Dark Knight Rises,confusing fiction and reality,adds Aguirre .

The Telegraph

Olympic whingersthank God

Writing about the London Olympics,Anne Applebaum says that unlike the Beijing Olympics,where the media hid the dark side of the Games,in London,the culture encourages you to complain8230;Just a few days ago,British politicians were up in arms about G4S,and Charles Moore said there is nothing but boredom,inconvenience and officially sanctioned insolence on offer. If nothing else,the Beijing Olympics proved that propaganda works: what the world saw was the glory and the fireworks. What no one saw were the arrests and threats the Chinese government thought necessary for the smooth running of the Games,adds Applebaum,pointing out that politicians,celebrities and journalists said nothing about these issues. In London,there are going to be plenty of attempts to emulate Chinese methods she says. There will be pushy policemen,overzealous anti-terrorist squads and ludicrous attempts to protect the rights of the corporations that sponsor the Games. But at least,one is still allowed to complain about these things,to talk about them and to write about them.

Foreign Policy Justify my love

Talking about how the Middle East is relatively losing its importance for the United States,David Rothkopf believes that the Middle East is like Madonna: Its time at the center of things has come and gone,but it is taking a while for that new reality to sink in. Rothkopf says that even as Mitt Romney pays an obligatory pilgrimage to Israel this week,President Obama responds by sending senior White House officials there before and after the Republican candidates trip. But what we are seeing is a ritual that will seem odd a decade from now,a vestige of the late 20th century that,like an ageing pop star took a while to fade away, he says.

The Independent

Dont expect PRs to say whats going on

Referring to revelations about actor Robert Pattinson,Tanith Carey writes that such news seems to belong to a bygone age and the press must not lose its nerve. After all,in this uber-cautious age,where the most fascinating revelation we read about celebs is their shoe size,Kristens confession of a momentary indiscretion is the language of an old-fashioned,caught-red-handed sex scandal. But is it such a good idea that the celebrity sex scandal vanishes for ever? asks the author. If celebrities have their way,theyd have us believe they live in a fairy-tale world of Hello! spreads, she says. But when the world reacts in horror to a betrayal committed by a celebrity,kiss-and-tells are welcome reminders that as a society,there are still boundaries which are not meant to be crossed, Carey writes.

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