WHAT THE WORLD IS READING

Not unexpectedly after Super Tuesday, the world press is fascinated by the US presidential campaign.

Not unexpectedly after Super Tuesday, the world press is fascinated by the US presidential campaign. In 8216;The World Watches8217;, Newsweek describes how newspapers from Cuba and Israel to China and Australia are busy analysing the greatest show on earth, but in Russia 8220;8230;the big US election news was deemed to be the actor Robert De Niro8217;s endorsement of Obama.8221;

In The New Statesman, Andrew Stephen assesses the three likely contenders8217; vital statistics with some skepticism: Clinton 8220;has the Democratic working-class, Latino and women8217;s votes sewn up while Obama will now be playing the youth and c-word cards for all they8217;re worth.8221; Meanwhile, McCain is the 8216;Maverick8217;: 8220;that explains his cross-party appeal as well as opposition within the Republicans.8221; Concludes Stephen: 8220;The fun, my friends 8212; as John McCain would say 8212; has hardly started8221;.

In the same issue John Pilger tears into 8216;The danse macabre of US style democracy8217;: 8220;the presidential campaigns were a parody, entertaining and often grotesque with flags, balloons and bullshit, designed to camouflage a venal system based on money, power, human division and a culture of permanent war.8221; War is on the Spectator8217;s mind too, although in a very different context. In 8220;McCain, please8221; it argues that: 8220;8230;the 2008 race is, at heart, a wartime election8230; and winning in Iraq will be by far the most pressing task8230; A second Clinton presidency would8230; simply be the restoration of a duumvirate that left the White House in disgrace seven years ago. Barack Obama8230; we can not support 8230;for the same reason that he says that he is running: the fierce urgency of now8230; McCain is the man.8221;

Newsweek provides a profile in courage of McCain,72, who if elected 8220;will be the oldest president ever8221;. The Economist likes a McCain presidency but 8220;his age will be a drawback8230; and his choice of running, is therefore a subject of more than usual concern.8221;

In 8220;Raising Obama8221; Vanity Fair asks 8220;Is he tough enough?8221; The answer is yes: not just because of 8220;dreams from my father8221; but also 8220;his mother8217;s daring, his grandmother8217;s grit, and his own relentless drive8221; A poem by boy Barack explains that drive: 8220;..saw an old, forgotten man,/On an old, forgotten road./Staggering and numb under the glare of the Spotlight. His eyes, so dull and grey,/Slide from right to left, to right,/Looking for his life, misplaced8221;.

Away from the American elections, The New Yorker and Seymour M Hersh investigate 8216;A Strike in the Dark8217;. Examining claims that Israel had destroyed a nascent nuclear reactor in Syria developed with North Korean help on September 6, 2007, Hersh found evidence to suggest that 8220;the preeuml;mptive raid on Syria was also meant as a warning about8212;and a model for8212;a preeuml;mptive attack on Iran.8221;

In The New Statesman, Ziauddin Sardar asks 8220;Will you marry me 8211; temporarily?8221; Muta marriage, a specifically Shia tradition, involves a contract between men and women 8220;in which the duration of marriage and the dowry are specified in advance,8221; and can last one hour or 99 years. This year, the Iranian interior ministry has launched a huge campaign to encourage the country8217;s youth 8220;to seek sexual fulfilment in muta marriages.8221; Roughly half of Iran8217;s 70 million population is under 30. 8220;An increasing number are delaying marriage because of financial pressures and house prices, thereby missing out on sex8230; hopping from temporary partner to temporary partner. Iran will have caught up with the west; and we will all be happy.8221;