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EXTRADITION OF AUGUSTO PINOCHET

Verdicts on the decision by the Law Lords that heads of state are not exempt from criminal proceedings for actions taken in office

La Tercera

Chile

IT WOULD be unfortunate for Pinochet if it turned out that he had to be extradited or face a long trial in Great Britain, the results of neither of which are certain. Nothing would be obtained by being bad tempered and opposing the British. He must wait for them to decide and accept that his fate is in the hands of other countries. The British should understand our right to call for for quick and satisfactory solutions, which avoid damaging our nation, which has already undergone great difficulties and has paid massive costs, in order to recover its civilised state and its level of political and economic stability.

Diario 16

Spain

FROM NOW on the rules of the game have changed: rulers will no longer be able to take refuge behind their high office. The precedent of common sense has been set: having been a Head of State does not exempt you from taking responsibility for your acts. It is time the general abandoned political life once and for all, and allowed his compatriots to develop a full democracy. This is the opportunity that will enable Chile to come out on top.

El Mundo

Spain

A LEGAL precedent has been set. And it is highly positive that the House of Lords set it. Margaret Thatcher, a friend of Pinochet, asked that he not be tried because he was "old, fragile and sick". Don't try to flog that argument to Spain: we know through bitter experience what an old, fragile and sick autocrat is capable of.

The Daily Telegraph

UK

DOES THE Home Secretary do what is right for Chile and Britain, and allow the general to go home? Or does he pander to Labour prejudice and allow the extradition proceedings to go ahead? If ever there was a case where political discretion is not only justified but required, this is it. Pinochet should be sent home for Christmas.

Los Angeles Times

US

If we look at the Augusto Pinochet issue in terms of the Fourteenth Amendment, there is no equality before the law when it comes to these requests for extraditions or to international tribunals considering crimes against humanity in all their infamous abundance. Here we find soon enough that there is one law for the powerful, such as the United States, Britain, France and other such nations, and another for the rest.

El Pais

Spain

FOR MANY democrats throughout the world, yesterday was a day of fiesta... Freeing Pinochet on grounds of sovereign immunity would have been an immoral act... Despite the anguish of Pinochet's supporters, the Chilean transition to democracy could be strengthened by this trial of fire. The transition began in 1990, under the condition that the dictator was invulnerable to prosecution. He is not. The jubilation of so many in Chile shows that Chileans have lost their fear.

El Mercurio

Chile

THE POLITICAL situation in Chile will seriously worsen as a result of this judgment. For the first time in history a foreign judge could try an ex-head of state against the opinion of his government and his country, disregarding Chilean laws in our own territory. The social peace of the country could be at stake.

The Guardian

UK

JUDICIALLY, THIS marks a decisive moment, a victory of the modern over the ancient, and the arrival in action, and no longer just in theory, of the new concepts of international law. It is perhaps too much to hope that the Law Lords will make Pinochet reflect a little deeper. But it may help the other apologists for his dictatorship to think harder. The Chilean government, too, should consider whether it wants to continue to defend a man who is wanted for trial in several countries.

The Sun

UK

PINOCHET IS not a Serb or Nazi war criminal who massacred other races. He's an ailing ex-head of state who came here in good faith. His arrest threatens democracy in Chile, a good friend of Britain. Home Secretary Jack Straw should end this farce by earning a new title: Send-Him-Home Secretary.

THE QUEEN'S SPEECH

Comment on the Government's programme for the next parliamentary session

The Daily Telegraph

THE QUEEN'S Speech contains almost nothing which addresses real public concerns. When you have stripped away the boasts about things already done and the promises about things the Government might do someday, you are left with nothing that assists schools or jobs. As for health, it will actually suffer from the abolition of GP fundholding and the NHS internal market. A yet younger age for homosexual sex will be pushed through. Mr Blair's abolition of the hereditary peers is the one big idea of this session. To New Labour, it is "obvious" that a hereditary element in the House of Lords is "indefensible", and "therefore" it is fine to abolish it without deciding what to put in its place. One should always beware of politicians who skate over arguments by claiming that something is obvious.

The Times

A CHARACTERISTIC of this government has been its unwillingness to make enemies. But the coming legislative session will at last begin the process of confrontation which should be inevitable by this stage in a Parliament. By the end of it, Mr Blair will be battle-scarred and weary. But he may be entitled to wear a few medals. He will have taken the side of the patient against bad doctors, the parent against bad teachers and the taxpayer against lazy benefit claimants. When politicians take on vested interests, they always lose friends. But that is what governing is all about.

Financial Times

THE PROPOSALS in the Queen's Speech show that it still has much to do, not only in working out essential details, but also in thinking through the broader architecture of its plans. Delay would have let in other desirable bills, such as a Freedom of Information Act, and given the Government more time for the bigger question of Britain's relationship with the euro- zone. This was a case in which Labour should have cared more about doing things right than doing them in a hurry. If Mr Blair cannot learn that lesson, his ambitions of making a historic change in British life will be frustrated.

The Sun

THE SUN broadly backs Blair's new programme - but not Euro work practice regulations and lowering the gay age of consent. And we'd prefer to know what replaces hereditary peers before they're rightly consigned to the dustbin of history. But true democracy also demands a strong opposition. Hopefully the parrot can drag itself back on the perch as Hague gets better and better. It's good to squawk.

Daily Mail

AFTER MORE than a year and a half in office, this government should be doing great things. Instead of which, it is in danger of becoming ever more seduced by the politics of posture. The one radical Tory reform of the health service that worked - giving GPs control of their own budgets - is being uprooted in the most bungling manner. The cap on town hall budgets is left half off and half on. The much vaunted bid to give London a democratic voice is degenerating into farcical skulduggery by Labour to stop Livingstone becoming mayor. Tony Blair won a famous victory. What is he doing with it? What is there to show for it?

The Economist

THE MEASURES not in the Queen's Speech are as significant as those that are. A freedom-of-information bill is being delayed. Also missing is a bill to clean up party politics. Ministers want to wriggle out of the recommendation that governments not take sides in a referendum. There is no sign of the promised referendum on a new voting system for general elections. Not all of these are popular priorities. But their omission shows that they are certainly not the government's either.

MISS WORLD CONTEST

Views on the return of the Miss World beauty pageant to British television after a 10-year absence

The Daily Telegraph

THE MISS World pageant, making its return to mainstream British television for the first time in a decade last night, showed that no amount of soft- focus or slow motion photography can extinguish the banality inherent in a beauty contest. In a night of embarrassment, the only true emotion around was the sympathy for 21-year-old Efia Owusuaa Marfo, Miss Ghana. She managed to fall flat on her face during the contestants' daywear round, in front of an estimated global audience of 1.5 billion.

The Guardian

THE PRODUCERS are committed to the following opinions: Miss World used to be antiquated, embarrassing and sexist. This year it will be modern, cool and therefore the very opposite of sexist. It will be empowering. Everyone agrees that this presents quite a challenge. And if the event is so empowering, it is odd that the contestants censor their every word and move, rigid with fear of seeming pushy. (Decca Aitkenhead)

The Express

SHE DIDN'T want world peace or to work with animals or the starving. But when 19-year-old Linor Abargil - Miss Israel - was last night crowned the first Politically Correct Miss World, she was just as glamorous as any of her predecessors. In time-honoured tradition, the brunette burst into tears as she beat off the challenge of 85 other competitors.

The Mirror

THE NEW Miss World merely needed to study the track records of past winners to see her future. Sex with gifted but alcoholic footballers, naked Playboy centrefold work and eventual marriage to Bruce Forsyth. Production staff were worried in case the beachside stage was flooded. So worried were the organisers, they hired a standby witchdoctor to perform a reverse rain dance. But everything was all right on the night. No one threw a bag of flour on host Ronan Keating's head as they did with Bob Hope in 1970. No one set themselves on fire as an Indian man did in 1996. But there were some laughs: Miss France was asked "I hear you want to be an interpreter." To which she replied, "I no understand."

TONY BLAIR IN DUBLIN

The Irish press on Tony Blair's historic

speech to the Republic's parliament

Belfast

Telegraph

TONY BLAIR'S speech to the Oireachtas marks another milestone in the long history of British-Irish relations. His appearance before both Irish houses of parliament sends an important message to everyone living on the island. It should tell the diehards that there has been a redefinition of where the UK and the Republic stand in relation to one another, as the 20th century draws to a close. Old animosities reborn during the latest IRA campaign are dying off. The two countries see their future together as partners in a modern Europe, pooling their interests instead of pulling against each other.

Irish News

WHERE DOES the process go from here? If it continues to lose momentum the question will not be if the process will collapse, but when. Such a prospect is unthinkable. But there is a history of the unthinkable becoming the inevitable in Northern Ireland politics. Clearly Mr Blair sees this as a major problem. His visit is a clear signal that he is worried about the stability of the process.

Irish

Independent

BLAIR HAS ridden to the rescue, yet again, of the Good Friday Agreement, but there is no indication that his frantic round of meetings in Belfast have yielded positive results, or that his speech to the Oireachtas today will be anything other than symbolic. The symbolism is important, signifying that London and Dublin stand together for implementation of the Agreement in full, but it must have been hoped that some light would be spotted at the end of the decommissioning tunnel.

BRITISH BEEF

Opinion following the European Union decision to allow the resumption of British beef exports

Le Monde

France

TAKING INTO account the many uncertainties of this crisis, it would have been preferable to keep to the line set by the British themselves in March 1996 when they discovered a possible link between BSE and the appearance in humans of Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease. Before the pronouncement, Europe should have turned to its scientists to see if they would say, in all honesty, that the lifting of the embargo met with all principles of precaution.

Suddeutsche Zeitung

Germany

WHILE A strict export ban has been in place in Britain since 1996, other countries afflicted with BSE - Belgium is the most recent example - got away with it. The EU is a long way from guaranteeing the safety of consumers. It would seem that BSE is not just a British problem, but a Europe-wide one.

El Pais

Spain

BRITAIN'S EUPHORIA could not hide the darker chapters of the story. The Chief Medical Officer, who held his post until recently, has just admitted that contaminated animal feed was still being sold six years after it was banned.

Le Soir

Belgium

IT'S BACK. The banished beef has returned. But it won't receive a warm welcome here, despite all of London's efforts. We hardly imported any British meat before the embargo, and there is nothing to suggest that in the meantime the Belgian appetite for British roast beef has been whet.

MISCELLANEOUS

Stories from around the world

The Detroit News

US

PETER WALLIS, a real estate broker, is suing his ex-girlfriend for bearing his child against his will. There are no equal rights here. Only the woman has a choice, even though her decision is likely to have a serious impact on the man. The state's interest in ensuring financial support for children is presumed to trump questions of equality. Sometimes, it seems to trump justice. No political or cultural change can bring about true reproductive equality; biology will still make a difference. But society could treat men and women more fairly. We could condemn women who trick men into fatherhood or deny a father access as much as we condemn men who desert children.

Pottstown

Mercury

US

ALTHOUGH EXPERTS agree that Americans should recycle trash, one Pottstown mother thinks at least one school lunch should have stayed in the waste stream. But her child's substitute teacher didn't agree. On 3 November, the third-grader decided he didn't want his reduced-price lunch and tossed it in the trash. The substitute teacher that day apparently thought that was wrong and fished it out of the garbage can and told him to eat it.