<B>EURONEWS

Prodi décidé à faire «avaler» son budget 2007 au Sénat</B>

Après avoir comparé l?Italie à un malade qui refuse d?avaler ses médicaments (en référence aux réformes impopulaires), le chef du gouvernement, Romano Prodi, soumet ce vendredi son projet économique pour l?année 2007 à la chambre haute. Un test crucial pour le président du Conseil, dont la coalition de centre gauche ne dispose que d?une courte majorité au Sénat. Majorité contestée par l?opposition. D?ailleurs huit jours après avoir décidé la vérification de bulletins controversés lors de l?élection du Sénat, la Chambre des députés a décidé jeudi le recomptage de quelques 4 millions de votes.

Au lendemain des législatives d?avril, le président sortant du Conseil, Silvio Berlusconi, avait dénoncé des fraudes électorales. Bien qu?un docu-fiction, réalisé par deux journalistes, accuse le Cavaliere d?avoir truqué les résultats, plus de 41% des Italiens estiment que le gouvernement Prodi est pire que celui de Berlusconi.

<B>LEBANON TIMES

Situation in Iraq: A civil war is a civil war is a civil war</B>

Looking at Baghdad these days where exploding car bombs, suicidal jihadis, kidnappings, lack of security and rampant crime has become a daily occurrence, one could easily draw parallels with the Beirut circa 1975-1990 civil war, years of violence that left Lebanon devastated. Both Americans and Iraqis are trying hard to call the violence in Iraq anything but what it really is, a bona fide civil war. What else can you call a conflict where Iraqis are killing fellow Iraqis? Similarly in Beirut, no one really wanted to call what was happening a civil war. In that respect Beirut and Baghdad are not alone.

There are in fact many precedents of wars and civil wars being called other than what they were.Lebanon?s civil war was never referred to as such: it was called «The Events.»

The violence that for decades plagued Northern Ireland, where Irish Protestants and Irish Catholics were busy killing each other, that is when they were not busy killing the British, was also never called a civil war.

The Irish referred to their conflict as «The Troubles.» And the conflict between North and South Korea, although it was a full-scale war with the United States and United Nations troops backing the South Koreans against the communist north, which in turn was backed by China, was never called a war: it was referred to as a «police action.»

Using that same logic Iraq is not engulfed in a civil war. Iraq is experiencing «troubling events in which police actions are underway in efforts to restore law and order and security, and in an attempt to bring democracy to the country». It could be called «The Unrest.» The bottom line is that you can call the violence by any name you please, it will not lessen the level of violence, nor will it put a stop to the number of suicide bombers, killings, abductions, torture and the systematic destruction of Iraq?s infrastructure.What would it take to wake up Iraqis to the fact that this insanity will lead them nowhere? Meanwhile, civil war, events, troubles or police action, the carnage continues.

<B>THE TIMES OF INDIA

PM seeks Japan?s support for India?s nuclear needs</B>

Seeking a new partnership with Japan, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Thursday pressed for its support to put in place «innovative and forward-looking» approaches by the international community to meet India?s growing nuclear energy needs.

Addressing the Japanese parliament (Diet), Singh advocated a strong push for economic ties saying they must be the bedrock of Indo-Japan relationship. «Like Japan, India sees nuclear power as a viable and clean energy source to meet its growing energy needs. We seek Japan?s support in helping put in place innovative and forward looking approaches of the international community to make this possible,» he told the members of the joint session of the House of Representatives and House of Councillors. New Delhi is looking for the support of Japan, an influential member of the 45-nation Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG), to back changes in its guidelines to allow international nuclear cooperation with India.