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The release of the Lockerbie bomber has damaged the reputation of Scotland across the globe, former Labour first minister Jack McConnell has warned. He condemned the move and said it must be made clear it was not done in the name of the Scottish people. Abdelbaset Ali al-Megrahi was freed from Greenock prison on Thursday to be allowed home to Libya to die. Speaking to BBC Scotland, Mr McConnell said the sight of the Scottish flag being waved as Megrahi arrived back in Libya had brought shame on Scotland. He said: "The way in which the decision has been made...

The Scottish Nationalists have never been too fussy about the international company they keep. Indeed, the last time they were celebrated anywhere more exotic than Banff was when Alex Salmond became "the toast of Belgrade" – the late Robin Cook's phrase – for denouncing Nato action against the deeply unpleasant Serbian regime. However, the Nationalists crave to be noticed on the international stage by whatever means. And this week, they succeeded. Rarely can so many decent Scottish stomachs have turned than at the sight of the Saltire being flourished in Tripoli as a centre-piece of the repulsive celebrations to welcome...

[URL="http://pewglobal.org/reports/display.php?ReportID=264"]http://pewglobal.org/reports/display.php?ReportID=264[/URL] The image of the United States has improved markedly in most parts of the world, reflecting global confidence in Barack Obama. In many countries opinions of the United States are now about as positive as they were at the beginning of the decade before George W. Bush took office. Improvements in the U.S. image have been most pronounced in Western Europe, where favorable ratings for both the nation and the American people have soared. But opinions of America have also become more positive in key countries in Latin America, Africa and Asia, as well. Signs of improvement in views...

The image of the United States in the minds of Mexican citizens has skyrocketed in the past year -- rebounding to positive levels not seen since the American invasion of Iraq. pew US image.gif Pew Research Center graphic According to the Pew Global Attitudes Project's newly released survey on international attitudes toward the U.S., the favorable image of the United States has soared in Mexico from 47 percent to 69 percent since Barack Obama replaced George W. Bush as president. A year ago, just 16 percent of Mexicans said they trusted the United States to do what's right in international...

Poll: U.S. image abroad surges under Obama Survey of 25 nations contrasts with views during Bush presidency. WASHINGTON - President Barack Obama's popularity has boosted America's image abroad even though deep suspicions about the U.S. persist in the Muslim world, according to a poll released Thursday. The survey of two dozen nations conducted this spring by the nonpartisan Pew Research Center found that positive public attitudes toward the United States have surged in many parts of the world since Obama's election. Positive opinions about the United States have returned to higher levels not seen since before President George W. Bush...

I can hear it now..."But his approval rating is so high in Kenya!" http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=aPqRPvwmqWHA

WASHINGTON – President Barack Obama's popularity has boosted America's image abroad even though deep suspicions about the U.S. persist in the Muslim world, according to a poll released Thursday. The survey of two dozen nations conducted this spring by the nonpartisan Pew Research Center found that positive public attitudes toward the United States have surged in many parts of the world since Obama's election. Positive opinions about the United States have returned to higher levels not seen since before President George W. Bush took office in 2001. The Bush presidency marked a steep decline in U.S. popularity overseas, notably after...

WASHINGTON — A new global survey has found a vast improvement in views of the United States since the election of President Barack Obama. But it also finds broad opposition to one of his key policies — sending more troops to Afghanistan — and confirms a drop in confidence in the United States among Israelis. At home, the president’s approval ratings on the economy have declined in the past month amid lagging recovery. It was unclear whether views overseas might have similarly soured after the Pew polling concluded in mid-June.

The signing ceremony in Moscow was a grand affair. For Barack Obama, foreign policy neophyte and "reset" man, the arms reduction agreement had a Kissingerian air. A fine feather in his cap. And our president likes his plumage. Unfortunately for the United States, the country Obama represents, the prospective treaty is useless at best, detrimental at worst. Useless because the level of offensive nuclear weaponry, the subject of the U.S.-Russia "Joint Understanding," is an irrelevance. We could today terminate all such negotiations, invite the Russians to build as many warheads as they want, and profitably watch them spend themselves into...

US President Barack Obama has the confidence of many publics around the world - inspiring far more confidence than any other world political leader according to a new poll of 20 nations by WorldPublicOpinion.org. A year ago, President Bush was one of the least trusted leaders in the world. Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin now have the most negative confidence ratings around the world. On average across all nations about half have little or no confidence that they will "do the right thing regarding world affairs" while just a third or less do have confidence.

IT must have been the viewing angle: The despots who run Iran somehow missed the halo gracing President Obama during his recent sermon to the Muslim world. The ruling mullahs' contemptuous handling of Iran's presidential election was their response to "the Cairo effect" announced a tad prematurely by the White House. Our president's public flagellation of America only emboldened the junta in Tehran -- leaving Iran's power brokers more defiant, determined and dismissive than they've been in years. And the strongest response Obama can muster to the blood in Tehran's streets is: "I am deeply troubled by the violence that...

Congratulations to President Obama! Osama bin Laden is no longer the most dangerous man in the world, having been effectively neutered by former President Bush’s war on terror. Obama has deftly picked up the mantle and has become America’s number one enemy.Demonstrating its consummate mendacity, the mainstream media referred, during the 2008 campaign, to Barack Obama as “no drama Obama”. Just a few short months into his presidency, it is manifest that no drama Obama is instead, the architect of chaos and destruction. Everything Obama touches plummets into disorder.

North Korea celebrated Memorial Day with an underground test of a nuclear weapon reportedly the size of the bomb that destroyed Hiroshima. With that and a series of missile launches, the regime in Pyongyang has sent an unmistakable signal: The Hermit Kingdom has nothing but contempt for the so-called "international community" and the empty rhetoric and diplomatic posturing that usually precede new rewards for the North's bad behavior... Until now (Japan and South Korea) have nestled under the U.S. nuclear umbrella...made possible by what is known in the national-security community as "extended deterrence." Thanks to the credibility of U.S. security...

Some members of 'Anti-American Imperialism Forum', protesting against US President Barack Obama's "Bangalore to Buffalo" remark were arrested when they tried to forcibly enter Bank Of America, on M G road here on Wednesday. About 25 protestors of the city-based outfit, carrying placards and shouting slogans - "Down, Down Big Brother Obama", "Buffalo has buffaloes, Bangalore has brains" "Osama terrorised innocent, Obama terrorises BPO workers" - were arrested when they tried to forcibly enter Bank Of America, deputy commissioner of Police (Central Division), G Ramesh said. The agitators took out a protest march from Mahatma Gandhi statue to the Bank...

. . . .[N]ations having everlasting interests rather than eternal friends or enemies. In today's language: interest beats affection any time. Mrs. Merkel surely knows how enthralled her country is with Mr. Obama. But that's not enough to place German soldiers in harm's way in Afghanistan, or to run up the national debt in a country that is traumatized by inflation. Why should Kim Jong Il part with his nuclear weapons program when it's the only sure-fire way for an unhinged but smart dictator to get great powers to give him all sorts of goodies? Let go of the nukes,...

Obama failed to get European leaders to commit to U.S.-style stimulus packages or to get NATO allies to send more combat troops to Afghanistan. But he prevented French President Nicolas Sarkozy from walking out of the G20 summit, as he threatened to do earlier. He also helped persuade China to agree to publish lists of tax havens, and got NATO allies to agree to sending up to 5,000 more military trainers and police to Afghanistan.

<p>LONDON (AP) — President Barack Obama — wildly popular the world over — says he isn't the globe's most admired politician. He says that title belongs to Brazil's president.</p> <p>During a lunch at the Group of 20 summit in London, Obama shook hands with President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva and said: "This is my man, right here. I love this guy."</p>

It is to be hoped that President Obama has a developed sense of humour. The man heralded by many as the new Messiah of political renewal lands in London this week not to the chorus of approval he might have expected on his first official trip to Europe but to crowds roaring with anger and frustration at the global economic system which his country underpins. It isn’t personal – yet. Few but the most unreasonable would hold the new American president responsible for woes that he inherited. Nonetheless, Obama campaigned on a platform of change. The implicit claim that his...

WASHINGTON (CNN)– As Barack Obama takes off for his first overseas trip as president, a new national poll indicates that more than eight in ten Americans think he will do a good job representing the U.S. to the world. And seven in ten people questioned in the CNN/Opinion Research Corporation survey, released Tuesday, believe that leaders of other countries respect Obama. That last figure is in sharp contrast with George W. Bush. At the start of his presidency in 2001, only 49 percent believed that foreign leaders respected Bush.

Europeans have long worshipped Barack Obama from afar. Now the beloved one is paying his first visit as US president to the old continent. Yet there is every indication that Europe’s leaders are about to stiff him. Mr Obama is on a rapid-fire tour that will take him from the Group of 20 meeting in London to a Nato summit in Strasbourg, then on to a US-European Union meeting in Prague and, finally, a state visit in Turkey. But he will be lucky to return from Europe with much more than commemorative photos and some presents for the kids. (“I...