Rising Anger – The South China Morning Post reports on protests Sunday in Hong Kong demanding Chinese authorities investigate last week’s suspicious death of Tiananmen dissident Li Wangyang. The demonstration came as officials in the activist’s Hunan province hometown claimed Li died “an accidental death” and his body was cremated at the request of relatives. “According to reports, Li’s family did not consent to an autopsy or his cremation,” it says. Too Close For Comfort – A week of high-profile defendants at the Leveson Inquiry kicks off today with former Prime Minister Gordon Brown and Chancellor George Osborne appearing on the stand. The Daily Telegraph, which is live-blogging the day of testimony, reports that Brown admitted the Labour party “accepted too easily” a closed media culture and established that there is a line to be drawn over the relationship between politicians and the media: “You can serve up dinner, but you can’t serve up BSkyB as part of that dinner.” Counter-Revolution – Global Post examines Saudi Arabia’s efforts to stymie the Arab Spring in the region, but notes not all has gone to plan. “Riyadh is pushing a bold agenda to strengthen the long-standing union between its fellow Gulf monarchies, apparently to prevent the Arab world’s revolutionary fervor from spreading,” it writes. “The move was met with skepticism and outright hostility from neighboring states, which are reluctant to cede their growing autonomy.” Bailout Blues – After Spain’s banks were granted a bailout from the euro zone, The New York Times says the repeated pattern of rescuing banks around Europe is “like a comedy routine” and condemns the fact that it’s “only the banks that get rescued, not the unemployed.” It describes as “striking” the idea that European leaders “have no intention of changing the policies that have left almost a quarter of Spain’s workers … jobless.” New Tack – Ahead of Mexico’s July 1 presidential election, The New York Times analyzes the three leading candidates’ strategies for the country’s deadly drug war, noting a major re-emphasis on reducing the violence in Mexico over blocking the flow of drugs to the U.S.![]()
