BY TODD ZAUN
Associated Press Writer
TOKYO -- Newspapers editorials in Asia and Europe said today that President Clinton should resign. One woman called the report on his affair embarrassing. And many worried that a political crisis in Washington might push the wobbly world economy over the brink. The 445-page document outlining Clinton's relationship with former White House intern Monica Lewinsky pushed local stories off the front pages from Sydney to London.
In Thailand and Singapore, newspaper and television reports left out the more sexually graphic details included in Independent Counsel Kenneth Starr's report.
Papers in South Korea, however, summarized sections of the report including when and where sexual encounters took place and what parts of Lewinsky's body Clinton touched.
"What an embarrassment! The Americans should have handled this more quietly," said Park Min-ja, a 55-year-old housewife in Seoul. "How is he going to stand before children?"
The reaction was similar closer to the United States.
Mexico's Televisa television network called the report "500 pages of shameful details." Commenting on Televisa's nightly news program, the anchor asked "What has become of the pride, the dignity of the most powerful nation on earth?"
Japan's largest-circulation newspaper, the Yomiuri daily, devoted more than half of its first three pages to White House scandal. Across Asia, people worried that the crisis would leave the United States without an effective leader.
An editorial in the Sydney Morning Herald said the scandal "couldn't come at a worse time."
Citing a shaky "global financial system" and troubles in Russia and North Korea, the paper lamented that "when strong (U.S.) leadership is needed, political paralysis may be the only thing on offer."
Many papers and people focused on Clinton's possible removal from office and some even called for him to step down.
"The U.S. is the only hope for leadership, for action. And it cannot take its proper role with Clinton at the helm," read an editorial in the Bangkok Post. "The president must resign," it said.
The Sun, a British tabloid owned by Rupert Murdoch, declared in an editorial that Clinton was "unfit to be president" and "must go."
Hong Kong's English-language South China Morning Post -- which had Clinton stories on its first three pages -- said in a commentary that "public revelation of some of the graphic details of the dalliances in the Oval Office study might be so embarrassing as to be punishment in itself."
In Japan, where the economy is in the midst of its worst recession in decades, some said Americans should count their blessings. "It was not a good thing, but as long as the economy is in good shape it doesn't matter," said Masato Fujita, 30, a manager at a maintenance company.
The Express tabloid in Britain ran an inside story about first lady Hillary Rodham Clinton under the headline: "I'm with you all the way ... you vile creep."
AP-CS-09-12-98 0505EDT
