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Italian press
salutes Sonia’s triumph
Bangladesh
welcomes Indian poll results Fall of NDA govt
may hamper peace process: Pak media Prisoners freed
from Abu Ghraib allege torture |
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Italian press salutes Sonia’s triumph
Rome, May 14 “Italian Sonia Gandhi triumphs,” trumpeted Italy’s leading daily Corriere della Sera in a front-page headline. “Sonia Gandhi: an Italian triumphs in India,” echoed the headline in the leftist La Repubblica. Born on December 9, 1946, into the family of a middle-class building contractor, Mrs Gandhi was born Sonia Maino and grew up in Orbassano, located in the shadow of Italy’s northern giant Turin. But she left her Italian home town far behind when she married Rajiv Gandhi, scion of India’s political first family in February, 1968. She acquired Indian nationality in 1984 and her husband was assassinated in 1991. “Against all expectations, there is now little doubt that the a Italian from Orbassano will become India’s next Prime Minister,” said La Repubblica. The Congress’ unexpected win over Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) was seen by observers as an angry backlash by poor voters who felt ignored by a government whose focus was seen to be on the wealthier urban classes. India’s “economic miracle didn’t save Vajpayee,” noted the daily. LONDON: Giving wide coverage to the poll outcome in India, leading British dailies today said the ouster of the Vajpayee government came as a surprise with one of them describing the defeat of the BJP-led NDA as “one of the greatest election upsets of all time”. “For the past decade India’s leaders have presented to the world a vision of a brave, new, ‘shining’ India. It is a high-tech country of mobile phones, gleaming glass call centres and double-digit economic growth,” ‘The Daily Telegraph’ said, adding “the shock defeat of India’s ruling coalition was the electoral equivalent of a peasants’ revolt.” In an editorial, The Guardian said: “The result came as a complete surprise to everyone but the people who matter in an Indian election. “...It was a massive vote of confidence in India’s democratic system, a vote which swept aside declarations of a surging economy, a bountiful monsoon, a foreign policy success in the start of a rapprochement with Pakistan, and a slick campaign by the outgoing government which played on the feel-good factor: ‘India Shining’.”
— AFP, PTI |
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Bangladesh welcomes Indian poll results Dhaka, May 14 Mrs Zia, who heads the Nationalist-Islamist coalition in Bangladesh, extended congratulations to Ms Gandhi after the Congress emerged as the single largest party in the polls for the Lok Sabha. Bangladesh also expressed its eagerness to work with the new government of its closest neighbour. Foreign Minister M Morshed Khan said existing bilateral ties with India would not be affected by the change of power in New Delhi. “There will be no change in foreign policy towards India,’’ Mr Khan said.
— DPA |
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Fall of NDA govt may hamper Islamabad, May 14 While TV channels had lengthy discussions on the likely impact of the fall of the Vajpayee government, print media covered the Lok Sabha poll outcome extensively. “The election results will be a matter of concern for Pakistan as much was being put in store by a victorious Vajpayee taking the peace and normalisation process to its fruition,” ‘The News’ daily said in an editorial. It said that Mr Vajpayee was seen here as a highly successful chief executive mainly because he had overcome years of tension and bitterness between the two neighbours. Apparently referring to Congress President Sonia Gandhi’s remark that peace process with Pakistan would continue, the daily said “the future Prime Minister of India has uttered the usual encouraging words”. “Of concern to Pakistan is that without Vajpayee’s moderate leadership, the BJP was likely to revert to its pro-Hindu, anti-Pakistan rhetoric again and put the Congress government on the defensive,” noted Pakistani journalist Najam Sethi said in a front page comment in ‘Daily Times’. Paying compliments to Mr Vajpayee, Sethi wrote that the Indian leader seem to have a personal stake in building the historic peace with Pakistan. “He risked Lahore Summit in 1999. He braved Agra in 2001 despite the bitter experience of Kargil. Despite the terrorist attack on Indian Parliament in December 2001, he persisted with his goal and reopened negotiations with Pakistan early this year. “And despite dire warnings of terrorist attacks, he went ahead and risked a cricket tour with Pakistan two months ago. In fact he staked progress on the critical issues with Pakistan on the basis of returning to power in a much stronger position than before. That is why he left the real dialogue with Pakistan until after the elections. But all that has changed now” he said. About Ms Sonia Gandhi, he said she would lead a “weak” Congress coalition as such the new government would not be able to make any significant “concessions” to Pakistan mainly because she would be vulnerable to opposition charges of undermining the “national interests”.
— PTI |
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Prisoners freed from Abu Ghraib allege torture
Abu Ghraib, Iraq, May 14 Mr Rumsfeld visited the prison yesterday in the wake of allegations that US troops had mistreated Iraqi prisoners. The former inmates were part of a batch of some 315 prisoners scheduled to be freed from the jail west of Baghdad at the centre of the prisoner abuse scandal which has deeply embarrassed Washington. Abu Mustafa, 24, said he was arrested 10 months ago by US forces who accused him of being a leader of a terrorist group. “They kept me in solitary confinement for six days,” he said. “They hung me by my hands from the wall for five hours. “One day when I was in the hospital, a soldier came in and asked if I was a Muslim and then started having sex with another (female) soldier right in front of me.” Mohammed Zadian, 45, who said he was detained for four months, said he was also hung from a wall by his hands for hours while he was “asked to confess that I attacked the American forces”. He added: “I saw them attach electric wires to the tongue and the genitals of my cousin. They also used to give me a box of food and made me carry it around for six hours without putting it down.” Mohammed Khazal
al-Moussawi, 31, who was held for eight months, said he went into the prison weighing 117 kg, and came out more than 30 kg lighter.
— AFP |
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Evidence of meteorite crash in Australia
Washington, May 14 A team led by Mr Luann Becker, a researcher at the University of California in Santa Barbara, studied a structure called “Bedout High,” a four-kilometre uplift of basement rocks surrounded by a basin, the journal said yesterday. Researchers drilled into the structure and found evidence of a melt layer formed by an impact, but said more research is needed to confirm that a meteorite created the crater. Although they were not certain, the researchers said the crater might date from the age of the Permian-Triassic boundary. The mass extinction that occurred at the end of the Permian age, about 250 million years ago, corresponded with large-scale volcanic activity. Similar activity corresponded with the extinction of dinosaurs. The Permian age extinction is known as the “Great Dying,” when 90 per cent of marine life and 70 per cent of land species disappeared. According to one theory, a meteorite crashed into Earth, hurling dust into the air that darkened the planet and started a chain of events that led to a mass extinction.
— AFP |
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USA begins release of prisoners Clashes in Najaf 6 Shias shot 13 killed in Nepal |
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In video: US State
Department congratulates the victorious INC. (
Abu
Ghraib, Iraq, May 14
