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Thailand to get first woman PM
Libyans rebels ready for final assault
French Socialists in chaos over Strauss-Kahn’s possible return
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Thailand to get first woman PM
Bangkok, July 3 Thai Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva conceded that Yingluck had won the nation's election and congratulated her for being the first female prime minister. Yingluck, 44, the telegenic youngest sister of former premier and telecoms billionaire Thaksin Shinawatra, who is on a self-imposed exile in Dubai and has been out of Thailand since the coup five years ago when he was ousted. Yingluck dubbed as Thaksin's political proxy will be the 28th prime minister of the country, which has a history of military coups and political instability. With over 90 per cent of votes counted, Puea Thai had won 260 seats out of 500. It is well ahead of the Democrats with 163, according to the Election Commission. "The outcome is clear-Puea Thai has won the election and the Democrats are defeated," Abhisit told supporters at the party's Bangkok headquarters. Exit polls had shown that Yingluck's party may take more than 300 of the 500 seats in the House of Representatives enabling the party to form its own government without looking for coalition partners. Exit polls showed that Yingluck's Pheu Thai party with a wide lead over Abhisit's Democratic Party. "Thank you to the people who came out to vote," the beaming businesswoman said after victory at the polls. The general elations were the first major electoral test for the elite-backed government since mass demonstrations by Thaksin's "Red Shirt" supporters last year paralysed Bangkok and unleashed the worst political violence in decades. Today's elections may bring to an end the last few years of unrest between supporters of Thaksin and the Democrats and Royal supporters. The Pheu Thai party is allied with Thaksin Shinawatra, who was ousted as prime minister the 2006 military coup. Tensions between the Democratic Party and the Pheu Thai party erupted last year, with protests against Abhisit's government leading to a military crackdown resulting in 90 deaths and hundreds injured. Abhisit became the prime minister after he was put in office in 2008 by a parliamentary vote after the court dissolved the previous pro-Thaksin ruling party. However, it is not yet clear what will be the status of Thaksin, who faces an arrest warrant here. — PTI
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Libyans rebels ready for final assault
Benghazi, July 3 The rebels’ announcement late yesterday came as a prolonged deadlock on the battlefield prompted mounting pressure from countries outside the NATO-led coalition for a negotiated solution to a conflict that has dragged on for more than four months. South Africa, which has taken a lead role in mediation efforts, said President Jacob Zuma would hold talks in Moscow with representatives of the International Contact Group on Libya as well as Russian officials. Rebel fighters are readying an advance out of their hilltop enclave in the Nafusa Mountains, southwest of Tripoli, in the next 48 hours in a bid to recapture territory in the plains on the road to the capital, spokesman Colonel Ahmed Omar Bani said. “In the next two days the (revolutionaries) will come up with answers, things will change on the front line,” he said. The rebels had pulled back last week from around the plains town of Bir al-Ghanam, some 80 km from Tripoli, in the face of loyalist bombardment. — AFP
Washington: Muammar Gaddafi is reportedly smuggling gold coins stamped with his face and Audemars Piguet watches worth up to £100,000 into Britain to use the cash from sales to buy arms for his war. The IMF said the Libyan central bank, which is under the dictator’s control, holds 143.8 tonnes of gold worth £4billion. — ANI
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French Socialists in chaos over Strauss-Kahn’s possible return
London, July 3 Strauss-Kahn was the clear favourite to win the presidential election next year before he was arrested for allegedly attempting to rape a New York hotel maid in May, the Guardian reported. If he is cleared or charges are dropped, supporters such as former culture minister Jack Lang suggested he could return to France more popular than ever before. The Socialist party had presumed 62-year-old Strauss- Kahn’s presidential hopes were dead and opened its selection process for another candidate last week. The name of candidates has to be declared by July 13 for an October vote, but Strauss-Kahn’s next hearing is scheduled for July 18, the Guardian said. Current front-runner Francois Hollande was the first to declare this weekend that he had “no problem” with pushing back the declaration date until the end of August, allowing Strauss-Kahn to return from New York if charges were dropped quickly. But the party’s interim leader, Harlem Desir, snapped back that there didn’t seem to be “any reason” to move the deadline. The row has weakened Martine Aubry, who declared her presidential bid last week, but had a pact with Strauss-Kahn and could be pressured to stand aside for him. All depends on whether the prosecution maintains its case and goes to trial or quickly drops charges against Strauss-Kahn, and if so how the French public and opinion polls perceive him, the report said. Even while the charges still stand, some French supporters presented Strauss-Kahn as an innocent victim, hero and martyr. Left-wing philosopher Bernard-Henry Levy spoke of a noble man who had been the victim of a “spiral of horror and calumny”. He told Le Parisien that Strauss-Kahn had been “lynched” by the “friends of minorities” in the US. He said that because the victim was “poor and immigrant” she had been presumed innocent, and because Strauss-Kahn was “powerful” he had been presumed guilty. But while many Socialists felt DSK could return triumphant if totally cleared, others worried about the stain the case would leave on French politics and the damage done by revelations about his private life and his attitude to women. Jean Veil, Strauss-Kahn’s French lawyer, said: “He will speak once he’s in France and cleared of all suspicion.” — PTI
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The Pheu Thai Party led by the sister of ousted fugitive former premier Thaksin Shinawatra today swept the general elections in Thailand, paving the way for its leader Yingluck Shinawatra to be the country's first woman prime minister.
