The Tribune, Chandigarh, India

	Mexico’s Leftist candidate not ready to concede poll Rejects Nieto’s ‘fraudulent’ victory, raises specter of protests Mexico City, July 3 The runner-up in Mexico's presidential election has rejected Enrique Pena Nieto's "fraudulent" victory, raising the specter of protests that rocked Mexico City when he lost six years ago. When Leftist candidate Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador lost the 2006 presidential election by less than 1 per cent, he claimed fraud and organised mass protests that paralysed Mexico City for more than a month. The first official results from Sunday's vote showed Lopez Obrador with 31 per cent of the vote against 38 per cent for Pena Nieto of the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI), a much wider margin than six years ago. "We cannot accept a fraudulent result, nobody can accept that," Lopez Obrador, of the Party of the Democratic Revolution (PRD) said at a press conference, decrying Sunday's vote as a "filthy ... national embarrassment." The PRI was synonymous with the Mexican state as it governed for seven decades until 2000 using a mixture of pervasive patronage, selective repression, rigged elections and widespread bribery. Lopez Obrador claimed the PRI, through its national party and governors, spent millions of pesos buying votes. He also charged that the news media heavily favoured the PRI and that the party shattered campaign spending limits. "We will provide evidence for these claims and will file appropriate legal action," said Lopez Obrador, emphasizing that he and his supporters will first scrutinize the balloting results with election officials. He was coy about whether he would call for protests like in 2006, saying: "We're going to wait." — AFP
	Nieto to push for quick reforms Mexico City, July 3 Mexican President-elect Enrique Pena Nieto pledged to focus on energy, labour and tax reforms and said he hopes to strike deals with opponents to help shepherd changes through Congress before he takes office in December. Pena Nieto, of the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI), won Sunday's election with about 38 per cent of the vote, 6.4 percentage points ahead of leftist Andres Lopez Obrador. Nieto has promised to lift economic growth to about 6 per cent a year, create jobs and draw the heat out of a war with drug gangs that bogged down Calderon's administration. The conflict has killed more than 55,000 people since late 2006. Long regarded as corrupt and authoritarian, the PRI has bounced back under the youthful Pena Nieto, who has vowed to break with the party's checkered past. He has sought to bring in new blood to the party, and Pena Nieto said his campaign chief, Luis Videgaray, 43, would form part of his government team. — Reuters
	US moves new forces to Persian Gulf: Report Washington, July 3 The US has moved more warships and fighter aircraft to the Persian Gulf to keep the strategic Straits of Hormuz open and strike deep within Iran if the stand-off over its nuclear programme escalates. Quoting senior American officials, The New York times said the new deployment to bolster military presence in the gulf is aimed at reassuring Israel that Washington is serious about neutralising Iran's nuclear ambitions. The reports of US moving new forces to the region came as Tehran announced that it had test-fired a new range of ballistic missiles capable of striking Israel. Iranian news agency IRNA said Iran's revolutionary guards had fired 2,000-km range Shahab-3 missiles in the Kavir Desert in central Iran as part of its war games designs to show its ability to hit back, if attacked. IRNA also said that along with the medium range Shahab-3 Iran had also test fired 300-500 kms strike distance Shahab-1 and Shahab-2 missiles. The Times quoted senior US officials as saying that Washington was determined to keep the strategic waterway open at all costs. "The message to Iran is, 'Don't even think about it,'" one senior Defense Department official said. "Don't even think about closing the strait. We'll clear the mines. Don't even think about sending your fast boats out to harass our vessels or commercial shipping. We'll put them on the bottom of the gulf," the official said. Times said since late spring, stealth F-22 and older F-15C warplanes had moved into two separate bases in the Persian Gulf to bolster the combat jets already in the region and the carrier strike groups that are on constant tours of the area. — PTI Tightening the noose The fresh deployment to bolster military presence in the gulf is aimed at reassuring Israel that Washington is serious about neutralising Iran's nuclear ambitions The Times quoted senior US officials as saying that Washington was determined to keep the strategic waterway open at all costs
	Defiant Medvedev visits Kuril islands claimed by Japan Risks inflaming tensions with Tokyo again Moscow, July 3 Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev today made a repeat trip to one of the four Pacific Kuril islands claimed by Japan, in a visit that risks once again inflaming tensions with Tokyo. Medvedev arrived on the island of Kunashir which lies just north of Japan's Hokkaido island, pledging to improve the lives of the disputed chain's residents. "The farthest region of our state cannot and should not be the most deprived region although this was virtually the case some time ago," Medvedev said in televised remarks. Speaking at a government meeting on Sakhalin Island ahead of his visit to the windswept chain, Medvedev pledged the government would continue to overhaul the Kurils' ramshackle infrastructure, telling his ministers to personally oversee the chain's economic development. "You have to visit the islands although it is not always easy," he said in remarks released by his office, referring to the chain's often mercurial weather. He headed a major delegation to Kunashir including Deputy Prime Minister Olga Golodets, Russia's Far East envoy Viktor Ishaev and Regional Development Minister Oleg Govorun. Medvedev's first visit to Kunashir in November 2010, when he still held the post of president, sparked a furious reaction from Tokyo which condemned the trip as a "unforgiveable outrage". The two nations have never formally signed a World War II peace treaty because Japan maintains its claim over the islands, which Russia has controlled and tried to develop since Japan's surrender at the end of the war. Tokyo claims the chain's four southernmost islands, known as the Northern Territories in Japan, and the dispute continues to cast a cloud over Russian-Japanese relations and complicate investment and trade. The fate of the chain has become the traditional subject of nearly all high-profile talks between Russian and Japanese officials over the past years, with analysts saying those negotiations have reached a dead-end. Tensions surrounding the Kurils reached new heights after Medvedev's first visit in 2010 that even sparked fears of a conflict. Russia in February 2011 announced it would boost military defences on the islands. — AFP
	42-yr-old convicted for killing three Indian-origin siblings Melbourne, July 3 A 42-year-old Australian was today convicted for brutally killing his Indian-origin girlfriend and her two siblings in Brisbane in 2003 and faces up to 45 years behind bars. Max Sica was convicted by a Brisbane Supreme Court jury which found him guilty in the longest murder trial in Queensland's history. Sica had denied killing Neelma Singh, 24, Kunal Singh, 18, and Sidhi Singh, 12, and dumping their bodies in the spa of their home in the outer Brisbane suburb of Bridgeman Downs. He claimed he found the bodies on April 21, 2003, and has maintained the deaths were caused by someone else prior to his arrival. Sica stared straight ahead and showed no emotion as the verdicts were read out. — PTI
	Pak to re-open NATO supply routes as Hillary says sorry Washington, July 3 Pakistan has agreed to reopen vital supply routes into Afghanistan blocked since a deadly cross border NATO attack in November that killed 24 Pakistani soldiers, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said today, as she apologised for the loss of Pakistani military lives. Hillary said her Pakistani Foreign Minister Hina Rabbani Khar, during a telephone talk, "informed me that the ground supply lines into Afghanistan are opening". Islamabad had long demanded that US must apologise for the air raid that killed 24 Pakistani army personnel before it would re-open the supply routes to Afghanistan. "Foreign Minister Khar and I acknowledged the mistakes that resulted in the loss of Pakistani military lives," Hillary said in a statement. "We are sorry for the losses suffered by the Pakistani military. We are committed to working closely with Pakistan and Afghanistan to prevent this from ever happening again," Hillary said. "Pakistan will continue not to charge any transit fee in the larger interest of peace and security in Afghanistan and the region. This is a tangible demonstration of Pakistan's support for a secure, peaceful, and prosperous Afghanistan and our shared objectives in the region." Hillary's announcement came as Pakistan's highest decision-making body on security issues was holding a crucial meeting today that is expected to ratify new terms of engagement with the US and the reopening of NATO supply routes to Afghanistan. The meeting of the Defence Committee of the Cabinet is being chaired by new PM Raja Pervez Ashraf. Sources in Islamabad said the two sides are expected to issue a joint statement on the NATO attack and the need for greater cooperation to avert such incidents as the US is unlikely to offer an outright apology when the Obama administration is gearing up for the elections. — PTI We are sorry for the losses suffered by the Pakistani military. We are committed to working closely with Pakistan and Afghanistan to prevent this from ever happening again. — Hillary Clinton, US Secretary of State