W O R L D

China’s new leadership promises renaissance
Beijing, March 17
The new Chinese leadership took over power today, promising to strive for "great renaissance" to achieve the "Chinese dream" by making the country militarily and economically strong without seeking "hegemony".


China’s newly-elected President Xi Jinping is seen on a huge screen at the closing session of the National People’s Congress in Beijing on Sunday. — AFP

Nukes not bargaining chip for aid, says North Korea
Seoul, March 17
North Korea today said it would never trade its nuclear weapons programme for aid and stressed its "unshakeable" stance to retain the deterrent, following a third atomic test last month.

A South Korean marines’ outpost on Baengnyeong island near the maritime border between the two Koreas. — AFP

Pope wins more hearts with first Angelus
Vatican City, March 17
Pope Francis, speaking to an overflowing crowd of more than 1,50,000 in St Peter's Square, urged the world on Sunday to be more forgiving and merciful and not so quick to condemn other people’s failures.

Musharraf to return to Pak on March 24
Dubai, March 17
Pakistan's former military ruler Pervez Musharraf will return to the country on March 24 to lead his party in the upcoming elections, ending his nearly four years of self-imposed exile in Dubai and London. Musharraf, 69, will return to the country intent on leading his party in upcoming elections, a statement released by him said.
Pervez Musharraf

India-born soccer fan bashed up in UK racist attack
London, March 17
A 56-year-old India-born football fan was beaten up badly by seven men and punched in the face and head more than 18 times on a packed tram in the UK, as 200 onlookers did nothing to save him from the racist attackers.

China’s new leadership promises renaissance

Beijing, March 17
The new Chinese leadership took over power today, promising to strive for "great renaissance" to achieve the "Chinese dream" by making the country militarily and economically strong without seeking "hegemony".

Xi Jinping, 59, who took over as President and Military Chief after succeeding Hu Jintao as the new leader of the ruling Communist Party of China (CPC) in his address to the legislature called for "the continued realisation of the great renaissance of the Chinese nation and the Chinese dream".

His comments came as the Communist government smoothly completed a once-in-a-decade leadership transition.

Explaining the essence of the Chinese dream, which some interpreted as the recreation of the vast Chinese empires of the past, Xi said, "The Chinese dream is a dream of the whole nation as well as of every individual."

He was speaking at the concluding session of the National Peoples Congress (NPC) here.

To realise the "Chinese dream", China must take the Chinese way and "must follow the strategic thinking that development is of overriding importance,” he said.

President Xi said China’s military should improve its ability to "win battles and...protect national sovereignty and security".

He also stressed that continued economic development was essential, urging the nation to achieve what he called "China's dream".

He said 1.3 billion Chinese people should bear in mind the mission, unite as one, and gather into an invincible force with wisdom and power. — PTI

Nukes not bargaining chip for aid, says North Korea

Seoul, March 17
North Korea today said it would never trade its nuclear weapons programme for aid and stressed its "unshakeable" stance to retain the deterrent, following a third atomic test last month.

The North's Foreign Ministry, in a statement carried by state TV, rejected suggestions that the impoverished state was using its weapons programme as a way of bullying neighbours into offering much-needed aid.

"The US is seriously mistaken if it thinks that the (North) intends to use nukes as a bargaining chip to barter them for what it called economic reward," it said.

The comments came days after the US National Security Adviser Tom Donilon said Washington was willing to hold "authentic negotiations" with the North if it changed its behaviour.

“To get the assistance it desperately needs and the respect it claims it wants, North Korea will have to change course," he said last week.

But the North today called its atomic weaponry a "treasured sword" to protect itself from what it called a hostile US policy.

The US "temptation" may work on other countries "but it sounds nonsensical" to the North, the Foreign Ministry statement said. — AFP

Pope wins more hearts with first Angelus

Vatican City, March 17
Pope Francis, speaking to an overflowing crowd of more than 1,50,000 in St Peter's Square, urged the world on Sunday to be more forgiving and merciful and not so quick to condemn other people’s failures.

"A little bit of mercy makes the world less cold and more just," he told the cheering crowd from the window of the papal apartments overlooking the square.

Four days after his election, the former Cardinal Jorge Bergoglio of Argentina spoke both as Pope and as parish priest. A little earlier, he said Mass for a few hundred Vatican workers in a tiny church just inside the city-state's walls.

Chants of “Francesco, Francesco, Francesco”, the Pope's name in Italian, reverberated through the square and down a long boulevard leading to the Tiber river.

Since his election on Wednesday as the first non-European Pope in nearly 1,300 years, Francis has signalled a sharp change of style from his more aloof predecessor, Benedict, and laid out a clear moral path for the 1.2-billion-member Church, which is beset by scandals, intrigue and strife.

"Brothers and sisters, good morning," he said, using a familiar style that has already become his hallmark.— Reuters

PopeSpeak

• People should not be so quick to condemn
• More mercy would make world a better place
• The Lord never tires of forgiving, never! It is we who tire of asking for forgiveness

Musharraf to return to Pak on March 24

Dubai, March 17
Pakistan's former military ruler Pervez Musharraf will return to the country on March 24 to lead his party in the upcoming elections, ending his nearly four years of self-imposed exile in Dubai and London.

Musharraf, 69, will return to the country intent on leading his party in upcoming elections, a statement released by him said.

Musharraf plans to fly on a commercial airline into Karachi on March 24, then attend a rally attended by 50,000 persons including more than 200 Pakistani expatriates from the US, Canada, the UK and the UAE. He plans to lead his party, the All-Pakistan Muslim League into Pakistan's general elections, which are slated for May.

In 1999, he as the then chief of Pakistan's army became its President in a bloodless military coup.

Pakistan Peoples Party leaders have said that Musharraf would be arrested as soon as he lands as he is wanted by authorities in connection with Bhutto's assassination. — PTI

India-born soccer fan bashed up in UK racist attack

London, March 17
A 56-year-old India-born football fan was beaten up badly by seven men and punched in the face and head more than 18 times on a packed tram in the UK, as 200 onlookers did nothing to save him from the racist attackers.

Prakash Patel, a bank officer, was travelling home along with his 21-year-old daughter Devyani Patel after watching a football match when he was beaten up, leaving him with black eyes and a concussion, local media reported today.

"The tram carriage was so full of people that the battered bank worker stayed upright after he was knocked out.

“Yet only his distraught daughter Devyani tried to push the attackers away from her father," the Mirror reported.

"These men came on and started making indecent racist comments... Myself and my daughter felt distressed about it so I said ‘please behave’ and that's when it started," Prakash said.

In the CCTV footage showed at the police station, the passengers were seen jumping up to get a better view of the attack on him in the tram. — PTI

BRIEFLY

FBI dog to be honoured for perishing in line of duty
Washington: An FBI dog, who died after taking a bullet from a gunman in a shooting rampage, will be honoured at the agency's headquarters with his name being inscribed on a memorial wall for canines killed in the line of duty. The man who heartlessly murdered four persons in upstate New York on Thursday added a rookie FBI dog to his kill count. The FBI announced that Ape, the adored fallen canine, would be honoured with a memorial service at the agency's headquarters in Quantico, Virginia, where his name will be inscribed on the memorial wall for dogs killed in the line of duty. — PTI

A spectator looks on as the Chicago river is dyed green ahead of the St Patrick’s Day parade in Chicago on Saturday. — AP/PTI

Car bomb kills 10 in south Iraq
Basra (Iraq): A car bomb exploded at a bus station in the south Iraq city of Basra on Sunday, killing 10 persons and wounding 16, the head of the Basra provincial council security committee said. The bombing at the bus station in Basra, the main southern port, came soon after another that exploded in the centre of the city that caused no casualties, Ali al-Maliki said. — AFP

Toll in Mexico fireworks blast rises to 16
Tlaxcala (Mexico): The number of persons killed when a small truck loaded with fireworks exploded during a religious procession in a central Mexican village rose to 16 on Sunday, authorities said. Scores more injured in Friday’s tragedy were still being treated in hospitals, said a statement released by the Tlaxcala state government. — AFP

5th French soldier killed in Mali fighting
Paris: A French corporal was killed during fighting in northern Mali, bringing to five the number of French deaths since the January 11 intervention to oust armed Islamist groups, President Francois Hollande's office said on Sunday. The statement did not elaborate on the circumstances of the soldier's death and paid tribute to the French forces involved in "the final and most difficult phase of their mission" in Mali. — AFP