Turkmen Quit Northern Iraqi City Council, Say Kurds Taking Over--New WMW

[Gloria]

Full excerpts, links up now at http://www.zianet.com/insightanalytical
Tomorrow at Buzzflash.com


WORLD MEDIA WATCH FOR MARCH 29, 2004


1//Expatica, Netherlands--FRENCH LEFT FLOORS RULING RIGHT IN REGIONAL ELECTION KNOCKOUT (- French President Jacques Chirac suffered a new pasting at the polls Sunday, as the electorate punished his government's policies of public sector reform and defected massively to the Socialists (PS) in the second round of regional elections. In what was seen as a key test for the president's two-year-old administration, his Union for a Popular Movement (UMP) party looked set to be almost wiped from the regional map, with the left taking control of at least 20 of the 22 regions in metropolitan France…The result made a cabinet reshuffle in the coming days a virtual certainty, with the fate of Prime Minister Jean-Pierre Raffarin hanging in the balance.Speaking on national television, the prime minister conceded that the government had to heed the message from voters, but he said the policies of economic and social reform could not be halted.)



2//The Jordan Times, Jordan--TURKMEN QUIT NORTHERN IRAQI CITY COUNCIL, SAY KURDS TAKING OVER (Six local Turkmen leaders withdrew from the city council here Sunday, exacerbating ethnic tension in the city, a week after a similar move by their ethnic Arab colleagues, one of them said. Turkmen councillor, Mustafa Yaishi, said the northern Iraqi city was being "overwhelmed" by Kurds, and called for the dismissal of Kirkuk's governor and US military intervention "to drive away armed Kurdish militias." …That leaves the council, which at one time had up to 40 members, with only 15 Kurdish and seven Christian members…"These problems will contribute to a civil war," Yaishi warned.)



3//Xinhuanet, China--CHINA TO WRITE OFF HUGE AFGHAN DEBT ("This is also significant for our further financial assistances," the Chinese top diplomat said. "We conclude the old debt, and so we can continue to have new commercial and financial relations between us." Sun Yuxi also disclosed that at the forthcoming Berlin Conference, the Chinese government will announce new plans to provide the Afghan authorities with more aids…China and Afghanistan established diplomatic relations in 1955.After the founding of the Afghan transitional government in late 2001, China was the first country to announce a huge assistance program totaling 150 million dollars.)



4//The Scotsman, Scotland--LOCKERBIE BOMBING INVESTIGATIONS ‘DROPPED’ (Further investigations into the Lockerbie bombing have been quietly shelved despite the breakthrough in diplomatic relations with Libya, Scotland on Sunday can reveal…Despite ongoing investigations into the case of police constable Yvonne Fletcher, who was shot outside the Libyan embassy in London in 1984, it was clear last night that ministers have decided to let the Lockerbie issue drop… Daniel Cohen, whose 20-year-old daughter Theodora was killed in the crash, called Blair’s initiative "obscene". He said: "Tony Blair came from a ceremony in Madrid - a memorial service to the victims of the second largest terrorist attack in Europe, and then hopped on a plane and went to Tripoli to embrace the architect of the largest terrorist attack in Europe.")


5//Asia Times Online, Hong Kong--INDIA DOUBTING ITS US ‘STRATEGIC PARTNERSHIP’ (The RSS-linked Swadeshi Jagran Manch, with its pronounced anti-globalization views, is waiting in the wings to run India's economy and foreign relations, something that will not suit the US. The manch believes that the West has been able to maintain its economic pre-eminence by teaching false economics to the developing countries…So the future of US-India ties will depend largely on the election results. RSS-supported economists believe that the world has entered the era of economic warfare with the developed nations and that by kowtowing to the US, India is merely prolonging its status as a developing country. This is also the view of India's president, missile scientist Dr Abdul Kalam, whom the RSS sponsored for the post of the president, even though he is a Muslim. The ideas expressed in his books - about economic warfare - are very popular in the country.