Spaniards voted yesterday in a general election thrown wide open by a reported al-Qaeda claim that it staged the Madrid rail bombings to punish the government for supporting the Iraq war.
Ruling Popular Party candidate Mariano Rajoy led most polls until last Thursday's bombing which killed 200 and injured 1,500 others. His conservative party had been projected to win the most seats in the 350-member Congress of Deputies, and maybe retain its outright majority.
Prime Minister Jose Maria Aznar's government initially blamed the Basque separatist group ETA for the rail attack, even as evidence mounted of an Islamic link and the opposition accused the government of withholding information.
Then on Saturday night Interior Minister Angel Acebes announced the arrests of three Moroccans and two Indians and later disclosed the existence of a videotape in which a man speaking Arabic said Osama bin Laden's al-Qaeda terror group claims responsibility for the rail blasts.
The videotape was recovered from a trash basket near a Madrid mosque, after an Arabic-speaking man called a Madrid TV station to say it was there, Acebes said.
"We declare our responsibility for what happened in Madrid," said the man on the video, according to a government translation of the statement delivered in Arabic. "It is a response to your collaboration with the criminals Bush and his allies."
The man noted that the bombings came exactly 2 1/2 years after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks in the US.
The news was broadcast on national TV and could sway the election.
Twenty people in the Basque city of Bilbao said early yesterday that recent events would not influence their vote. None would say which party they planned to vote for.
"I had already decided," said Maria Sonjuaisti, 42, "The attacks confirmed what I already had in mind."
Another voter in Madrid said he was upset by the attacks.
"It was the worst attack since the (1936-39) Civil War," said Angel Bueno, 51. "We want to know who is responsible for this massacre. It looks as if it was al-Qaeda. This shouldn't happen in Spain or the United States."
Spaniards including the main opposition candidate, Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero of the Socialist party, opposed last year's US-led invasion of Iraq, which Aznar endorsed. He later sent 1,300 peacekeeping troops.
Thousands of demonstrators gathered outside Popular Party headquarters in Madrid and other cities Saturday night demanding the truth about who carried out the bombing, and also shouting criticism of the government.
"No more cover-ups," read a banner carried by the protesters, who were being watched by riot police.
Conflict with Taiwan could leave China with “massive economic disruption, catastrophic military losses, significant social unrest, and devastating sanctions,” a US think tank said in a report released on Monday. The German Marshall Fund released a report titled If China Attacks Taiwan: The Consequences for China of “Minor Conflict” and “Major War” Scenarios. The report details the “massive” economic, military, social and international costs to China in the event of a minor conflict or major war with Taiwan, estimating that the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) could sustain losses of more than half of its active-duty ground forces, including 100,000 troops. Understanding Chinese
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) yesterday said it is closely monitoring developments in Venezuela, and would continue to cooperate with democratic allies and work together for regional and global security, stability, and prosperity. The remarks came after the US on Saturday launched a series of airstrikes in Venezuela and kidnapped Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, who was later flown to New York along with his wife. The pair face US charges related to drug trafficking and alleged cooperation with gangs designated as terrorist organizations. Maduro has denied the allegations. The ministry said that it is closely monitoring the political and economic situation
UNRELENTING: China attempted cyberattacks on Taiwan’s critical infrastructure 2.63 million times per day last year, up from 1.23 million in 2023, the NSB said China’s cyberarmy has long engaged in cyberattacks against Taiwan’s critical infrastructure, employing diverse and evolving tactics, the National Security Bureau (NSB) said yesterday, adding that cyberattacks on critical energy infrastructure last year increased 10-fold compared with the previous year. The NSB yesterday released a report titled Analysis on China’s Cyber Threats to Taiwan’s Critical Infrastructure in 2025, outlining the number of cyberattacks, major tactics and hacker groups. Taiwan’s national intelligence community identified a large number of cybersecurity incidents last year, the bureau said in a statement. China’s cyberarmy last year launched an average of 2.63 million intrusion attempts per day targeting Taiwan’s critical
AGING: As of last month, people aged 65 or older accounted for 20.06 percent of the total population and the number of couples who got married fell by 18,685 from 2024 Taiwan has surpassed South Korea as the country least willing to have children, with an annual crude birthrate of 4.62 per 1,000 people, Ministry of the Interior data showed yesterday. The nation was previously ranked the second-lowest country in terms of total fertility rate, or the average number of children a woman has in her lifetime. However, South Korea’s fertility rate began to recover from 2023, with total fertility rate rising from 0.72 and estimated to reach 0.82 to 0.85 by last year, and the crude birthrate projected at 6.7 per 1,000 people. Japan’s crude birthrate was projected to fall below six,
RSS