Indians braved attacks by separatists and communists as they started voting yesterday in parliamentary elections expected to return Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee's governing coalition to power for another five years. At least 11 people were killed and 18 injured in the election-day violence.
The massive polls in the world's largest democracy, with more than 660 million registered voters, will be staggered in five phases over three weeks ending May 10, with vote-counting starting three days later.
PHOTO: AFP
Vajpayee's National Democratic Alliance headed into the elections with a booming economy likely to grow more than 8 percent this year and prospects for peace with nuclear rival Pakistan at their highest level in years.
A major issue for peace talks with Pakistan -- which were to resume after the elections -- is the two nations' conflicting claims to Kashmir, which is divided between them.
Militants opposed to India's control over portions of Kashmir were blamed for fatally shooting a paramilitary soldier guarding a polling station and a separate bomb attack in the region that wounded six civilians, including two poll workers.
Islamic militants say the elections legitimize what they see as India's occupation of the Himalayan region, and have threatened attacks on anyone participating in the polls.
A car filled with Indian journalists and human rights activists on their way to monitor polling stations exploded when it ran over a land mine in Kashmir. The driver and a human rights activist -- Asiya Geelani of the Association of Parents of Disappeared Persons -- were killed and four others were wounded.
More than 65,000 people have been killed and some 8,000 people have disappeared in Kashmir since an insurgency began in 1989 by Islamic militants fighting for the enclave's independence.
Maoist rebels also have ordered an election boycott in the isolated northeastern states of Jharkhand and Bihar.
The CIA has a message for Chinese government officials worried about their place in Chinese President Xi Jinping’s (習近平) government: Come work with us. The agency released two Mandarin-language videos on social media on Thursday inviting disgruntled officials to contact the CIA. The recruitment videos posted on YouTube and X racked up more than 5 million views combined in their first day. The outreach comes as CIA Director John Ratcliffe has vowed to boost the agency’s use of intelligence from human sources and its focus on China, which has recently targeted US officials with its own espionage operations. The videos are “aimed at
STEADFAST FRIEND: The bills encourage increased Taiwan-US engagement and address China’s distortion of UN Resolution 2758 to isolate Taiwan internationally The Presidential Office yesterday thanked the US House of Representatives for unanimously passing two Taiwan-related bills highlighting its solid support for Taiwan’s democracy and global participation, and for deepening bilateral relations. One of the bills, the Taiwan Assurance Implementation Act, requires the US Department of State to periodically review its guidelines for engagement with Taiwan, and report to the US Congress on the guidelines and plans to lift self-imposed limitations on US-Taiwan engagement. The other bill is the Taiwan International Solidarity Act, which clarifies that UN Resolution 2758 does not address the issue of the representation of Taiwan or its people in
DEFENDING DEMOCRACY: Taiwan shares the same values as those that fought in WWII, and nations must unite to halt the expansion of a new authoritarian bloc, Lai said The government yesterday held a commemoration ceremony for Victory in Europe (V-E) Day, joining the rest of the world for the first time to mark the anniversary of the end of World War II in Europe. Taiwan honoring V-E Day signifies “our growing connections with the international community,” President William Lai (賴清德) said at a reception in Taipei on the 80th anniversary of V-E Day. One of the major lessons of World War II is that “authoritarianism and aggression lead only to slaughter, tragedy and greater inequality,” Lai said. Even more importantly, the war also taught people that “those who cherish peace cannot
US Indo-Pacific Commander Admiral Samuel Paparo on Friday expressed concern over the rate at which China is diversifying its military exercises, the Financial Times (FT) reported on Saturday. “The rates of change on the depth and breadth of their exercises is the one non-linear effect that I’ve seen in the last year that wakes me up at night or keeps me up at night,” Paparo was quoted by FT as saying while attending the annual Sedona Forum at the McCain Institute in Arizona. Paparo also expressed concern over the speed with which China was expanding its military. While the US
RSS