Iraqis Learn Red Tape, The Indian Way/ATimes--New WMW

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WORLD MEDIA WATCH FOR MARCH 10, 2004

1//Asia Times Online, Hong Kong--IRAQIS LEARN RED TAPE, THE INDIAN WAY (Although India refused to join the US-led war in Iraq, criticized President George W Bush and declined to send Indian troops for post-war peace-keeping missions - a departure from the traditional Indian role as a global peace keeper under the United Nations in Korea, Africa and Cyprus - India might still prove to be an asset to the US in helping create a democratic administration in Iraq…Quietly, though, as opposed to sending troops, India has chosen the less glamorous task of training Iraqi bureaucrats, at the request of the US. The first batch of 14 senior officials from Iraq arrived in India recently and are being trained at the prestigious Lal Bahadur Shastri Institute, which turns out India's vaunted and feared civil servants… India has a world-wide reputation for its 9 million-strong central and state government bureaucracy, the foundations of which were honed during British rule, although it also has a reputation for excessive red tape, and being prone to corruption.)



2//BBC, UK--LIBYA BLAMED FOR W. AFRICA WARS (The chief prosecutor at the UN's new court for Sierra Leone has repeated claims that the Libyan leader is behind the past decade of war in West Africa…The Libyan leader has improved his relations with the United States and Britain, and sanctions have been lifted. However, the US and Britain also support the new Sierra Leone war crimes court where - when cases start in the coming weeks and months - potentially explosive allegations will be made against the Libyan leader…"We know that, specifically up until last year, that there was a 10-year plan to take down Liberia, Sierra Leone, Cote d'Ivoire, then move to Guinea and then elsewhere as the situation developed," he said.)



3//Pakistan Daily Times, Pakistan--SHAHEEN-II TEST-FIRED (Pakistan on Tuesday successfully test-fired a Shaheen-II (Hatf-VI) surface-to-surface ballistic missile. It has a range of 2,700 kilometres. It was the first test flight of the solid-fuel Shaheen-II, which is capable of hitting any target in India. Shaheen-II is the longest-range missile tested by Pakistan so far… Shaheen-II is a two-stage missile and can carry all kinds of conventional and unconventional warheads. “All the planned technical parameters were successfully validated during the test,” an Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) statement said, adding that the test dismissed the apprehensions of a rollback of Pakistan’s nuclear and missile programme.)

4//The Moscow Times, Russia--PROFESSOR PICKS UP MEDIA BATON (The man picked to lead the newly created Culture and Press Ministry is perhaps the most surprising choice of all in President Vladimir Putin's pre-election Cabinet reshuffle. Alexander Sokolov, a 54-year-old professor of music theory, was until Tuesday the rector of Moscow State Conservatory, better known in musical circles than the corridors of powder…"The issue now is who deputies will be," said Anna Kachkayeva, a media analyst for Radio Liberty in Moscow. "Although the whole idea of the Press Ministry should have been abolished altogether -- if we are to live in a real democracy -- it is obvious that it has been decided to keep it, but to give it a lower profile," she said.)



5//The Independent, UK--GM CROPS ARE GIVEN QUALIFIED GO-AHEAD (The long argument over whether or not genetically-modified crops should be commercially grown in Britain ended yesterday when the Environment Secretary, Margaret Beckett, announced a formal but heavily-qualified go-ahead for the growing of GM maize. Her decision was denounced by environmental and consumer groups who have long contended that GM crops may damage the environment and are not wanted by the public.)