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“The post of prime minister has not been my aim,” she told last night’s gathering. “My aim has always been to protect the secular foundations of our nation. I request you to accept my decision and I will not revert.”But for some Congress members who almost worship the Gandhi name, the 57-year-old widow’s decision was hard to accept. And her decision may pave the way for the architect of India’s modern economic reforms, Manmohan Singh, to take over the world’s largest democracy.Mrs Gandhi will remain as president of Congress, but will not be directly involved in the day-to-day running of the country. She called an emergency meeting last night at the Central Hall of Parliament in Delhi and told newly elected members that India now needs “strong and stable” leadership.When the results of the month-long election were revealed last week, the Gandhi-led Congress confounded the predictions of political observers and exit polls by becoming the country’s largest party and ousting the Hindu-nationalist BJP from power.It now appears that no-one was more surprised than Mrs Gandhi that she was suddenly in a position to lead the country. The party to which her family is inextricably linked is now looking to other senior figures to forge alliances that will allow it to govern.Yesterday, Mrs Gandhi’s colleagues begged her to reconsider Tears welled in her eyes But it appears there will be no going back.

A week ago Sonia Gandhi led India’s most famous family back from the political history book to the front pages of international newspapers. Yesterday she walked away from the premiership that seemed destined to be hers. Following the Congress party’s astonishing victory in a general election almost all the polls said it would lose, the Italian-born widow of former premier Rajiv Gandhi was supposed to become the latest member of the dynasty to lead India.
But against a backdrop of plunging share prices and protests from defeated opponents about her Italian origins, she has opted to stand aside. An author, journalist and teacher, he came close to being prime minister after Rajiv Gandhi’s assassination in 1991 but lost the subsequent Congress party leadership contest to P.V Narasimha Rao..

Another former finance minister, the 67-year-old had never won a parliamentary election before last week’s poll but was first drafted into the federal cabinet in 1980. At the time Yusuf was outside the house with his father seeing off visitors, including two United Nations staff members. The three visitors had just got into their vehicle, clearly marked with the UN emblem, and were about to leave when a single shot was fired from the Israeli watchtower Yusuf was hit in the back by a bullet. He is still in hospital and it is not known if he will walk again.Shortly afterwards, his sister Amira, 18, told Amnesty International: “I am worried for my brother. I don’t know if he will walk again; and I am worried about my three little siblings, my parents and my grandmother I pray that they will be safe. The home should be the safest place but for our family it is not.”Leonard Doyle.

US soldier Jeremy Sivits today pleaded guilty to three counts of abuse in the first court-martial over mistreatment of Iraqi prisoners at the Abu Ghraib prison. He was sentenced a to a maximum year in jail and reduced in rank. Under military law, if the defendant pleads guilty, they must prove to the court they are guilty and the court then formally renders a finding.Sivits, at times struggling to hold back tears, was charged with mistreating detainees, dereliction of duty for failing to protect them from abuse, cruelty and forcing a prisoner “to be positioned in a pile on the floor to be assaulted by other soldiers.”Sivits took pictures of naked Iraqi prisoners being sexually humiliated at Abu Ghraib. He could face up to one year in jail, reduction in rank, loss of pay and a bad conduct discharge.Captain Scott Dunn, Sivits’ lawyer, entered the plea on his behalf and expressed concern about the huge media coverage of the trial, asking “can you make a fair decision?”The judge, Colonel James Pohl, replied: “Just because it’s on TV, it doesn’t mean it’s true.”In an emotional description of the events that took place in the Abu Ghraib prison on the evening of 8 November, Sivits said he was asked by Staff Sgt Ivan L Frederick to accompany him to the prison facility.