**前印度总理辛格被控贪腐罪**
印度一个特别法庭星期三传唤前总理辛格。他被控任职期间在出售煤田交易中犯有贪腐罪。
法官命令辛格和其他五人4月8日出庭.
在辛格担任总理期间,印度政府出售了200多个煤田,但印度政府审计员2012年表示,当时是在没有竞标的情况下签订合同,致使政府蒙受了数十亿美元损失。印度最高法院去年做出裁决,认为交易过程非法。
辛格担任总理期间的国大党政府遭到一系列腐败指控的打击。其中还包括审计人员报道的在2010年英联邦运动会期间销售手机牌照损失的400亿美元,和普片的贪污。
国大党发言人特瓦里说,“前政府绝对没有任何东西可以隐瞒”,并自称行事方式绝对透明。
辛格从2004年至去年担任印度总理。辛格去职后,人民党的莫迪接任总理。
Indian Court Summons Singh for Coal Field Corruption Case
A special court in India on Wednesday summoned former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to face corruption charges related to the sale of coal fields under his government.
Judges ordered Mr. Singh and five others in the case to appear on April 8.
The government sold more than 200 coal blocks during Mr. Singh's time, but India's national auditor said in 2012 that awarding the contracts without competitive bidding cost the government billions of dollars. The supreme court ruled last year the process was illegal.
The charges are part of a string of corruption allegations to hit the Congress party-led government during Mr. Singh's time as prime minister, which also included auditors reporting $40 billion in losses in the sale of mobile phone licenses and widespread graft during the 2010 Commonwealth Games.
Congress Party spokesman Manish Tewari said "the former government has absolutely nothing to hide" and that they conducted themselves with utmost transparency.
Mr. Singh was prime minister from 2004 until last year. He was replaced by Narendra Modi of the Bharatiya Janata Party.
**澳总理因指摘原住民生活方式而招致批评**
澳大利亚总理阿博特对偏远地区原住民社区“选择的生活方式”表示了哀叹。他因此而受到批评。
阿博特星期二在接受澳大利亚广播公司采访时,为他制定的关闭150个原住民社区的计划进行辩解。
持保守立场的阿博特说,如果人们像很多原住民那样,愿意住在偏远地区,那么国家能为他们提供的帮助就是有限的。
阿博特说,如果这些生活方式无助于全面融入澳大利亚社会,国家也就不能无限度地为选择这些生活方式的人们提供补助。
阿博特的这番话招致很多澳大利亚政界人士和分析人士的尖锐反驳,其中包括阿博特的原住民事务首席顾问蒙戴尼。
蒙戴尼对当地媒体说,这不是生活方式,不像退休并期待翻天覆地的变化。而是事关数千年的传统、宗教信仰和原住民的本质。
澳大利亚原住民在澳洲已经生活了至少4万年。与澳大利亚其他居民相比,原住民的生活环境非常艰苦。
Australia's Abbott Calls Aboriginal Communities a 'Lifestyle Choice'
Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott is coming under criticism after he lamented what he called the "lifestyle choices" of the country's remote indigenous community.
Mr. Abbott made the comments Tuesday in an interview with the Australian Broadcasting Corporation in which he defended his plan to shut down up to 150 Aboriginal communities.
The conservative prime minister said that if people wanted to live in remote locations, as many Aborigines do, "there's a limit to what you can expect the state to do for you."
"What we can't do is endlessly subsidize lifestyle choices if those lifestyle choices are not conducive to the kind of full participation in Australian society that everyone should have," he said.
The comments drew a sharp rebuke from many Australian politicians and analysts, including Warren Mundine, the prime minister's own chief adviser on Aboriginal affairs.
"It is not about a lifestyle, it is not like retiring and moving for a sea change, it is about thousands of years connection, their religious beliefs and the essence of who they are," Mundine told local media.
Australia's Aboriginal population, which has lived on the continent for at least 40,000 years, is severely disadvantaged in comparison to the rest of the country's citizens.