World News 25-11-2004 Ukraine Poll Result Not Legitimate who: General Colin Powell what: Says US does not accept Ukraine election result where: Washington DC when: Yesterday snippet: "The turmoil in Ukraine was threatening to plunge the West and Russia into a Cold War-style showdown last night," reports The Times, "as the United States dismissed out of hand the official results of Sunday’s presidential election." The intervention of outgoing US secretary of state Colin Powell "sets the Bush administration on a collision course with Moscow," says The Guardian. Prime minister Viktor Yanukovich is the pro-Russian candidate but his claim to have won 49.46 per cent of the vote in the election on Sunday "has been marred by widespread claims of fraud and ballot rigging". The opposition candidate, Viktor Yushchenko, called for a shutdown of schools, factories and the transport network to "force the authorities to think about what they are doing," says The Scotsman. "Ukraine`s outgoing president Leonid Kuchma warned the country could be heading towards civil war." "In this country of 48 million, some 10 million of whom are disgruntled ethnic Russians, the danger of civil war is ever present," says Liev correspondent Askold Krushelnycky in The Independent. "With Moscow backing one side and Washington the other, the dangers that conflict would bring are greater still." [... more]

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