<B>Mexico daily

Once Mexico?s democracy hero, Fox fades out</B>

Mexican President Vicente Fox, a tall and charismatic rancher, made history when he broke 71 years of single-party rule at elections in 2000.Those dizzy days quickly faded.Fox leaves office this week with his promises to win greater access to the United States for Mexican immigrants, reshape his nation?s economy and defeat violent drug cartels left unfulfilled. Under Fox, 64, Mexico avoided the type of economic crisis that blighted other Latin American countries like Argentina, and the often affable president?s popularity rating is high.But Fox never again came near the heights of July 2, 2000 when he ousted the Institutional Revolutionary Party, or PRI, which ruled longer than any party in the world except the Soviet Communists. «The problem with Fox is he didn?t know how to govern,» said writer and commentator Homero Aridjis. «It?s what happens to a lot of revolutionaries and opposition leaders who know how to fight for power but don?t know how to rule.» Fox failed in his main foreign policy aim: convincing the United States to soften its immigration laws to allow more Mexicans to work there. US President George W. Bush finally buried Mexico?s hopes in October when he approved hundreds of miles of fencing on the border to curb illegal immigration.

<B>THE TIMES OF INDIA

My family depends on me, show mercy: Dutt</B>

«I love my country. I love the people of my country. I request the court to please show mercy and leniency on me,» said actor Sanjay Dutt, two days after he was held guilty in the 1993 bomb blasts case under the Arms Act for possession of an AK-56 rifle and a 9mm pistol. The actor ? who faces a minimum sentence of three years and a maximum of 10 ? was pleading for a lenient sentence on Thursday. Each accused ? found guilty ? is given a chance to say in the court why he or she should be given a lesser sentence. Dutt walked into the dock at 1 pm in the same blue jeans that he wore on the day he was held guilty and a checked D&G shirt ? checks had proved lucky for him on Tuesday when he escaped the terrorist tag under Tada. The first thing he said was: «My father?s dead. He died a year-and-half ago. The whole burden of my family is on my shoulders. I have an 18-year-old daughter (Trishala) who is studying in New York. I am supporting her studies. She lives with her grandparents who are old. Her future depends on me.» He tried to prove his credentials, saying he continues the cancer foundation work that his father began 23 years back.The foundation is based in the US, Canada and Europe, he said in response to a query from the judge and it sends equipment used to treat poor canncer patients in India.»

<B>ZENIT

A Pastor?s heart takes Benedict XVI to Turkey</B>

As the papal visit to Turkey grew closer, it seemed that the Turkish tug-of-war between the Vatican and the media intensified. Newspapers, television and radio harped on the significance of Benedict XVI?s visit to a Muslim country, stridently announcing the protests and politics of the trip. The Vatican, on the other hands, kept gently repeating that the ?trip? was really a pilgrimage, and that long before the European Union or even Islam existed, Constantinople was established as the first Christian city. If one pays attention to the historical and cultural context of this papal voyage, the dates and places will reveal more about the Pope?s plans than any sensationalizing headline. Constantinople, or ?Secunda Roma? (the second Rome), was founded by Emperor Constantine in 330 on the site of an earlier Greek city, Byzantium. Constantine, after uniting the empire and legalizing Christianity, had built six churches in Rome, but soon realized that he would never be able to realize his dream of a Christian city in a town still dominated by pagan gods. So he founded this new city on the Bosporus. Ideally situated at the juncture of Europe and Asia, Constantinople also linked the northern and southern areas of the empire through the Black Sea on one coast and the Mediterranean on the other. This great crossroads of the known world geographically exemplified the universality of the Christian Church. Constantine conceived of the city as a new Rome, and an even better Rome, because it would be Christian. Like Rome itself, Constantinople was spread across seven hills. The visit of the Roman Pontiff to Turkey, the center of the world in which Christianity was born, represents a papal agenda concerned more with his own flock than the media might imagine.