world news  Insults fly on Nixon tapes  Richard Nixon Richard
Nixon believed there were humanitarian reasons for releasing
Rudolf Hess. Photograph: AP Former US president Richard Nixon
called then-Indian prime minister Indira Gandhi an "old witch"
and Indians a "slippery treacherous people", according to
recently released transcripts of Oval Office tapes.  The
comments were made during a private conversation between Nixon
and his national security adviser, Henry Kissinger, on November
5 1971, and Mr Kissinger appeared to support his views.  "We
really slobbered over the old witch," Nixon told Mr Kissinger of
his meeting with Gandhi the previous day.  "While she was a
bitch, we got what we wanted too," Mr Kissinger said. "She will
not be able to go home and say that the United States didn't
give her a warm reception and therefore in despair she's got to
go to war."  Gandhi had come to Washington to discuss the
growing possibility of war with neighbouring Pakistan. At the
time, the United States was allied with