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The governments of Spain and Brazil on Monday reinforced their commitment to completing a trade pact between the European Union and South American trade bloc Mercosur despite protectionist sentiments.

On a two-day visit to Brazil, Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy said he agreed with Brazilian President Michel Temer about the need to wrap up a trade deal that has taken more than 15 years to negotiate.

Rajoy also called for elections as the only way to reach a negotiated solution to the political crisis in Venezuela, expressing “deep concern” over the volatile situation in the neighboring country.

“We agree that given the degree of confrontation and the volatility of the situation, a negotiated solution is needed, and it must inevitably involve giving back to the Venezuelan people their voice,” he said.

Rajoy is heading a large delegation of Spanish businessmen who are looking for investment opportunities in Brazilian banking, energy, water and infrastructure sectors.

Spain backs deal

Brazil is the third-most important market for Spanish investors, who account for the second largest stock of foreign investment in the South American nation after the United States.

Spain is one of the strongest backers of an accord to lower trade barriers between the European Union and Mercosur members Brazil, Argentina, Uruguay and Paraguay. Negotiations have been delayed for years by the reluctance of European farmers and Mercosur manufacturers to face competition.

“Spain has always been and will continue to be a firm supporter of the agreement,” Rajoy said after meeting Temer. “In these moments in which some feel protectionist temptations, we both agree on the importance of free trade.”

US retreat favors EU  

Argentine Foreign Minister Susana Malcorra, who is hoping to clinch the EU-Mercosur deal by the end of the year, said external reasons would help advance it.

Malcorra said the retreat of the United States from trade talks had opened a window for the European Union to become a strong player in multilateral, region-to-region accords.

“Our view is that [the EU-Mercosur accord] is not only an economic agreement,” she said in Geneva on Monday. “It’s more than that, a political agreement.”
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The Italian and Greek governments are counting on France’s likely next president Emmanuel Macron to help them see off populist parties that blame European Union-enforced austerity and open immigration policies for economic and social ills.

Greek prime minister Alexis Tsipras and Italian premier Paolo Gentiloni both called Macron on Monday to congratulate him after the independent centrist won Sunday’s first round of voting in the French election.

The former economy minister, who is seen in southern Europe as an opponent of rigid austerity, is favored to defeat far-right, anti-EU candidate Marine Le Pen in the May 7 run-off.

Five Star Movement a concern

The ruling parties in heavily indebted Italy and Greece hope his enthusiasm for the EU will help them see off challengers such as Italy’s Five Star Movement, which wants a referendum on ditching the shared euro currency.

A Greek official said Tsipras and Macron had an amicable discussion in which Macron noted his previous support for Athens in tough bailout talks with EU powers.

“I supported the need for a change of stance towards Greece,” the official quoted Macron as telling Tsipras. “It is certain that if I’m elected we will work closely together to ensure that Europe meets the needs of our generation.”

Gentiloni also spoke to Macron, an Italian official said, adding that the two would work together to ensure Europe can face its economic challenges.

Former Italian prime minister Matteo Renzi, who is plotting a path back to power at elections due next year, also welcomed Macron’s first-round victory, saying he represented a Europe that looked to the future, not “to the decimal points.”

Italian European Affairs Minister Sandro Gozi told Reuters a Macron presidency would bolster the ruling Democratic Party (DP) against populist forces like Five Star, which opinion polls show rivaling the DP with as much as a third of the vote. A path to government remains difficult, however, given its refusal to consider alliances and Italy’s electoral system.

Le Pen’s plans

Five Star and the right-wing Northern League question to varying degrees the adoption of EU open-immigration policies, the cornerstone of which is the Schengen open-borders area.

“Macron’s first round win and his likely victory in the second round will help give us a push,” Gozi said.

“Le Pen wants to get out of the eurozone, to get out of NATO, to dismantle Schengen and basically do many things that either the Northern League or Five Star want to do here. So if Macron wins, it is excellent news for us.”

The French connection

For Greece, a Le Pen victory would knock its major EU ally out of the union and weaken its defenses against a push from Germany, the bloc’s biggest creditor, for continued austerity.

Greece has debts equal to 178 percent of its economy and is struggling to conclude a progress review on reforms prescribed by its international lenders in exchange for vital loans.

Outgoing French President Francois Hollande helped fellow leftist Tsipras seal a 86 billion euro ($93 billion) bailout from the EU in July 2015, its third since 2010, which kept the crisis-hit country in the eurozone.

It expires next year, however, and Athens now needs France to lobby the rest of the EU, especially Germany, to agree to debt relief. Tsipras is counting on this support as the next election approaches in 2019.

Markets react to results

“Relations between Greece and France are strategic, they are based on mutual interests and common views on European affairs and I believe that Macron would stick to Hollande’s policy, which was supportive on Greece,” deputy foreign minister George Katrougalos told Reuters.

A senior Greek government official close to the bailout talks, which resume this week in Athens, agreed that a Macron presidency would be “sympathetic and supportive” of Greece.

Markets in Greece and Italy also welcomed the prospect of a Macron victory next month. Greek 10-year government bond yields hit a two-and-a-half-year low and Italian yields sank despite a credit rating downgrade on Friday.
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Observers say one of the few positives that supporters of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan took from the controversy-marred narrow referendum victory last week was the widely touted bump in support from southern Turkey’s restive predominantly Kurdish region.

Critics say that bump had more to do with fraud and intimidation, but Erdogan advisers and members of his ruling AK Party argue it signifies a sea change in Kurdish sentiments toward the president and away from separatist politics.

“The Kurds stood next to Erdogan at a critical turning point,” wrote Abdulkadir Selvi, an influential columnist with Hurriyet newspaper, who added that “these results have reminded the ruling party of its historical responsibility in the solution to the problem.”

Adding to the weight of Selvi’s words is that fact that he is widely seen as being close to Erdogan.

“Kurds saved Erdogan, coalition with nationalists failed. Erdogan needs to pay back this favor,” tweeted Altan Tan, a parliamentary deputy from the pro-Kurdish HDP party, highlighting the widely held belief that Erdogan’s strategy of courting Turkish nationalist voters in the referendum failed.

But many within the pro-Kurdish movement remain deeply skeptical there has been any momentous change in policy, “No one really believes that,” said Ertugrul Kurkcu, an HDP deputy and its honorary president, dismissing any hopes for a new peace process. He argued that actions speak louder than words.

“The day after the referendum they arrested another HDP MP in Mus,” he said. “Who is is going to make peace with whom? The government with their local henchmen will make a peace process? This is something very amusing, in fact.”

The “henchmen” Kurkcu is referring to is Huda Pa, a hardline Kurdish Islamist party that strongly backs Erdogan.

Turkish security forces continue to crackdown on the PKK, the outlawed Kurdish insurgent group, claiming this week to have killed more than 50 rebels. But Friday saw the unexpected release from jail of two HDP parliamentary deputies. A dozen more remain in jail, including the party’s co-leaders. Last week also saw the PKK call off a prison hunger strike.

Erdogan has presided over previous peace efforts, and while they ultimately failed, his efforts were initially rewarded by a surge in support from Kurdish voters. Analysts suggest that, given the animosity between Erdogan and the HDP — in particular, its imprisoned leader — peace efforts could circumvent the party and involve direct talks with imprisoned PKK leader Abdullah Ocalan. That is what occurred in previous attempts at negotiations, the last of which ended in 2015 amid mutual recriminations.

The PKK has been fighting for greater minority rights and regional autonomy since 1984. The conflict has claimed over 45,0000 lives.

Observers say Turkey’s presidential and general elections in 2019 could provide a powerful impetus toward peace efforts, in Erdogan’s calculations.

“If Turkey is able to go back to that environment of seeking a negotiated solution to the Kurdish problem, then this would not only have a positive impact regarding stability at home,but surely enhance Turkey’s diplomatic hand abroad,” said Sinan Ulgen, a visiting scholar at Carnegie Europe in Brussels. “From there on, Turkey could adopt different policies toward the PYD.”

The PYD is the main pro-Kurdish party in Syria, which Ankara designates as a terrorist organization, linking it to the PKK. The PYD militia, the YPG, forms the backbone of the Syrian Democratic Force that is fighting Islamic State and is militarily backed by Washington.

That support remains a major point of tension between the NATO allies, and is expected to top the agenda when U.S. President Donald Trump meets Erdogan next month in Washington.

Many predict Trump will press Erdogan to change his stance towards the Syrian Kurdish forces, which would likely pave the way to an enhanced U.S.-Turkish relationship, a top Erdogan priority. But hawks within the Turkish presidency are pressing for military incursions into Syria and Iraq against the PKK.

“AKP is not on its own when speaking about the PKK,” said HDP deputy Kurkcu. “They have made a coalition with the MHP [Turkish nationalist party], they have made a coalition with the hardliners in the army. Therefore, this coalition does not allow for any reconciliation in this respect.”

Erdogan has repeatedly threatened new cross-border operations against the PKK, and local reports say military preparations are already underway. But observers suggest Erdogan is likely still digesting the lessons of the referendum and has not yet decided on his future strategy.
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An American member of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) was killed and at last two others were injured Sunday when their car hit a mine near rebel-held Luhansk in eastern Ukraine.

Austria’s Foreign Ministry confirmed the incident near the small village of Pryshyb.  Austria currently holds the OSCE’s rotating presidency.

Austrian Foreign Minister Sebastian Kurz demanded a thorough investigation, adding that those responsible would be held accountable.

Alexander Hug, deputy chief of the OSCE Special Monitoring Mission (SMM), told journalists that a German and a Czech national were injured but have been treated at a local hospital in Ukraine’s eastern republic of Lugansk.

According to reports, the vehicle drove over a mine in territory controlled by the self-proclaimed Luhansk People’s Republic.

A rebel statement said the OSCE team was traveling along an unsafe road.  “We know that the mentioned crew deviated from the main route and moved along side roads, which is prohibited by the mandate of the OSCE SMM,” local media reported.

The incident marks the first loss of life for the OSCE’s Special Monitoring Mission to Ukraine.

The OSCE has 600 members in eastern Ukraine, the only independent monitoring mission in the destroyed industrial war zone.  It provides daily reports on the war and has angered insurgents for accusing them of being responsible for most truce agreement violations.

For the past three years tensions between Ukraine and separatists in the Russian-held eastern part of the country continue to increase, despite a 2015 ceasefire agreement that is repeatedly violated.

At least 9,750 people have been killed in the war in eastern Ukraine since April 2014.  More than 40 died during the first two months of this year, when hostilities in the conflict suddenly surged.
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Preliminary results from France’s first round of presidential elections confirmed that centrist candidate Emmanuel Macron and nationalist, anti-immigration candidate Marine Le Pen are heading into a runoff in two weeks, marking what analysts describe as a political earthquake in France.

It is the first time in the history of the modern French Republic that the presidency will be held by a member of a non-traditional party, highlighting a deep anti-establishment sentiment that ultimately could determine whether France remains a part of the EU or follows an independent path like that of post-Brexit Britain and the United States under Donald Trump.

According to projected results, Macron garnered 23.8 percent, and Le Pen won 21.7 percent.  The winner needs an absolute majority and that will be determined in a runoff on May 7th.

“In one year, we have entirely changed French politics,” Macron said at a victory rally Sunday night.

Macron, a 39-year-old center-left former economy minister who is pro-EU, pro-business, led pre-election polls despite his previous association with unpopular Socialist President Francois Hollande. The appeal of his year-old En Marche! (Onward!) movement lies mainly in France’s prosperous urban areas, where globalism has benefited many.

His challenge is to galvanize support of centrists and the left, including members of France’s fractured Socialist party, and convince voters he does not represent an extension of Hollande’s policies.

Macron will face Le Pen and her National Front party, whose strongholds are largely in formerly industrial areas of France where unemployment is high and so is disillusionment with the modern economic and social order.  Le Pen, who wants France out of the European Union, has succeeded in winning over large numbers of former leftists and centrists. Over the next two weeks, she hopes to draw from the right and the center, especially those who are most disillusioned with the status quo.  

“It is time to liberate the French people,” she told supporters at a rally Sunday.

Among the top contenders from 11 candidates was former Prime Minister Francois Fillon, a center-right social conservative whose bid was damaged by allegations of creating fake jobs for close relatives.  Conceding defeat on Sunday, he endorsed Macron.

The vote happened amid tight security following a terrorist attack in Paris just days before the poll that observers thought would benefit Le Pen.

On Sunday, 50,000 police officers backed by 7,000 soldiers, including special forces, were deployed to the streets amid tensions following the attack claimed by the Islamic State terrorist group. The shooting along the iconic Champs-Elysees in the heart of Paris left one police officer dead and several other people injured.

In a tweet one day after the Champs Elysees shooting, U.S. President Trump said, “The people of France will not take much more of this.  Will have a big effect on presidential election!”

Analysts and voters interviewed saw this as the most unpredictable election since World War II.  One third of voters were undecided just days before the balloting.

In the last few weeks before the vote, far-left candidate Jean-Luc Melenchon surged in the polls and so did discussion of the previously obscure candidate in social media.

Among the ways his campaign lured young voters was through the release of a video game in which a player pretending to be Melenchon walks the streets and takes money from men in suits.  The player is shown in a battle against the rich and powerful.

Anger at the establishment is the sentiment driving voters in an election in which security, France’s lagging economy, its 10 percent unemployment rate, and Islamist extremism are issues on the minds of those on the left and on the right.

That, say analysts, is what influenced large numbers of people, including some of the middle and upper class residents of Paris, to vote for candidates of the extreme.  

“Some of them for the thrill of it.  It’s the principle, you know.  Like playing Russian roulette, but politically.  Some others it would be because they despise the elite of this country,” said Thomas Guénolé, a political analyst in Paris, told VOA.

Socialist President Francois Hollande announced he would not to run for reelection after his approval ratings sank to 4 percent, something analysts widely attribute to a string of terrorist attacks in France and a stagnation of economic growth during his tenure.  Hollande is the first incumbent president not to seek reelection in the history of modern France.
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Britain’s Theresa May appeared on course to win a crushing election victory in June after opinion polls put support for her ruling Conservative party around 50 percent, twice that of the opposition Labor party.

May’s decision to call a June 8 election stunned her political rivals this week and a string of polls released late Saturday suggested the gamble had paid off, with one from ComRes showing the party of Margaret Thatcher enjoying levels of support not seen since 1991.

May, appointed prime minister in the turmoil that followed Britain’s vote to leave the European Union last June, said she needed the election to secure her own mandate and strengthen her hand for the Brexit negotiations ahead.

She is also looking to capitalize on the disarray swirling around the Labor party, which has been riven with internal division over its leader Jeremy Corbyn. Voters also appear to be switching from the anti-EU UKIP party, which helped campaign for Brexit, to May’s Conservatives, which will likely deliver it.

Gaining in Scotland

In two other polls, May’s Conservatives also gained ground in Scotland at the expense of the Scottish National Party, potentially weakening the nationalists’ demand for another independence referendum.

May has warned her party not to take victory for granted, a message that was echoed by pollsters Saturday.

“While no political party could ever object to breaching the 50 percent barrier for the first time this century, this spectacular headline result masks a real danger for the Tories,” said ComRes Chairman Andrew Hawkins.

“The fact that 6 in 10 voters believe Labor cannot win under Corbyn’s leadership bring with it the threat of complacency among Tory (Conservative) voters who may be tempted to sit at home on June 8th and let others deliver the result they expect.”

According to polls by Opinium, ComRes and YouGov, May’s Conservatives held a lead of 19 to 25 percentage points, with the party’s support ranging from 45 percent to 50 percent.

Labor-like policies

Having repeatedly denied that she would call an election, May is now also poised to announce a raft of policy proposals more commonly associated with the left-leaning Labor party, according to the Sunday Times.

The newspaper said the Conservatives would pledge to protect workers’ rights and cap more household energy prices in a bid to help those hit by rising inflation and muted wage growth.

If the polls are correct, the Conservatives could secure a once-in-a-generation victory that will realign the British political landscape. According to the polls, Labor has lost its reputation as the party that would best protect the National Health Service — once its strongest claim.

The improved Conservative fortunes across the country have also spread to Scotland, where First Minister Nicola Sturgeon’s Scottish National Party, or SNP, has stepped up calls for a second independence referendum.

According to an analysis for the Times, the Conservatives are on course to win 12 seats in Scotland while Labor will be wiped from its former political stronghold. Currently, the Conservatives hold one of Scotland’s 59 seats in the British parliament. The SNP holds 54.
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French expatriates in South America, Canada and the United States kicked off the voting Saturday in France’s presidential election, on the heels of several terror attacks that could affect the outcome.

Far-right candidate Marine Le Pen and a former economy minister, independent centrist Emmanuel Macron, are the top contenders, followed by conservative former Prime Minister Francois Fillon and far-left candidate Jean-Luc Melenchon.

The candidates are vying to replace incumbent Francois Hollande, who announced earlier this year that he would not run for another term.

Campaigning ended earlier than expected Thursday when a French policeman was killed by a gunman on the Champs-Elysee, one of Paris’ most popular streets for shopping and tourism. Analysts have long said a last-minute event could swing the election outcome.

In November 2015, Paris terror attacks, in which 130 people were killed, happened just weeks before France held regional elections. The attacks are thought to have given a boost to Le Pen’s National Front party, which lost in the second round of voting and failed to win control of any region.

Some French critics of LePen told reporters they feared this week’s attack and others like it could push her campaign to a win, perhaps endangering France’s future in the European Union.

But national security is not the only issue that matters in this year’s election. France’s unemployment rate is about 10 percent, more than twice as high as that of its neighbor Germany, and the state of the economy is a constant worry.

The bulk of the first-round voting in France itself will come Sunday. Early results are expected around 9 p.m. Paris time.
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European scientists are taking part in the March for Science demonstration taking place in hundreds of cities around the world to commemorate Earth Day. Science and research skeptics are becoming more mainstream in an era of populist and Eurosceptic movements. And on both sides of the Atlantic, there is less funding to support independent research.

Jean-Pascal van Ypersele, a professor at the University of Leuven, says shifting priorities in Europe has had an impact on the work of scientists.

“Now funds for fundamental research are much more difficult to get. Even if the budget remains the same or sometimes has increased, there was a shift in priorities towards research that is supposed to deliver more immediate results in terms of job creation or that kind of thing. Or research that helps the European industry to bring a product to the market. And climate scientists are not building any products that the European industries can sell.”

The European Union set a target for its member states that they should spend three percent of their budget on science, but many countries are only at around two percent.

Scientists hope that by joining forces globally, they will raise awareness about a global trend that seems to take science less serious. With U.S. President Donald Trump in the White House and populist and Eurosceptic movements gaining popularity in Europe, scientists say their budgets are being reduced and their work is being taken less serious.

Bas Eickhout, a scientist and member of the European Parliament for the Greens Party, says climate change policy should not be seen as a “left wing hobby.” He calls on scientist to be more involved in the decision making process.

“Not in policy making itself but providing information to politicians is crucial. And quite often once we start with decision making, that information is just lost. Scientist are really a bit too scared for the word lobby, and I don’t think its lobbying that your doing, but its also trying to feed decision making also during the negotiations, and not only at the beginning.”

The March for Science is a volunteer based movement and organizers say there is an “alarming trend toward discrediting scientific consensus and restricting scientific discovery.” The organizers aim to celebrate science and hold political and science leaders accountable, but do not affiliate with any political party.

Sofie Vanthournout, director of Sense about Science EU, a charity advocating the importance of science, says the march aims to change the perspective of citizens and politicians who doubt the importance of science:

“The message that we want to bring it is important for every aspect of our lives, for every aspect of society. Whether it’s in technology that we use in our daily lives or whether it is for important decisions that politicians make about our lives. We don’t want scientists to tell politicians what to do but we need the politicians to have access to all of the facts and all of the knowledge that is available.”

One week after the March of Science, the Peoples Climate March will follow. In 2015, the world came together to sign the Paris Accord, an agreement signed by almost all nations in the world to curb global warming.

U.S. President Trump promised during his election campaign to pull the United States out of the international accord, but later softened his stance, saying he thinks there is “some connectivity” between human activity and global warming.

 
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Michele Scarponi, the 2011 Giro d’Italia champion, has been killed in a road accident while training close to his home in Filottrano, his Astana team said Saturday.

Scarponi, 37, left home early on Saturday morning for a training ride and was hit by a van at a crossroads.

“This is a tragedy too big to be written,” Astana said in a statement.

“We left a great champion and a special guy, always smiling in every situation, he was … a landmark for everyone in the Astana Pro Team.”

Scarponi, who completed the Tour of the Alps on Friday, after winning a stage and finishing fourth overall, is survived by his wife and two children.

Scarponi, who started his professional career in 2002, got his best results in Italian races, winning three stages on the Giro before being handed the 2011 title after Alberto Contador was stripped of his victory in a retroactive doping ban.

He also had good results in the one-day races, finishing fourth on the Liege-Bastogne-Liege classic in 2003.

Scarponi was suspended for 18 months after being implicated in the Operation Puerto blood doping scandal in 2006.

After he returned from suspension, he won the Tirreno-Adriatico in 2009 and the Tour of Catalonia in 2011.

“We will miss this guy in the peleton, always with a smile,” Olympic champion Greg van Avermaet wrote on Twitter. 
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The co-founder of Microsoft, billionaire philanthropist Bill Gates, has given a passionate defense of foreign aid and voiced fears that the political climate in the US and Britain could see aid budgets cut. In a speech in London this week, he warned that withdrawing aid would create a ‘leadership vacuum that others will fill.’ Henry Ridgwell reports.
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The son of a Russian lawmaker was sentenced Friday by a U.S. federal court to 27 years in prison after being convicted of a cyber assault on thousands of U.S. businesses, marking the longest hacking-related sentence in the United States.

Roman Seleznev, 32, was found guilty last year by a jury in Seattle of perpetrating a scheme that prosecutors said involved hacking into point-of-sale computers to steal credit card numbers and caused $169 million in losses to U.S. firms.

The Russian government has maintained that his arrest in 2014 in the Maldives was illegal. It issued a statement Friday criticizing the sentence and said it believed Seleznev’s lawyer planned to appeal.

“We continue to believe that the arrest of the Russian citizen Roman Seleznev, who de facto was kidnapped on the territory of a third country, is unlawful,” the Russian Embassy in Washington said in a post on its Facebook page.

Seleznev is the son of Valery Seleznev, a member of the Russian parliament.

The sentence, imposed by Judge Richard A. Jones of the Western District of Washington, followed a decade-long investigation by the U.S. Secret Service.

In a handwritten statement provided by his lawyer, Seleznev said he believed the harsh sentence was a way for the United States government to send a message to Russia’s president, Vladimir Putin.

“This message the United States sent today is not the right way to show Vladimir Putin, Russia or any other government in this world how justice works in a democracy,” Seleznev wrote in the statement.

Prosecutors said that from October 2009 to October 2013, Seleznev stole credit card numbers from more than 500 U.S. businesses, transferred the data to servers in Virginia, Russia and the Ukraine and eventually sold the information on criminal “carding” websites.

Seleznev faces separate charges pending in federal courts in Nevada and Georgia.

A federal grand jury in Connecticut returned an eight-count indictment charging a Russian national who was arrested earlier this month with operating the Kelihos botnet, a global network of tens of thousands of infected computers, the U.S. Justice Department said Friday.
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Russian has become the “second language” taught in Syrian schools, and President Bashar al-Assad’s children are studying Russian, Syria’s ambassador to Russia was quoted as saying Friday.

“The decision by Assad that the Russian language become the country’s second language is a sign of gratitude to the Russian people for their support of the Syrians,” Russia’s TASS state news agency quoted Syria’s Ambassador Riyad Haddad as saying.

“Also as a mark of that gratitude, many families are even naming their sons Putin,” Haddad added.

“It is no secret if I say that the children of the president [Bashar al-Assad] are now learning Russian,” Interfax news agency quoted the ambassador as saying.

According to Haddad, Russian-language instruction in Syria’s schools starts in the seventh grade, and Russian language departments have been opened in all of Syria’s universities.

Russian news agencies also quoted the ambassador as saying Syria’s president has donated a plot of land near Damascus for the construction of a Russian school.
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Russian authorities say there is no evidence that gay men in Russia’s conservative republic of Chechnya are facing a wave of persecution. A number of gay Chechen men have fled the region amid allegations of abduction, torture and murder. VOA’s Daniel Schearf visited a safe house on the outskirts of Moscow where gay Chechen men are in hiding, and has this report.
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Oil giant ExxonMobil has asked the Trump administration for an exemption from U.S. sanctions against Russia, so it can resume drilling around the Black Sea with a Russian partner, according to U.S. news reports Wednesday.

The request likely will receive extra scrutiny from U.S. officials because the deal between Exxon and Rosneft, the Russian state-owned energy company, was negotiated by the company’s former chief executive officer, Rex Tillerson, now the U.S. secretary of state.

Tillerson forged a landmark joint-venture deal with Rosneft worth hundreds of billions of dollars in direct talks five years ago with Russian officials including the Kremlin leader, President Vladimir Putin.

Drilling in Arctic

The Rosneft-Exxon team had begun drilling in the Arctic’s Kara Sea, but that work stopped when former President Barack Obama imposed sanctions against Moscow in 2014, following the Kremlin’s annexation of Crimea from Ukraine. The energy group also had agreed to look for shale oil in western Siberia and in the deep waters of the Black Sea, the area where Exxon is now seeking a waiver from sanctions.

Neither the Treasury Department nor Exxon would comment on the company’s request, first reported by The Wall Street Journal. A State Department spokesman said Tillerson pledged to recuse himself from any matters involving Exxon for two years after he took his Cabinet-level position, and added that the secretary is not involved with any decision by any government agency affecting Exxon.

Tillerson retired from Exxon late last year, after it became known that Trump would name him to head the State Department.

Treasury approval

The Associated Press reported that ExxonMobil, which is based in Irving, Texas, filed documents in 2015 and 2016 disclosing that it had received three licenses from the Treasury Department, through its Office of Foreign Assets Control, authorizing the company to conduct “limited administrative actions” with Rosneft.

Exxon has said that it and its investment properties in Russia comply with all aspects of the U.S. sanctions program. The original Exxon-Rosneft drilling project in the Arctic was halted by a U.S. order prohibiting American companies from transferring advanced technology used to drill offshore and in shale formations.

The head of Rosneft, Exxon’s partner, also was personally blacklisted by the U.S. action.

Exxon estimated in 2015 that its potential losses from the Rosneft venture could amount to $1 billion. In his corporate role, Tillerson spoke out against the U.S. sanctions in 2014, declaring such tactics are usually ineffective and warning they could cause “very broad collateral damage.”

Tillerson and Russia

A year earlier, before Russia annexed Crimea and the United States responded with sanctions, Putin personally honored Tillerson by naming him a member of Russia’s Order of Friendship. After the 2016 election, when the Trump team first considered Tillerson for the top U.S. diplomatic post, Capitol Hill lawmakers including Republican Senator Marco Rubio began questioning whether Tillerson was too close to Putin to serve effectively as secretary of state.

Amid the continuing controversy over Russia’s involvement in last year’s political campaign, as reported by the FBI and U.S. intelligence agencies, Tillerson became the first senior member of the Trump administration to visit Moscow. He traveled there last week for talks with Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and with Putin. The meetings were reported to have been dominated by U.S-Russian tensions over Syria.

The environmentalist organization Greenpeace USA reacted quickly, calling on the Trump administration to reject Exxon’s request.

“If the Trump administration allows Exxon to move forward with extreme offshore oil drilling in Russia despite sanctions, the United States Congress must resist. Removing barriers to Exxon drilling in the Russian Black Sea with a state-controlled company like Rosneft would not only jeopardize global progress on climate change and provide momentum for a similar waiver in the Russian Arctic, it would also send a message to Russia that it can intervene in any country, including the United States, with no consequences. Members of Congress must stand up for the separation of oil and state.”

“We are extremely concerned that Rosneft’s control of a major U.S. energy supplier could pose a grave threat to American energy security,” the six senators wrote in an April 4 letter to the U.S. Treasury secretary.
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Billionaire Microsoft founder Bill Gates is urging British leaders not to back down from their commitment to foreign aid, saying it could cost lives in Africa.

Gates on Wednesday was in London, where campaigning has started for early elections called by Prime Minister Teresa May.

May has so far declined to say whether she will heed calls by fellow Conservatives to slash British foreign aid as part of her party platform.

Gates told the Guardian newspaper Wednesday that a British refusal to commit itself to targeted spending on foreign aid could hurt efforts to wipe out malaria in Africa.

“The big aid givers now are the U.S., Britain and Germany … and if those three back off, a lot of ambitious things going on with malaria, agriculture and reproductive health simply would not get done,” he said.

Gates said British funding has made an “absolute phenomenal difference” in eradicating tropical diseases that affect more than 1 billion people.

Many conservatives want the government to spend more money at home to combat domestic crises. Some also contend that foreign aid money is frequently squandered.

Gates said as a business executive who spends $5 billion a year helping developing nations, he hates wasting money. But he told an audience of British politicians and diplomats that no country can “build a wall to hold back the next global epidemic,” and that foreign aid combats socioeconomic problems “at the source.”
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A feel-good Paris concert, a meeting with Muslim leaders and a blowout rally in Marseille – France’s presidential candidates are blanketing the country Wednesday with campaign events to try to inspire undecided voters just four days before a nail-biting election.

Crowds danced on a Paris plaza as Socialist presidential candidate Benoit Hamon held what is seen as a last-chance rally and concert. Hamon is polling a distant fifth place ahead of Sunday’s first-round election and has little chance of reaching the decisive May 7 runoff – a failure that could crush his party.

French far-right presidential candidate Marine Le Pen, who has dominated the campaign with her anti-immigration, anti-EU proposals, is appealing to her electoral base in hopes of maintaining a shot at the runoff.

She assailed recent governments for failing to stop extremist attacks in recent years and warned on BFM television that “we are all targets. All the French.”

The candidates have increased security in recent days. Authorities announced Tuesday that they had arrested two Islamic radicals suspected of plotting a possible attack around the vote.

Independent centrist candidate Emmanuel Macron reached out to the French Muslim community Wednesday, saying it’s fighting on a “common front” alongside the state against Islamic extremism.

Macron met with the head of leading French Muslim group CFCM, Anouar Kbibech. In a statement afterward, Macron insisted on the importance of respecting France’s secular traditions but said they shouldn’t be used to target Muslims. Some Muslims feel unfairly targeted by French laws banning headscarves in schools and full-face veils in public.

Also Wednesday, the Grand Mosque of Lyon issued an appeal urging Muslims to cast ballots instead of isolating themselves, “so that all the children of France, regardless of their skin color, their origins or their religion, are fully involved in the future of their country.”

Le Pen also defended her decision to force national news network TF1 to take down the European flag during an interview Tuesday night.

She said Wednesday that “I am a candidate in the election for the French republic” and that Europe is acting like France’s “enemy.”

Accusing the EU of taking away France’s sovereignty and hurting its economy, she wants to pull France out of the EU and the euro – which would devastate the bloc and badly disrupt financial markets.
…

Protests continued in Istanbul and other cities over allegations of vote fraud in Sunday’s referendum. The narrow 51-49 percent victory gives Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan sweeping powers to turn the country into an executive presidency from the current parliamentary system. But allegations of ballot stuffing and mishandling of certified ballots continue.

“Erdogan a thief, Erdogan a murderer” hundreds chanted in the Kadikoy, the center of the Asian side of Istanbul and a stronghold of the president’s opponents. “The vote was unfair. We don’t want one-man rule. We just want democracy for everyone,” a woman protestor said.

Some protestors carried placards with the viral hashtag slogans from referendum night “The ‘No’ is not finished” and ” ‘No’ has won”.

Similar protests were held across Istanbul. The demonstrations were smaller than Monday when thousands took to the streets. Demonstrations were also held in other cities, including the capital, Ankara.

Protests have been broadly tolerated by security forces, which have sweeping powers to stop them, under emergency rules introduced after July’s failed coup. Usually those powers are used to quell anti-government dissent.

The Kadikoy protest was devoid of the usual intimidating presence of heavily armed riot police and armored cars. Instead, plain-clothes police filmed those participating and checked foreign media credentials as well as occasionally politely asking demonstrators not to use derrogative chants against the president.

Dawn raids were made across Istanbul Wednesday, detaining dozens of people suspected of organizing and participating in the protests.

The unrest is focusing on the decision by Turkey’s Supreme Election board during voting to allow ballots without an official stamp in Sunday’s referendum. Under Turkey’s election law, all ballots and the envelope they are placed in have to have an official stamp, a measure to prevent vote-stuffing.

Election board Head Sadi Guven made the decision, reportedly without consulting his other board members and at the request of the ruling AK Party. International monitors of the OSCE strongly criticized the decision Monday in their initial findings on the referendum.

The result also prompted the European Union to weigh in: “We also call on all actors to show restraint and on the authorities to launch transparent investigations into these alleged irregularities found by the observers,” said EU Commission spokesperson Margaritis Schinas at a press conference Tuesday.

Growing numbers of unverified videos and photos have appeared on social media purporting to showing vote-stuffing. Many are from Turkey’s predominantly Kurdish southeast. Much of the region has strict security as it battles Kurdish insurgents of the PKK.

Several voting districts that are traditional strongholds of the pro-Kurdish HDP that was campaigning against the referendum recorded massive ‘yes’ votes. Only one-half percent voted no on the referendum in one district where a majority voted for the HDP in the 2015 election.

The HDP along with the main opposition CHP, Republican People’s Party, are refusing to recognize the result, calling for the narrow referendum victory to be annulled.

“The only thing that needs to be done with regard to this referendum which has lost its legitimacy, is its annulment,” declared Bulent Tezcan, deputy CHP leader, after submitting an annulment petition Tuesday to the Supreme Election Board.

The CHP also threatened Wednesday to boycott parliament. “We do not recognize the referendum result,” said CHP spokeswoman Selin Sayek Boke. “There should be no doubt that we will exercise all our democratic rights against it.”

A nationwide campaign has started for individual petitions challenging the vote. Hundreds of people queued outside the Supreme Election Board headquarters in Ankara to personally file complaints. Turkey’s Supreme Election Board, which is the only body legally empowered to annul the vote, has started considering the more than 700 complaints.

Prime Minister Binali Yildirim pushed back Wednesday, telling reporters, “It is unacceptable for the main opposition party not to acknowledge results which the public has already acknowledged.”

In a move widely seen as intended to thwart potential further legal complications over the referendum, Erdogan’s first meeting on the day after Sunday’s vote was with the head of the Constitutional Court.

The president and his ruling AK Party, under emergency rule in the aftermath of the coup, have purged and arrested thousands of the judiciary members, including those of the Supreme Election Board and the Constitutional Court.

“There is no way this can be reversed. To expect the ‘yes’ camp to accept calls for a re-vote is naive in the present polarized political climate,” warns political columnist Semih Idiz of the Al Monitor website. “The performance of the Supreme Election Board it is almost like it’s co-opted (to the president). So the way things are stacked against the opposition, I don’t think their efforts will lead to much.”

But the narrow margin of victory, and the ongoing controversy appears to be galvanizing the opposition, which has been largely influenced by the tens of thousands of arrests and purges across academia, media and within the Turkish State, under emergency rule.  

“We are standing up for our ‘no’ votes,” declares a journalist student at Wednesday’s Kadikoy protest. “All we want is fair and just referendum results.  And we will keep demanding this until we win!”

Protests across Turkey have been called for Wednesday night. “For the ‘no’ camp, it has injected a new sense of enthusiasm,” notes columnist Idiz. “It’s now a question of how the main opposition will mobilize in the lead up to the next elections, whether it’s early elections, or in 2019.”

 
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The British parliament voted overwhelmingly Wednesday to back Prime Minister Theresa May’s call to hold early general elections on June 8, three years ahead of schedule.

May pushed for the snap poll in hopes of smoothing the Brexit process.

The vote in parliament was 522 to 13. Members had been widely expected to approve the early poll, which analysts say will likely give May a stronger hand in negotiating Britain’s exit from the European Union but also gives the opposition a greater voice in how the Brexit process is carried out.

The two-year exit negotiation process began last month when May triggered Article 50 of the Lisbon EU treaty. However, the British leader has been weighed down by the opposition’s protests over how the negotiations on trade and taxes are conducted.

May said the early vote is necessary to ensure that her government can “strengthen our position in these negotiations.”  

“I believe this is the way we get clarity and stability in the future for the United Kingdom beyond Brexit,” she said.

WATCH: May on early vote

On Wednesday, May repeated her belief that there is “no turning back” on Brexit.

The early general election will not change the two-year departure timetable, but has opened up a new episode of bickering over the measure, which has bitterly divided the country for the past year.

Courting opposition

May has challenged Britain’s deeply fractured opposition to band together and present their arguments against Brexit.

Labor Party leader Jeremy Corbyn appeared to accept that challenge by welcoming early elections. But in a heated exchange before the vote in parliament Wednesday, Corbyn criticized May for her decision to not take part in any televised debates ahead of the June poll.

Corbyn also denied May’s allegations that he and his fellow Brexit opponents, the Liberal Democrats, have been working to derail the process.

“There is no obstacle to the government negotiating, but instead of getting on with the job she is painting herself as the prisoner of Lib Dem threats to grind government to a standstill,” Corbyn said, adding that the Liberal Democrats have “only nine” seats in parliament.

With the Labor Party’s popularity at a historic low, analysts widely expect Theresa May’s Conservatives and their allies to retain a majority in parliament, meaning May would remain prime minister during course of the Brexit negotiations.

Last year, polls failed to predict the passage of the referendum on Brexit and observers now caution that in seeking to strengthen her mandate, May also risks her political career, depending on whether voter attitudes change in the next seven weeks.
…

European Council President Donald Tusk was met at Warsaw’s main train station Wednesday by hundreds of people — both supporters and angry opponents — as he arrived to testify in an investigation.

The mood at the train station was tense, with supporters of the former Polish prime minister carrying EU and national flags and chanting “Donald, we are with you!” while opponents hurled accusations of crimes and of hurting Poland’s interests. One detractor held up a large mock-up photo depicting him in striped prison garb.

Tusk is only a witness in the current case — an investigation by military prosecutors into alleged secret illegal contacts between Polish and Russian intelligence officials at a time when he was still prime minister.

“I have no doubt this is a part of political witch hunt,” Tusk told reporters while walking to the prosecutors’ office surrounded by bodyguards. He wore a daffodil on his jacket, in honor of the anniversary of the Warsaw Ghetto uprising against Nazi occupiers.

However, many see his questioning as part of a larger attempt by Poland’s nationalist government to discredit a political foe by linking him to scandals and perhaps imprison him eventually. With still strong backing in Poland, Tusk could prove to be a serious rival to the ruling party in the 2019 parliamentary elections and in the 2020 presidential election.

Tusk has also been accused by the Defense Minister Antoni Macierewicz of treason in another matter, the handling of the aftermath of the 2010 plane crash in Smolensk, Russia, that killed Polish President Lech Kaczynski.

Prosecutors have not revealed details of the alleged illegal contacts, but they are investigating whether the heads of the intelligence had neglected their obligation to seek Tusk’s approval for cooperating with foreign intelligence.

Polish media reports say the deal was aimed at allowing Polish investigators working on the Smolensk crash to operate on Russian soil.

“I have no reservations as to the work of the (special) services,” Tusk said.

Poland’s current ruling party, Law and Justice, is led by the late president’s twin brother, Jaroslaw Kaczynski, a nationalist politician who is a long-term political rival of Tusk’s.

Kaczynski drove the failed effort last month to block Tusk from getting a second term as head of the European Council. Only Poland opposed Tusk’s re-election, with 27 other EU members supporting another term for him.

In their chants, Tusk’s supporters said he beat Kaczynski 27-1.

Kaczynski and others accuse Tusk of failing to oversee proper security for the presidential flight. They also fault Tusk for letting the Russians carry out the main investigation and for failing to get the wreckage back.

Supporters of the government also blame Tusk for pro-business policies during his 2007-2014 term that they feel hurt the country. Those policies helped drive strong economic growth, but many Poles felt left out by the economic boom.

“Tusk should face justice for having brought Poland to ruins, for closing shipyards, scandals, for Smolensk, for working together with Russia. We still can’t bring the wreckage back,” said Halina Wojcicka, 74, a retired office clerk.

Those who rallied to support Tusk expressed opposition to Poland’s larger political direction under Kaczynski, which opponents view as xenophobic and having authoritarian tendencies.

“I can see that harm is being done to Poland. The state of law is gone. The country is run by one person, driven by hatred,” said Iwona Guz, a 60-year-old economist. “I am here to show that I want Poland to be in Europe, not in the East.”

 
…

British Prime Minister Theresa May announced Tuesday she will seek an early election on June 8.

Three weeks after officially launching the process for Britain to exit the European Union, May said opposition parties are threatening to derail the process and that parliament is not coming together in the same way as the nation.

“Division in Westminster will risk our ability to make a success of Brexit and it will cause damaging uncertainty and instability to the country, so we need a general election and we need one now,” May said.

The House of Commons must approve the call for new elections.

Jeremy Corbyn, leader of the main opposition Labour Party, welcomed May’s announcement, saying it will “give the British people the chance to vote for a government that will put the interests of the majority first.”
…

U.S. President Donald Trump has congratulated Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on his “referendum victory,” in a narrow vote that would create a powerful executive presidency from the current parliamentary system.

The White House said in a statement the two leaders spoke by phone, with their conversation also including the need to hold Syrian President Bashar al-Assad accountable for a recent chemical attack, the ongoing fight against Islamic State and “the need to cooperate against all groups that use terrorism to achieve their ends.”

Erdogan’s opponents are seeking a revote of Sunday’s referendum, and international monitors have questioned the fairness of the vote, saying it was contested on an uneven playing field.

At a news conference Monday in Ankara, monitors from the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe said the “No” campaign faced numerous obstacles including a lack of freedom of expression, intimidation and access to the media. The OSCE also alleged misuse of administrative resources by Erdogan.

The controversial decision to allow the use of ballots that did not have an official stamp was also criticized. “The Supreme Election Board issued instructions late in the day, that significantly changed, the validity criteria, undermining an important safeguard and contradicting the law,“ observed Cezar Florin Preda of the monitoring group at the Ankara press conference

Turkey’s Foreign Ministry released a statement saying it was “saddened” by the OSCE’s finding that the referendum fell short of international standards. The ministry called it “unacceptable” and accused the OSCE of political bias.

Under Turkey’s 2010 electoral law, all ballots require an official stamp as a measure aimed at preventing vote stuffing. The main opposition CHP alleges that as many as one-and-a-half million unstamped ballots could have been used, more than the winning margin in the referendum.

The CHP is now demanding the referendum be held again. “The only decision that will end debate about the legitimacy, and ease the people’s legal concerns is the annulment of this election,” declared Bulent Tezcan CHP deputy head, speaking at a press conference Monday.

Prime Minister Binali Yildirim rejected opposition complaints in remarks to a group of legislators Tuesday. He said the opposition “should not speak after the people have spoken.”

Protests were held in several locations across Istanbul and in the capital, Ankara, over the handling of the vote; similar demonstrations were reported in other cities.

The only legal redress the CHP has to overturn the vote is with Supreme Election Board, which made the decision to use the unstamped ballots.

The head of the board, Sadi Guven, strongly defended his decision to allow the controversial ballots, citing high demand for ballots and saying similar procedures had been followed in the past.

“This is not some move we’ve done for the first time,” said Guven, speaking to reporters Monday in Ankara. “Before our administration took over, there had been many decisions approving the validity of unstamped ballots.”

Critics point out the previous use of unstamped ballots was before the introduction of the electoral law banning the practice. Guven said he did not know how many of the ballots were used, and admitted he made the decision after consulting with the ruling AK Party.

Many of the ballots are suspected of being used in the predominantly Kurdish southeast where strict security measures are in force due to an ongoing fight against Kurdish insurgent group the PKK. “No” campaigners in the region, said its observers, were prevented from monitoring many ballot stations. The OSCE also said its monitors too faced restrictions.

While the OSCE refused to be drawn in on whether the shortcomings and difficulties it highlighted were enough to ultimately affect the outcome of the vote, its assessment will likely embolden the opposition and add to growing international concern.

“The European politician will refer to the OSCE; even Americans have said it was going to wait for the OSCE report [before commenting on the referendum result], warns political columnist Semih Idiz of Al Monitor website. “It’s a complication for Erdogan but he will try and turn it to his advantage, by saying the West is up to its old tricks again.” Throughout the campaign, Erdogan played the nationalist card, accusing Western countries of conspiring against him and Turkey. Erdogan described the referendum as a victory against the crusaders.

Europe has so far avoided directly addressing the controversy, choosing to look beyond the result with calls on Erdogan to reach out to his opponents to ease the political polarization. The U.S. State Department called on Turkey to protect basic rights and freedoms as authorities work to resolve the contested results.
…

Turkey’s president has rejected international monitors’ criticism of the referendum that approved expanded presidential powers Sunday, saying the vote was the “most democratic election” seen in any Western country.

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan told supporters Monday outside his palace in Ankara that international election monitors should “know their place.”

He said Turkey will ignore findings by monitors from the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, calling the reports “politically motivated.”

Fairness questioned

The monitors have questioned the fairness of Sunday’s referendum, saying it was contested on an uneven playing field. At a news conference in Ankara, monitors from the OSCE said the “No” campaign faced numerous obstacles, including a lack of freedom of expression, intimidation and access to the media.

They also questioned the controversial decision by Turkey’s Supreme Court to allow the use of ballots that did not have an official stamp on them. The main opposition CHP alleges that as many as one-and-a-half million unstamped ballots could have been used, more than the winning margin in the referendum.

Opposition calls for new vote

Bulent Tezcan, deputy head of the CHP demanded the referendum be reheld, saying that would be the “only decision that will end the debate about the legitimacy” and ease people’s concerns.

Unofficial election results from Turkey’s electoral board said the “yes” vote took more than 51 percent while the “no” vote took just under 49 percent. Official tallies were expected to be released within 12 days of the vote.

The approval means the Turkish parliament will be largely sidelined, the prime minister and Cabinet posts will be abolished, and ministers will be directly appointed by the president and accountable to him. The president also will set the budget.

The constitutional amendments also end the official neutrality of the president, allowing him to lead a political party. The president will have the power to dissolve parliament and declare a state of emergency, while enjoying enhanced powers to appoint judges to the high court and constitutional court.

A divided nation

The referendum has divided the nation, with both supporters and opponents arguing that the future of the country is at stake.

Erdogan insists the reforms will create a fast and efficient system of governance that will allow Turkey to face the challenges of fighting terror and the slowing economy. Critics argue the constitutional reforms will usher in an elected dictatorship.

Erdogan spoke by telephone Monday with U.S. President Donald Trump, who according to a White House statement congratulated the Turkish leader on the referendum win.  The statement further said the two men talked about the situation in Syria, both the fight against Islamic State and holding Syrian President Bashar al-Assad accountable for a chemical attack earlier this month.
…

The U.S. State Department said Monday it had taken note of concerns by European monitors of Turkey’s referendum and looked forward to a final report, suggesting it will withhold comment until a full assessment was completed.

An initial assessment by the Organization of Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) said Sunday’s referendum, which granted Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan sweeping new powers, did not meet democratic norms.

“We look forward to OSCE/ODIHR’s final report, which we understand will take several weeks,” acting spokesman Mark Toner said in a statement.
…

As France’s unpredictable presidential campaign nears its finish with no clear front-runner, centrist candidate Emmanuel Macron and far-right leader Marine Le Pen hope to rally big crowds in Paris with their rival visions for Europe’s future.

Meanwhile, far-left candidate Jean-Luc Melenchon, enjoying a late poll surge, is campaigning on a barge Monday floating through the canals of Paris. And conservative candidate Francois Fillon is taking his tough-on-security campaign to the southern French city of Nice, which was scarred by a deadly truck attack last year that killed 86 people.

The race is being watched internationally as an important gauge of populist sentiment, and the outcome is increasingly uncertain just six days before Sunday’s first round vote.

Le Pen’s nationalist rhetoric and Melenchon’s anti-globalization campaign have resonated with French voters sick of the status quo. Macron, meanwhile, is painting himself as an anti-establishment figure seeking to bury the traditional left-right spectrum that has governed France for decades.

The top two vote-getters Sunday of the 11 candidates on the ballot advance to the May 7 presidential runoff. The latest polls suggest that Le Pen, Macron, Melenchon and Fillon all have a chance of reaching the runoff — and as many as a third of voters remain undecided.

Socialist candidate Benoit Hamon insisted Monday that he, too, remains a contender.

“Things are evolving,” he said on Europe-1 radio.

The Socialists’ campaign has suffered from internal divisions and Socialist President Francois Hollande’s dismal image — he’s so unpopular that he declined to seek a second term.

Macron, a former investment banker well connected in the business world, fended off questions Monday about his elitist image on BFM television.

“The money I earned in my life, I earned it. I have not been given gifts,” he said.

He accused rivals of pandering to Russian President Vladimir Putin, and tried to distance himself from Fillon, whose austerity-focused campaign has been damaged by accusations that he misused taxpayer money to pay his wife and children for government jobs that they allegedly did not perform. French investigators are probing the case.

Fillon denies wrongdoing and is focusing instead on security issues that resonate with many voters after two years of deadly attacks across the country. French voters will cast their ballots under a state of emergency that’s been repeatedly extended as new violence has hit.

Macron and Le Pen are holding their last big rallies in the Paris region later Monday.

 
…

Germany said on Monday the close result in Turkey’s referendum on expanding Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan’s powers was a big responsibility for him to bear and showed how divided Turkish society was.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel and Foreign Minister Sigmar Gabriel also said Turkish authorities needed to address concerns about the content and procedure of Sunday’s referendum raised by a panel of European legal experts.

Erdogan declared a narrow victory in the vote, which marked the biggest overhaul of modern Turkish politics. Opponents said it was marred by irregularities and they would challenge the result.

Merkel and Gabriel, whose country has about 3 million residents of Turkish background, said they noted the preliminary result showing a victory for the “Yes” camp. Official results are expected within 12 days.

“The German government… respects the right of Turkish citizens to decide on their own constitutional order,” they said in a statement.

“The tight referendum result shows how deeply divided Turkish society is and that means a big responsibility for the Turkish leadership and for President Erdogan personally.”

They expected Ankara to have a “respectful dialogue” with all parts of Turkish society and its political spectrum after a tough campaign.

German integration commissioner Aydan Ozoguz warned against criticizing Turks living in Germany across the board over how they voted, telling regional newspaper Saarbruecker Zeitung that only around 14 percent of all German Turks living in Germany had voted “Yes” and added that most migrants had not voted.

German integration commissioner Aydan Ozoguz warned against criticizing Turks living in Germany over how they voted, telling regional newspaper Saarbruecker Zeitung that only around 14 percent of all German Turks living in Germany had voted “yes” and added that most migrants had not voted.

EU talks

Germany’s comments were echoed in France, where President Francois Hollande said: “It’s up to the Turks and them alone to decide on how they organize their political institutions, but the published results show that Turkish society is divided about the planned deep reforms.”

On Sunday, the European Commission said Turkey should seek a broad national consensus on constitutional amendments, given the narrow “Yes” majority and the extent of their impact. In March, the Venice Commission, a panel of legal experts at the Council of Europe, said the proposed changes to the constitution on which Turks voted, namely boosting Erdogan’s power, represented a “dangerous step backwards” for democracy.

Merkel and Gabriel pointed to the Commission’s reservations and said that, as a member of the Council of Europe and the OSCE security and human rights watchdog and an EU accession candidate, Turkey should quickly address those concerns.

“Political discussions about that need to take place as quickly as possible, both at the bilateral level and between the European institutions and Turkey,” Merkel and Gabriel said.

In a separate statement, France’s Foreign Ministry called on the Turkish government to respect the European Convention on Human Rights and its ban on the death penalty.

Erdogan told supporters on Sunday that Turkey could hold another referendum on reinstating the death penalty. Such a move would spell the end of Turkey’s accession talks with the European Union.

Austria, which has repeatedly called for halting membership talks, called once more for them to stop.

“We can’t just go back to the daily routine after the Turkey referendum. We finally need some honesty in the relationship between the EU and Turkey,” said Foreign Minister Sebastian Kurz, adding the bloc should instead work on a “partnership Agreement.”

During the campaign, Erdogan repeatedly attacked European countries, including Germany and the Netherlands, accusing them of “Nazi-like” tactics for banning his ministers from speaking to rallies of Turkish voters abroad.

Turkish Deputy Prime Minister Mehmet Simsek told Reuters on Monday he expected the “noise” between Ankara and Europe should die down after the European elections cycle. The French vote for a new president begins next Sunday. Germany votes in September.

 
…

Easter dawned in Jerusalem with a sunrise service at the Garden Tomb, where the faithful sang hymns of the resurrection. This holy site seeks to recreate the setting of the burial place of Jesus according to biblical accounts: “Now in the place where He was crucified there was a garden, and in the garden a new tomb in which no one had yet been laid” (John 19:41).

Facing an empty tomb carved into a rock in antiquity, the congregation proclaimed that “The Lord is risen!”

A short time later, bells rang out in the narrow cobblestone alleyways of Jerusalem’s Old City, summoning worshippers to Easter Mass at the 4th century Church of the Holy Sepulcher.

The atmosphere in the cavernous church was mystical. Priests in festive robes chanted the Easter liturgy, as a fragrant cloud of incense rose into a golden rotunda, symbolizing the glory of the resurrection.

Pilgrims from all over the world gathered around the historic stone tomb believed to be the very place where Jesus rose from the dead. The ancient sepulcher has a fresh look: It was renovated for the first time in 200 years after the feuding denominations that control the site decided to bury their differences and allow the repairs in the name of Christian unity.

Pilgrims came from all over the world to experience Resurrection Day in the city where, according to the New Testament, the events took place.

“Being here where Christ was caused me to strengthen my faith,” Travis Cullimore, an American from San Francisco, California, told VOA. “It really provides a good perspective on who Christ is and what other people believe about Christ, and also it causes me to reflect on what I truly believe about Christ.”

There were also groups of Arab Christians in town, including Israeli citizens from Jesus’ hometown of Nazareth and members of the Coptic Orthodox Church from Egypt.

“It’s a holy place and we are blessed to be here,” said Sam Nicola, a Coptic Orthodox Christian from Cairo. “We are very fortunate to be here.”

A week ago on Palm Sunday, ISIS militants blew up two churches in Egypt killing more than 40 people. The bombings, which were not the first, raised further questions about the safety and future of the dwindling Christian community in Egypt.

“I’m not worried, no,” Nicola sighed, taking a fatalistic approach. “Whatever happens is happening, so whatever is meant to be is meant to be. [Terrorist] incidents happen everywhere, not only in Egypt; it happens everywhere.”

Nor was he perturbed by the Israeli police and soldiers who were patrolling the streets armed with pistols and assault rifles. “We have normal relations with Israel and there is no problem for us to come here,” he said. “We feel very safe.”

It was a big turnout this year because the Eastern Orthodox and Western churches, which use different calendars, celebrated Easter on the same day. The holiday was a multicultural experience, and not only because of the different Christian traditions.

The Old City was packed with Jewish pilgrims celebrating the weeklong holiday of Passover, one of three biblical Feasts of Pilgrimage; and the Christians and Jews mingled with the Palestinian Muslim shopkeepers in the Old City bazaar.

“I think all the people have the right to believe in God in their own way,” said Michael Price, an Israeli who came up to Jerusalem for Passover with his family. “The main thing is to coexist and live together in peace.”
…

Millions of Orthodox Christians around the world have celebrated Easter in overnight services and with “holy fire” from Jerusalem, commemorating the day followers believe that Jesus was resurrected nearly 2,000 years ago.

This year the Orthodox churches celebrate Easter on the same Sunday that Roman Catholics and Protestants mark the holy festival. The Western Christian church follows the Gregorian calendar, while the Eastern Orthodox uses the older Julian calendar and the two Easters are often weeks apart.

Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew I, who is the spiritual leader of the world’s Orthodox Christian faithful, delivered a message of peace during the midnight service at the Patriarchate in Istanbul.

“Our faith is alive, because it is based on the event of the resurrection of Christ,” Bartholomew said.

In his official Easter message issued earlier in the week, Bartholomew urged strong faith in the face of the world’s tribulations.

“This message — of the victory of life over death, of the triumph of the joyful light of the [Easter] candle over the darkness of disorder and dissolution — is announced to the whole world from the Ecumenical Patriarchate with the invitation to experience the unwaning light of the resurrection,” his message said.  

In predominantly Orthodox Romania, Patriarch Daniel urged Christians to bring joy to “orphans, the sick, the elderly the poor … and the lonely.”

Late Saturday, Orthodox clerics transported the holy flame from Jerusalem by plane and it was then flown to other churches around the country. According to tradition the flame appears each year at the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem and is taken to other Orthodox countries.

In Russia, where Orthodox Christianity is the dominant religion, President Vladimir Putin along with Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev and his wife Svetlana attended midnight Mass at Moscow’s Christ the Savior Cathedral.

The cathedral is a potent symbol of the revival of observant Christianity in Russia after the fall of the officially atheist Soviet Union. It is a reconstruction of the cathedral that was destroyed by explosion under dictator Josef Stalin.

In Serbia, the head of the Serbian Orthodox Church, Patriarch Irinej, held a liturgy in Belgrade’s St. Sava Temple which outgoing president Tomislav Nikolic attended.

Irinej said in his Easter message that “with great sadness and pain in our hearts, we must note that today’s world is not following the path of resurrection but the road of death and hopelessness.”  He also lamented the falling birth rate in Serbia as “a reason to cry and weep, but also an alarm.”

Irinej evoked Kosovo, Serbia’s former province which declared independence in 2008. Hundreds of medieval Orthodox churches and monasteries are located there.

Orthodoxy is also predominant in Bulgaria, Ukraine and Moldova.
…

Christians around the world Sunday are celebrating Easter — the day they believe Jesus arose from the dead.  It is the holiest day of the Christian calendar.  

Throngs of the faithful endured heavy security checks to secure a place Sunday in the Vatican’s flower-filled Saint Peter’s Square for Pope Francis’ celebration of Easter Sunday Mass and his delivery of his annual “Urbi et Orbi” —  “to the city and to the world” — Easter address.

Pope Francis denounced how migrants, the poor and the marginalized are treated.  He said they see their “human dignity crucified” every day through injustice and corruption.  

The pope asked in his prayers for peace in the Middle East “beginning with the Holy Land, as well as in Iraq and Yemen.”

He hoped that Jesus’ sacrifice will inspire world leaders to “sustain the efforts of all those actively engaged in bringing comfort and relief to the civil population in Syria, prey to a war that continues to sow horror and death.”

Easter is Christianity’s “moveable feast,” falling on a different date each year.  Western Christian churches celebrate Easter on the first Sunday following the full moon after the vernal equinox.  

This year, however, the date of the Roman Catholic and Protestant observance of Easter coincides with the Orthodox churches.  The two Easters are usually weeks apart with the Western Christian church following the Gregorian calendar, while, the Eastern Orthodox uses the older Julian calendar.  

In Jerusalem, a sunrise service at the Garden Tomb, where worshippers sang hymns of the resurrection, set the biblical tone. Throughout the day, masses of different denominations of both Western and Eastern Christians coexisted in the same holy space.  

Wajeeh Nusseibeh, a Muslim man and member of one of the two families who guard and keep the Church of the Holy Sepulcher in Jerusalem, said there were fewer people visiting the holy place this year than in the past.

Nusseibeh blamed that on tough economic times and security concerns among Middle Eastern Christians, who feel under threat in Iraq and Syria.

“We hope to have peace next year,” he said. “And everyone accepts the other.”

The Old City also had Jewish pilgrims celebrating the weeklong biblical holiday of Passover — the story from the biblical Exodus celebrating the ancient Israelites’ liberation from Egyptian slavery.

Reports say many of the attendees were ultra-Orthodox Jews in dark suits and hats, but they were joined by others including members of the Israel’s Ethiopian Jewish community.

Armed Israeli police and soldiers patrolled the streets near the site of Christ’s tomb, but the atmosphere was calm.

In Egypt, however, authorities beefed up security after a suicide bomb attack on a Coptic Christian church last Sunday left dozens dead and more than 100 wounded.

Easter marks the end of Holy Week, which includes Maundy Thursday, the day of Jesus’ last supper with his disciples. Holy Week also includes Good Friday, the day Jesus was crucified.

In predominantly Orthodox countries such as Russia and Serbia, government and church leaders attended midnight masses and held liturgy.

Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew I, the spiritual leader of the world’s Orthodox Christian faithful, conveyed a message of peace during midnight mass at the Patriarchate in Istanbul, Turkey.

“Our faith is alive,” he said.

“This message – of the victory of life over death, of the triumph of the joyful light of the [Easter] candle over the darkness of disorder and dissolution — is announced to the whole world from the Ecumenical Patriarchate with the invitation to experience the unwaning light of the resurrection,” he said.  

Patriarch Irinej, the head of the Serbian Orthodox Church, delivered a gloomier Easter message. “With great sadness and pain in our hearts, we must note that today’s world is not following the path of resurrection but the road of death and hopelessness,” he said.

In Romania, another Orthodox Christian country, Patriarch Daniel asked members of the church to bring “joy to orphans, the sick, the elderly, the poor … and the lonely.”

Photo gallery: Christians around the world celebrate Easter

 
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