France election: Far-left Melenchon enjoys late poll surge

French presidential election candidate Jean-Luc Melenchon. (AFP)
Updated 12 April 2017
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France election: Far-left Melenchon enjoys late poll surge

PARIS: With a bleed-the-rich video game and suggestions of a “Frexit,” French far-left candidate Jean-Luc Melenchon is rattling financial markets by swelling in polls just 11 days before the presidential vote.
Melenchon’s rise is the latest surprise in a roller-coaster campaign that’s being closely watched around Europe, and in which anti-establishment populism has played a starring role.
Most polling agencies still show that centrist Emmanuel Macron and far-right candidate Marine Le Pen are leading ahead of the April 23 first round, with the top two advancing to the May 7 runoff. Melenchon, once a distant fifth place, has risen in recent polls to roughly third, around even with conservative Francois Fillon.
Melenchon’s sharp-tongued wit and unconventional views during the two presidential debates helped boost his standing among an electorate frustrated with traditional left and right parties that have failed to create jobs or pull France out of economic stagnation.
Promising to heavily tax the rich and renegotiate France’s role in the EU and trade pacts, Melenchon is also giving financial markets a new reason to worry.
Investors are growing more cautious ahead of the election in the eurozone’s second-biggest economy. The difference between the 10-year bond yields of France and Germany has risen to its widest in six weeks, an expression of investors’ concern as they flock to the perceived safety of German debt.
“With the growing threat of euroskeptic parties destabilizing the eurozone’s unity weighing heavily on sentiment, the euro may be in store for further punishment,” Lukman Otunuga of market analyst FXTM said Wednesday.
Melenchon, 65, is an unlikely iconoclast. He spent decades in mainstream politics, serving in a Socialist government and in parliament. He now leads a far-left alliance that includes the Communist Party.
Yet Melenchon tapped into the populist zeitgeist — and the social media revolution — years ago.
An early Twitter user, he mastered intelligent tweets targeting the world of finance. His YouTube channel — started for the 2012 presidential campaign, where he finished fourth — has garnered 21 million views. He’s using holograms to broadcast rallies to multiple cities at once.
And his campaign generated new attention in recent days thanks to a goofy online game called Fiscal Kombat created by his supporters. The player — represented by a rudimentary caricature of Melenchon — grabs leading politicians and shakes them until money falls from their pockets. The money, presumably stolen from the masses, can then be used to build a more egalitarian economy.
His anti-EU, anti-globalization rhetoric echoes that of chief rival Marine Le Pen. But on immigration and Islam — key campaign issues — Melenchon is staking out the opposite ground from Le Pen.
On the backdrop of the glistening Mediterranean at a huge rally Sunday, Melenchon held a moment of silence for the thousands of migrants killed trying to cross the sea in hopes of a better life in Europe.
“Listen — it’s the silence of the death,” he told the crowd. “It is up to us to say that emigration is always forced exile, a suffering.”
Calling himself the “candidate of peace,” he’s lobbying to quit NATO and denounced US President Donald Trump’s retaliatory missile strikes in Syria as a “criminal, irresponsible act.”
He’s also campaigning heard for renewable energy — and wants French voters to eat more quinoa.
Thanks to his poll surge, Melenchon’s rivals are increasingly attacking him instead of each other, equating him to obsolete revolutionaries or saying he’d lead the economy to collapse.
While clearly enjoying the attention, Melenchon is also playing it down.
“I’m doing the work that needs to be done,” he told reporters this week. “It’s the voters who will decide.”


At least 2 dead and 12 missing after a fishing boat sinks off South Korea’s Jeju island

Updated 18 sec ago
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At least 2 dead and 12 missing after a fishing boat sinks off South Korea’s Jeju island

  • Nearby fishing vessels managed to pull 15 crew members out of the water, but two of them were later pronounced dead
  • 27 crew members were on the 129-tonne boat, which left Jeju’s Seogwipo port late Thursday to catch mackerel
SEOUL: A fishing boat capsized and sank off the coast of South Korea’s Jeju island Friday, leaving at least two people dead and 12 others unaccounted for, coast guard officials said.
Nearby fishing vessels managed to pull 15 crew members out of the water, but two of them were later pronounced dead after being brought to shore. The other 13 did not sustain life-threatening injuries, said Kim Han-na, an official at Jeju’s coast guard.
She said 27 crew members – 16 South Korean nationals and 11 foreigners – were on the 129-tonne boat, which left Jeju’s Seogwipo port late Thursday to catch mackerel. The coast guard received a distress signal at around 4:30 a.m. Friday from a nearby fishing vessel that conducted rescue efforts as the boat sank 24 kilometers northwest of the island.
At least 11 vessels and nine aircraft from South Korea’s coast guard, police, fire service and military were deployed as of Friday morning to search for survivors. They were being assisted by 13 civilian vessels.
South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol called for officials to mobilize all available resources to find and rescue the missing crew members, his office said.

South Korea holds missile drill after North Korea launches

Updated 3 min 35 sec ago
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South Korea holds missile drill after North Korea launches

SEOUL: South Korea fired a ballistic missile into the sea in a show of force after North Korea’s recent salvo of missile launches, Seoul said Friday.
The nuclear-armed North had test-fired what it said was its most advanced and powerful solid-fuel intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) as well as a number of short-range ballistic missiles in separate drills over the last two weeks.
South Korea’s military command said its live-fire exercise was aimed at demonstrating its “strong resolve to firmly respond to any North Korean provocation.”
It also underlined its “capability and readiness for precision strikes against the enemy’s origin of provocation,” the Joint Chiefs of Staff added.
A Hyunmoo surface-to-surface short-range missile was sent into the West Sea in the exercise, the military command said.
South Korea started domestic production of short-range ballistic missiles in the 1970s to counter the threats posed by North Korea.
Hyunmoo are a series of missiles which are key to the country’s so-called ‘Kill Chain’ preemptive strike system, which allows Seoul to launch a preemptive attack if there are signs of imminent North Korean attack.
In early October, the country displayed for the first time its largest ballistic missile, the Hyunmoo-5, which is capable of destroying underground bunkers.
Last Sunday, South Korea, Japan and the United States conducted a joint air drill involving a US B-1B bomber, South Korean F-15K and KF-16 fighter jets, and Japanese F-2 jets, in response to the North’s ICBM launch.
Such joint drills infuriate Pyongyang, which views them as rehearsals for invasion.
Kim Yo Jong, sister of the country’s leader and a key spokesperson, called the US-South Korea-Japan exercises an “action-based explanation of the most hostile and dangerous aggressive nature of the enemy toward our Republic.”
The drill was an “absolute proof of the validity and urgency of the line of building up the nuclear forces we have opted for and put into practice,” she added.

Taiwan coast guard offers rewards for spotting foreign ships

Updated 16 min 20 sec ago
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Taiwan coast guard offers rewards for spotting foreign ships

  • Taiwan’s coast guard said Friday it will reward people who report the presence of foreign military ships, including those from China

TAIPEI: Taiwan’s coast guard said Friday it will reward people who report the presence of foreign military ships, including those from China, in waters around the island, as it seeks the public’s help with monitoring “abnormal” activity.
China regularly deploys fighter jets, navy ships and coast guard vessels around Taiwan to press its claims of sovereignty over the island, which Taipei’s government rejects.
Taiwan is massively outgunned by China, which has refused to renounce the use of force to bring the island under its control.
“The Coast Guard’s manpower is limited but the people power at sea is unlimited,” Taiwan’s coast guard said in a statement announcing the rewards.
The coast guard called on people, including fishers, to “stay vigilant to abnormal maritime activities” to help counter the growing “threats from the sea” and “all kinds of grey zone harassment tactics” — actions that fall short of an act of war.
People who reported homicide, piracy, arson and kidnapping to the coast guard could receive up to NT$200,000 ($6,200), while reports of Chinese “stowaways” would be rewarded with NT$50,000, and NT$10,000 for other foreign stowaways.
Verified reports to the coast guard about foreign and Chinese military ships and other vessels would be rewarded with NT$3,000.
China maintains a near-daily presence of naval vessels and warplanes around the island.
Chinese coast guard ships have also been spotted around Taiwan’s outlying islands, at times briefly entering its restricted waters.
A series of incidents involving boats from both sides have fueled tensions across the narrow waterway separating Taiwan and China.
A Taiwanese court in September sentenced a former Chinese naval captain to eight months in prison for illegally entering the island by boat.


Salman Rushdie’s ‘Satanic Verses’ can be imported in India as court told 1988 ban order untraceable

Updated 57 min 30 sec ago
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Salman Rushdie’s ‘Satanic Verses’ can be imported in India as court told 1988 ban order untraceable

  • India-born British author’s novel was banned by India in 1988 after some Muslims viewed it as blasphemous
  • Salman Rushdie’s fourth fictional novel ran into a global controversy shortly after its publication in September 1988

NEW DELHI: India’s three-decade ban on importing author Salman Rushdie’s controversial ‘The Satanic Verses’ book has effectively been lifted after a court said the government was unable to produce the original notification that imposed the ban.
The India-born British author’s novel was banned by India in 1988 after some Muslims viewed it as blasphemous. The Delhi High Court was hearing a 2019 case challenging the import ban of the book in India.
According to a Nov. 5 court order, India’s government told the Delhi High Court that the import ban order “was untraceable and, therefore could not be produced.”
As a result, the court said it had “no other option except to presume that no such notification exists.”
“The ban has been lifted as of Nov. 5 because there is no notification,” Uddyam Mukherjee, lawyer for petitioner Sandipan Khan, said.
India’s interior and finance ministries did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Khan’s plea said he approached the court after being told at bookstores that the novel could not be sold or imported in India and then when he searched, he could not find the official import ban order on the government websites.
Even in court the government has been unable to produce the order, he said.
“None of the respondents could produce the said notification ... in fact the purported author of the said notification has also shown his helplessness in producing a copy,” the Nov. 5 order noted, referring to the customs department official who drafted the order.
Rushdie’s fourth fictional novel ran into a global controversy shortly after its publication in September 1988, as some Muslims saw passages about Prophet Muhammad as blasphemous.
It sparked violent demonstrations and book burnings across the Muslim world, including in India, which has the world’s third largest Muslim population.
In 1989, Iran’s then supreme leader, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, issued a fatwa, or religious edict, calling on Muslims to assassinate Rushdie, sending the Booker Prize-winning author into hiding for six years.
In August 2022, about 33 years after the fatwa, Rushdie was stabbed on stage during a lecture in New York, which left him blind in one eye and affected the use of one of his hands.


Maccabi Tel Aviv fans clash with reported pro-Palestinian protesters at Ajax Europa League match

Updated 10 min 49 sec ago
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Maccabi Tel Aviv fans clash with reported pro-Palestinian protesters at Ajax Europa League match

  • Israel’s PM aware of ‘very violent incident’ against Israelis in Amsterdam
  • Netanyahu directed that two rescue planes be sent immediately to assist citizens there

AMSTERDAM: Supporters of Maccabi Tel Aviv clashed with apparent pro-Palestinian protesters before and after a Europa League soccer match between their team and Ajax outside the Dutch team’s home stadium in Amsterdam on Thursday night, media and officials said.
The clashes reportedly erupted despite a ban on a pro-Palestinian demonstration imposed by Amsterdam Mayor Femke Halsema, who had feared that clashes would break out between protesters and supporters of the Israeli soccer club.
Details of the incidents remained unclear, but Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has been informed of the details of “a very violent incident” targeting Israeli citizens in Amsterdam, his office said on Friday.
He directed that two rescue planes be sent immediately to assist citizens there, it added in a statement.
Israel’s national security ministry has also urged its citizens in Amsterdam to stay in their hotel rooms following the attacks, the prime minister’s office said in a second statement.
“Fans who went to see a football game, encountered anti-Semitism and were attacked with unimaginable cruelty just because of their Jewishness and Israeliness,” Israeli Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir said in a post on X.

Israeli media reported that Netanyahu also called his Dutch counterpart about them.

Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar has asked the Dutch government to help Israeli citizens arrive safely at the airport, Saar told his Dutch counterpart Caspar Veldkamp in a phone call on Friday.
Israel’s ambassador to the United Nations, Danny Danon, also condemned the violence in a post on the social media platform X.
There were no immediate reports of arrests or injuries from the clashes outside the Johan Cruyff Arena in Amsterdam, the city’s main arena and Ajax’s home stadium. Ajax won the Europa League match 5-0 after leading 3-0 at halftime.