PARIS: France said its security forces were fully mobilized for a presidential election at the weekend after the killing of a policeman by an Islamist militant threw a dark shadow over the last day of an unpredictable campaign.
With the first round of voting in the two-stage election due to take place on Sunday, centrist Emmanuel Macron still held on to his position as frontrunner in the closely contested race.
An Elabe survey of voter intentions, carried out before the Thursday night shooting on the Champs Elysees shopping avenue in central Paris, showed Macron with 24 percent of the first-round vote and far right leader Marine Le Pen falling back slightly to 21.5 percent.
Two other candidates — former conservative prime minister Francois Fillon and the far left’s Jean-Luc Melenchon — were snapping at their heels with 20 and 19.5 percent respectively.
Campaigning and the publication of voter surveys are banned from midnight on Friday until polling stations close. Sunday’s round of voting will be followed by a second-round runoff on May 7 between the top two candidates.
The Champs Elysees attack was claimed by militant group Daesh. One attacker was killed and officials said they were looking for a potential second suspect.
Emerging from an emergency meeting of security officials, Prime Minister Bernard Cazeneuve announced a full mobilization of security forces, including elite units, to back up 50,000 police already earmarked to ensure citizens’ safety during the election.
“The government is fully mobilized. Nothing must be allowed to impede the fundamental democratic process of our country,” Cazeneuve told reporters. “It falls to us not to give in to fear and intimidation and manipulation which would play into the hands of the enemy.”
The shooting abruptly pushed national security up the agenda, potentially making the outcome of Sunday’s first round vote even more difficult to call. With their hard-line view on security and immigration, the positions of Le Pen and Fillon may resonate more strongly for some voters.
But attacks that have taken place soon before elections, including the November 2015 attacks in Paris ahead of regional elections and the shooting in a Jewish school before the 2012 presidentials, have not appeared to change the course of those ballots.
An assault on a soldier in February at the Paris Louvre museum by a man wielding a machete also had no obvious impact on this year’s opinion polls, which have consistently said that voters see unemployment and trustworthiness of politicians as bigger issues.
CROWDED CONTEST
Le Pen, who leads the National Front, has made immigration and security a core part of her campaign.
She wants to tighten French borders controls and build more jails, and says authorities are not doing enough to protect citizens from militant attacks, which have killed more than 230 people in France since January 2015.
“Today fundamentalist Islam is waging war and ... the measures are not being taken to limit the risks,” she said on RFI radio.
Macron, who from 2014 to 2016 was economy minister in the Socialist government that Le Pen has criticized repeatedly for its security record, said the solutions were not as simple as she suggested.
“I’ve heard Madame Le Pen saying again recently that with her in charge, certain attacks would have been avoided,” he said on RTL Radio. “There’s no such thing as zero risk. Anyone who pretends (otherwise) is both irresponsible and deceitful.”
In the Elabe poll, which was conducted on Wednesday and Thursday, both Fillon and Melenchon were seen narrowing Macron and Le Pen’s lead over them.
Should Macron and Le Pen do make it to the second round, the former economy minister was projected to win the runoff — and thus the presidency — with 65 percent against 35 percent for Le Pen, the survey for BFM TV and L’Express magazine showed.
For the first round, Macron’s projected 24 percent of the vote represented a steady score from the last time the poll was conducted three days earlier. Le Pen’s 21.5 percent was a fall of 1.5 percentage points.
Fillon, who has slowly clawed back some ground lost after being hit by a fake jobs scandal, saw his score in the first round rise half a percentage point to 20 percent.
Melenchon, who would hike taxes on the rich and spend 100 billion euros ($107 billion) of borrowed money on vast housebuilding and renewable energy projects, gained 1.5 points to 19.5 percent as he built further on momentum he has seen after strong performances in television debates.
If Melenchon makes it to the runoff, he is projected to beat both Le Pen and Fillon by comfortable margins although he is seen losing to Macron 41 percent to 59 percent.
The number of people surveyed who expected to definitely turn out for the first round rose to 71 percent, the highest so far during the campaign although that is nonetheless low by historical standards.
France mobilized for election security after Paris attack
France mobilized for election security after Paris attack
Pope Francis calls for investigation to determine if Israel’s attacks in Gaza constitute ‘genocide’
- First time that Francis has openly urged for an investigation of genocide allegations over Israel’s actions in the Gaza Strip
- Last year, Francis met separately with relatives of Israeli hostages in Gaza and Palestinians living through the war
It’s the first time that Francis has openly urged for an investigation of genocide allegations over Israel’s actions in the Gaza Strip. In September, he said Israel’s attacks in Gaza and Lebanon have been “immoral” and disproportionate, and that its military has gone beyond the rules of war.
The book, by Hernan Reyes Alcaide and based on interviews with the Pope, is entitled “Hope never disappoints. Pilgrims toward a better world.” It will be released on Tuesday ahead of the pope’s 2025 jubilee. Francis’ yearlong jubilee is expected to bring more than 30 million pilgrims to Rome to celebrate the Holy Year.
“According to some experts, what is happening in Gaza has the characteristics of a genocide,” the pope said in excerpts published Sunday by the Italian daily La Stampa.
“We should investigate carefully to determine whether it fits into the technical definition formulated by jurists and international bodies,” he added.
Last year, Francis met separately with relatives of Israeli hostages in Gaza and Palestinians living through the war and set off a firestorm by using words that Vatican diplomats usually avoid: “terrorism” and, according to the Palestinians, “genocide.”
Francis spoke at the time about the suffering of both Israelis and Palestinians after his meetings, which were arranged before the Israeli-Hamas hostage deal and a temporary halt in fighting was announced.
The pontiff, who last week also met with a delegation of Israeli hostages who were released and their families pressing the campaign to bring the remaining captives home had editorial control over the upcoming book.
The war started when the militant Hamas group attacked Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, killing 1,200 people and abducting 250 as hostages and taking them back to Gaza, where dozens still remain.
Israel’s subsequent yearlong military campaign has killed more than 43,000 people, according to Gaza health officials, whose count doesn’t distinguish between civilians and fighters, though they say more than half of the dead are women and children.
The Israel-Hamas conflict in Gaza has triggered several legal cases at international courts in The Hague involving requests for arrest warrants as well as accusations and denials of war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide.
In the new book, Francis also speaks about migration and the problem of integrating migrants in their host countries.
“Faced with this challenge, no country can be left alone and no one can think of addressing the issue in isolation through more restrictive and repressive laws, sometimes approved under the pressure of fear or in search of electoral advantages,” Francis said.
“On the contrary, just as we see that there is a globalization of indifference, we must respond with the globalization of charity and cooperation,” he added. Francis also mentioned the “still open wound of the war in Ukraine has led thousands of people to abandon their homes, especially during the first months of the conflict.”
Survivors still trapped after deadly Tanzania building collapse
- The four-story block came down at around 9:00 a.m. on Saturday in the east African country’s busy Kariakoo market
- Dar es Salaam has been the scene of a frenetic property boom with buildings shooting up at speed, often with scant regard for regulations
DAR ES SALAAM: Tanzanian rescue workers dug through the ruins of a collapsed building for a second day on Sunday, hoping to pull survivors from beneath the rubble.
The four-story block came down at around 9:00 am (0600 GMT) on Saturday in the east African country’s busy Kariakoo market, in the center of the commercial capital Dar es Salaam.
Five people have been confirmed dead from the disaster, the fire brigade said. At least 70 people had been retrieved alive from the site.
Dar es Salaam regional commissioner Albert Chalamila on Sunday said there were more people still trapped in the basement floor of the shattered building, without specifying how many.
“We are communicating... and already we have supplied them with oxygen and water,” he said.
“They are stable and we believe they will be rescued alive and safe.”
The fire brigade chief John Masunga said the search and rescue had been hampered by the many walls making up the structure of the building.
In the aftermath of the building’s floors rapidly buckling beneath each other until they formed a mountain of debris, hundreds of first responders used sledgehammers and their bare hands to pull away masonry for hours.
Cranes and other heavy lifting equipment were then brought in to help.
It is not clear why the commercial building collapsed but witnesses told local media that construction to expand its underground business space began on Friday.
The incident has renewed criticism over unregulated construction in the Indian Ocean city of more than five million people.
One of the world’s fastest growing cities, Dar es Salaam has been the scene of a frenetic property boom with buildings shooting up at speed, often with scant regard for regulations.
In 2013, a 16-story building collapsed in Dar es Salaam, killing 34 people.
Indian police battle Maoist rebels, five killed
- More than 10,000 people have died in the insurgency against the Maoists
- The clash took place in regions bordering Kanker and Narayanpur
RAIPUR, India: Indian security forces have killed five Maoist rebels in jungle clashes, an officer said Sunday, as security forces seek to quash the decades-long insurgency in the resource-rich central regions.
Gun battles took place in the Abujhmad forests of Chhattisgarh state on Saturday, taking the toll of the conflict in 2024 to around 200, one of the highest in years.
More than 10,000 people have died in the insurgency against the Maoists — known as the Naxalite movement, who say they are fighting for the rights of marginalized indigenous people.
“In the gunbattle five Maoists have been killed,” senior police officer P. Sunderraj said, adding that two of the rebels were women.
The clash took place in regions bordering Kanker and Narayanpur, with police seizing rifles and ammunition from the corpses.
Two officers were wounded in the clash.
India’s government has warned the insurgents to surrender, with Amit Shah, the interior minister, saying in September that he expected the rebellion to be defeated by early 2026.
The Naxalites, named for the district where their armed campaign began in 1967, were inspired by the Chinese revolutionary leader Mao Zedong.
They demanded land, jobs and a share of the region’s immense natural resources for the local people, and made inroads in a number of remote communities.
India claimed to have confined the insurgency to about 45 districts in 2023, down from 96 in 2010.
Authorities have pumped in millions of dollars for new investments in local infrastructure projects and social spending.
India’s successful test of hypersonic missile puts it among elite group
- Missile is designed to carry payloads for ranges exceeding 1,500 km for armed forces
- India is striving to develop long-range missiles along with China, Russia and United States
NEW DELHI: India has successfully tested a domestically developed long-range hypersonic missile, it said on Sunday, attaining a key milestone in military development that puts it in a small group of nations possessing the advanced technology.
The global push for hypersonic weapons figures in the efforts of some countries, such as India, which is striving to develop advanced long-range missiles, along with China, Russia and the United States.
The Indian missile, developed by the state-run Defense Research and Development Organization and industry partners, is designed to carry payloads for ranges exceeding 1,500 km (930 miles) for the armed forces, the government said in a statement.
“The flight data ... confirmed the successful terminal maneuvers and impact with high degree of accuracy,” it added.
The test-firing took place from Dr. APJ Abdul Kalam island off the eastern coast of Odisha state on Saturday, it said.
Defense Minister Rajnath Singh called the test a “historic achievement” in a post on X, adding that it placed India among a select group of nations possessing such critical and advanced technologies.
Russia targets Ukraine’s power grid in ‘massive’ missile strike, officials say
- Ukrainians have been bracing for a major attack on the hobbled power system for weeks
- A crippling damage to the grid that would cause long blackouts and build psychological pressure
KYIV: Blasts rang out across Ukraine’s capital Kyiv and other cities early on Sunday, as Russia staged its biggest missile attack since August and targeted power facilities with the winter setting in, officials said.
Ukrainians have been bracing for a major attack on the hobbled power system for weeks, fearing crippling damage to the grid that would cause long blackouts and build psychological pressure at a critical moment in the war Russia launched in February 2022.
“Another massive attack on the power system is under way. The enemy is attacking electricity generation and transmission facilities throughout Ukraine,” Ukrainian Energy Minister German Galushchenko wrote on Facebook.
Air defenses could be heard engaging drones over the capital in the night, and a series of powerful blasts rang out across the city center as the missile attack was under way in the morning.
The scale of the damage was not immediately clear. Officials cut power supply to numerous city districts, including in Kyiv, the surrounding region and Dnipropetrovsk region, in what they said was a precaution to prevent a surge in case of damage.
Authorities in the Volyn region in northwestern Ukraine said energy infrastructure had sustained damage but did not elaborate. Officials often withhold information on the state of the power system because of the war.
In Mykolaiv in the south, two people were killed in the overnight drone attack, the regional governor said. Blasts shook the southeastern city of Zaporizhzhia and the Black Sea port of Odesa, Reuters witnesses said. More blasts were reported in the regions of Kryvyi Rih in the south and Rivne in the west.
“Russia launched one of the largest air attacks: drones and missiles against peaceful cities, sleeping civilians, critical infrastructure,” said Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha.
He described the strike as Moscow’s “true response” to leaders who had interacted with President Vladimir Putin, an apparent swipe at German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, who placed a phone call to the Russian leader on Friday for the first time since late 2022.
NATO member Poland, which borders Ukraine to the west, said it had scrambled its air force within its airspace as a security precaution due to the Russian attack, which it said used cruise missiles, ballistic missiles and drones.
Poland “activated all available forces and resources at his disposal, the on-duty fighter pairs were scrambled, and the ground-based air defense and radar reconnaissance systems reached the highest state of readiness,” the operational command of its armed forces posted on X.
Ukraine’s air force urged residents to take cover, providing regular updates on the progress of Russian cruise, ballistic and hypersonic missiles it said were hurtling through Ukrainian air space.
In Kyiv, the roof of a residential building caught fire due to falling debris and at least two people were hurt, city officials said on the Telegram messaging app.
“Emergency services were dispatched to the scene,” Kyiv’s Mayor Vitali Klitschko said.
Russia last conducted a major missile strike on Kyiv on Aug. 26, when officials said it fired a salvo of more than 200 drones and missiles across the country in an attack that attack killed seven people.
