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PEOPLES DAILY, MONDAY, APRIL 23, 2012
Voting begins in France, economy may sink Sarkozy
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rench voters headed to the polls on Sunday in round one of a presidential ballot, with economic despair on course to make Nicolas Sarkozy the first president to lose a fight for reelection in more than 30 years. In a contest driven as much by a dislike of Sarkozy's showy style and his failure to bring down unemployment as by policy differences, Sarkozy and his Socialist rival Francois Hollande are pegged to beat eight other candidates to go through to a May 6 runoff, where polls give Hollande a double-digit lead. Hollande, 57, promises less drastic spending cuts than Sarkozy and wants higher taxes on the wealthy to fund state-aided job creation, in particular a 75 percent upper tax rate on income above 1 million euros ($1.32 million). He would be only France's second left-wing leader since the founding of the Fifth Republic in 1958, and its first since Francois Mitterrand, who beat incumbent Valery Giscard-d'Estaing in 1981. He voted early on Sunday in Tulle, a town in central France where he serves as the head of local government for the surrounding rural Correze region.
"Here's hoping," he whispered in the ear of an old lady. His partner, journalist Valerie Trierweiler, admitted to hordes of journalists she was "superstressed".
Morning sunshine, which in theory could help turnout at the margins, was forecast to give way to cloud and rain later. Hollande has called on his supporters to take nothing for
France's President and UMP party candidate for the 2012 French presidential election, Nicolas Sarkozy (2ndL) and his wife Carla Bruni-Sarkozy, exit the voting booth with their ballots in the first round of 2012 French presidential election at a polling station in Paris, yesterday. France goes to the polls on Sunday in the first round of its presidential election.
Rage boils in Bahrain’s streets but Grand Prix still on
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ormula One drivers race in Bahrain yesterday while rage boils on the streets outside, among protesters who denounce the Grand Prix as a gaudy spectacle by a ruling family that crushed Arab Spring demonstrations last year. In the Shi'ite villages dotted around the capital, demonstrators hurling
petrol bombs have clashed nightly with police during the past week, and security forces responded with teargas, rubber bullets and birdshot. Black smoke from burning tyres wafted over Budaiya, a village outside the capital that saw mass protests this week. For those inside the Formula One
Protesters, wearing t-shirts with an image of Bahraini human rights activist Abdulhadi Al-Khawaja, shout anti-government slogans as they protest during a rally by Bahrain's main opposition party Al Wefaq in Budaiya, west of Manama, on Saturday.
bubble, far from the scenes of protest, the unrest has had little impact. Teams assembled at Bahrain International Circuit amid the usual security precautions ahead of the race. At hotels where race participants were staying, guests swam and relaxed poolside in the morning. The highway to the circuit was lined with police cars. The luxury sporting event is the government's chance to show that life has gone back to normal in the island kingdom after security concerns over anti-government demonstrations forced last year's race to be delayed, then cancelled. It appears to have backfired, with nightly TV images of streets ablaze embarrassing Formula One and the global brands that lavish it with sponsorship. Thomson Reuters, parent company of Reuters, is a sponsor of the Williams Formula One team. The death of 36-year-old protester Salah Abbas Habib - found sprawled on a rooftop on Saturday after overnight clashes - provides more fuel for outrage among a Shi'ite Muslim majority that complains of being marginalised by ruling Sunnis.
Iran ‘building copy’ of captured US drone
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ran says it has reverseengineered a US spy drone captured by its armed forces last year and has begun building a copy. General Amir Ali Hajizadeh, chief of the aerospace division of the powerful Revolutionary Guards, related yesterday what he said were details of the aircraft's operational history to prove his claim that Tehran's military experts had extracted data from the US RQ-170 Sentinel captured in December in eastern Iran. Among the drone's past missions, he said, was surveillance of the compound in northwest Pakistan in which Osama bin Laden lived and was killed.
granted, mindful of a fiasco for the left in 2002 when record poor countrywide turnout saw the Socialist candidate pushed out in the first round by the far right.
US says the drone, which Iran has displayed as a major victory, had malfunctioned and was not downed [Reuters]
Interior ministry figures put the turnout by midday at 28.29 percent, a touch lower than the strong turnout of 2007, when the rate at the same time of day was 31.21 percent. Sarkozy, also 57, says he is a safer pair of hands for future economic turmoil. But many of the workers and young voters drawn to his 2007 pledge of more pay for more work are deserting him as jobless claims hit a 12 year high. He and his somberly-dressed ex-supermodel wife Carla Bruni voted in the affluent west-ofParis suburb of Neuilly, shaking hands with bystanders but leaving without comment. Many French people express a distaste for a president who has come to be seen as flashy after his highly publicized marriage to Bruni early in his term, occasional rude outbursts in public and chumminess with rich executives. "Sarkozy's divisive. Hollande's reassuring," said Helene Boudot, 85, who was glad to have been released from a hospital stay in time to vote in her village of Chailland in western France. She was counting on her son to drive her 100 metres to the local polling station.
Australian parliament speaker steps aside
Slipper's decision has cost the ruling Australian Labor Party its single-seat majority in parliament [AFP]
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ustralia's parliamentary speaker has temporarily stepped down from his post amid allegations of sexual harassment and fraud. Peter Slipper, speaker of the House of Representatives, announced yesterday that he would be temporarily replaced by his deputy Anna Burke, an Australian Labor Party politician, while police investigated allegations that he misused taxi-payment vouchers. James Ashby, an openly gay 33-year-old former staff member, made the fraud allegations and was also suing Slipper in the Federal Court claiming sexual harassment. Slipper denies all the allegations. According to parliamentary regulations, the move effectively costs the governing Australian Labor Party its single-seat majority. The sexual-harassment case is a civil matter, while the taxivoucher allegations are criminal. Police have confirmed they are evaluating the criminal allegation.
"Any allegation of criminal behavior is grave and should be dealt with in a manner that shows appropriate regard to the integrity of our democratic institutions and to precedent,'' Slipper said in a statement on Sunday. "As such, I believe it is appropriate for me to stand aside as speaker while this criminal allegation is resolved. "The allegation is incorrect, and once it is clear they are untrue, I shall return to the speakership. I would appreciate the relevant bodies dealing with the matter expeditiously." Slipper, 62, who is married with two adult children from a previous relationship, defected from the opposition in November last year to take the speaker's job in a move that effectively gave Julia Gillard's minority government an additional vote in the chamber. While the centre-left government will face greater difficulty in passing contentious legislation through the House of Representatives, the conservative opposition is still short of the 76.