Far-right party fighting for lead in France's weekend vote

March 20, 2015

PARIS (AP) — Discontented Socialists, frustrated conservatives and an eclectic array of others — from gays to political renegades — could be among those casting ballots for France's extreme-right National Front in local voting this weekend, elections that promise to solidify leader Marine Le Pen's position as one of the country's leading political figures.

Le Pen has been the single most visible presence in weeks of campaigning on city streets and in rural villages with a relentless message to voters fed up with traditional parties: We care about you, they don't.

For Le Pen, Sunday's election for more than 2,000 local councils is an important step in building a grassroots base critical to her ultimate goal: the 2017 presidency. "This is the big straight line to 2017," she said in a speech early this month in Paris. "There is no minor election, no minor vote."

The National Front decries immigration, fears Islam is uprooting traditional France and wants to withdraw from the European Union and euro currency. It's a hardcore line that Le Pen has successfully turned into a charm offensive for the disgruntled.

A poll published days ahead of Sunday's first-round balloting gives the National Front a leading 30 percent of the vote. That is just ahead of the conservatives and their allies, who measured 29 percent. It is leagues ahead of the 19 percent of President Francois Hollande's Socialist Party. The second round is scheduled for March 29.

The governing left, unable to revive stagnant growth or lower the 10 percent unemployment rate, did not need a poll to know where it stands. Divided within and out of favor with the party faithful, the Socialists are expecting a drubbing — the only question seems to be how bad it will be.

The spotlight beamed still more brightly on Le Pen this month when Prime Minister Manuel Valls voiced the unspoken fears of the mainstream political class, saying Le Pen could, indeed, win the presidency.

"I fear for my country," Valls said. "I fear it will get smashed against the National Front." The prime minister's bold declaration was a clear bid to lure voters, and give pause to those tempted to turn their backs on mainstream parties. Divisions within the left and the right could send voters to the proudly anti-establishment National Front, a scenario aggravated by a predicted high abstention rate — which favors upstart parties whose supporters are more fired up than the mainstream ones.

The National Front comes off a string of electoral success last year. It won control of 11 towns, took three seats in the French parliament and increased its seats in the European Parliament from three to 24 — more gains than any other French party.

Pollsters have predicted the National Front could even benefit from votes from disgruntled Socialists — the traditional arch-enemies of the far-right. Le Pen has moderated her message since taking over leadership of the party in 2011 from her firebrand father Jean-Marie Le Pen, to make it an attractive alternative to what she disdainfully refers to as "UMPS" — an amalgam of the conservative UMP party and the Socialist PS.

She has worked to scrub away the anti-Semitic stigma of the National Front — while relentlessly attacking immigration and Muslims who cling to their traditions, from eating halal meat to wearing the Islamic veil. She said Thursday she wants all mosque construction frozen until it is clear who finances them.

To draw in voters looking for a softer political identity than the National Front, Le Pen created what she called the "Blue Marine Rally" — an alliance of small anti-establishment parties. And she refuses the extreme-right label, calling herself and supporters "patriots."

National Front candidates vying for posts — many of them untested — range from party veterans to newcomers to her latest prize: Sebastien Chenu, a defector from the mainstream conservatives who co-founded a gay liberation movement.

The National Front now includes several gays in leadership posts. Chenu, running in Beauvais, north of Paris, said his membership shows that the National Front mirrors French society. "They tried to make people believe for years that those supporting Marine Le Pen were the marginalized," he told The Associated Press. "No, it's France in its diversity."

Thomas Adamson in Paris contributed to this report.

Cruz becomes first major candidate to jump into 2016 race

March 23, 2015

WASHINGTON (AP) — Texas Republican Sen. Ted Cruz has become the first major candidate for president, kicking off what's expected to be a rush over the next few weeks of more than a dozen White House hopefuls into the 2016 campaign.

"I am running for president and I hope to earn your support," the tea party favorite said in a Twitter message posted just after midnight on Monday. Cruz will formally launch his bid during a morning speech at Liberty University in Lynchburg, Virginia, choosing to begin his campaign at the Christian college founded by the Rev. Jerry Falwell rather than his home state of Texas or the early voting states of Iowa and New Hampshire. It's a fitting setting for Cruz, a 44-year-old tea party darling whose entry into the 2016 campaign drew cheers Sunday among fellow conservatives.

Amy Kremer, the former head of the Tea Party Express, said that the Republican pool of candidates "will take a quantum leap forward" with Cruz's announcement, adding that it "will excite the base in a way we haven't seen in years."

Elected for the first time just three years ago, when he defeated an establishment figure in Texas politics with decades of experience in office, Cruz has hinted openly for more than a year that he wants to move down Pennsylvania Avenue from the Senate and into the White House.

In an online video promoted on his Twitter account, Cruz offered a preview of his campaign's message. "It's a time for truth, a time to rise to the challenge, just as Americans have always done. I believe in America and her people, and I believe we can stand up and restore our promise," Cruz said as images of farm fields, city skylines and American landmarks and symbols played in the background. "It's going to take a new generation of courageous conservatives to help make America great again, and I'm ready to stand with you to lead the fight."

While Cruz is the first Republican to declare his candidacy, he is all but certain to be followed by several big names in the GOP, including former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker and two Senate colleagues, Kentucky's Rand Paul and Florida's Marco Rubio.

The Houston Chronicle first reported details about Cruz's campaign launch. His move puts him into pole position among those whose strategy to win the nomination counts on courting the party's most conservative voters, who hold an outsized influence in the Republican nominating process.

"Cruz is going to make it tough for all of the candidates who are fighting to emerge as the champion of the anti-establishment wing of the party," said GOP strategist Kevin Madden. "That is starting to look like quite a scrum where lots of candidates will be throwing some sharp elbows."

Following his election to the Senate in 2012, the former Texas solicitor general quickly established himself as an uncompromising conservative willing to take on Democrats and Republicans alike. He won praise from tea party activists in 2013 for leading the GOP's push to partially shut the federal government during an unsuccessful bid to block money for President Barack Obama's health care law.

In December, Cruz defied party leaders to force a vote on opposing Obama's executive actions on immigration. The strategy failed, and led several of his Republican colleagues to call Cruz out. "You should have an end goal in sight if you're going to do these types of things and I don't see an end goal other than irritating a lot of people," said Utah Republican Sen. Orrin Hatch.

Such admonitions mean little to Cruz, who wins over crowds of like-minded conservative voters with his broadsides against Obama, Congress and the federal government. One of the nation's top college debaters while a student at Princeton University, Cruz continues to be a leading voice for the health law's repeal, and promises to abolish the Internal Revenue Service and scrap the Department of Education if elected president.

Last weekend in New Hampshire, one voter gave Cruz a blank check and told him to write it for whatever amount he needed. "He's awfully good at making promises that he knows the GOP can't keep and pushing for unachievable goals, but he seems very popular with right wing," said veteran Republican strategist John Feehery. "Cruz is a lot smarter than the typical darling of the right, and that makes him more dangerous to guys like Scott Walker and Rand Paul."

The son of an American mother and Cuban-born father, Cruz would be the nation's first Hispanic president. While in New Hampshire this month, Cruz told voters his daughter, Caroline, had given him permission to join the presidential race in the hopes that the family puppy would get to play on the White House lawn instead of near their Houston high-rise condo.

"If you win, that means Snowflake will finally get a backyard to pee in," Cruz said his daughter told him. To get there, Cruz knows he needs to reach out beyond his base. He is set to release a book this summer that he said would reflect themes of his White House campaign, and said in a recent Associated Press interview he will use it to counter the "caricatures" of the right as "stupid," ''evil" or "crazy."

"The image created in the mainstream media does not comply with the facts," he said.

Associated Press Writer Philip Elliott in Lynchburg, Virginia, contributed to this report.

Mass protests present big challenge to Brazil's Rousseff

By Brad Brooks and Stan Lehman, Associated Press
March 16, 2015

SAO PAULO (AP) -- Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff faced the biggest challenge yet of her young and turbulent second term, as hundreds of thousands of protesters took to streets in more than 150 cities to demand her impeachment and an end to corruption.

The Sunday protests, organized by right-leaning groups on social media and held across the continent-sized nation, had none of the violence seen in massive anti-government demonstrations that hit the country in 2013 and lingered into the following year.

They add to the mounting pressure on Rousseff, who is facing both political and economic crises as Brazil's economy stalls and dozens of top political figures are investigated in a kickback scheme at state-run oil company Petrobras, which prosecutors label as the largest graft scheme yet uncovered in the country.

The biggest protest was seen in Sao Paulo, where some 210,000 people gathered on a main avenue, according to the polling and statistics firm Datafolha. Large gatherings were also seen in the capital Brasilia, Rio de Janeiro and the southern city of Porto Alegre.

Rousseff didn't appear in public, but government ministers held a nationally televised press conference in which they said they would introduce anti-corruption measures in Congress, action the president promised during her campaign for re-election in October.

"We are here to express our indignation with the government-sponsored corruption and thieving, and to demand Dilma's impeachment," said Andre Menezes, 35, protesting on Avenida Paulista in Sao Paulo.

"She may have not been directly involved in the corruption at Petrobras, but she certainly knew about it, and for me that makes her just as guilty and justifies her ouster," he added.

In Rio, police estimated 15,000 people marched along the golden sands of Copacabana beach, where they waved Brazilian flags and many openly called for a military coup to dissolve the government.

In contrast to the widespread violence seen during Brazil's 2013 protests, on Sunday the only conflict reported was police using tear gas and stun grenades to disperse a small group of protesters in Brasilia who authorities said were trying to enter the Congress. In Sao Paulo, police arrested about 20 young men who were carrying powerful fireworks and brass knuckles.

Justice Minister Jose Eduardo Cardozo defended the government, emphasizing Rousseff's record as a leftist guerrilla who stood up to Brazil's 1964-85 military regime — and who was jailed for three years and brutally tortured because of it.

Rousseff has said she fully supports peaceful demonstrations and Cardozo added Sunday night that the rallies "confirm that Brazil is a democratic state that allows for divergences, the existence of opposing opinions and that we're far from any coup option."

Much protester ire was focused on a kickback scheme at Petrobras, in which at least $800 million was paid in bribes and other funds by Brazil's biggest construction and engineering firms in exchange for inflated Petrobras contracts.

Top executives are already in jail and the attorney general is investigating dozens of congressmen, along with current and former members of the executive branch, for alleged connections to the scheme that apparently began in 1997 before Rousseff's party took power in 2003. Rousseff, a former chairwoman of Petrobras' board, has not been implicated and so far is not being investigated, though top officials from her administration, including two former chiefs of staff, are caught up in the inquiry.

The mass marches are another thorn in Rousseff's side, adding impetus to opposition efforts to thwart measures she backs in Congress.

Brazilian growth has been weak since Rousseff took office in 2011. The country likely entered a recession in 2014 and most economists surveyed by the Central Bank forecast negative growth this year. Inflation is rising and the currency has plummeted against the dollar in recent weeks, making life more expensive in a nation with a surprisingly high cost of living.

Still, Brazil's top opposition political figures say impeachment is undesirable, because the president isn't accused of any connection to the Petrobras scandal, and because it could affect Brazil's stability.

Pedro Arruda, a political scientist at Sao Paulo's Pontifical Catholic University, said demonstrators have the right to demand Rousseff's ouster, "but the impeachment they ... demand has no legal foot to stand on."

At Copacabana, protester Sheila Alcantara said she recently had to close a restaurant she owned because of rapidly rising prices for electricity and food. "Never in my life have I heard of so much corruption, of so much money lost."

Brooks reported from Rio de Janeiro and Lehman from Sao Paulo. Associated Press writer Adriana Gomez Licon contributed from Rio.

Central African Republic: nearly all mosques destroyed

March 20, 2015

By: Agencies

Source: Cii Broadcasting

Almost all of the 436 mosques in the Central African Republic have been destroyed by months of vicious fighting between Christians and Muslims, the US ambassador to the United Nations said Tuesday, calling the devastation “kind of crazy, chilling.”

Samantha Power spoke to reporters after a Security Council visit last week to the country. She expressed concern about an upcoming possible security vacuum as European Union and French forces pull out and a UN peacekeeping force is still not at full strength.

At least 5,000 people have been killed since Central African Republic exploded into unprecedented sectarian violence in December 2013. Nearly 1 million of the Texas-sized country’s 4.5 million residents have been displaced. Many of those who have fled are Muslim.

Power said 417 of the country’s mosques have been destroyed. She visited the one remaining Muslim neighborhood in the capital, Bangui, and described the residents as “a terrified population.”

Some Muslim women, afraid of leaving the community while wearing their veils, are choosing to give birth in their homes instead of hospitals, the ambassador said.

UN peacekeepers, French forces and a European Union military operation have tried to calm the violence. But Power said the last of the EU force of about 750 troops left the Central African Republic over the weekend, shortly after the Security Council visit.

“That’s a big dropoff in capability,” she said. Meanwhile, the French forces have announced a “substantial drawdown” by the end of this year. France had sent 2,000 troops to its former colony.

The UN peacekeeping force remains at about 80 percent of its planned strength of about 10,000, Power said. The UN secretary-general last month asked for more than 1,000 additional peacekeepers, and Power said the council is “very favorably disposed” to the request.

She said the combined forces have “averted a worst-case scenario,” but the country’s roving armed groups remain armed. She called that a deep cause for concern and said disarmament is a “huge priority.”

Source: Muslim Village.
Link: http://muslimvillage.com/2015/03/20/74094/central-african-republic-nearly-mosques-destroyed/.

Ring of light: Total eclipse over Svalbard islands in Arctic

March 20, 2015

LONGYEARBYEN, Norway (AP) — Sky-gazers in the Arctic were treated to a perfect view of a total solar eclipse Friday as the moon completely blocked out the sun in a clear sky, casting a shadow over Norway's remote archipelago of Svalbard.

People shouted, cheered and applauded as Longyearbyen, the main town in Svalbard, plunged into darkness. The skies were clear, offering a full view of the sun's corona — a faint ring of rays surrounding the moon — that is only visible during a total solar eclipse.

A few hundred people had gathered on a flat frozen valley overlooking the mountains, and people shouted and yelled as the sudden darkness came. A group of people opened bottles of champagne, saying it was in keeping with a total solar eclipse tradition.

"I was just blown away. I couldn't believe it," said Hilary Castle, 58, from London. "It was just fabulous, just beautiful and at the same time a bit odd and it was too short," said Mary Rannestad, 60, from Minnesota.

A solar eclipse happens when the moon lines up between the sun and the Earth. This casts a lunar shadow on the Earth's surface and obscures the sun. During a partial eclipse, only part of the sun is blotted out.

Though some enterprising eclipse-seekers got exactly what they were hoping for, others were less lucky. A blanket of clouds in the Faeroe Islands in the North Atlantic blocked thousands of people from experiencing the full effect of the total eclipse.

The Faeroes and Svalbard were the only two places on land where the eclipse was total. About 20,000 visitors had traveled to the two remote island groups to watch the spectacle. Despite the clouds in the Faeroes, tourists and residents in Torshavn alike hooted and applauded as the daylight dimmed for about 2 minutes and 45 seconds.

"It was a pretty big disappointment not to be able to see the sun," said Janaki Lund Jensen, who had sailed from Copenhagen with 884 others to see the eclipse. Hotel rooms have been booked for years as thousands came to the Faeroe Islands to try to see the eclipse.

Sigrun Skalagard, in the northern parts of the Faeroes, said birds there went silent and dogs started howling. "Some people were surprised to see how fast it became dark," she said. A partial solar eclipse could be seen Friday across Europe and parts of Asia and Africa. Britain's Met Office said 95 percent of the sun was covered in the Hebrides, Orkneys and Shetland Islands, and one percent less further south in Glasgow and Edinburgh.

In Copenhagen, the sun was 85 percent covered up while 80 percent was hidden in southern Sweden. Cloudy weather put a lid across large parts of the continent, making it hard to see the eclipse. However, a thin cloud cover allowed people in Stockholm to watch the eclipse without protective glasses, as the faint disk of the sun could be seen through the overcast sky.

The last total eclipse was in November 2012 over Australia. The next one will be over Indonesia in March 2016, according to NASA.

Gashka reported from Torshavn, Faeroe Islands. Associated Press writers Jan M. Olsen in Copenhagen and Karl Ritter in Stockholm contributed to this report.

European far-right politicians in Russia to support Putin

March 22, 2015

ST. PETERSBURG, Russia (AP) — Nationalist supporters of Russian President Vladimir Putin brought together controversial far-right politicians from across Europe on Sunday in an effort to demonstrate international support for Russia and weaken European Union commitment to sanctions imposed on Russia over its role in Ukraine.

Putin's critics pointed to the irony of St. Petersburg, his hometown, welcoming neo-Nazis as Russia prepares to celebrate the 70th anniversary of the Soviet Union's victory over Nazi Germany in World War II.

The meeting drew about 40 protesters, who held signs denouncing fascism, and about eight of them were detained by police. Among the more prominent Europeans at the gathering was Nick Griffin, the expelled former leader of the anti-immigrant British National Party, who accused the U.S. of aggravating the confrontation in Ukraine, where more than 6,000 people have been killed in fighting between government troops and Russia-backed separatists.

"The people running the U.S. and their puppets in the European Union are doing everything they can, whether deliberately or just by stupidity, to drag us into a terrible war," Griffin said. He spoke out against the EU sanctions, as did Udo Voigt, a senior figure in Germany's neo-Nazi fringe National Democratic Party, who was among several members of the European Parliament who attended the St. Petersburg gathering. Griffin lost his seat in the EU body last year.

Roberto Fiore, leader of Italy's far-right party Forza Nuova, and members of the neo-Nazi Greek party Golden Dawn also were among the approximately 200 participants. The Russian nationalists who participated included Alexei Zhuravlev, a member of Russia's parliament, and Cossacks. Many Cossacks, descendants of the czarist-era horsemen who defended Russia's borders, have fought alongside the separatists in eastern Ukraine.

The participants had planned to sign a resolution at the conclusion of the forum, but the hotel where they were meeting was evacuated because of a bomb threat and they dispersed.

Georgians hit by fallout from trouble in Russia, Ukraine

March 21, 2015

TBILISI, Georgia (AP) — For Mariam Matiashvili, Georgia's crumbling tourist trade is a health risk.

The 64-year-old woman spends much of her meager pension of 150 lari ($68) a month on medicine and has long lived off selling cheap jewelry at a flea market to tourists, mainly from Russia and Ukraine. Now, the number of visitors is shrinking due to the economic crisis in those countries and people like her in this former Soviet republic are feeling the pain.

"There were some signs of life in January, when suddenly some tourists from Russia, Ukraine and Poland appeared, but since then it's been a complete catastrophe," said Matiashvili. Some days she makes five lari from tourists, sometimes only one.

Georgia, a mountainous nation in the South Caucasus, relies heavily on wine exports and on tourists attracted to the mountains and beaches that for decades made the country a favored holiday destination for the Soviet elites. While tourists might ordinarily be enticed as Georgia's currency sinks, making travel cheaper, many of those who visit Georgia come from countries facing their own economic problems.

Georgia's currency, the lari, has lost more than 20 percent of its value against the dollar since August — but Ukraine's hryvnia currency has lost about 60 percent against the dollar and the Russian ruble roughly 50 percent.

Due to the economic tensions, tens of thousands took part in an opposition-led protest Saturday in the capital, Tbilisi. The demonstration was peaceful, despite the bitter political divide between the government team formed by billionaire Bidzina Ivanishvili's Georgian Dream party and supporters of former President Mikhail Saakashvili, whose party has been in opposition since losing the 2012 election.

Those at the protest spoke bitterly of their dashed economic hopes. "In the last elections, I voted for Georgian Dream; their promises were very pretty. But now it's become clear that they've fulfilled almost nothing," said demonstrator Tina Khomeriki, a 35-year-old teacher.

The government, led by Ivanishvili ally Irakli Garibashvili, insists the crisis has been talked up by political opponents and sensationalist media and is not the result of policy failings. "I think that really an artificial hysteria has been created, especially by the media," Prime Minister Garibashvili said last month in a notably pugnacious response. "We have to calm, normalize and stabilize the situation. I want to say that we're doing everything to correct the situation as quickly as possible."

While it has been 24 years since Georgia voted for independence from the Soviet Union, the country retains close business links to Russia and Ukraine. As the war in eastern Ukraine, international sanctions against Russia and the sinking price of oil price worldwide have ravaged the economies of those two countries, Georgia has become collateral damage.

While the falling lari has made many imports more expensive, it has fallen by less than the Russian ruble over the last year, making exports to that key market more difficult. One affected industry is Georgian wine, long renowned in neighboring countries, and which has started to attract the attention of European and American connoisseurs in recent years. Despite producers branching out, Russia and Ukraine remain the top two wine export markets. In January and February this year, exports to Russia were down 85 percent and those to Ukraine fell by two-thirds.

Paata Sheshelidze, director of the Institute of Economic Freedom, said the economic difficulties have been made worse by government policies, including regulations and taxes that he said have restricted development of the private sector. The weakening of Georgia's currency, he said, was largely due to an increase in the money supply to cover budget expenses.

The currency turbulence has also had a devastating effect on those Georgians who took out foreign-currency loans in search of lower interest rates. Igor Khuchua mortgaged his apartment to fund a bakery, but now, at 66, he faces being made homeless. Despite getting help from the bank to restructure his debt, Khuchua sees no way out.

"I've basically lost my apartment. I took out a loan on it to open my business, but the lari's fall has had a negative effect," he said. "I can't blame anyone. I took the risk myself, but the situation's objectively worsened with the fall of the national currency."