Sarkozy in debate that could save or end his presidency

French President Nicolas Sarkozy and Socialist rival Francois Hollande are set to clash in their only television debate on Wednesday seen as the conservative incumbent’s last chance to turn the odds of re-election in his favour. Trailing Hollande in opinion polls for Sunday’s decisive runoff despite an aggressive campaign and a lurch to the right to appeal to far-right votes, Sarkozy billed the prime-time debate as the “moment of truth” in the race. The duel is to be beamed live for two-and-a-half hours from 9 p.m. (1900 GMT) on channels that reach roughly half France‘s 44.5 million voters. A senior Sarkozy ally said the president planned to storm in as … Continue reading

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Things not looking so good for Nicholas Sarkozy

By Robert Asketill The French presidential election took an ugly turn this weekend with evocations of the country’s painful history under the Nazis and warnings of possible violence at a May Day demonstration on Tuesday that would be blamed on Nicolas Sarkozy. An increasingly desperate Sarkozy is pinning his hopes of saving his presidency on a single television debate against François Hollande on Wednesday, when he will depict the frontrunner in the polls as a dangerous leftist whose tax-and-spend policies will doom France to decades of decay.  He hopes to prod Hollande, who is sometimes compared to a wobbly caramel pudding, into collapsing like a soufflé by accusing him of … Continue reading

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Murdoch’s media empire strikes back

By Georgina Prodhan An angry Rupert Murdoch on Thursday declared war against “enemies” who have accused his Pay-TV operation of sabotaging its rivals, denouncing them as “toffs and right wingers” stuck in the last century. Separate reports by the British Broadcasting Corporation and the Australian Financial Review newspaper this week said that News Corp’s Pay-TV smartcard security unit, NDS, had promoted piracy attacks on rivals, including in the United States. NDS and News Corp had already denied the claims, but on Thursday the media empire mounted a concerted fight back as a corruption scandal that has plagued its UK newspapers began to encroach on its far more lucrative Pay-TV business. … Continue reading

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Britain to introduce minimum price for alcohol

Britain is planning to introduce a minimum price for the sale of alcohol in England and Wales as part of an initiative to clamp down on binge drinking and anti-social behaviour, which has become a major problem in many town centres across the country. The plan, announced by the government on Friday, would prevent supermarkets selling alcohol at deeply discounted prices and result in a sharp rise in the price of super-strength ciders and lager as well as cheap spirits. It was immediately criticised by supermarket chains and drinks manufacturers. Home Secretary Theresa May told parliament that the government wanted to discourage people from drinking at home before evenings out … Continue reading

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Huge hunt in Toulouse for ‘crazed’ killer

France launched a massive manhunt Tuesday for the man who gunned down three children and a teacher at a Jewish school in Toulouse Monday and three other people last week in incidents that have created an unprecedented terror alert in the country. French schools today (Tuesday) observed a minute’s silence after President Nicolas Sarkozy’s declaration on Monday. The President, who declared a maximum “scarlet” terror alert on the Midi-Pyrenees region, has also suspended his election campaign until at least Wednesday. The scarlet alert allows authorities widespread powers to disrupt daily life and implement sweeping security measures, including potentially closing rail terminals and airports or even halting water supplies. Mixed police … Continue reading

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Why Britain is fighting the wrong war in a wrong country

By Mehdi Hasan  The debate over our war in Afghanistan is dominated by a big lie. “We are there to prevent that country from being a safe haven for al-Qaeda,” the Prime Minister told MPs last Wednesday, after six British soldiers were killed in an explosion in Helmand. “We are fighting there to prevent them attacking us here,” announced the Defence Secretary. The claim that we are “there” to stop “them” coming “here” is risible. Our enemies in Afghanistan are the Pashtun insurgents and tribesman of the Taleban; transnational terrorists of the al-Qaeda variety long ago fled Afghanistan for much safer havens in Pakistan, Yemen and Somalia. Earlier this month, … Continue reading

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Police, Murdoch aides stalled hacking probes, inquiry told

By Mark Hosenball British police and officials from Rupert Murdoch’s now-defunct News of the World newspaper stalled early attempts to investigate allegations of phone hacking by its journalists, a British judicial inquiry was told on Monday. Investigators for London’s Metropolitan Police Service had evidence in 2006 that “hundreds” of victims had been targeted for possible phone hacking by the News of the World, a former police commander said. But officers had other priorities and insufficient resources to pursue the matter as thoroughly as they could have, a lawyer for the inquiry said. The former police commander, Brian Paddick, also said that when officers in August 2006 visited News of the … Continue reading

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Swiss Muslims seeking single representative body

Leading Islamic groups in Switzerland are seeking to establish a single national representative body that will enable all of the country’s Muslims to “speak with one voice.” The organizers say their new “parliament” will be called “Umma Schweiz” and be based on the principles of Islamic Sharia law. The headquarters of the organization will be located in Basel with “representatives” in all 26 cantons (or “states”) of Switzerland. The first “test vote” of Umma Schweiz will be held in the fall of 2012; the group will be fully functional in 2013. Ummah, an Arabic word that means “nation,” refers to the entire Muslim community throughout the world. In recent years, … Continue reading

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Italian court throws out bribery case against Berlusconi

By Elisabetta Povoledo A court in Milan threw out the bribery case against former Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi on Saturday, saying that the statute of limitations had expired and continuing his long run of seeming invulnerability to conviction. Mr. Berlusconi, who had denied wrongdoing, had been accused of bribing a British tax lawyer to withhold testimony to protect him. In the trial, which began in March 2007, his lawyers maintained Mr. Berlusconi’s innocence even while pressing the statute-of-limitations argument. On Saturday, a member of Mr. Berlusconi’s legal team, Piersilvio Cipollotti, called the decision a “most positive solution, given the circumstances.” Mr. Berlusconi and his lawyers have maintained that the court … Continue reading

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British and French leaders reconcile

  France and Britain have agreed to jointly work to develop next-generation unmanned drones as part of their military cooperation as their leaders reconciled after an acrimonious clash over Europe last year. President Nicolas Sarkozy and Prime Minister David Cameron appeared to lay to rest their dispute at the height of the euro zone crisis which saw the annual Franco-British summit postponed, and sought to coordinate on issues ranging from Syria to Iran and the European Union. “There is a letter of intent for the long-term,” French Defence Minister Gerard Longuet told Reuters after the summit. “We are working together for the medium-altitude long-endurance (MALE) drone and we are thinking … Continue reading

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