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by Adam PLOWRIGHT Guy JACKSON PARIS, France (AFP) — French President Francois Hollande dramatically announced Thursday he would not seek re-election next April at the end of his five-year term as he bowed to historic low approval ratings. The withdrawal means the 62-year-old Socialist will be the first president of France’s fifth republic, founded in 1958, to quit after just one term. “I have decided that I will not be a candidate,” Hollande said in […]
by Nina LAMPARSKI VIENNA, Austria (AFP) — The two candidates in Austria’s longest ever presidential race clashed Sunday over the European Union, Donald Trump, and migrants as they faced off in a TV duel a week before the runoff. Greens-backed contender Alexander Van der Bellen accused his far-right rival Norbert Hofer of stirring insecurity by threatening to pull Austria out of the EU. Hofer of the anti-immigration Freedom Party (FPOe) has said he would call […]
by Guy JACKSON PARIS, France (AFP) — Francois Fillon, the candidate who will represent the French right in next year’s presidential election, is a free-market reformer, devout Catholic and motor sport fan who has promised to transform France. Fillon, 62, has professed admiration for Britain’s 1980s prime minister Margaret Thatcher and vowed to slash public spending to shrink the French state. “You have to tear the house down to properly rebuild it,” he has said. […]
by Nina LARSON GENEVA , Switzerland (AFP) — Swiss voters will head to the polls on Sunday to decide whether or not to speed up the process of phasing out the country’s nuclear power plants. Switzerland has already vowed to do so but a “yes” vote would force three of its five reactors to close next year. Just a few months after Japan’s Fukushima nuclear plant was wrecked in the March 2011 tsunami disaster, Switzerland […]
BERLIN, Germany (AFP) — German politician Martin Schulz plans to quit his post as European Parliament chief to join next year’s election campaign at home, where he may mount a challenge against Chancellor Angela Merkel, according to media reports Thursday. Schulz, 60, “will make a switch to Berlin”, reported Sueddeutsche Zeitung daily, which said the German veteran politician will not seek a third term as European Parliament chief. Spiegel Online also said he “will make […]
ENGLAND, United k=Kingdom (AFP) — The family of murdered British lawmaker Jo Cox spoke of love, not hate after a man obsessed with Nazis and extreme right-wing ideas was sentenced to life in jail on Wednesday (November 23). Cox was killed in a frenzied street attack which stunned Britain a week before the European Union referendum on June 16, 2016. Thomas Mair, 53, shot Cox three times and repeatedly stabbed the 41-year-old mother of two […]
LONDON, United Kingdom (AFP) – by Roland JACKSON Ben PERRY Brexit will spark an economic slowdown and ravage public finances, forcing a multi-billion-pound spike in state borrowing over the next five years, a gloomy mini-budget revealed Wednesday. Britain is predicted to borrow an extra £122 billion ($152 billion, 143 billion euros) in the period to 2021, according to official forecasts from the Office for Budget Responsibility. About half of that budget black hole — or […]
by Gina DOGGETT Guy JACKSON PARIS, France (AFP) –Former French president Nicolas Sarkozy crashed out of the presidential election on Sunday, suffering a humiliating defeat in the first round of the rightwing primary. Sarkozy was beaten into third place after a stunning upset by Francois Fillon, who served as his prime minister, with the veteran Alain Juppe finishing second. The surprise result puts Fillon in a commanding position for next Sunday’s second round of a […]
CHRISTCHURCH, New Zealand (AFP) — Seismologists in New Zealand said Friday that this week’s 7.8 earthquake was one of the most complex ever recorded and warned there was a high likelihood of further powerful aftershocks. As a massive clean-up continued following the tremor that claimed two lives early Monday, scientists were coming to grips with the “astonishing” scale of the seismic seizure. The official GeoNet science agency said the land moved up to 11 metres […]
by Hui Min NEO and Jerome CARTILLIER BERLIN, Germany (AFP) — European leaders head to Berlin Friday to seek assurances from US President Barack Obama on the course that Donald Trump might take, given the populist mogul’s pledges to shake up the world order. Trump’s election upset has rattled European nerves, as he appeared to call into question a near 70-year-old security shield for US allies under NATO, and vowed to withdraw from hard-fought deals […]
BERLIN, Germany (AFP) — US President Barack Obama said Thursday he hoped his successor Donald Trump would “stand up” to Russia when it breaches international norms, citing the conflicts in Syria and Ukraine. Obama said he hoped Trump, who has voiced admiration for President Vladimir Putin, “is willing to stand up to Russia where they are deviating from our values and international norms”. Speaking at a Berlin joint press conference with German Chancellor Angela Merkel, […]
by Deborah COLE and Jerome CARTILLIER BERLIN, Germany (AFP) — US President Barack Obama pays a farewell visit Thursday to German Chancellor Angela Merkel, widely seen as the new standard bearer of liberal democracy since the election of Donald Trump. On the last leg of his final European tour as president, Obama will underline shared values, try to ease fears about the future of the transatlantic partnership and thank Merkel for her friendship during his […]
