INTERNATIONAL MONDAY, MARCH 23, 2015

Graft-accused son of Senegal ex-leader runs for president DAKAR: Karim Wade, the son of a former opposition Democratic Party of Senegal 2012, with many believing his father was reporting a heightened security pres- Senegalese president and currently on (PDS). He later praised the transparency trying to line him up as his successor. He ence in the capital Dakar. trial for corruption, was chosen Saturday of the vote saying it had been “conduct- was often criticized for alleged misman- The country’s main opposition coali- to be the former ruling party’s candidate ed publicly in front of party activists and agement of public finances and was nick- tion, which includes the PDS, on Friday in the next presidential election. “Karim even the press”. The younger Wade, who named “super minister”, and “the minister urged sympathisers to rally at the court Wade was chosen by 257 of the 268 dele- has been in custody since April 2013 and of the Earth and the sky”, after his father on Monday in a show of support for gates” to be the Democratic Party of on trial since July last year, beat at least placed him in charge of the international Karim Wade. The PDS has said that Senegal’s presidential candidate, leading seven other candidates to become the cooperation, air transport, infrastructure Abdoulaye Wade is expected to make a party member Tafsir Thioye told AFP. PDS’s presidential hopeful. He is alleged and energy portfolios. The 2012 polls statement after the ruling is handed No date has yet been set for the to have illegally acquired companies and were won by Macky Sall, who is expected down. The former leader said last month upcoming election. The announcement real estate worth almost $240 million to seek re-election. that he was prepared to “give his life” to comes as Senegal’s anti-corruption court during his time as a minister and an prevent his son being convicted. is expected to deliver its verdict in the adviser to his father, who was president Tension as verdict looms Adding fuel to the fire, opposition case against Wade-son of the country’s of Senegal from 2000 to 2012. Sall on Saturday insisted he had noth- lawmaker Mamadou Diop Decroix on longtime leader Abdoulaye Wad. He is Prosecutors have called for a seven-year ing to fear from a potential face-off Saturday told reporters that “if the coun- Karim Wade accused of corruption and illegally prison sentence. Wade himself denies the against another member of the Wade try swings towards violence, it won’t be amassing a multi-million dollar fortune charges and his supporters claim the family. “If a candidate stronger than the fault of the opposition but of those be respected but within the context of while a minister. Saturday’s decision was case against him is politically motivated. myself is appointed by the Senegalese, who put people in prison.” Justice the law. The decision that will be handed made at a party congress that was Wade junior was an extremely divisive we will take note,” he told reporters. Minister Sidiki Kaba sought to calm tem- down by the court will be an independ- attended by 88-year-old Abdoulaye figure in Senegalese politics in the run- Tension has been mounting ahead of pers, saying the state would maintain ent one,” he told the pro-government Wade, who is the secretary general of the up to the last presidential election in Monday’s trial verdict, with local media public order. “Freedom of expression will daily Le Soleil. — AFP

Last English king Richard III found in municipal car park

LONDON: Dug out of a municipal car park old church he would have been buried. five centuries after his mutilated body was They found a skeleton consistent with con- unceremoniously interred, England’s temporary descriptions of the king, notably Richard III will finally be given a burial fit for his curved spine, and battle injuries. a king this week. Some 530 years on from Radiocarbon dating showed the man died his violent death in 1485, the last English between 1455 and 1540. “It is incredibly monarch killed in battle will be laid to rest lucky anything survived at all,” said on Thursday in Leicester Cathedral, across Greyfriars Project site director Mathew the street from where his remains were Morris, explaining that Victorian building located in 2012. Their discovery was con- work had come within a centimeter of firmed by a DNA match with Richard’s clos- Richard’s skull. est living relative-Canadian carpenter By coincidence, the remains were Michael Ibsen, who fittingly has now made beneath a letter R indicating a reserved the monarch’s oak coffin. space in the car park. “Skeleton 1” had eight In an unprecedented event, the head wounds, including a brutal slash to medieval king will be reinterred in the pres- the base of skull which cleaved away bone. ence of royalty and England’s highest cleric, Another blow had pierced his skull. DNA in a solemn service broadcast live on testing on Ibsen and Wendy Duldig, both national television. “The story of the king in descendants of Richard’s eldest sister Anne a car park (is) now so familiar around the of York, confirmed they were both related world to many who had heard little of to “Skeleton 1”. The tests also threw up a Richard III,” said Tim Stevens, the bishop of mystery with a “false paternity” finding that Leicester in central England. there was no match through the male line “Now we look forward to welcoming of the family, indicating an illegitimate people from around the world to become child in the royal line. part of... our task of laying the king to rest With no precedent to consult, finding LUGANSK: Members of the Donbass Night Wolves motorbike club, including local president Vitali “Prokuror” (“Prosecutor”) (center), pose in with dignity and honor.” Richard, the last of Richard’s remains triggered impassioned front of the gate of the club’s base. — AFP the Plantagenet dynasty, ruled England wrangling over what to do next. Following from 1483 until his death at the Battle of a judicial review, his bones are being rein- Bosworth near Leicester in 1485. It was the terred in Leicester rather than York, his last major conflict in the Wars of the Roses northern stronghold. Cynics said the rival In Ukraine, Russians take up and Richard’s defeat saw the crown pass cities had one eye on creating a visitor from the Plantagenets to the opposing attraction. London’s Westminster Abbey Tudors. “We’re looking forward to the was also sidelined. A week of events lead- arms against the insurgency opportunity to remind people of the ing up to the reburial begins Sunday when extraordinary moment in English history the coffin will be taken outside Leicester to the death of Richard III marks,” said Stevens. Fenn Lane Farm, the closest place to the Defending their land, family and future The slain 32-year-old was swiftly buried site of his death. without fanfare at Greyfriars monastery in ODESSA: When Andrei Krasilnikov hugged his Russian state media to describe the country’s thetic ear. Leicester. Greyfriars was demolished in the Villainous image wife good-bye last week and climbed onto a bus new pro-Western government. He joined up with pro-Western protestors in 1530s during Tudor king Henry VIII’s disso- The cortege returns to Leicester for a to take him back to the frontline in eastern Odessa and helps the local group opposing sep- lution of the monasteries and Richard’s horse-drawn procession through the city to Ukraine, his motive was typical of those fighting Fear of deportation aratist activity in the Russian-speaking city. remains were thought lost. the cathedral, where Cardinal Vincent for Kiev — to defend his family and future from Despite risking his life for Ukraine, the irony These days he is even putting together free Nichols, the leader of England’s Catholics, what he perceives as Russian aggression. for Krasilnikov and other Russians opposing Ukrainian language lessons in a local library. But Mind blowing coincidence will preach a sermon. Richard was a What sets him apart from his brothers-in- Putin here is that they still face suspicion from despite his expectations, “the reality turned out But members of the Richard III Society of Catholic but will be reburied in the tradi- arms is his Russian citizenship. Krasilnikov, 48, is Kiev even though going back home may mean very different,” he lamented: even Russians who enthusiasts teamed up with Leicester tions of the Church of England, although one of several Russians fighting as a volunteer time in a Russian jail. Krasilnikov has had an support Ukraine’s cause-in battle or not-are side- University archaeologists to excavate the there will be Catholic elements in services against the pro-Moscow insurgency in the application to renew his residency permit reject- lined by its rank and file bureaucracy. site, rightly predicting whereabouts in the throughout the week.— AFP Donetsk and Lugansk regions. Like many ed by suspicious authorities and he says one rea- Ukrainians he views the conflict as “a war by son for staying at the frontline is that immigra- ‘I fight for my land’ Russia against Ukraine” rather than a home- tion officials won’t go looking for him there. One of the few exceptions is Ilya Bogdanov, a grown uprising. “The thing is, we are not fighting “I cannot go outside Ukraine to Russia far-right Russian nationalist who has been fight- against Russians but against (President Vladimir) because I am more than sure that I will get ing in pro-Kiev battalions since last summer. “I Putin’s army,” he said. “Not everyone in Russia arrested there,” he said in an interview in Odessa am fighting against Putin’s regime, for a free, supports Putin and his regime... a regime that is a few hours before heading to the front. The white Ukraine that is pro-European,” he said by militarized, a police regime that can do whatever sense of limbo was echoed by other Russians phone from the village of Pisky near the Donetsk it wants with its own people.” Though he has interviewed by AFP. airport-one area which continues to take fire lived in Ukraine’s southern Russian-speaking city Despite opposing Putin, they said that they despite the month-old truce. of Odessa for a decade and has a Ukrainian wife are often likely to be stonewalled by authorities The fighter in the extreme Ukrainian national- and son, the Moscow-born Krasilnikov still holds in Ukraine, especially low-level officials who are ist Right Sector group chronicles the conflict on a Russian passport. often pro-Moscow. Pyotr Lyubchenkov, an oppo- his Facebook page and regularly gets into argu- His friends in the pro-Kiev Aydar battalion sition activist from Russia’s Krasnodar, had his ments with Russians fighting on the opposite view that “completely normally,” he said, request for political asylum last year denied in side on social media. “It’s a lot of Russians, prac- recounting taking heavy artillery fire with them Odessa. The file that the immigration services tically only Russians” fighting on the separatist in the Lugansk region in February, shortly before had on him “even used descriptions from pro- side, he said, having made a complete break the latest ceasefire came into effect. “They Kremlin websites,” he said. from his past in Russia’s far-eastern city of shook my hand and said that I was a true Russian Lyubchenkov, a 40-year-old psychologist, Vladivostok, including his pro-Putin mother. A who understands everything.” opposed the annexation of Crimea last year and month ago, he received Ukrainian citizenship- Back in the land of his birth, however, he had is wanted in Russia after trying to organise an after a lengthy process that was resolved only LEICESTERSHIRE: The oak coffin with the remains of King Richard III, the last of the to break off ties with friends who started calling opposition rally. He is the subject of a probe through the personal intervention of Ukraine’s Plantagenet dynasty, is placed for a service outside the University of Leicester.—AFP him a “fascist” after he took part in protests last that has already seen two people arrested. “I top leadership. “It was extremely difficult, at year that ousted the Kremlin-backed leader hope I don’t get deported,” he said. “It was a sim- every level they tried to block it,” he said. “I am Viktor Yanukovych. “They got it in their heads ple idea, coming here,” Lyubchenkov said, citizen of Ukraine now, I fight for my land,” he that Ukraine has a fascist regime and a junta,” describing how he had expected his support for says with a laugh. “Everything I have is right Polls open in Spain’s most Krasilnikov said, using the terms employed by Kiev’s pro-Western ideas would meet a sympa- here.” — AFP unpredictable elections

SEVILLE: Polls opened yesterday in the top of the polls in Spain. Podemos was French far right looks for gains in regional polls Andalusia, one of the poorest parts of buoyed by Syriza’s victory, but was given Spain, in a regional vote that will be a key pause for thought by the tense ongoing PARIS: France’s National Front, one of the most conservative UMP led by former president Nicolas with the traditional left and right in a marriage of test of anti-austerity party Podemos ahead squabbles between Syriza and European powerful populist far right parties in Europe, eyed Sarkozy. Ultimately, the UMP was expected to convenience in a second round to block Le Pen’s of the country’s most unpredictable gener- powers over Greece’s debt. significant gains against President Francois make the biggest gains, benefiting from the likeli- candidacy. al election in decades. “Everything is ready Hollande’s ruling socialists in regional elections yes- hood that Socialist voters would make a strategic to fill the ballot boxes with mauve!” the left- Upstart contenders terday. The party appeared set to capitalise on a switch in second-round run-offs on March 29 just ‘A radical solution’ wing Podemos, said on its Twitter account, In Andalusia, “everyone will interpret the high abstention rate, as well as on a search by some to keep the far right out of power. Sarkozy predict- Yesterday’s vote seemed sure to underline referring to the party color, as voting got results as if it were a first round in the gen- voters for radical solutions to France’s economic ed a “wave” of departments falling to his UMP, Hollande’s bleak fortunes. His Socialists and other underway. eral elections,” said Anton Losada, a politi- woes. while the FN was forecast to gain no more than parties in the French left were expected to lose The election is an important warm-up cal scientist at Santiago De Compostela “I feel confident,” Marine Le Pen, the controver- four departments. That same tactic could be about half of the 61 departments they currently for contender Podemos-which is looking to University. “That is going to happen with sial National Front leader said as she cast her vote at repeated on a bigger scale in the presidential poll, control. — AFP match the feat of its ally Syriza in Greece- the Andalusian election and will happen a school in northern France. With turnout at just and also another upstart contender, the again with the other local and regional over 18 percent by midday, Hollande called on the centre-right Ciudadanos. “Everyone is wait- elections in May.” French to vote as he cast his own ballot in central ing to see if the emerging forces are going The main opposition Socialist Party, in France. “Today, the (key) issue is abstention,” he said. to get a very good result. This will be the power in Andalusia since 1982, is seeking The elections are being held across 101 “depart- test,” a well-placed member of the conser- re-election against the Popular Party. Polls ments”, which control issues such as school and vative Popular Party, which currently gov- indicate neither of the giants will win an welfare budgets. Some 43 million people are eligi- erns Spain, said. absolute majority in the regional parlia- ble to vote. Recent years of recession and corrup- ment from Andalusia’s 6.5 million voters. For the National Front, or FN as it is known in tion scandals make the southern region of The winner may have to strike an alliance French, it was a chance to punish the Socialists and farms and tourist beaches a prime testing with Podemos or Ciudadanos. That could build up a head of steam for presidential elections in ground for Spain’s new political dynamic, foreshadow what coalitions may later be 2017 that some analysts believe could see Le Pen transformed by the economic crisis and forged to govern Spain, since polls indicate oust the unpopular Hollande. Earlier this week, Le ensuing budget austerity measures. Now the national election may also fail to hand Pen declared her party would “invade the Elysee the two parties that have taken turns to one party an absolute majority. (presidential palace)”. Yesterday, she told reporters: govern Spain since the 1980s face the rival Andalusia was among the regions hard- “The goal is to show the FN is a great local force, not pair of surging protest movements in a est hit by the collapse of Spain’s housing just one that is able to bring together millions of dress rehearsal for the national polls due market in 2008. Its regional unemployment French in a national election.” The FN has capitalised around November. rate is the highest in the country at 34.2 on anger over France’s lackluster economy, as well Greece’s Syriza won elections in January percent. Socialist leaders there, along with as the politically explosive issues of immigration on a wave of discontent about economic certain labor union representatives, have and the integration of Islam into French society. cuts imposed during an economic crisis-the been hit by a series of corruption scan- Opinion polls showed the far right with about TULLINS: Election poster of Secretary of State AndrÈ Vallini (left) is seen during the first round same trend that has pushed Podemos to dals.— AFP 30 percent of the overall vote, close to levels for the of the French departementales elections yesterday. —AFP