World

SAN JOSE — Polling stations across Costa Rica opened early on Sunday for a presidential election that has split the country between an ultra-conservative evangelical preacher who slams gay rights and a former minister from the centre-left ruling party.

The result will decide who rules the small Central American nation of five million people for the next four years. Pre-vote surveys suggest a neck-and-neck race between Fabricio Alvarado, a right-wing 43-year-old preacher, journalist and singer, and Carlos Alvarado (no relation), a 38-year-old former journalist who was a labour minister in the outgoing government.

Fabricio Alvarado surged from nowhere in the first round of the election held in February, triumphing over a field of 13 candidates by fiercely criticising gay marriage.

The Inter-American Court of Human Rights in January urged the recognition of same-sex marriages, setting off a polarising debate in Costa Rica. The country is both socially conservative and proud of its progressive human rights record.

A 'photo finish'? 

Carlos Alvarado, in contrast, ran on a broad campaign to tackle the priorities identified by his Citizens' Action Party, which has been in power since 2014 under outgoing President Luis Guillermo Solis. 

Those issues include reining in a steadily climbing deficit, boosting education and upholding ecological standards.

In the first round, the preacher won 25 per cent of the ballots against 22 per cent for the former labour minister — both well short of the 40 per cent required to avoid a run-off.

The last pre-election survey in March suggested a very tight election: Fabricio Alvarado was credited with 43 per cent support against 42 per cent for Carlos Alvarado.

"Neither of the two candidates motivates me sufficiently to give my support," the head of the small Liberal Progressive Party, Eli Feinzaig, wrote on his social media accounts.

"But, ultimately, one of them has done enough to earn my clear and unequivocal repudiation," he said, declaring he would vote for Carlos Alvarado.

Winning over undecided or ambivalent voters was key for the candidates.

"The population still isn't clear on what development model it wants," a political analyst from the Latin American Social Sciences Institute, Gustavo Araya, told AFP.

"This is a photo finish. It isn't statistically clear who will be the victor between these opposing platforms," he said.

Some 3.3 million voters were being called to decide the election.

Polling was taking place on Easter Sunday, at the end of a four-day holiday weekend. Roads back to the capital San Jose were choked as many voters drove back home to cast their ballots.

Others had yet to make up their minds.

"Voting is so difficult. The two who are left aren't to my taste. I don't know if I'm going to vote. Truly, I'm undecided," said Ligia Vargas, a street vendor who sells fruits and juice in the main city park.

FREETOWN — Sierra Leone voted on Saturday in a poll delayed by fraud allegations to choose a successor to President Ernest Bai Koroma who leaves a country still struggling after the Ebola epidemic. 

The face-off between opposition leader Julius Maada Bio and ruling party standard-bearer Samura Kamara was supposed to take place on Tuesday, but was rescheduled after a complaint about fraud in the first round of voting this month from a member of Kamara's All People's Congress. 

The successor to Koroma, who is stepping aside after his maximum two five-year terms in office, faces an uphill struggle to overturn years of hardship caused by a slump in the price of its commodity exports and Ebola.

Voting got under way early in peaceful conditions, according to witnesses, though staff at two polling stations said turnout appeared to be lower than in the first round. Many were forced to walk to their nearest voting station because of a driving ban imposed on election day for security reasons. 

"I want a better country, I want development for my country, so today I come to cast my vote for a leader who can develop this country," said Mohamed Kamara after casting his vote under sunny skies at the Juba polling station in western Freetown.

Politics in the West African country of over 7 million people has been dominated by two parties since independence from Britain in 1961 — the ruling All People's Congress, now fielding ex-foreign minister Samura Kamara, and the Sierra Leone People's Party behind Julius Maada Bio, who briefly ruled as head of a military junta in 1996.

The first round of voting was marred by allegations of fraud in some districts and complaints of police harassment against the electoral commission. In some districts, police fired tear gas to disperse crowds after a dispute over voting irregularities.

But the generally peaceful nature of the election, and the fact that Koroma is stepping down while other African presidents seek to extend their mandates, is seen as a positive sign for Sierra Leone that was ripped apart by a 1990s civil war made infamous by the use of child soldiers. 

The Ebola crisis in 2014 and 2015 and the global commodities downturn slowed the economy, which shrank by a fifth in 2015, after years of double-digit growth. 

"As a citizen of this country I would like to exercise my right...in a very peaceful atmosphere," said Negadi Ansu, a voter at the Juba polling station. "We are looking forward to a free, fair election and with credible results."

Moscow - Britain has to reduce its diplomatic staff in Russia by more than 50 more people, the foreign ministry said Saturday, following an escalating row over the nerve agent attack on a former double agent.

The new measures are seen as punishment for Britain's calls on allies to expel Russian diplomats.

"Russia suggested parity. The British side has more than 50 more people," foreign ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova told AFP.

On Friday, Moscow summoned British ambassador Laurie Bristow, giving London a month to cut the number of diplomatic staff to the same number Russia has in Britain.

Bristow had been handed a protest note in connection with the "provocative and unfounded actions of the British side which instigated the unwarranted expulsion of Russian diplomats from a variety of states," the foreign ministry said Friday.

In all, more than 150 Russian diplomats have been ordered out of the US, EU members, NATO countries and other nations in solidarity with Britain over the poisoning of former spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter on British soil in early March.

Earlier this month Russia expelled 23 British diplomats, closed a British consulate in Saint Petersburg and halted the activities of British Council.

They came after Britain expelled 23 Russian diplomats and suspended high-level contacts, among other measures.

On Friday, Russia expelled diplomats from 23 other countries -- most of them EU member states -- in retaliation against the West, in the biggest wave of tit-for-tat expulsions in recent memory.

 

GENEVA — The United Nations on Thursday voiced outrage at the deaths of 68 people when a fire engulfed police holding cells in Venezuela and urged Caracas to investigate the tragedy.

"We are appalled at the horrific deaths of at least 68 people in Venezuela after a fire swept through a police station jail," the UN human rights office said in a statement.

Wednesday's fire in Valencia, in Carabobo State, was thought to have been started deliberately during an attempted jailbreak.

It marks one of the worst tragedies in years in Venezuela's notoriously violent and overcrowded prison system.

"We urge the Venezuelan authorities to carry out a prompt, thorough and effective investigation to establish the cause of these deaths," the UN statement said.

It also called on Caracas to "provide reparations to the victims' families, and, where applicable, identify and bring those responsible to justice". 

Venezuela's attorney general on Thursday said that four prosecutors had been named to investigate the blaze, which in addition to detainees killed two women who were visiting the jail.

The rights office voiced concern at reports that "security forces had used tear gas to disperse relatives who had gathered in front of the police station... to demand information about their loved ones".

"We call on the authorities to respect the families' right to information and to peaceful assembly," it said. 

Venezuela's prisons suffer from dire overcrowding and a shortage of basic supplies, struggling under the deepening economic crisis that is gripping the once-wealthy oil-producing country.

"States are guarantors of the lives and physical integrity of persons deprived of their liberty," the rights office pointed out.

It urged Venezuela to bring prison conditions in line with "international human rights norms and standards, including the prohibition of torture and cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment".

It also called on the country to allow for independent, international monitoring of its prisons.

EDINBURGH/MADRID — Catalan academic Clara Ponsati, accused by Spain of rebellion for her role in Catalonia’s independence campaign, was granted bail by a Scottish court on Wednesday as she battles extradition, saying she was the object of political persecution. 

Ponsati, a former Catalan education minister who is currently a professor at Scotland’s University of St Andrews, is one of the Catalan leaders being sought by the Spanish courts for organising a referendum on independence in October last year that was deemed illegal under Spanish law.

Also among them is the former head of the regional government, Carles Puigdemont, who has been detained in Germany. In a symbolic gesture of support, Catalonia’s parliament on Wednesday said it backed his right to again lead the region.

As Ponsati handed herself in at a Scottish police station to face charges, which also include one of misuse of public funds over the banned independence vote, her lawyer said Ponsati believed she would not get a fair trial in Spain.

“Clara remains defiant, resolute and is determined to fight back,” her lawyer Aamer Anwar said. “She does not believe that the Spanish courts can guarantee independence, human rights or justice.” 

No guarantee

He read a statement which also thanked Scotland’s first minister Nicola Sturgeon, herself a supporter of independence for Scotland from the United Kingdom, saying Scotland had been “a true friend to Catalonia in her darkest hours”.

Ponsati was later freed on bail at Edinburgh Sheriff Court, leaving to cheers from a throng of supporters outside waving the “estelada” Catalan independence flag. 

“Clara wishes for me to state that these charges are politically motivated and a grotesque distortion of the truth. She cannot believe that she is being held responsible for the violence that took place on the day of the referendum,” Anwar said outside court. 

“She believes... the only people that should be held responsible for the brutal violence [are] the Spanish police and the 6,000 state security forces who attacked the Catalan people on behalf of the Spanish government.” 

Ponsati’s next hearing was set for April 12. 

LONDON — NATO joined two dozen governments around the world on Tuesday in expelling Russian diplomats in response to a nerve agent attack in Britain, marking what London called a "turning point" in the West's relations with Moscow.

The US-led military alliance expelled seven Russian staff and denied accreditation to three more, bringing the total number of suspected Russian spies expelled to almost 150, including the 23 initially dispatched by Britain.

"This will send a clear message to Russia that there are costs and consequences for their unacceptable pattern of behaviour," NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg said in Brussels.

In an unprecedented act of coordination, at least 24 countries have echoed Britain's action in response to the March 4 attack on former Russian double agent Sergei Skripal and his daughter in the English city of Salisbury.

London and its allies have blamed Moscow, citing the use of a Soviet-designed nerve agent Novichok, Russia's record of targeting dissidents and its history of aggression in recent years, from Crimea to cyber attacks.

British Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson said the mass expulsions were "a blow from which Russian intelligence will need many years to recover".

It "could become a turning point", he wrote in The Times newspaper, adding: "The Western alliance took decisive action and Britain's partners came together against the Kremlin's reckless ambitions."

Skripal, a Russian military intelligence officer imprisoned by Moscow for passing on information about Russian agents in various European countries, came to Britain in a 2010 spy swap.

Moscow has fiercely denied any involvement in his attempted murder, instead pointing the finger at London.

It responded to Britain's expulsions with its own, and the closure of the British Council cultural organisation — and on Tuesday promised it would hit back against the coordinated moves.

"We'll respond, have no doubt! No one wants to put up with such loutish behaviour and we won't," Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on the sidelines of a conference in Uzbekistan.

Lavrov said the coordinated response was the result of "colossal pressure, colossal blackmail" from the United States.

Washington led the way in responding, ordering out 60 Russians in a new blow to US-Russia ties less than a week after President Donald Trump congratulated his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin on his reelection.

VARNA, Bulgaria — Fourteen EU states are expelling Russian diplomats in a coordinated response to the nerve agent attack on a former spy in the English city of Salisbury, EU President Donald Tusk said on Monday.

"As a direct follow-up to last week's European Council decision to react to Russia within a common framework, already today 14 member states have decided to expel Russian diplomats," Tusk told a news conference in Varna, Bulgaria.

"Additional measures including further expulsions are not to be excluded in the coming days and weeks."

The move came after British Prime Minister Theresa May addressed fellow European Union leaders at a summit in Brussels to urge them to support Britain's assessment that Russia was to blame.

The 28 EU states issued a statement saying they agreed it was highly likely Russia was responsible for the poisoning of Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia on March 4, and ordered the recall of the bloc's ambassador to Moscow.

Germany, France and Poland have so far said they will each expel four Russia diplomats, the Czech Republic and Lithuania three, Italy, Denmark and The Netherlands two, and Latvia one.

The United States also announced it was expelling 60 diplomats and closing the Russian consulate in Seattle.

BERLIN — German police on Sunday arrested Catalonia’s former president Carles Puigdemont, as he crossed the border to Denmark by car after Spain’s supreme court vowed to prosecute 13 key separatists over their breakaway bid.

Puigdemont “was arrested today at 11:19 am by Schleswig-Holstein’s highway patrol force”, a German police spokesman told AFP, adding that the detention was based on a European warrant.

“He is now in police custody,” added the spokesman.

Puigdemont’s arrest came just two days after Spain’s supreme court it would prosecute for “rebellion” 13 Catalan separatists, including Puigdemont and his nominated successor Jordi Turull, over their role in the region’s failed breakaway bid. If found guilty, they face up to 30 years in prison.

Issuing an international arrest warrant for Puigdemont on Friday, Judge Pablo Llarena accused the ousted Catalan leader of organising the independence referendum in October last year despite a ban from Madrid and “grave risk of violent incidents”.

Puigdemont and four other deputies had fled to Belgium following their proclamation of independence for Catalonia in October, which sank the state into a crisis.

Spanish authorities have since imposed direct rule over the region, suspending the wealthy state’s autonomy over the last five months.

While separatist parties won Catalonia’s regional elections in December called by Madrid, they have been unable to form a government for the region, as numerous leaders are in exile abroad or in jail.

Puigdemont himself had said from Belgium in early March that he was abandoning his bid to return as regional president, even though he had run in December’s polls from abroad.

On the way to Belgium 

He had been visiting Finland since Thursday, but slipped out of the Nordic country before Finnish police could detain him.

Separately confirming his arrest in Germany, Puigdemont’s party spokeswoman Anna Grabalosa said: “It happened as he crossed the Danish-German border. He was treated well, and all his lawyers are there. That is all I can say.”

Puigdemont’s lawyer Jaume Alonso-Cuevillas said on Twitter that Puigdemont was picked up by German police as he was travelling back to Belgium.

He “was heading to Belgium to present himself, as always, at the disposal of Belgian courts”, added Alonso-Cuevillas.

Meanwhile, the supreme court’s decision this week to prosecute the group of separatists has sunk the Catalan parliament deeper into a quagmire as its latest regional presidential candidate Jordi Turull was placed in custody over the breakaway bid.

That marks the third time that parliament has been unable to nominate a new president.

After Puigdemont was forced to withdraw his bid for the presidency, another pro-independence leader Jordi Sanchez faced the same fact as he was jailed.

If a new leader is not elected by May 22, fresh elections will commence.

TREBES, France — A French policeman who offered himself as a hostage to help end what President Emmanuel Macron branded an "Islamist terrorist attack" died of his wounds on Saturday, becoming the fourth victim of the shooting spree and supermarket siege.

Lieutenant-Colonel Arnaud Beltrame, 45, was among a group of officers who rushed to the scene in the town of Trebes in southwest France on Friday after the attacker, who claimed allegiance to the terror group Daesh, stormed a supermarket and fired at shoppers and staff.

Beltrame offered to take the place of a woman who was being held as the attacker's final hostage, according to Interior Minister Gerard Collomb.

Gunman Radouane Lakdim, 25, shot and stabbed the policeman before anti-terror officers moved in to kill the attacker and end the siege.

Macron led a flood of tributes to Beltrame, saying he had "died a hero" and deserved "the respect and admiration of the whole nation". 

Lakdim killed a total of four people in Trebes and the nearby medieval town of Carcassonne, in France's first major radical attack since October.

Daesh claimed the attack was in response to its call to target Western enemies — as is customary when the assailant has pledged allegiance to the group.

With Daesh seeking to inspire lone-wolf attacks in its name as its self-proclaimed "caliphate" in Syria and Iraq crumbles, Defence Minister Florence Parly said France would not let up in its pressure on extremists. 

"The fight against Daesh will continue without relenting," she said in a statement.

The shootings come as France remains on high alert following a string of deadly attacks that have killed more than 240 people since 2015.

 Gunman was 

suspected radical 

Lakdim, a Moroccan-born French national, had been monitored as a potential extremist.

Top anti-terror prosecutor Francois Molins said Lakdim had convictions for carrying a banned weapon and for drug use and had spent a month in jail in 2016.

"He had been on a watchlist for his radicalisation and links to the Salafist movement," Molins told reporters in Carcassonne on Friday, adding that Lakdim had been tracked for his online contacts with extremists.

His partner, who lived with him in Carcassonne, has been detained along with another friend.

Lakdim started his rampage in Carcassonne at around 10:30am (09:30 GMT), hijacking a car and shooting the two people inside.

The passenger was killed, and the driver remains in a critical condition.

Lakdim then shot and wounded a policeman who was out jogging with colleagues before driving to nearby Trebes, bursting into a Super U supermarket and shooting a customer dead along with the store's butcher.

The attacker entered the store shouting "Allahu Akbar" (God is greatest) and saying he was a soldier of Daesh, ready to die for Syria, Molins said. 

He further demanded the release of certain prisoners — notably, according to a security source, Salah Abdeslam, prime suspect in the November 2015 Paris terror attacks.

That assault marked the first of several big attacks in France since 2015, including the massacre at the satirical newspaper Charlie Hebdo, the November 2015 attacks that killed 130 in Paris, and the 2016 Bastille Day truck attack in Nice.

A state of emergency put in place just after the 2015 Paris attacks was lifted in October when Macron's centrist government passed a new law boosting the powers of security forces.

Thousands of French troops remain on the streets under an anti-terror operation known as Sentinelle, patrolling transport hubs, tourist hotspots and other sensitive sites.

SAN FRANCISCO — Facebook Inc Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg apologised on Wednesday for mistakes his company made in how it handled data belonging to 50 million of its users, and promised tougher steps to restrict developers’ access to such information.

The world’s largest social media network is facing growing government scrutiny in Europe and the United States. This follows allegations by a whistleblower that British political consultancy Cambridge Analytica improperly accessed users’ information to build profiles on American voters that were later used to help elect US President Donald Trump in 2016.

“This was a major breach of trust. I’m really sorry this happened. We have a basic responsibility to protect people’s data,” Zuckerberg told CNN, breaking a public silence since the scandal erupted at the weekend.

Zuckerberg said in a post on Facebook the company “made mistakes, there’s more to do, and we need to step up and do it.”

He said the social network planned to conduct an investigation of thousands of apps that have used Facebook’s platform, restrict developer access to data, and give members a tool that lets them disable access to their Facebook data more easily.

His plans did not represent a big reduction of advertisers’ ability to use Facebook data, which is the company’s lifeblood.

European governments expressed dissatisfaction with Facebook’s response and said the scandal showed the need for strong regulation.

“It shouldn’t be for a company to decide what is the appropriate balance between privacy and innovation and use of data. Those rules should be set by society as a whole and so by parliament,” British minister for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, Matt Hancock, told BBC Radio. “The big tech companies need to abide by the law and we’re strengthening the law”.

Germany’s justice minister Katarina Barley, demanded that Facebook executives explain to her whether the site’s 30 million German users had been affected. 

Zuckerberg said he was open to additional government regulation and happy to testify before the US Congress if he was the right person. 

“I’m not sure we shouldn’t be regulated,” he told CNN. “I actually think the question is more what is the right regulation rather than yes or no, should it be regulated? ... People should know who is buying the ads that they see on Facebook”.

Zuckerberg said Facebook was committed to stopping interference in the US midterm election in November and elections in India and Brazil.   

Investor fears

Facebook shares fell 1.5 per cent in premarket trading on Thursday as the apology failed to quell Wall Street nerves.

The company has lost nearly $46 billion of its stock market value over the past three days on investors’ fears that any failure by big tech firms to protect personal data could deter advertisers and users and invite tougher regulation. 

Zuckerberg told the New York Times in an interview published on Wednesday he had not seen a “meaningful number of people” deleting their accounts over the scandal. 

Facebook representatives met US congressional staff on Wednesday and planned to continue meetings on Capitol Hill on Thursday. Facebook was unable to answer many questions, two aides who attended the briefing said. 

Zuckerberg told the website Recode that fixes to protect users’ data would cost “many millions of dollars.”

The whistleblower who launched the scandal, Christopher Wylie, formerly of Cambridge Analytica, said on Twitter he had accepted invitations to testify before US and UK lawmakers. 

‘Scapegoat’

On Tuesday, the board of Cambridge Analytica suspended its Chief Executive Alexander Nix, who was caught in a secret recording boasting that his company played a decisive role in Trump’s victory.

Psychologist Aleksandr Kogan, who provided the data, dismissed on Wednesday Cambridge Analytica’s assertions that the information was “incredibly accurate”.

Kogan, who gathered the data by running a survey app on Facebook, also said he was being made a scapegoat by the social media firm and Cambridge Analytica. Both companies have blamed Kogan for alleged data misuse.

About 300,000 Facebook users responded to Kogan’s quiz, but that gave the researcher access to those people’s Facebook friends as well, who had not agreed to share information, producing details on 50 million users. 

Facebook has said it subsequently made changes that prevent people from sharing data about friends and maintains that no breach occurred because the original users gave permission. Critics say that it essentially was a breach because data of unsuspecting friends was taken.

Analysts say the incident may reduce user engagement with Facebook, lessening its clout with advertisers. Three Wall Street brokerages cut their price targets.