Chancellor Angela Merkel’s spokesman says Germany is talking with allies about the situation in Syria but isn’t confirming a report that Berlin is mulling the possibility of participating in future military strikes.

Without naming sources, the Bild newspaper reported Monday that the defense ministry is examining the possibility of some kind of involvement in future military action if Syria’s government carries out a further chemical attack. It said that followed a U.S. request to the chancellery.

Merkel spokesman Steffen Seibert said that “of course the German government is in contact with partners and allies” on Syria. However, he said “there has been no situation in which a decision had to be made” and that he “won’t participate in speculation.”

Germany stayed out of previous U.S.-led airstrikes but voiced its support.
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Petanque players in Paris who helped in the apprehension of a knife-wielding man have been lauded Monday for their bravery as French authorities opened a murder investigation into the attacks that saw seven people injured.

 

According to police, witnesses at the scene of Sunday night’s attacks in the northeast 19th district helped disarm and arrest the man near a cinema in a recreational area populated by both Parisians and tourists.

 

Some of those playing boules, also known as petanque, saw what was going on and threw their heavy metallic balls at the attacker — with one hitting his head — before plain-clothes policemen arrested the man.

 

On Twitter, French Interior Minister Gerard Collomb praised the “courage and reactivity” of those who intervened.

 

A judicial official, speaking on condition of anonymity because he was not allowed to discuss publicly an ongoing investigation, said the attacker was believed to be an Afghan national. He said terrorist motives were not suspected at this stage.

 

Paris police said four of the victims were in serious condition, including one in a life-threatening condition. Two British tourists were among those injured.

 

“The judicial investigation will determine the circumstances,” Collomb said.

 

Boudjema Hamani told The Associated Press he was playing petanque with two friends when they saw people running and shouting “be careful, he has a knife!”

 

Hamani and his friends ran after the attacker and threw their petanque balls as he was trying to stab people in the street.

 

At one point another man, Reda Smain, managed to take the 40-centimeter (15-inch) knife away from the attacker.

 

They pushed the man on the ground and overpowered him until police came a few minutes later, Hamani said.

 

“Of course it’s scary. We are human beings, we’re not Superman so if we’re stabbed we’re going to die… But we didn’t have time to think about it. We had the [petanque] balls with us, so we had a weapon, like him,” Hamani said.

 

Smain told French network BFMTV that he struck the attacker’s left arm, which was holding the knife.

 

“I jumped on the knife, took him from his hand,” he said. “Then I fell with him and knocked him out.”

 

 

 
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Final results from Sweden’s parliamentary election Sunday are expected later in the week, but preliminary results have one of Europe’s most liberal nations making a turn to the right and wondering how it will form a government.

The anti-immigration Sweden Democrats that wants the country to leave the European Union and impose a freeze on immigration, appears poised to become the third largest party in parliament.

With most ballots counted, the ruling center-left Social Democrats have 28 percent of the vote, trailed by the Moderates with 19 percent and the nationalist Sweden Democrats with almost 18 percent.

The Social Democrats and the Moderates have said they will not consider the Sweden Democrats, a party with roots in the neo-Nazi fringe, as a coalition partner.

The Moderates say they will form a coalition government and have called on Prime Minister Stefan Lofven, a Social Democrat, to step down.

Lofven said the election presented “a situation that all responsible parties must deal with,” and added that “a party with roots in Nazis” would “never ever offer anything responsible, but hatred.”

Sweden Democrats leader Jimmie Akesson declared victory at a supporters’ rally saying, “We will gain huge influence over what happens in Sweden during the coming weeks, months and years”.

Ahead of the election, Lofven had warned, “The haters are mobilizing in Sweden and are egging on people against people. … We will resist. We will stand up for equality.”

Sweden, like most of Europe, has been hit by an influx of asylum-seekers, who are fleeing mainly from the Middle East, South Asia and Africa.

The influx of 163,000 asylum-seekers in Sweden in 2015 has polarized voters and fractured a cozy political consensus.

Pollsters had warned that the far-right Sweden Democrats could end up winning veto power over which parties form the next government.

Magnus Blomgren a social scientist at Umea University, said, “Traditional parties have failed to respond to the sense of discontent that exists.”

 
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French police have arrested a man who wounded seven people, including two British tourists, in Paris late Sunday.

Reuters news agency quoted a judicial source saying there was no indication the attack was terror related. It also reported that four of those wounded were in serious condition.

Witnesses told Agence France Presse the man was also carrying an iron bar.

The incident reportedly took place at 2100 UTC in northeast Paris.
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Thousands of Russians rallied against government-backed pension reforms and hundreds of them faced arrest Sunday, as Kremlin-backed candidates for the powerful mayor’s post in Moscow as well as a majority of regional governorships appeared headed to easy victory in elections scattered across the country.

The split screen images of smiling voters on TV, and protesters facing down baton-wielding police on the internet, once again raised questions about Russia’s system of so-called “managed democracy” in which political freedoms are tolerated, but only to a degree.   

Indeed, while the day saw unexpected results in a handful of races, Sunday’s vote was far more reminiscent of Russia’s March presidential elections, which saw President Vladimir Putin dominate the field after Russia’s Elections Commission weeded potential rivals from the race well in advance of election day. 

“This is not an election.  We see this as a reappointment,” said Dmitry Gudkov, the leader of the Party of Change, whose own candidacy to compete against Moscow’s incumbent mayor Sergey Sobyanin was derailed by “municipal filters” aimed at keeping critical voices off the ballot.

With only Kremlin-approved challengers allowed into the race, even seasoned political observers admitted they found it hard to identify Sobyanin’s competition.

“Honestly, I’m a political analyst and even I don’t know who the other candidates are,” said Anton Orekh, Echo of Moscow’s resident political observer, in an interview with VOA.

“And the majority of residents feel exactly the same,” he added. “It’s always been clear who will win these elections.  It is not even necessary to falsify the results. ”

Preliminary results showed Sobyanin receiving about 70 percent of the vote.

The new Moscow beckons

Mayor Sobyanin’s reelection bid was buoyed by years of Kremlin-funded urbanization projects that have transformed Moscow’s appearance, despite an economy weighed down by Western sanctions and persistent low world oil prices.

New parks and pedestrian walkways, glistening stadiums built for the World Cup 2018, and dozens of new metro stations have increasingly given the city, if not Western-style values, a more Western-style feel.

Sobyanin made a Moscow’s renewal the centerpiece of an otherwise lackluster campaign that featured few appearances and a refusal to participate in debates. President Putin, in turn, has backed Sobyanin’s urbanization projects and urged other regions to follow Moscow’s lead in creating what the Russian leader says should be more “citizen friendly” environments.

Protests and Arrests

Even amid what appeared to be landslide victories for a majority of pro-Kremlin candidates, Russia’s growing economic problems were also on display Sunday.

Russian opposition leader Alexey Navalny, currently serving a 30-day term for violating the country’s stringent protest laws, called nationwide protests against a proposal to raise the pension age that is deeply unpopular with the public.

The reform has sparked a wave of protests and sent Putin’s polling numbers on a downward slide, despite a televised address by the Russian leader to explain the move as a longterm fiscal necessity. Independent polls find 90 percent of Russians are opposed to the changes.

In Moscow, several thousand protesters gathered in downtown Pushkin Square to chants of “Impeachment,” “Putin is a Thief” and “It’s not reform, it’s robbery.”  Similar rallies were held in dozens of other cities.  They followed nationwide protests organized by Russia’s Communist Party last week.

“The government is robbing from my parents and from my generation as well,” said Andrei Kiripko, 22, a marketing student protesting in Moscow. “All I can do is fight for my country and my children’s future.”

“Unfortunately, many of my generation didn’t show up,” said Sergey, 51, a private business owner who declined to give his last name.  “Everyone I know doesn’t agree with the reform, but they’re not here because they’re scared of what will happen.”

More than 800 arrests were reported in cities across Russia by OVD-INFO, a local rights monitoring group.  Police routinely rounded up Navalny regional supporters in Novosibirsk, Tomsk, and Khabarovsk. In Yekaterinburg, former mayor Evegeny Roizman, a Navalny ally recently removed from his post, was detained by OMON troops for marching with demonstrators.

The authorities response was most aggressive in Moscow and Saint Petersburg, where demonstrators were beaten by baton-wielding OMON troops. The images immediately raised the specter of potential criminal charges and harsh prison sentences to follow.

The battle online

Political battles surrounding the day, meanwhile, extended far beyond the streets and onto social media.

In another sign the Kremlin was taking public discontent seriously, the government exerted pressure on opposition activities through Youtube, which Navalny has effectively harnessed to spread his political ideas, despite being largely banned from state media.

 

At the request of Russia’s internet governing body Rozkomnadzor, the U.S.-based video service blocked paid Navalny video advertisements in support of the protest, apparently agreeing the videos violated Russia’s “day of silence” law 24 hours ahead of voting.

“We consider all justified appeals from state bodies.  We also require advertisers to act in accordance with the local law and our advertising policies,” explained Google Russia, in an email published by Reuters.

“What Google did presents a clear case of political censorship,” countered Navalny aide Leonid Volkov, who addressed Google’s actions in a post to Facebook.  

Volkov was right, in part. Navalny’s Youtube channel continued to operate throughout Sunday’s events. But the blocked ads again raised questions about Western tech companies’ ability to find a balance between their oft-stated support for free speech and pursuit of business interests in repressive political environments.

 
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