'French Thatcher' Fillon wins France's Republican primary

French conservatives have picked François Fillon as their presidential candidate in next year's election.

Fillon easily beat Bordeaux Mayor Alain Juppé in the Republican party's first ever US-style primary runoff Sunday, getting about 66% of the vote.

"Victory is mine. It is a substantive victory built on belief," Fillon said as he spoke to supporters after his win. "We have all the assets to be a modern, sovereign nation in the lead in Europe."

Fillon could face far-right National Front Party leader Marine Le Pen in the final round of the presidential vote next spring, as voters are widely expected to boot out the Socialist Party that has ruled France since 2012 under the leadership of President Francois Hollande, whose popularity is waning.

"This past presidential term has been pathetic," Fillon said in criticizing Hollande. "It is time to end it and start moving forward as we have never done in 30 years. For this we will need everyone."

Sometimes called the "French Thatcher" for his apparent admiration of Britain's former leader, Fillon is a social conservative who has talked of ending France's famed 35-hour work week and getting tough with the country's powerful trade unions. He has also spoken of cutting public spending, abolishing the wealth tax, reducing immigration and investing billions in security, defense and justice.

A hard line on immigration has also bolstered Le Pen, whose anti-Europe stance is gaining popularity among French voters. In an interview with CNN last week, she said she'd been emboldened by Donald Trump's surprise victory in the United States.

"It makes the French realize that what the people want, they can get, if they mobilize themselves," she said.

Just a month ago, Fillon was considered an unlikely bet for the presidency, but he won over voters with a polished performance in televised debates.

Polls had him mostly in third place, but he apparently struck a popular tone in the country's fight against Islamic terrorism and ISIS after publishing a new book, "Beating Islamic Totalitarianism."

The first round of the primary, on November 20, put Fillon well ahead, with 44.1% of the vote. Juppé received 28.6% and former President Nicolas Sarkozy came in third with 20.6%, eliminating him from the final round.

Fillon, 62, is a lawyer who served as prime minister between 2007 and 2012 under Sarkozy. He has been compared to Britain's "Iron Lady," the late Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, for his hardline social policies.

French newspaper Liberation morphed Fillon's face with Thatcher's in a cover image this week -- no doubt inspired by the Republican's tough talk on unions and pledge to cut 500,000 jobs from the civil service.

As a Catholic from Le Mans, a city in northwest France, Fillon symbolizes the traditional provincial right.

The father of five lives with Welsh-born wife Penelope in a 12th-century castle near where he grew up. Fillon also is a race car enthusiast who once appeared on France's "Top Gear" TV program.

Juppé, 71, also served as prime minister -- from 1995 to 1997 under President Jacques Chirac.

He's seen as a reliable and experienced politician, and a center-right moderate who has promised to promote a "happy national identity" if he comes to power.

But he's also been tainted by scandal. While deputy mayor of Paris in charge of finance in the 1980s and 1990s, Juppé was accused of using public funds to pay political allies.

He was found guilty of corruption in 2004 and sentenced to 18 months in prison and barred from holding public office for a decade. His sentence was later reduced to 14 months imprisonment and one year of ineligibility.

Juppé was reelected mayor of Bordeaux in 2006, beginning a political comeback.

The father of three lives in the Bordeaux region with his journalist wife, Isabelle Legrand-Bodin.

Clinton to join recount that Trump calls 'scam'

Hillary Clinton's campaign said Saturday it will take part in efforts to push for recounts in several key states, joining with Green Party candidate Jill Stein, who has raised millions of dollars to have votes counted again in Wisconsin.

But, in a post on Medium, Marc Elias, the campaign's counsel, said the campaign's own investigation has not uncovered any evidence of hacking of voting systems.

In the campaign's most detailed comments to date on the recount, Elias wrote that while the campaign was not going to contest the results itself, it has decided now to take part in the effort to "ensure that it is fair to all sides."

But President-elect Donald Trump on Saturday dismissed the recount and said that "the election is over."

"The people have spoken and the election is over, and as Hillary Clinton herself said on election night, in addition to her conceding by congratulating me, 'We must accept this result and then look to the future,'" Trump said in a statement, which called the recount "ridiculous" in a headline.

A 'scam'

The President-elect blasted the Green Party's effort as a "scam" and accused the party's nominee, Jill Stein, of trying to reel in donations that she won't actually spend on a recount.

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Donald J. Trump 

✔@realDonaldTrump

The Green Party scam to fill up their coffers by asking for impossible recounts is now being joined by the badly defeated & demoralized Dems

1:31 AM - 27 Nov 2016

 
•  22,59222,592 Retweets
 
•  64,85264,852 likes

"This recount is just a way for Jill Stein, who received less than one percent of the vote overall and wasn't even on the ballot in many states, to fill her coffers with money, most of which she will never even spend on this ridiculous recount," Trump said. "This is a scam by the Green Party for an election that has already been conceded, and the results of this election should be respected instead of being challenged and abused, which is exactly what Jill Stein is doing."

Stein dismissed Trump's suggestion that the funds wouldn't be spent on the recount.

"For his information, this is all going into a dedicated and segregated account so that it can only be spent on the recount,".

"He may be creating his own facts here as he's been known to do some times in the past," Stein added. "He himself said it was rigged election unless he won it."

On Saturday night, Trump tweeted, "The Green Party scam to fill up their coffers by asking for impossible recounts is now being joined by the badly defeated & demoralized Dems."

Discrepancies

Green Party officials filed Friday for a recount in Wisconsin after reports of voting discrepancies.

Wisconsin Green Party co-chairman George Martin said that the party was seeking a "reconciliation of paper records" -- a request that would go one step further than a simple recount, which is expected to begin next week, and that he hopes will spur an investigation into the integrity of the state's voting system.

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Dr. Jill Stein 

✔@DrJillStein

I will do a recount in any state where the deadline has not passed. Help my staff find state deadlines: http://ceimn.org  #Recount2016

9:30 PM - 26 Nov 2016

 
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"This is a process, a first step to examine whether our electoral democracy is working," Martin said.

Stein tweeted Saturday that she's willing to expand the recount to other states.

"I will do a recount in any state where the deadline has not passed. Help my staff find state deadlines ... #Recount2016," she said.

Elias said the campaign had been quietly investigating accusations for a while and had received hundreds of requests that it do so.

"Because we had not uncovered any actionable evidence of hacking or outside attempts to alter the voting technology, we had not planned to exercise this option ourselves, but now that a recount has been initiated in Wisconsin, we intend to participate in order to ensure the process proceeds in a manner that is fair to all sides," Elias wrote on Medium.

"If Jill Stein follows through as she has promised and pursues recounts in Pennsylvania and Michigan, we will take the same approach in those states as well," he added.

Brian Fallon, spokesman for the Clinton campaign, said the team would not have sought the recount on its own and that they see no evidence of tampering so far.

"We note we are guarding our prerogatives now that someone else has launched a recount. Not sure what you could point to to suggest there is anything here that calls the results into question,".

Interference?

In addition to Trump's total combined margin of victory in Michigan, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania being about 107,000 votes -- by contrast, the Florida margin in Bush-Gore was 537 ballots -- Elias said concerns about Russia's interference in the election continue to raise concerns.

"This election cycle was unique in the degree of foreign interference witnessed throughout the campaign: the U.S. government concluded that Russian state actors were behind the hacks of the Democratic National Committee and the personal email accounts of Hillary for America campaign officials, and just yesterday, the Washington Post reported that the Russian government was behind much of the "fake news" propaganda that circulated online in the closing weeks of the election," he wrote.

A senior administration official said in a statement that there is no evidence of any hacking.

"The federal government did not observe any increased level of malicious cyber activity aimed at disrupting our electoral process on Election Day," the official said. "As we have noted before, we remained confident in the overall integrity of electoral infrastructure, a confidence that was borne out on Election Day. As a result, we believe our elections were free and fair from a cybersecurity perspective."

Two million

The Clinton campaign has met with lawyers, data scientists and analysts to assess anomalies in the results that would suggest a hacked result. Private meetings with outside experts involved sharing both groups concerns about the data and findings.

Clinton's team said they investigated every theory presented and examined laws and practices pertaining to recounts, contests and audits.

"And most importantly, we have monitored and staffed the post-election canvasses -- where voting machine tapes are compared to poll-books, provisional ballots are resolved, and all of the math is double checked from election night," Elias said. "During that process, we have seen Secretary Clinton's vote total grow, so that, today, her national popular vote lead now exceeds more than 2 million votes."

The campaign plans to move forward in monitoring activities to better understand the results.

"In the coming days, we will continue to perform our due diligence and actively follow all further activities that are to occur prior to the certification of any election results," he said.

It is "unfortunate" that all states don't conduct "post-election" audits.

"Wisconsin and Pennsylvania conduct post-election audits using a sampling of precincts. Michigan and many other states still do not," Elias wrote. "This is unfortunate; it is our strong belief that, in addition to an election canvass, every state should do this basic audit to ensure accuracy and public confidence in the election."

CRICKET: India v England LIVE! HAPPENING NOW

09:43

Over 51 – India 148-2 (Pujara 51, Kohli 40)Another over gives India another chance to dine out on some loose stuff, Batty serving up some tasty offerings from around the wicket. Kohli pulls a short ball for four and suddenly 32 runs have been scored off the last 32 balls. Batty remonstrates with himself but it's tough lines not tough words that England require.

09:34

Over 48 – India 127-2 (Pujara 45, Kohli 25)
Bairstow tries to inject a bit of noise into England’s attack by appealing twice for lbw against Kohli when the ball hits the middle of the bat. One can only assume that’s the ploy, anyway, other it’s clear his minces have gone. (Mince pies = eyes)

08:57

Over 38 – India 98-2 (Pujara 23, Kohli 18)
Kohli has to quickly readjust as Rashid finds sharp turn form around leg-stump.  Closing the face is now something of a risk but Kohli does pilfer one through square leg before Pujara attempts to cut at one that is too close to him, the ball beating the edge and clattering into Bairstow’s gloves.

05:54

Over 6 – India 18-0 (Vijay 6, Parthiv 12)
Parthiv successfully reviews after being given ‘out’ caught down the leg-side off Woakes. Umpire Erasmus took his time and gave it but Parthiv reviewed straight away and replays show why, the ball clearly clipping shirt rather than bat.

05:49

Over 5 – India 18-0 (Vijay 6, Parthiv 12)
Anderson appears to have accepted the umpires’ decision on that Vijay incident and settles back into his task but is unable to cut off a straight push from the opener that brings two runs. England could well get a lesson on this pitch because it seems that if you get anywhere near to timing it, fielders have little chance in chasing it down.

05:45

Over 4 – India 16-0 (Vijay 4, Parthiv 12)
The key point here in the law, perhaps, is that Vijay didn’t seek to wilfully obstruct the field. More of this anon, no doubt, but for now let’s focus on a glorious drive down the ground by Parthiv, who then rather fortunately edges Woakes past his stumps and Bairstow for a second four in as many balls. Balance is on the field in place of Hameed, who is struggling after being hit on the finger again yesterday. Update to follow.

05:42

Over 3 – India 12-0 (Vijay 4, Parthiv 4)
Parthiv’s record (before that four) was a rather unimpressive 683 runs in 21 Tests, at an average of 29.70, but his last stroke suggested better is to come. That’s certainly true of Vijay, who pulls high and handsome for four. The over ends in some controversy as Anderson fields off his own bowling and then with Vijay out of his crease shies at the stumps. The ball raps Vijay on the pad and Anderson asks the question of the umpires. They confer and decide not to refer the decision upstairs, presumably because Vijay neither got in the way as much as he got out of it.

05:35

Over 2 – India 4-0 (Vijay 0, Parthiv 4)
Wow – the seamers have had their Weetabix this morning. Woakes angles his first ball across Parthiv and beats his man on the drive without quite finding the edge. The left-hander then attempts a quick single to Anderson in the covers but is sent back by Vijay. Nervy stuff by the man playing his first Test for eight years. He does open his account – and India’s – though with a neat clip off his pads for four from the final delivery of the over

05:30

Over 1 – India 0-0 (Vijay 0, Parthiv 0)
Anderson does follow Shami’s example – hitting a decent length straight away to Vijay without enjoying his counterpart’s success. Three slips but no gully in place as umpire Gaffaney has an early look at where Anderson is following through on the pitch without having a word. Vijay covers up nicely as Anderson ends the over targeting off-stump and it is a maiden.

Syrian army captures part of rebel-held east Aleppo

The Syrian army said it had taken control of an important district in rebel-held eastern Aleppo on Saturday after fierce fighting, with rebels blaming intense air strikes and lack of hospitals for their collapsing frontline.

Government forces advanced with a ground and air assault on the edge of the besieged eastern half of the city into the Hanano housing area, a move designed to split the rebel-held east in two.

Syria's war: 'There's no food in Aleppo's shops or markets'

Aleppo, which was Syria's biggest city before the start of a civil war that has killed hundreds of thousands of people, is divided between the government-held west and rebel-held east, where UN officials say at least 250,000 people are under siege.

Capturing all of Aleppo would be a major victory for Syrian President Bashar al-Assad after five and a half years of fighting.

The army said in a statement it had, alongside its allies, taken full control over the Hanano housing district, which is on the northeast frontline of the eastern sector.

"Engineering teams are removing mines and improvised explosive devices planted by terrorists in the squares and streets," the statement said.

The Syrian government calls all forces fighting against it "terrorists".

An official in an Aleppo rebel group said a map circulated by pro-government media showing government forces in control of the Hanano area was largely accurate.

The UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the army had established control over Hanano, which was the first part of Aleppo taken over by armed opposition groups in 2012.

A renewed air assault on residential and frontline parts of east Aleppo began last Tuesday after a weeks-long pause in air strikes and shelling there.

“Every day there are a lot of attacks, helicopters dropping barrelbombs and war planes dropping bunker-buster bombs and cluster munitions,” Modar Shekho, an emergency nurse in al-Shaar neighbourhood.

An official from Jabha Shamiya, one of the biggest groups fighting against Assad in northern Syria, told Reuters news agency: "The revolutionaries are fighting fiercely but the volume of bombardments and the intensity of the battles, the dead and the wounded, and the lack of hospitals, are all playing a role in the collapse of these frontlines."

Members of Jabha Shamiya have taken part in the fighting in Hanano.

He condemned the "international silence" and said the government and its allies were trying to exploit the period before the next US administration took over.

"The Iranians, Russians and regime know there is a vacuum and they are trying to exploit it using all means," he said.

"We are in touch with the friendly states but unfortunately Aleppo is being left to be slaughtered."

Yasser al-Yousef, from the political office of the Nour al-Din al-Zinki rebel group, said rebel fighters had fought fiercely for more than 48 hours to defend Hanano and the southern front of east Aleppo from heavy government bombardment.

A Syrian state television reporter broadcast live from a part of Hanano on Saturday as government forces sought to establish full control over the area. Gunshots could be heard and behind him damaged buildings and rising smoke could be seen.

Rebels say much of Hanano has been empty of residents for some months.

Syrian state media said the army had secured the safe passage of at least 150 people out of Hanano, and showed pictures of people it said were evacuated residents in a reception centre.

In the 12 days since the renewed bombardment on east Aleppo, at least 201 civilians, including 27 children, have died in the besieged sector, the Observatory said. There were 134 rebel fighter deaths.

The monitor also documented 19 civilian deaths, including 11 children, and dozens of injuries as a result of rebel shelling of government-held west Aleppo.

Rebel shelling into the Sheikh Maqsoud district, which is under the control of the Kurdish YPG militia, has killed three people, it said.

Syrian state news agency SANA said three people died and 15 were injured on Saturday when rebels fired rockets into government-held west Aleppo.

Donald Trump calls Fidel Castro 'brutal dictator'

Cuba's former leader Fidel Castro was a "brutal dictator", US President-elect Donald Trump has said, hours after the 90-year-old's death was announced.

Mr Trump, who takes office in January, said he hoped Cubans could move towards a freer future.

Castro came to power in 1959 and ushered in a Communist revolution. He defied the US for decades, surviving many assassination plots.

Supporters said he returned Cuba to the people. Critics called him a dictator.

His brother Raul, who succeeded him as president, announced his death on state television on Friday night.

In a statement, Mr Trump said that while Cuba remained "a totalitarian island, it is my hope that today marks a move away from the horrors endured for too long, and toward a future in which the wonderful Cuban people finally live in the freedom they so richly deserve".

The US cut ties with Cuba in 1961 amid rising Cold War tensions and imposed a strict economic embargo which remains in place more than half a century on.

Under Barack Obama, the relationship warmed and diplomatic ties were restored in 2015.

Mr Trump roundly criticised Mr Obama's policy on the campaign trail but made no mention of his pledge to reverse it in his statement, saying his administration would do all it could to ensure Cubans could "begin their journey toward prosperity and liberty".

Mr Obama, meanwhile, said history would "record and judge the enormous impact" of Castro. America was extending "a hand of friendship to the Cuban people" at this time, he added.

Castro was the longest serving non-royal leader of the 20th Century. He had been retired from political life for several years, after handing power to his brother in 2006 because of illness.

He will be cremated later on Saturday at a private ceremony in Havana and a period of official mourning has been declared on the island until 4 December, when his ashes will be laid to rest in the south-eastern city of Santiago.

News of his death left some in Havana stunned. "I always said it couldn't be," said one woman, a government employee. "Even though they said it now, I say it can't be."

But Cuban dissident group Ladies in White, which was founded by wives of jailed dissidents, tweeted: "May God forgive him, I won't".

In Miami, where there is a large Cuban community, there have been celebrations in some parts of the city, with people banging pots and cheering.

So much of Fidel Castro's legacy is defined by the relationship of the US with the Cuba that he controlled. But given his withdrawal into the background in recent years, what impact will his passing really have in that regard?

It was the Obama philosophy that more influence could be exerted on Cuba by being more of a friend to the regime than through isolation.

While he had said differently in the past, as a presidential candidate Donald Trump became more and more hard-line, even talking of reversing the decisions made by Barack Obama on Cuba, such that many of the Cuban-Americans who took to the streets of Miami to celebrate Castro's death even carried "Trump" signs.

In a sense though, Castro's death gives Mr Trump room for manoeuvre in his tough stance towards the Cuban regime to make more progress, particularly in the economic relationship between the two countries.

The same Cuban-Americans praising him now will be watching closely to see if he keeps to his promise of demanding real reform in Cuba before adhering to the commitments made by his predecessor.

How Castro defied the US

Throughout the Cold War, Fidel Castro was a thorn in Washington's side.

An accomplished tactician on the battlefield, he and his small army of guerrillas overthrew the military leader Fulgencio Batista in 1959 to widespread popular support.

Within two years of taking power, he declared the revolution to be Marxist-Leninist in nature and allied Cuba firmly to the Soviet Union - a move that led to the missile crisis in 1962, bringing the world to the brink of nuclear war before the Soviet Union abandoned its plan to put missiles on Cuban soil.

Despite the constant threat of a US invasion as well as the long-standing economic embargo on the island, Castro managed to maintain a communist revolution in a nation just 90 miles (145km) off the coast of Florida.

Despised by his critics as much as he was revered by his followers, he maintained his rule through 10 US presidents and survived scores of attempts on his life by the CIA.

He established a one-party state, with hundreds of supporters of the Batista government executed. Political opponents have been imprisoned, the independent media suppressed. Thousands of Cubans have fled into exile.

How has the world reacted?

Many world leaders have paid tribute to Castro. Russian President Vladimir Putin described him as a "reliable and sincere friend" of Russia, while Chinese President Xi Jinping said his people had "lost a good and true comrade".

The Soviet Union's last leader, Mikhail Gorbachev, said: "Fidel stood up and strengthened his country during the harshest American blockade, when there was colossal pressure on him."

UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon acknowledged advances in education, literary and health under Castro, but said he hoped Cuba would "continue to advance on a path of reform, greater prosperity and human rights".

Pope Francis, who met Castro, an atheist, when he visited Cuba in 2015, called his death "sad news".

In Venezuela, Cuba's main regional ally, President Nicolas Maduro said "revolutionaries of the world must follow his legacy".