FRANCE

Voters turned out in record numbers May 6 to elect Nicolas Sarkozy as France’s new president in the second round of an election some analysts have described as the most contentious in French history. Preliminary counts gave the center-right Sarkozy 53 percent of votes and his opponent, Socialist Segolene Royal, 47 percent. Later in the day, police used tear gas to break up 300 rioters in Paris protesting Sarkozy’s election.

The International Criminal Court in The Hague issued the first arrest warrants for suspected war crimes in Sudan’s Darfur region May 2, but the Sudanese government has refused to recognize the court’s authority. Sudan’s humanitarian affairs minister and a militia leader are charged with facilitating the rape, murder and torture of civilians in Darfur.

Hundreds of Serbian former militiamen from the Balkan Wars of the 1990s gathered in central Serbia May 5 to pledge renewed violence if Kosovo is granted independence. The United States and its allies have backed a United Nations proposal for an independent Kosovo, a region of Serbia that’s mostly ethnically Albanian.

Politicians agreed May 3 to hold early presidential elections July 22, after opposition parties boycotted a presidential vote May 6, rendering the vote invalid and causing the ruling Justice and Development (AK) Party candidate Abdullah Gul to withdraw. The secular opposition has said Turkey’s secular state will be threatened if the Islamist AK Party controls both the presidency and Parliament.

Two rival politicians agreed May 4 to work together to set a date for parliamentary elections. On April 2, President Viktor Yushchenko ordered early elections in late May. His main rival, Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovich, head of a coalition with a parliamentary majority, called that decree unconstitutional and accused the president of manipulating his way into gaining parliamentary control.

Eight peacekeeping soldiers from France and one from Canada died when their plane crashed in Egypt’s Sinai region May 6, the French Defense Ministry said. The crash cuts France’s 15-person peacekeeping contingent in Egypt by more than half. Reports said the plane had been flying lower than normal before it crashed.

EXAM 

The ruling three-party coalition decided May 3 to postpone the introduction of a common nationwide-wide high-school exit exam for at least two years, daily Mladá fronta Dnes reported May 5. Thousands of students protested in Prague May 4 against government plans to introduce the exam as early as next year.

The administration of U.S. president George W. Bush confirmed May 3 it will proceed with negotiations this month to build a U.S. radar base in Bohemia and a missile base in Poland as part of the U.S. missile defense system. John Rood, assistant secretary of state for international security, told lawmakers he will lead the U.S. delegation traveling to Warsaw and Prague in late May.

A bill proposing to create an institute documenting periods of communist and Nazi oppression passed in Parliament’s lower house May 2. The Institute for the Study of Totalitarian Regimes, originally called the Institute of National Memory, was fiercely opposed by deputies from the Social Democratic Party (ČSSD), who boycotted the vote.

Members of the ODS-led Cabinet have criticized a financial reform plan proposed by ODS Deputy Vlastimil Tlustý including a 12 percent flat tax, daily Právo said May 5. Tlustý has threatened to vote down Finance Minister Miroslav Kalousek’s planned reforms, and came up with his own instead. Kalousek’s plan, unveiled April 3, includes a 15 percent flat tax.

President Václav Klaus praised the May 6 election of center-right candidate Nicolas Sarkozy as France’s new president. Sarkozy will bring positive reforms to both France and the European Union, Klaus told the Czech News Agency.