Macron’s party set for sweep
PARIS— Candidates in the runoff of French parliamentary elections hit the campaigntrail on Monday, shaken by a record abstention rate in the first round and the prospect of a sweep by President Emmanuel Macron’s new party that would shatter the political landscape.
Lessthan half of registered voters— 48.7 percent — cast ballots on Sunday, the Interior Ministry said in its final count themorning after. Those who did gave Mr. Macron’s Republic on the Move party over 28 percent of the vote — more than12 points ahead of its closes trival, the mainstream conservatives.
If the sweep holds as expectedin next Sunday’s final round, lawmakers for Mr. Macron’s party, many of them new to politics, could take morethan 400 seats in the 577seat National Assembly, the lowerhouse — unprecedented in the Fifth Republic.
Gay Chechens welcomed
BERLIN— Countries across Europe, including Germany and Lithuania, have begun opening their doors to gay Chechen refugees on the grounds that they have been persecuted because of their sexual orientation.
The German Foreign Ministry confirmed Friday that it has admitted one man, who arrived in the country Tuesday, on a special visa on humanitarian grounds. Three othermen have met with officials at the German Embassy in Moscow, a ministry spokeswoman said, while another man’s application is being reviewed.
In mid-May, Lithuania’s foreign minister announced that his government had granted visas to two Chechens who “suffered persecution because of their sexual orientation.” And last week, Joel Deumier, president of the French gay rights group SOS Homophobie, said a Chechen refugee had arrived in France.
3 Afghan civilians killed
JALALABAD, Afghanistan — Three civilians were killed after a roadside bomb hit a convoy of U.S. soldiers early Monday in Nangarhar province, in eastern Afghanistan, according to Afghan officials in the area.
The civilians were killed when soldiers opened fire afterthe explosion. The U.S. military said that none of its personnel had been wounded. It addedthat though there was an exchange of gunfire after the bombing, it had received no official reports of civilian casualties.
Gunmen free prisoners
KINSHASA, Democratic Republic of Congo — Armed men stormed the Kangbayi prison on Sunday in the Democratic Republic of Congo, freeing more than 900 inmates, most of them charged with taking part in mass killings in the country’s restive northeast.
Julien Paluku, the governor of North Kivu province, where the episode occurred, said the government had not yet identified the attackers. Of the966 inmates who were held inthe prison, only 30 remained. Eight guards and three other people were killed.
Facebook death sentence
Taimoor Raza, 30, of Pakistan has been sentenced to death after conviction for committing “blasphemy” on Facebook, the latest incident in the country’s widening crackdown on dissent on social media.
The Shiite man was sentenced after he was found guilty of making derogatory remarks about the prophet Muhammad, his wives and others. The details of his specific comments were unclear. But the sentence was the first such death sentence for a Facebook post in Pakistan.