Pakistani kidnappers want militants freed
MULTAN, Pakistan – The captors of a former Pakistani prime minister’s son demanded the release of several al-Qaida prisoners in exchange for his release, the former premier said Sunday.
Yusuf Raza Gilani said he spoke by phone for eight minutes to his son Ali Haider, who he believed was being held in Afghanistan.
Gunmen seized Haider in May 2013. In a video, later released purportedly by the Taliban, the militants claimed to be holding him hostage.
His son appeared to be in good condition, Gilani said.
Greece’s ruling party rejects debt default
ATHENS, Greece – A call by hardliners within Greece’s ruling radical left coalition, the Syriza Party, to not pay the next installment to the International Monetary Fund and to nationalize the country’s banks has been narrowly defeated.
Syriza’s central committee rejected the proposal by the party’s Left Platform on a vote of 95-75 and one blank vote. Thirty other members of the 201-member central committee already had left for their hometowns.
Earlier on Sunday, Left Platform leader Panayiotis Lafazanis declared “it would not be a catastrophe to exit the euro (nor) a terrorist act not to pay the next installment to the IMF.”
Interior Minister Nikos Voutsis, a senior Syriza member, said in a TV interview Sunday that Greece lacks the funds to pay the IMF installments, a total of 1.6 billion euros, in June.
Polish president concedes defeat
WARSAW, Poland – Polish President Bronislaw Komorowski conceded defeat in the county’s presidential election Sunday after an exit poll showed him trailing Andrzej Duda, a previously little-known right-wing politician.
If the exit poll is confirmed by official results, which are due Monday, it marks a significant blow to the ruling Civic Platform party ahead of more important parliamentary elections this year. The pro-market and pro-European party has overseen unprecedented growth during its eight years of power but now is being punished by voter disillusion.
Many Poles say they are fed up with corruption scandals that involved government members and with the fact that economic growth has not trickled down to many ordinary Poles.
Audiard’s ‘Dheepan’ claims Cannes win
CANNES, France – The 68th Cannes Film Festival was brought to a surprising close Sunday with Jacques Audiard’s Sri Lankan refugee drama taking the festival’s coveted top honor, the Palme d’Or.
The choice of “Dheepan,” as selected by a jury led by Joel and Ethan Coen, left some critics scratching their heads. While the dapper French filmmaker has drawn widespread acclaim for films such as “A Prophet” and “Rust and Bone,” some critics were disappointed by the thriller climax of Audiard’s film. “Dheepan” is about a trio of Sri Lankans who pretend to be a family in order to flee their war-torn country and are settled in a violent housing project outside Paris.
“This isn’t a jury of film critics,” Joel Coen told reporters after the awards ceremony, alongside fellow jurors such as Guillermo del Toro and Jake Gyllenhaal. “This is a jury of artists who are looking at the work.”
Jury members said “Dheepan” was chosen for its overall strength as a film rather than any topicality.
Associated Press
