World

PARIS — France's far right planned to rally supporters on Sunday after their leader Marine Le Pen was convicted of embezzlement and banned from public office, a move that set the country's political scene alight ahead of 2027 presidential elections.

The bombshell judgement stunned France's political establishment, and some leftwing forces and the centrist camp also planned to stage counter-rallies on Sunday.

"People of France, let us mobilise to defend freedom, save democracy and support Marine!" Le Pen's National Rally (RN) party said on X ahead of the protest in Paris.

The far right is on the rise in France. Polls indicate Le Pen, 56, would easily top the first round of the two-round presidential vote if she ran.

She describes herself as the "favourite" to succeed President Emmanuel Macron.

On Monday, Le Pen, 56, was found guilty of embezzling European Parliament funds and given a partly suspended jail term and an immediate ban on holding public office.

Her supporters branded the ruling politically motivated, but Macron insisted the French judiciary is "independent".

US President Donald Trump called the sentence a "witch hunt" by "European leftists using lawfare to silence free speech, and censor their political opponent".

Prime Minister Francois Bayrou rejected that remark as "interference" in French affairs, in a newspaper interview released Saturday.

He added that it was "neither healthy nor desirable" to stage a demonstration against the court ruling, insisting French institutions allowed for "the separation of powers and the defence of justice".

"The Republic is under threat," Greens leader Marine Tondelier said on X, urging supporters to rally in central Paris on Sunday.

Macron's Renaissance party, led by former prime minister Gabriel Attal, 36, gathered in the northern working-class Paris suburb of Seine-Denis. Bayrou has been invited to attend the meeting, which has been in preparation for weeks.

"One of the questions that will arise on Sunday is whether or not we want France to become Trump's America", said one of Attal's associates.

‘Victimisation' 

Jordan Bardella, the 29-year-old head of the National Rally, said the ruling would only boost support for the party.

He has called the far-right rally in Place Vauban in Paris's affluent 7th district "a mobilisation not against, but in support of French democracy."

According to police sources, 8,000 people are expected to attend.

Le Pen has worked to turn the party into an electable mainstream force and rid it of the legacy of her father, its co-founder Jean-Marie Le Pen, who died in January and was frequently accused of racism.

The latest survey by pollster Elabe for broadcaster BFMTV, released Saturday, showed her with up to 36 per cent of the vote.

Even some of her fiercest opponents say the far-right leader should be allowed to stand in the 2027 vote. She has lodged an appeal.

But now Le Pen risks seeing years of progress undone, political observers say.

After the ruling, she accused authorities of using a "nuclear bomb" against her.

She compared herself to Alexei Navalny, the jailed Russian opposition leader who died in an Arctic prison in 2024 after being jailed under President Vladimir Putin.

"Indecent to the end," said left-leaning daily Liberation in its verdict on that claim.

"She is forced to adopt an anti-establishment point of view and position," said Jean-Yves Dormagen, president of Cluster17, an opinion analysis institute.

"Victimisation works with her voters."

The National Rally is the largest single party in parliament and can complicate life for Bayrou, who does not have a majority in the lower house.

His predecessor Michel Barnier was ejected from office last December in a move backed by Le Pen.

The Paris Court of Appeal said it would examine Le Pen's case within a timeframe that could potentially allow her to contest the polls if her conviction is overturned or her sentence changed.

WASHINGTON — Washington is revoking all visas for South Sudanese passport holders and blocking new arrivals, Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Saturday, complaining the African nation is not accepting its nationals expelled from the United States.

The State Department "is taking actions to revoke all visas held by South Sudanese passport holders and prevent further issuance to prevent entry," Rubio said in a statement.

It was the first such measure singling out all passport holders from a particular country since Donald Trump returned to the White House on January 20, having campaigned on an anti-immigration platform.

Rubio accused the transitional government in Juba of "taking advantage of the United States," saying that "every country must accept the return of its citizens in a timely manner when another country... seeks to remove them."

Washington "will be prepared to review these actions when South Sudan is in full cooperation," Rubio added.

The world's newest country and also one of the poorest, South Sudan is currently prey to tensions between political leaders.

Some observers fear a renewal of the civil war that killed 400,000 people between 2013 and 2018.

YANGON — The death toll from a major earthquake in Myanmar has risen above 3,300, state media said Saturday, as the United Nations aid chief made a renewed call for the world to help the disaster-struck nation.

The March 28 quake flattened buildings and destroyed infrastructure across the country, resulting in 3,354 deaths and 4,508 people injured, with 220 others missing, according to new figures published by state media.

More than one week after the disaster, many people in the country are still without shelter, either forced to sleep outdoors because their homes were destroyed or wary of further collapses.

A United Nations estimate suggests that more than three million people may have been affected by the 7.7-magnitude quake, compounding previous challenges caused by four years of civil war.

The UN's top aid official on Saturday met with victims in the central Myanmar city of Mandalay, situated close to the epicentre and now grappling with severe damage across the city.

"The destruction is staggering," Tom Fletcher wrote in a post on X.

"The world must rally behind the people of Myanmar".

The new toll was announced after the country's military junta chief Min Aung Hlaing returned from a rare foreign trip to a regional summit in Bangkok on Friday, where he met with leaders including the prime ministers of Thailand and India.

The general's attendance at the summit courted controversy, with protesters at the venue displaying a banner calling him a "murderer" and anti-junta groups condemning his inclusion.

His armed forces have ruled Myanmar since a 2021 coup, when they wrested power from the civilian government of Aung San Suu Kyi, sparking a multi-sided conflict that has yet to be resolved.

The junta has reportedly conducted dozens of attacks since the earthquake, including at least 16 since a temporary truce was announced on Wednesday, the UN said Friday.

Years of fighting have left Myanmar's economy and infrastructure in tatters, significantly hampering international efforts to provide relief since the quake.

China, Russia and India were among the first countries to provide support, sending rescue teams to Myanmar to help locate survivors.

The United States has traditionally been at the forefront of international disaster relief, but President Donald Trump has dismantled the country's humanitarian aid agency.

Washington said Friday it was adding $7 million on top of an earlier $2 million in assistance to Myanmar.

SEOUL — Thousands protested in the South Korean capital Saturday in support of disgraced ex-president Yoon Suk Yeol, who was removed from office a day earlier over his bungled martial law declaration.

South Korea's Constitutional Court unanimously ruled on Friday to remove Yoon over the December 3 attempt to subvert civilian rule, triggering fresh elections to be held by June after months of political turmoil.

A long wait for the court's ruling had heightened tensions in the Asian nation, fuelling far-right support for Yoon and weekly rival rallies in capital Seoul.

His supporters took to the streets in the capital and braved the rain on Saturday, chanting "impeachment is invalid!" and "nullify the snap election!"

"The Constitutional Court's decision destroyed our country's free democracy," said protester Yang Joo-young, 26.

"Speaking as someone in my 20s or 30s, I'm deeply worried about the future."

Yoon had defended his martial law attempt as necessary to root out "anti-state forces" and what he claimed were threats from North Korea.

But there were many scenes of jubilation in Seoul on Friday from those opposed to Yoon's rule, with people hugging and crying after the ruling was delivered.

Yet Yoon had found backing from extreme religious figures and right-wing YouTubers who experts say used misinformation to court support for the former star prosecutor.

"Yoon's presidency has revealed the societal cracks based on political polarisation and misinformation," Minseon Ku, a postdoctoral fellow at William & Mary Global Research Institute, told AFP.

The court ruled that Yoon's actions in December had posed a "grave threat" to the country's stability.

Opposition leader Lee Jae-myung is seen as the frontrunner in the next election, experts say, and his party has taken a more conciliatory approach towards North Korea.

Some Yoon supporters were worried about the prospect of a Lee presidency.

"I honestly believe South Korea is finished," said pro-Yoon supporter Park Jong-hwan, 59.

"It feels like we've already transitioned into a socialist, communist state."

ATHENS — Seven people, including three children, died and 23 others were rescued Thursday when an inflatable boat carrying migrants capsized off the Greek island of Lesbos, the coast guard said.

The coast guard initially said four bodies had been discovered in the Aegean Sea but after a search by patrol boats, three others were found, a spokeswoman told AFP.

The boat was carrying about 30 people and capsized in mild weather a short distance from the coast of neighbouring Turkey.

The dead adults included three women and one man, the coast guard said. The 23 survivors were from Syria and Afghanistan and were taken to a reception centre for migrants in Lesbos, they added.

Greece's location in the far southeast of Europe in the eastern Mediterranean Sea makes its islands a common passage for undocumented migrants from Asia and the Middle East trying to reach western Europe.

Deaths are commonplace during the perilous crossing. The UN said nearly 2,333 people were reported to have died last year.

Last month, Greek maritime police said one migrant died and 18 others were rescued after a smuggler abandoned them as they tried to cross from Turkey.

According to the UN refugee agency, nearly 9,000 people have entered Greece since the start of the year, most of them by sea.

There were over 54,000 entries in 2024, according to the agency's figures.

Greece's conservative government has hardened the country's stance on migration.

"If you want to enter Greece illegally and are not entitled to asylum, we will do whatever we can to send you back where you came from," Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis said in parliament on Wednesday.

"Smugglers and NGOs cooperating with them will not determine who enters our country," he said.

GENEVA — UN rights chief Volker Turk said Thursday that he was "appalled" by reports of extrajudicial killings of civilians in Sudan's capital Khartoum last week after its recapture by the army from the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces.

"I am utterly appalled by the credible reports of numerous incidents of summary executions of civilians in several areas of Khartoum, on apparent suspicions that they were collaborating with the Rapid Support Forces," Turk said in a statement.

The RSF, led by Mohamed Hamdan Daglo, has been battling the army, led by Sudan's de facto leader Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, since April 2023.

Last week the army said it had retaken full control of Khartoum after weeks of attacks on the capital by the paramilitaries, though Daglo said his forces had only "repositioned". 

An activist group, the Sudanese resistance committee, said Wednesday that at least 85 people had been killed in one week during the fighting.

"I urge the commanders of the Sudanese Armed Forces to take immediate measures to put an end to arbitrary deprivation of life," Turk said.

He said his office had reviewed "horrific videos" on social media since March 26 apparently showing armed men "executing civilians in cold blood" in southern and eastern Khartoum. 

"In some videos, perpetrators state that they are punishing supporters of RSF," the statement said.