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Sunday 22 April 2012
Following a four-year manhunt, the UK is awaiting the arrival of Michael Brown, the multi-millionaire fraudster and Lib Dem donor who was living in a Dominican Republic resort under a false name.»>
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Good morning to everyone and welcome to another edition of your Sunday Morning Liveblog. My name is Jason, and these are my quickly-typed words. Is everybody doing well? Let’s hope so. I really don’t have much of a preamble today, but in the interest of giving everyone something to do this Sunday while I “take one for the team” and watch the parade of horribles on the teevee screen, here is Conor Friedersdorf annual list of the years best journalism. Some of you will recognize some stories we’ve already shared in this space, like Willy Staley’s “A Conspiracy of Hogs: The McRib As Arbitrage” and Mac McClelland’s “I’m Gonna Need You to Fight Me On This.”
And, of course, while we’re on this subject, our own David Wood won this fancy award you might have heard about for his wonderful “Beyond The Battlefield: Rebuilding Wounded Warriors” series, so if you haven’t already checked that out, please do! I promise to just sit here quitely, typing nonsense, while all of you get your enjoyment on. As always, you all can get together in the comments to talk about these stories or your own, feel free to drop me a line, and if you’re particularly interested in my daily agonies, you can follow me on Twitter.
Okay, let us commence.
FOX NEWS SUNDAY
[More liveblog is coming in just a minute!]
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It doesn’t take a college degree to start tackling Detroit’s problems and making the city a greener, more walkable place. While Wayne State University student Kyle Bartell, a native Detroiter, works to complete his Urban Studies degree, he’s also spending time trying to create public parks.
“Living here in the city, that’s been one of the biggest educators for me,” Bartell said. “It’s given me the first-hand experience of wanting to get involved.”
When Bartell looked at ways Detroit could become friendlier to its residents, he started noticing “desire paths.” Also called social trails, these paths are tread by people walking across land where there are no official walkways. Pedestrians create their own paths simply by wearing down the grass. For examples of the many desire paths in Detroit, see the Sweet Juniper blog.
Rather than forcing people to walk where the concrete lies, Bartell proposes designing around users’ needs to make open spaces more welcoming. A vacant lot at Lothrop Road and Third Street in Detroit’s New Center neighborhood caught his eye for its beautiful trees and the desire path created by people walking between a parking garage and Henry Ford Hospital.
Bartell, along with partners and recent University of Michigan architecture graduates Maria Sviridova and Danny Travis, submitted a proposal to Midtown Inc. to develop and improve the space. And that corner is just the beginning — it’s a project Bartell would like to replicate across the city.
“The momentum to using underutilized space is only up and up, and we want to take advantage of it as much as we can,” he said.
In the meantime, Bartell, Sviridova and Travis decided to take their proposal off-paper. They chose a patch of land at Cass Avenue and Canfield Street in Midtown, on the side of the Knickerbocker building, that has its own desire path. They started improving the land with the owner’s permission.
“We live in the area, and we’re taking it upon ourselves to make it better where we live,” Bartell explained.
The space is technically a vacant lot, not a public park, but they built unique benches and designed a plan for the space to give a concrete, visual example of their ideas for parks across the city.
Bartell, who grew up on Detroit’s northwest side, fondly remembers the parks of his childhood where he would play sports.
“It’s the place-based education that got me motivated to do something and make Detroit better on a more physical level,” he said. “It’s a no-brainer — everyone should want to get involved in making our environments a lot cleaner and safer.”
Also on HuffPost:
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DETROIT — Justin Verlander pitched six innings without allowing an earned run, and the Detroit Tigers salvaged a split of their doubleheader with Texas, beating the Rangers 3-2 in the nightcap Saturday.
Texas routed the Tigers 10-4 in the first game for its eighth consecutive victory, but Verlander (2-1) held off the powerful Rangers, allowing four hits and three walks while striking out eight. The Rangers managed an unearned run in the fourth, but Detroit answered with three runs in the bottom of the inning against Neftali Feliz (1-1).
Octavio Dotel pitched the seventh for Detroit, Joaquin Benoit allowed a run in the eighth and Jose Valverde walked two in the ninth but struck out Josh Hamilton to end it, picking up his fourth save.
Texas third baseman Adrian Beltre left with a strained left hamstring after hitting a second-inning double in Saturday’s opener. He’s not expected to play for the rest of the weekend.
Five days after throwing a 131-pitch complete game in a win at Kansas City, Verlander labored against Texas, throwing his 100th pitch in the fifth inning and reaching 115 before coming out.
He allowed a run on a walk, a passed ball and two flyouts in the fourth, but that was it. Verlander has now gone at least six innings in his last 46 regular-season starts.
Feliz retired the first 10 hitters he faced with ease, but when he hit Brennan Boesch with a pitch in the fourth, his night turned sour. Feliz walked Prince Fielder with two outs and allowed Delmon Young’s RBI single – Detroit’s first hit.
Alex Avila then drew a walk to load the bases, and Ramon Santiago lined a two-run single to left-center field to make it 3-1.
Feliz allowed three runs and three hits in eight innings. He walked four and struck out six.
The Rangers beat Detroit 10-3 on Thursday night in the first game of a four-game set. After a rainout Friday, they picked up right where they left off, scoring eight runs in the first inning of Saturday’s opener against Rick Porcello (1-1).
“They’re hot and they’re aggressive and confident,” Porcello said. “I was unable to come up with an answer.”
Matt Harrison (3-0) allowed three runs and six hits in 7 2-3 innings for Texas, which was 7-0 on the road after winning the first game of the doubleheader. That streak ended thanks to Verlander and Santiago, and Feliz became the first Texas starter to lose. The Rangers’ rotation is now 10-1.
Hamilton hit a three-run homer as part of Texas’ big first inning. Mike Napoli hit a solo shot in the opener, his fifth straight game with a homer. Napoli didn’t start the nightcap, but he did strike out as a pinch-hitter to end his streak.
Hamilton and Napoli each have six homers on the season.
“It’s an awesome thing when we all get going like that,” Texas outfielder David Murphy said. “We’ve got so many bats in our lineup that we’re hard to beat if we keep hitting.”
Porcello entered his start with a 1.84 ERA. It was 6.32 by the time he left. He allowed nine runs – eight earned – and 10 hits before being pulled with nobody out and two on in the second.
NOTES: Texas had a chance to set a team record for best 15-game start, but had to settle for matching the 1989 Rangers’ mark of 12-3. … Detroit LHP Daniel Schlereth worked two innings in the opener, then was optioned to Triple-A Toledo. The Tigers purchased the contract of RHP Thad Weber from Toledo between games. … Porcello’s eight earned runs matched a career worst, and this was the shortest start of his career. … Beltre hasn’t missed a game this season, but he spent time on the disabled list last year with a left hamstring strain and was limited to 124 games in 2011. … Dotel appeared in his 700th game. … Detroit rookie Drew Smyly (0-0) takes on Texas RHP Colby Lewis (2-0) in the series finale Sunday.
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Africa.com:
Going to an Ethiopian restaurant is an interesting experience. It is not just about the food, which is delicious. It’s also about the surroundings, the community, and the touch-and-feel rhythm of eating food with your hands. Do make sure that you go with people you actually like, as you will share the dishes with them. Also, if you are one of those people who believe that everyone else but them carry an inordinate amount of germs, this is probably not the right choice for you, either.
Read the whole story at Africa.com
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BEIRUT — Syrian troops stormed and shelled districts in a suburb of the capital Damascus Sunday, activists said, a day after the Security Council voted to expand the number of U.N. truce monitors from 30 to 300 in hopes of salvaging an international peace plan marred by continued fighting between the military and rebels.
An eight-member team is already on the ground in Syria, and since Thursday has visited flashpoints of the 13-month-long conflict. Fighting generally temporarily stops when the observers visit an area, but there has been a steady stream of reports of violence from towns and regions where they have not yet gone.
“This U.N. observers thing is a big joke,” said Mohammed Saeed, an activist in the sprawling Damascus suburb of Douma, which came under fire from regime troops on Sunday. “Shelling stops and tanks are hidden when they visit somewhere, and when they leave, shelling resumes.”
His comments reflect a widespread lack of faith among many Syrians in international envoy Kofi Annan’s cease-fire plan for ending the violence in Syria and launching talks between President Bashar Assad and those trying to oust him. Syria’s opposition and its Western supporters suspect Assad is largely paying lip service to the truce since full compliance – including withdrawing troops and heavy weapons from populated areas and allowing peaceful demonstrations – could quickly sweep him from power.
So far, the regime has kept up its attacks on opposition strongholds, though on a smaller scale than before the truce deadline.
Saeed said two people were killed Sunday by indiscriminate firing in Douma, which was the scene of intense clashes between rebels and security forces before the U.N.-brokered cease-fire went into effect more than a week ago.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a Britain-based opposition group with a network of activists on the ground, confirmed the deaths. It said four soldiers were also killed when a roadside bomb hit an armored personnel carrier in the town later Sunday.
The Observatory also reported that security forces killed three people in the northern province of Idlib and one person in the village of Hteita outside Damascus when troops opened fire from a checkpoint.
It was not immediately clear what prompted the attack on Douma. Saeed said loud explosions that shook the city early Sunday caused panic among residents, some of whom used mosque loudspeakers to urge people to take cover in basements and in lower floors of apartment buildings.
The Security Council approved a resolution Saturday expanding the U.N. observer mission from 30 to 300 members, initially for 90 days. The expanded force is meant to shore up the cease-fire that officially took effect 10 days ago, but has failed to halt the violence that the U.N. says has killed more than 9,000 people since March 2011.
Annan on Sunday welcomed the vote, calling it a “pivotal moment” in the process of stabilizing the country and urged all Syrians to uphold the cease-fire.
“The government in particular must desist from the use of heavy weapons and … withdraw such weapons and armed units from population centers,” he said.
He added that the presence of observers would help create the conditions conducive to launching the much-needed political process and called on the Syrian government and the opposition “to prepare to engage in such a process as a matter of utmost priority.”
U.N. chief Ban Ki-moon has accused Assad of violating the truce, and said Saturday that “the gross violations of the fundamental rights of the Syrian people must stop at once.” Rebel fighters have also kept up attacks.
State-run news agency SANA said Sunday that an officer was killed and 42 others wounded in a roadside bomb explosion that targeted their bus Sunday in northern Syria. Two other explosives were dismantled on the spot on the Raqqa-Aleppo highway, SANA said.
The U.N. eight-member advance team has visited the Damascus suburb of Arbeen, the southern province of Daraa, and the battered opposition stronghold of Homs. The monitors have not visited Douma yet.
Five monitors who toured Homs Saturday encountered unusually calm streets after weeks of shelling, and activists said it was the first quiet day in months. Two observers stayed behind in Homs to keep monitoring the city, after the rest of the team left that evening.
Amateur video posted on the Internet showed the observers walking through rubble-strewn streets lined by gutted apartments buildings. They were thronged by residents clamoring for foreign military help to oust Assad.
In one video, two monitors are seen sitting in a room listening to a Syrian man asking them to stay in Homs.
“We want you to stay, please stay. … When you come, shelling stops, killing stops. It’s our blood,” the man says as an observer nods his head.
Related on HuffPost:
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Africa.com:
This week, we’re reading the New York Times‘ excellent article on the future of global overpopulation, and how the upward trend is currently playing out in Nigeria. We’re also reading about the growing problems between Sudan and South Sudan, and we’re following the continuing news on the recent coup in Guinea-Bissau.
Read the whole story at Africa.com
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In 1988 a doctor named Randolph Byrd conducted a study to determine whether or not intercessory prayers on behalf of other people were effective.
The findings were amazing. The patients who were not prayed for were nearly twice as likely to suffer complications than patients who were prayed for (Dale A. Matthews, M.D., and Connie Clark, “The Faith Factor: Proof of the Healing Power of Prayer,” New York: Penguin, 1999, p.199-200). The study seems to indicate that prayers, even by a stranger for a stranger, can help in fighting disease.
This study has spawned a great deal of criticism by academic scientists who argue that it is not sufficiently rigorous or reliable. But I am more interested in the spiritual question. From a spiritual perspective, are prayers really that powerful? Is this how prayer works?
In Leviticus, the Torah talks about a disease: tzara’at, which is a skin disease. While many commentators choose to allegorize this disease, the simple reading of the Torah is that it is a physical disease. The Torah refers to this disease as fasah hanega (Leviticus 13:5), the disease is malignant. It is a malignant tumor that appears on the body.
Even though it is a physical disease, the response is a spiritual one. The person with tzara’at comes to the priest (kohein). The kohein decides on the proper treatment. He might decide that the patient needs to be quarantined or that the patient is physically fine, or that the patient is tamei and is therefore in need of a healing.
The Sefer ha-Chinukh (a work published anonymously in Spain in the 13th century) offers the following commentary: This commandment is teaching us that the reason the person with this disease is commanded to come to the kohein is that perhaps if he stands in the presence of the kohein — a spiritual man — the kohein will inspire him to meditate introspectively. This is also the concept behind the quarantine; it will allow the patient to examine his affairs unhurriedly and examine his deeds.
The Sefer ha-Chinukh is not saying that all illness comes from sin. The most righteous people in the world can be afflicted with the most terrible illnesses. Instead, he is suggesting that one way to treat illness is through spiritual reflection. The patient comes to the kohein, who can guide him on a spiritual path to health. Perhaps the Torah is suggesting that the best way to treat sickness is with spirituality.
When I was in rabbinical school, we had classes on pastoral counseling. One time we had a class and the rabbi teaching the class gave us a situation. You walk into a hospital room and discover that the person has just been diagnosed with a terminal illness. What do you tell the person? The rabbi then went on to say, “I’ll tell you what you don’t say. Don’t say, ‘Now is the time for tehillim (psalms). You have to pray, get all your friends to pray.’”
I understood my teacher’s words to mean that he was suggesting that prayers don’t work to change a situation. He was arguing that from a medical and psychological perspective, the prayers won’t heal you. Instead patients would do better to focus their energy on other areas.
I have come to disagree with this teacher’s approach. With the affliction of tzara’at the Torah is telling us that prayers can and do work. Spirituality can provide mental and physical health. Spirituality can be a legitimate response to illness. This is what the medical, scientific community is slowly beginning to realize. Study after study shows how increased religiosity directly correlates to increased physical health.
A study of 2,754 men and women in Tecumseh, Mich., found that men and women who attend church more frequently live longer than those who attend less frequently. A study in Georgia shows that those who attend church more often have lower blood pressure — even if they are smokers — than those who attend less often. A study of 91,000 people in Maryland shows that people who attend church at least once a week had significantly lower risk for coronary disease (Matthews and Clark, “The Faith Factor,” p.20). All of these studies — and there are many more studies — look at how frequently people attend worship services to pray. The more often one attends worship service, the healthier you are likely to be.
There are scientific reasons for this. Prayer relaxes us. It reduces stress by reminding us to care for our bodies and to constantly seek renewal, by giving us a purpose in life, and by providing us with a sense of being loved.
But let’s not ignore the spiritual possibilities as well. Let’s not ignore the possibility that prayers simply work — that they actually heal the disease. When facing illness we should encourage a spiritual response, as well as a medical response. A spiritual response embraces the physical touch. A spiritual response will encourage holding the patient’s hand, hugging the patient, kissing the patient gently on the forehead.
I will not bore you with miraculous stories about people who have been cured through faith and prayer. There are too many to tell. There are also too many stories of people who had tremendous faith and prayed incessantly and yet were not healed from their ailment. That’s not the point. The point is that just like a medical approach does not always work, and yet we try it anyway. So too, a spiritual approach does not always work and yet it should be tried.
A spiritual approach to our health uses the words of our prayers in order to ground us, strengthen us and heal us. This is what faith is about. It should be something we embrace at all times in our life. God forbid, if one falls ill, the words of our prayers would offer comfort and healing as well.
Miriam the prophetess was stricken with tzara’at. When her brother Moses saw this, he cried out, “O God, please heal her” (Numbers 12:13). When seeing illness, we too have that power. We too can together cry out, “O God, heal the wounded.”
Excerpted from ‘Fifty Four Pick-Up: Fifteen Minute Inspirational Torah Lessons’ (Gefen, 2012).
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As expected, the so-called Jesus Discovery is making headlines around the world. The claims are amazing; the leaps in logic are breath-taking; and most archaeologists are utterly unconvinced. What has actually been found and what does it really mean? Before I can answer that question, I have to back up a bit.
Five years ago
In February 2007 Simcha Jacobovici, Canada’s “Naked Archaeologist,” and James Cameron, producer of “Robocop” and “Titanic,” announced to the world that they had found the tomb of Jesus and his family. A book was released and a television documentary aired the following month. The tomb they had “found” had, in fact, been excavated in 1980. In 1996 the BBC aired a documentary exploring a possible Jesus connection.
Scholars didn’t bite then and they aren’t biting now. Respected archaeologist William Dever judged the whole business as “the worst kind of archaeology.” Most agree.
The new Jesus Discovery claims are another kick at the can. But they are no more convincing this time than they were last time. Let’s take a look.
What lies beneath
A second tomb, about 200 feet from the first one, was found in 1981, but archaeologists, pressured by Jewish fundamentalists, were not able to remove the ossuaries for study. The tomb was sealed and a condo was built over it.
Through diplomacy, ingenuity, and lots of hard work, in May 2010 Jacobovici and his team managed to drill a hole into the tomb (now called the “Patio Tomb”) and insert a camera mounted on a mechanical arm. They did a remarkable job scanning the tomb and its contents. The tomb is made up of an entrance, a central chamber, nine niches, and seven ossuaries (small limestone bone boxes). Skeletal remains that had not been placed in ossuaries were found in four niches.
Two ossuaries caught the attention of Jacobovici and his team. One ossuary presented an etching of an oblong, vertical object. The other exhibited four incised Greek words. The object is said to be fish, with tail up and head down. At the end of the fish’s mouth is a circle, interpreted as the head of Jonah, wrapped in seaweed. This fish, we are told, is spewing out Jonah. Because Jesus compared himself to Jonah, in the belly of the great fish for three days, Jacobovici thinks we have an allusion to Jesus. James Tabor agrees, declaring that it is “the earliest representation of the resurrection.”
The Greek words on the second ossuary are interpreted to read, “God Jehovah, Raise up! Raise up!” or, perhaps, “Lord Jesus, Rise up! Rise up!” Thus, the fish that spews out Jonah and the Greek inscription compliment one another, each in its own way testifying to the belief that Jesus has been raised up. So goes the theory.
What it really means
All of this interpretation is convoluted and unconvincing. Eric Meyers, who teaches archaeology at Duke University and has written a major work on Jewish ossuaries and burial traditions, rightly notes that the “fish” has nothing to do with Jonah. It is more likely an urn or amphora, with handles, a nefesh (lit. “soul”) that represents the life of the person contained in the ossuary. One of the other ossuaries in the tomb is adorned with a nefesh. The patterns in the fish-like nefesh, including the so-called “tail” at the top and the circle at the bottom, are seen is seen in others. Other archaeologists and interpreters are weighing in; and they agree with Meyers.
As for the Greek words, there is no reference to Jesus. The generally accepted reading, including that given by Jacobovici, is Dios Iaio hypso (H)agab. This most naturally translates “I Hagab lift up the Lord God.” The language comes right out of the Bible: “I shall lift you up, Lord” (Ps 29:2 in the Greek version). Turning the inscription into a petition that Jesus be raised up is completely without foundation. The Patio Tomb has nothing to do with Jesus and his movement.
Jacobovici and his team construct a remarkable thesis from these two ossuaries. The documentary declares that the Patio Tomb provides “dramatic evidence that the tomb 200 feet away … is the Jesus family tomb” and then concludes by saying that “it is now up to scholars to weigh the evidence.” Have no doubt; they will.
ABC News assured viewers that the Patio Tomb “will be debated for the next 2,000 years.” I shall be quite surprised if anyone is talking about it in two years.
Craig A. Evans is the Payzant Distinguished Professor of New Testament at Acadia University in Nova Scotia, Canada. He has published several books, including Jesus and His World: The Archaeological Evidence (Westminster John Knox Press, 2012).
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Man shot dead, another injured during confrontation in NW Harris Co. We have a crew at the scene. Live update @ 8am: 4 minutes ago via web
(04-22) 03:40 PDT TEHRAN, Iran (AP) —
Iran claimed Sunday that it had reverse-engineered an American spy drone captured by its armed forces last year and has begun building a copy.
Gen. Amir Ali Hajizadeh, chief of the aerospace division of the powerful Revolutionary Guards, related what he said were details of the aircraft’s operational history to prove his claim that Tehran’s military experts had extracted data from the U.S. RQ-170 Sentinel captured in December in eastern Iran, state television reported.
Among the drone’s past missions, he said, was surveillance of the compound in northwest Pakistan in which Osama Bin Laden lived and was killed.
Tehran has flaunted the capture of the Sentinel, a top-secret surveillance drone with stealth technology, as a victory for Iran and a defeat for the United States in a complicated intelligence and technological battle.
U.S. officials have acknowledged losing the drone. They have said Iran will find it hard to exploit any data and technology aboard it because of measures taken to limit the intelligence value of drones operating over hostile territory.
Hajizadeh told state television that the captured surveillance drone is a “national asset” for Iran and that he could not reveal full technical details. But he did provide some samples of the data that he claimed Iranian experts had recovered.
“There is almost no part hidden to us in this aircraft. We recovered part of the data that had been erased. There were many codes and characters. But we deciphered them by the grace of God,” Hajizadeh said.
He said all operations carried out by the drone had been recorded in the memory of the aircraft, including maintenance and testing.
Hajizadeh claimed that the drone flew over Osama Bin Laden’s compound in Pakistan two weeks before the al-Qaida leader was killed there in May 2011 by U.S. Navy SEALs. He did not say how the Iranian experts knew this.
Before that, he said, “this drone was in California on Oct. 16, 2010, for some technical work and was taken to Kandahar in Afghanistan on Nov. 18, 2010. It conducted flights there but apparently faced problems and (U.S. experts) were unable to fix it,” he said.
Hajizadeh said the drone was taken to Los Angeles in December 2010 where sensors of the aircraft underwent testing at an aerospace factory.
“If we had not achieved access to software and hardware of this aircraft, we would be unable to get these details. Our experts are fully dominant over sections and programs of this plane,” he said. “It’s not that we can bring down a drone but cannot recover the data.”
There are concerns in the U.S. that Iran or other states may be able to reverse-engineer the chemical composition of the drone’s radar-deflecting paint or the aircraft’s sophisticated optics technology that allows operators to positively identify terror suspects from tens of thousands of feet in the air.
There are also worries that adversaries may be able to hack into the drone’s database, as Iran claimed to have done. Some surveillance technologies allow video to stream through to operators on the ground but do not store much collected data. If they do, it is encrypted.
Media reports claimed this week that Russia and China have asked Tehran to provide them with information on the drone but Iran’s Defense Ministry denied this.
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A image grab taken from Iranian state-run Press TV on December 8, 2011, shows what Iranian officials claim is a U.S. drone.
- Tehran bragged about seizing the unmanned U.S. drone aircraft in December
- Months later, Iranian senior military officials declare they have extracted data from it
- Its information shows it flew over the Pakistani hideout of Osama bin Laden, military official says
Tehran (CNN) — Iran declared Sunday it has “cracked the codes” of the intelligence gathering system of a U.S. spy drone it captured last year for violating its airspace, the nation’s semiofficial media reported.
Tehran bragged about seizing the unmanned U.S. drone aircraft with stealth technology in December and displayed it on national television as a victory for Iran.
Months later, an Iranian senior military official declared armed forces have extracted data from it to prove a point to the Pentagon, which they said expressed doubt Tehran can be able to decode it.
“This plane is seen as a national capital for us and our words should not disclose all the information that we have very easily,” Brig. Gen. Amir Ali Hajizadeh was quoted as saying by the semiofficial Fars News Agency.
“Yet, I provide four cues in here to let the Americans know how deep we could penetrate into the intelligence systems and devices of this drone.”
Some data from the drone’s memory device revealed it had flown over the Pakistani hideout of al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden two weeks before his death in May, according to Hajizadeh.
“Had we not accessed the plane’s softwares and hard discs, we wouldn’t have been able to achieve these facts,” he said.
Iran has also decoded information such as protocols, repairs and flight sorties, said the military leader, who commands the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps’ aerospace forces.
Information shows the drone was in California in October 2010 for repairs and was moved to Afghanistan the following month, where it had problems that U.S. experts could not solve, he said.
The United States did not immediately comment on Tehran’s claims Sunday.
In December, President Barack Obama said the United States asked Iran to return the drone aircraft it claimed to have. At the time, two U.S. officials confirmed to CNN that the missing drone was part of a CIA reconnaissance mission that involved both the intelligence community and military personnel stationed in Afghanistan.
“We’ve asked for it back. We’ll see how the Iranians respond,” Obama had said.
Iranian military officials have vowed not to return the plane.
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PARIS — Voters were turning out Sunday in solid numbers for the first round of France’s presidential election, with conservative President Nicolas Sarkozy’s political career on the line amid frustration over his personal style and inability to turn around a stagnant French economy.
Sunday’s balloting will trim down a list of 10 candidates from across the political spectrum to two finalists for a decisive May 6 runoff, which will set a course for the next five years in this pillar of the European Union.
The Interior Ministry said early turnout figures showed 28 percent of France’s 44-million-plus voters cast ballots before noon – less than the 31 percent in 2007 at the same time, but more than in the four previous races.
Sarkozy and his main expected challenger, Socialist nominee Francois Hollande, have pushed for a strong turnout on the idea that it would help the political mainstream and dilute the impact of more ideological voters.
Polls for months have shown that Sarkozy and Hollande are likely to make the cut – and suggest Hollande would win the campaign finale.
“This is an election that will weigh on the future of Europe. That’s why many people are watching us,” said Hollande after voting in Tulle, a town in central France. “They’re wondering not so much what the winner’s name will be, but especially what policies will follow.”
“That’s why I’m not in a competition just of personalities. I am in a competition in which I must give new breath of life to my country and a new commitment to Europe,” he added, urging a big turnout from voters.
Sarkozy waved to supporters and apologized to polling station attendants “for the big fuss” as he voted at a high school in posh western Paris along with his wife, Carla Bruni-Sarkozy – and a throng of journalists in tow. Behind barriers, a small crowd chanted “Bravo! Bravo!” as they left. He didn’t speak to the media on the way out.
Sarkozy, defending his record on the campaign trail, has repeatedly pointed to a tough economic climate and debt troubles across Europe – not just in France.
But with turnout a looming question, surprises could await among candidates including far-right nationalist Marine Le Pen, Communist-backed firebrand Jean-Luc Melenchon or centrist Francois Bayrou.
While they are not expected to win, a strong performance by one or all of them could cast a shadow over the second round vote. Polls show the five other candidates are expected to receive low single-digit percentages.
Balloting got under way Saturday in France’s embassies and overseas holdings. Polls have shown that concerns about jobs – with the unemployment rate hovering near a 10-year high – and the economy are top issues.
The campaign has often centered on hot-button issues such as immigration, Islam in France, and calls for taxes on the rich – which experts suggest will in fact have little effect on France’s high state budget deficit.
TV images showed Hollande and several other candidates voting at polling stations around France. Some voters expressed disappointment about the crop of presidential aspirants, while others say France needs a new track.
“I think most people are not satisfied with the last five years, people want change, especially in terms of job creation,” said voter Eli Lazovsky, a 38-year-old hotel manager, after casting a ballot in a well-to-do Paris neighborhood off the Champs-Elysees.
Hollande, in his Mr. Nice Guy kind of way, has tapped into a fear of the free market that has always held more sway in France than almost anywhere in the West, and has enjoyed a resurgence in the era of Occupy Wall Street and anti-banker backlash.
Hollande wants to tax high-income earners at 75 percent and reconsider a hard-won European fiscal treaty meant to stem the continent’s debt crisis. He says it’s too focused on cost-cutting and hurts ordinary folks.
More than anything else, this campaign is a referendum on the man currently in charge: Sarkozy inspired voters in 2007 with pledges to break with the past and make France a more dynamic economy.
After an initial wave of reforms, his momentum fizzled. His stormy personal life got in the way: He divorced months into office, then quickly married former supermodel Bruni and became seen as a bling-bling president more concerned with pleasing his super-rich friends than serving the public.
But municipal employee Marie-Francaise Gouyet, 55, said she didn’t believe the polls that suggested that Sarkozy is likely to lose to Hollande in the second round. She said she favored the president’s economic policies.
“We don’t have the choice, we have to stick to austerity,” she said, adding that she voted for Sarkozy. “‘Sarko’ put in place important reforms like for pensions. He has a good record for his first 5 years.”
Entrepreneur Mohammed Derisse, 37, who backs Hollande, countered: “We can’t spend much more money. But the president has to do it with less pressure. Sarkozy was too much pressure. Hollande wants to do it in a soft way, not hurt the people.”
The presidential election will determine the make-up of the next government and will finish just a month before elections for the National Assembly that is currently controlled by Sarkozy’s conservatives.
Turnout in the 2007 first round was nearly 84 percent, the highest figure since the 1970s. Sarkozy is battling to avoid becoming France’s first one-term president since Valery Giscard d’Estaing lost to Socialist Francois Mitterrand in 1981.
Sarkozy has said he’ll pull out of politics if he loses.
___
Cecile Brisson, Angela Charlton and Jonathan Shenfield in Paris and Masha Macpherson in Tulle, France, contributed to this report.
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