Netanyahu behind in final polling day before election

JERUSALEM (AFP) -- Final opinion polls published Friday put Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's Likud party four seats behind its center-left rivals, days before the general election.

The top-selling Yediot Aharonot showed Likud's main challenger, the Zionist Union coalition, winning 26 of the 120 seats in parliament against 22 for Netanyahu's party.

Its survey of 1,032 respondents by pollster Mina Tzemach put The Joint List, a newly formed alliance of Israel's main Arab parties, in third, with 13 seats.

The poll had a margin of error of 2.5 percentage points, the paper said.

A Panels Research poll published jointly by The Jerusalem Post and Maariv dailies showed the same four-seat gap between parties, with the Zionist Union winning 25 against 21 for Likud.

The survey of 1,300 people also saw The Joint List winning 13 places. It had a margin of error of 3.0 percent.

Friday is the final day that opinion polls may legally be published before the vote.

The Zionist Union fuses the Labor party of Isaac Hertzog with the centrist HaTnuah led by Tzipi Livni, formerly Israel's chief peace negotiator with the Palestinians.

Recent polls had put it two to three places ahead of Likud. A Thursday survey by the left-leaning Haaretz newspaper gave the Zionist Union 24 seats to Likud's 21.
The Joint List was third with 13 seats.
Israel's electoral system means that the government is not formed by the largest party, but by whichever party leader can build a coalition commanding a parliamentary majority.

Greatest danger facing Iraq is Iran not ISIS, David Petraeus warns

In an interview with French daily Le Figaro, the former head of NATO and the multinational forces in Afghanistan and CIA director, US General David Howell Petraeus warned against the threat by the Iranian regime in Iraq.

General Petraeus described the activities of Qassem Suleimani, the head of the Iranian regime’s Quds Force in Iraq, as ‘disturbing.’

Excerpts of the interview with General David Petraeus:

LE FIGARO: Do you think the frustration of Sunnis against al-Qaida, decisive in 2007 to turn the tide in their favor, could happen again vis-à-vis the Islamic State?

General David PETRAEUS: Islamic State (IS) is not the greatest danger facing Iraq. It will be defeated sooner or later, and Iraq will preserve its territorial integrity. If the Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi and Parliament manage to reassure Sunnis, give them reasons to support the new Iraq, then these will help them get rid of IS.

LE FIGARO: What real danger do Shiite militias that often fight on the front line against the IS represent?

General David PETRAEUS:The fear is that these militias do not just clean the conquered areas, but they also deport Sunnis and seek to alter the demographic balance in some places, such as Diyala province, north of Baghdad and some mixed neighborhoods of the capital.

LE FIGARO: One of your most bitter enemies, responsible for the deaths of many American soldiers during the "Surge" reappeared in bright light. Does the growing influence of Iran in the field seem worrying to you?

General David PETRAEUS: Yes, Qassem Suleimani, the head of the Quds Force, works surprisingly openly, which is amazing for someone like him more used to operating in the shadows. This is ... disturbing.

German bank to pay $1.45bn for violating Iran sanctions

Germany's second-biggest bank has agreed to pay $1.45bn (£980m) to US authorities after it violated American sanctions against doing business in Iran and Sudan.

US regulators said Commerzbank bank had "turned a blind eye" to illegal practices.

Assistant US attorney general Leslie Caldwell said the bank "concealed hundreds of millions of dollars in transactions prohibited by US sanctions laws on behalf of Iranian and Sudanese businesses".

She said Commerzbank did so "even though managers inside the bank raised red flags about its sanctions-violating practices".

Commerzbank chief executive Martin Blessing said we would make "changes to our systems, training and personnel to address the deficiencies identified by US and New York authorities", Blessing said.

Commerzbank is just one of a number of big banks that have been charged for violating US sanctions, including BNP Paribas, Standard Chartered, HSBC and Credit Suisse.

IRAN: Repression against protesting teachers intensifies

In recent days, several teachers who participated in the Sunday, March 8 protest in the cities of Tehran and Karaj have been summoned by the courts and by the Ministry of Intelligence and Security (MOIS) and faced interrogations.

In particular, four members of the Teachers' Union in the city of Karaj (located at the west of Tehran) were summoned to the city’s "Revolutionary Court" and the regime's agents asked them to commit to no longer participating in union activities.

An informed source said: “Esmail Abdi, the Secretary General of the Teachers’ Union, was summoned by the MOIS and was pressured to resign. MOIS agents threatened that if he did not resign from his post, he would be sentenced to at least 10 years in prison.”

The source added: “A lot of teachers who participated in the protests were called in by the “Harassat” office of the Ministry of Education (the security body responsible for dealing with employees of that department).”

On Sunday, March 8, in different cities across Iran, teachers participated in rallies to protest against the very low level of wages and against discrimination in force at the Ministry of Education.

Iran news update, 12 March 2015

Feminists Up in Arms over Uruguayan President’s Smoking Comments

MONTEVIDEO – Recently inaugurated President Tabare Vazquez angered Uruguayan feminists by saying that “the main foe women face is smoking,” prompting the Cotidiano Mujer group to accuse him of “lack of sensitivity and tone deafness.”

“What we expected from him, as president, was a strong commitment in the new government to budget resources to fight against gender inequality and the subordination of women,” Cotidiano Mujer spokeswoman Lilian Abracinskas told Radio Montecarlo.

Vazquez, an oncologist, said in a press conference Monday related to the celebration of International Women’s Day that “more than one woman dies in Uruguay every day from smoking and lung cancer. One woman every day.”

“Neither AIDS, tuberculosis, domestic violence, alcohol, drugs or car accidents combined kill as many women as tobacco consumption does,” the president said.

“Vazquez’s statement has caused outrage because of the alarm in the country over incidents of violence against women and domestic violence in the first two months of the year,” Abracinskas said. “It was like ignoring a reality that is hitting us.”

“In less than 70 days in 2015,” 13 women have already been killed in acts of violence, National Women’s Institute, or Inmujeres, director Mariela Mazzotti said during the same event on Monday.

Reducing smoking rates in Uruguay was one of the main focuses of Vazquez’s first presidential term from 2005 to 2010, and he implemented policies to cut smoking that led U.S. tobacco giant Philip Morris to sue the South American country.

“We are shocked by his lack of sensitivity and commitment. It seems that he is able to talk to women only as a doctor, when he is, in fact, a president,” Abracinskas said, referring to Vazquez.

Leftist Mayoral Candidate Murdered ( beheaded ) in Southern Mexico

MEXICO CITY – The body of a mayoral candidate from the leftist Party of the Democratic Revolution, or PRD, was found in southern Mexico, a party official said Wednesday.

The body of Aide Nava Gonzalez, who was running for mayor of Ahuacuotzingo, a city in the southern state of Guerrero, was discovered on Tuesday night, PRD Guerrero state chairman Celestino Cesareo Guzman said.

The politician had been kidnapped on Monday, Guzman said.

Nava’s husband, former Ahuacuotzingo Mayor Francisco Quiñonez Ramirez, was murdered in 2014.

The PRD mayoral candidate’s body was found in a field in a rural area outside Ahuacuotzingo, Guzman said.

The killing is under investigation, Guerrero Attorney General Miguel Angel Godinez said.

“We cannot discuss the investigation. It’s a very regrettable case and very important, so we have to handle it very carefully,” the attorney general told Milenio Television.

The Guerrero PRD leader condemned the killing of Nava, who was beheaded, and called on authorities to find those behind the murder.

“She was taken out of a political meeting she was holding in that community and they regrettably ended her life,” Guzman told Radio Formula.

The PRD has no record of any threats against Nava, whose son was kidnapped in 2012.

Mexico is holding its midterm elections on June 7, with 500 seats in Congress, nine governorships and 1,532 local offices up for grabs.