- All Blacks seek to end Wellington jinx, with Cane poised for 100th cap
- Meryl Streep says a 'squirrel has more rights' than an Afghan girl
- Postbank terminates accounts of Ukrainians in Germany
- Hong Kong, Shanghai lead markets rally after China stimulus
- Dutch paint giant Akzonobel slashes 2,000 jobs worldwide
- Sri Lanka's new leader to call snap parliamentary polls
- In Ukraine's Pokrovsk, some quietly waiting for Russian troops
- Singapore ex-minister pleads guilty in rare graft trial
- Fishy business caught by fraying India-Bangladesh ties
- US Open champion Sabalenka chases year-end number one ranking
- New Zealand scientists discover ghostly 'spookfish'
- Trump slams early voting, even while urging Pennsylvanians to do so
- Singapore ex-minister pleads guilty to bribery in rare graft trial
- Major Hurricane John hits Mexico's Pacific coast
- IMF says ready for talks with Sri Lanka's new leftist government
- Phillies clinch division title, eye top seed
- Bills trample Jaguars, Commanders claw Bengals
- China unveils fresh stimulus to boost ailing economy
- Hong Kong, Shanghai rally on China stimulus on mixed day for markets
- Back to death row? Retrial verdict due in Japan murder saga
- Rare corruption trial of Singapore ex-minister begins
- Ghana a long way off from gender equality despite new law
- China unveils fresh stimulus to boost economy
- Hamas weakened, not crushed a year into war with Israel
- Israeli economy struggles under weight of Gaza war
- Israelis united in trauma, divided by war after October 7
- New York Liberty riding WNBA boom into playoffs
- Union says new Boeing pay offer 'missed the mark'
- Environmental groups urge EU 'high risk' label for Sarawak
- Argentina seeks Maduro's arrest for crimes against humanity
- Morales issues Bolivian president 24-hour ultimatum to shake up cabinet
- Armenia and Azerbaijan see progress, but peace treaty seems distant
- World leaders gather at UN as Mideast tensions explode
- Biden's UN goodbye aims to 'Trump-proof' legacy
- Singapore ex-minister set for high-profile corruption trial
- Man Utd, Spurs eye respite from domestic woes in Europa League
- Guatemala picks Supreme Court judges with focus on anti-graft fight
- Jill Biden announces $500 million for women's health research
- Injured All Blacks centre Jordie Barrett out of Australia Test
- 'Lead the future': youth challenge world leaders at UN
- Goosebumps and stars as Paris Fashion Week kicks off
- Boeing boosts pay offer in effort to end strike
- Global markets inch higher on hopes of further rate cuts
- Amazon forest loses area the size of Germany and France, fueling fires
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- Man Utd stadium regeneration could add £7.3bn to British economy
- At COP16, Colombia seeks to lead by example on biodiversity
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- Leeds to expand Elland Road to 53,000 capacity
- Mysterious 18th century diamond necklace set for auction
France's presidential rivals gear up for final week's campaigning
The two remaining contenders in the French presidential race return to the fray Monday after a brief Easter pause in campaigning and ahead of a high-stakes televised debate.
President Emmanuel Macron and far-right challenger Marine Le Pen both have low-key meetings Monday, pacing themselves until Wednesday's face-off, which could turn out to be the key to the campaign.
Last time around in 2017, when the same two candidates faced off at this stage of the campaign, most observers think Macron came off best. He won the election comfortably a few days later.
This time however, Le Pen insists she is better prepared. "In my head, I'm ready to exercise power," she told TF1 television Sunday night.
Macron was equally confident in his comments to TF1.
"I think I have a winning plan that deserves to be known and I have the feeling that on the far-right side, there is a plan that deserves to be clarified," he said.
The latest opinion polls still suggest Macron has the edge, giving him scores of between 53 and 55.5 percent to Le Pen's 44.5 to 47 percent.
But allowing for margins of error, Macron knows there is no room for complacency ahead of next Sunday's second-round vote.
- 'Reassure everybody' -
Le Pen, too, knows what is at stake.
"I've read so much nonsense about my plans over the last few days, so many caricatures -- even fake news -- that it's extremely important I can get a moment with all the French people who are interested... so as to be able to reassure everybody," she said Saturday.
Le Pen has worked hard to present a more moderate face to voters, stressing her plans to tackle rising living costs rather than her usual topics of immigration and Islam.
On Sunday, her team was keen to play down her proposed ban on the Islamic headscarf in public places, which she has said will be punished with fines by the police. This was no longer her priority in the fight against extremism, they said.
They have also hit back at a report that the European Union's anti-corruption body OLAF had accused her and senior colleagues of having embezzled more than 600,000 euros ($650,000) of EU funding during their time as euro-deputies.
Her lawyer, Rodolphe Bosselut, expressed suspicion at the timing of the release of the story, first revealed by the investigative website Mediapart on Saturday.
- 'Russian roulette' -
On Monday, Le Pen will head to Normandy in the north of France on what she is calling her "mission to convince", before stepping back from campaigning to prepare for the debate.
Macron meanwhile has radio and television interviews lined up.
A string of leading politicians on the left and the right eliminated in the first-round of the election have thrown their weight behind Macron.
But the results of a survey Sunday carried out by Jean-Luc Melenchon, the third-placed radical-left presidential candidate, will give Macron food for thought.
Melenchon garnered 7.7 million votes in the first round: nearly 22 percent of the total. Of his 215,292 supporters surveyed however, only a third intended to back Macron in the second round.
The rest preferred to return a blank or spoiled ballot paper -- or just not vote at all.
Melenchon himself, rather than explicitly endorsing Macron, has simply called for "not a single vote for Le Pen".
Christophe Castaner, the leader of Macron's Republic on the Move (LREM) group in parliament, played down the significance of the survey.
But he also warned: "Not to choose, is to accept you are playing Russian roulette."
K.Brown--BTB