Reuters Adam Payne

Francois Fillon will stand for the French conservatives in the upcoming presidential election after claiming victory over Alan Juppe in the Republican party primary on Sunday.

Partial results based on four-fifths of the primaries' polling stations showed Fillon winning by a huge margin of nearly 40%.

Fillon is set to go head-to-head with Marine Le Pen of far-right party Front National in May's election, meaning that the French left-wing is set to be excluded from the contest altogether after five years of socialist Francois Hollande in power.

Fillon, a socially conservative free-market advocate who has been dubbed as France's answer to former UK Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, had won over 67 percent of the vote in a one-on-one battle with Juppe, who trailed on around 32%.

By Mary Rezac

Vatican City,  (CNA/EWTN News).- There once was a Pope called “The Green Pope.” He earned the title from both the religious and the secular alike, because he wrote frequently about the environment and asked all Catholics to be better stewards of God’s creation.  

Under this pope’s pontificate, the Vatican became the world’s first sovereign state to become carbon-neutral, meaning that all of the small country’s greenhouse gas emissions are offset by renewable energies and carbon credits, thanks to extra trees and solar panels. He also made use of a more energy efficient, partially electric popemobile. No, “The Green Pope” is not Pope Francis.

It’s his predecessor, Pope Benedict XVI, which may come as a surprise to those who believe Benedict’s legacy was his staunch conservatism.   During the World Day of Peace celebration in 2010, Pope Benedict XVI chose the theme “If You Want to Cultivate Peace, Protect Creation.” “We are all responsible for the protection and care of the environment,” he said.

Drawing on the wisdom from his own predecessors, including Pope John Paul II, Pope Leo XIII and Pope Paul VI, Benedict in his message implored his flock to view climate change and care for creation as an extension of the Church’s care for humanity. He also addressed the phenomenon of “environmental refugees” several years before Francis noted the environment’s contribution to the current refugee crisis. “Can we remain indifferent before the problems associated with such realities as climate change, desertification, the deterioration and loss of productivity in vast agricultural areas, the pollution of rivers and aquifers, the loss of biodiversity, the increase of natural catastrophes and the deforestation of equatorial and tropical regions? Can we disregard the growing phenomenon of 'environmental refugees', people who are forced by the degradation of their natural habitat to forsake it – and often their possessions as well – in order to face the dangers and uncertainties of forced displacement? Can we remain impassive in the face of actual and potential conflicts involving access to natural resources?” Benedict asked in his message.

Joseph A. Kechichian, Senior Writer

Beirut: Although Lebanon’s President-elect Bashir Gemayel was assassinated on September 14, 1982 — along with 26 others who perished when a bomb exploded in the Phalange Party headquarters in Ashrafieh — the country’s Judicial Council finally launched a trial in absentia, calling on Habib Shartouni, who confessed to planting the bomb before escaping from prison, to turn himself in.

Jean Fahd, the magistrate entrusted with the case, issued a statement that gave Shartouni an ultimatum to hand himself over to the judiciary “within 24 hours at the latest from the March 3, 2017 trial session”, though it is unclear what meaning that ultimatum has.

Fahd further demanded proof that Nabeel Al Alam, a second culprit involved in the plot, is dead Shartouni, a member of the Syrian Social National Party (SSNP), was born into a Maronite Catholic family in Aley (Chouf Mountains) and served in one of the SSNP stations there though he fled to Cyprus and France at the beginning of the civil war where he attended university and obtained a business degree. During a 1977 visit to Lebanon, he formally joined the SSNP and became an active member though it was unclear whether Syrian intelligence operatives recruited him in France. It was in Paris that he met Nabeel Al Alam, then a leading SSNP intelligence lieutenant, who made a big impression on him.

Al Alam knew that Shartouni’s family members lived in the same building where the Phalange Party kept a headquarters, which most probably justified the recruitment. Two days after the assassination, the 24-years-old Shartouni was arrested by the Lebanese Forces and handed over to the Lebanese judiciary. In his confession, he called Bashir a traitor and accused him of selling the country to Israel, and acknowledged that he “was given the explosives and the fancy long-range electronic detonator by Al Alam, who promptly fled to Syria and vanished.

By Paul Szoldra

While on the campaign trail, President-elect Donald Trump often asserted that "torture works." But one meeting with legendary Marine Gen. James Mattis appears to have made him rethink that stance. On Saturday, Trump met with the retired four-star general at the real-estate mogul's Bedminster, New Jersey, golf course for about an hour to discuss the possibility Mattis could be tapped to serve as defense secretary.

Details about the private conversation are hard to come by, but Trump did reveal an interesting bit Tuesday to reporters at The New York Times when asked about waterboarding.

From The Times:

"'He said, "I've never found it to be useful,"' Mr. Trump said, describing the general's view of torturing terrorism suspects. He added that Mr. Mattis found more value in building trust and rewarding cooperation with terror suspects: '"Give me a pack of cigarettes and a couple of beers and I'll do better."'

"'I was very impressed by that answer.'

"Torture, he said, is 'not going to make the kind of a difference that a lot of people are thinking.'"

It amounts to a "remarkable" reversal for the president-elect, as The Times put it. It also somewhat contradicts the position of Trump's national security adviser, retired Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn, who has said "all options are on the table." Before he campaigned for Trump, however, Flynn criticized the practice.