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France: Bangladeshi Chess Prodigy Helps Save Dad From Deportation

LIBÉRATION (France)

CRÉTEIL – The planned deportation from France of a Bangladeshi immigrant has been suspended after his son was crowned French junior national chess championship, Libération reports.

Nura Alam, a member of the political opposition in Bangladesh, taught his son Fahim how to play chess in their native country, where the boy evenutally became a top competitive player. But the success of the son of an opponent was not appreciated; and fter receiving death threats, Alam decided to leave the country with his family, which moved to India, then Hungary, and finally sought refuge in France in 2008.

Alam applied for political asylum -- and registered his son both at school and the local chess club. The father's asylum application was rejected in 2010, and he was ordered to leave France, though Fahim was protected as a school-attending minor.

Libération reports that Alam lived for two years in fear of being deported. But things began to change after Fahim became the France Under-12 national chess champion.

Pressure from the school parents and reports in the local press followed, and Prime Minister François Fillon even said that the case would be closely reexamined. On Friday, Alam was received by the local Prefecture and handed a three-month work permit.

As for Fahim, he told Libération that he was relieved. He will also be able to travel for international chess competitions, representing France.

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Geopolitics

"Palestinians Don't Exist" — The Israeli Minister's Shock Declaration That Can't Be Unsaid

In a speech in Paris, Bezalel Smotrich, Israel's finance minister, denied the existence of the Palestinians, sparking angry reactions in Ramallah, Amman and Brussels. But Israel's extreme right is not afraid of provoking a violent crisis with the Palestinians.

​Photo of Israeli soldiers trying to chase away a Palestinian lady in the middle of the town of Hawara, after a shooting attack on a Jewish settler's car in the town, south of Nablus, in the occupied West Bank.

Israeli soldiers try to chase away a Palestinian lady in Hawara after a shooting attack on a Jewish settler's car in the town, south of Nablus, in the occupied West Bank.

Pierre Haski

-Analysis-

PARIS — Bezalel Smotrich would like to set fire to the Palestinian Territories. This is not the first time the Israeli Minister of Finance has made such an inflammatory statement. But what he said on Sunday evening in Paris has provoked a strong reaction.

The far-right leader, who lives in a West Bank settlement and is now a minister in Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's coalition, said what he was thinking: "The Palestinian people are an invention which is less than 100 years old. Do they have a history, a culture? No, they don't. There are no Palestinians. There are just Arabs."

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