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		</div><p>French far-right presidential candidate Marine Le Pen is facing more troubles, with fresh revelations in an investigation into her European Parliament assistants and criticism from the UN human rights commissioner.<br />
The parliament probe is one of several legal issues hanging over France&#8217;s spring election, which is shaping up as a major test of growing nationalist sentiment across Europe.</p>
<p>Investigative website Mediapart published excerpts from a European Commission fraud office report that said Ms Le Pen admitted to irregularities in pay cheques for one assistant targeted in the European Parliament probe.</p>
<p>Ms Le Pen acknowledged she settled an accounting problem with the parliament, but insisted: &#8220;There was nothing fictitious, no fake jobs or anything like this.&#8221;</p>
<p>French authorities are separately investigating the parliamentary assistants. The probes centre around suspicions that members of Ms Le Pen&#8217;s National Front party tricked the European Parliament out of several hundred thousand euros by using legislative aides for the party&#8217;s political activity while they were on the parliament&#8217;s payroll.</p>
<p>She reiterated accusations that the investigation is biased because it is led by the European Commission, &#8220;and you can imagine that I am not well-regarded by the commission&#8221;.</p>
<p>Ms Le Pen has used her membership in the European Parliament as a forum to lobby against European unity and the shared euro currency, and reviving French national sovereignty is central to her presidential platform.</p>
<p>Meanwhile, UN high commissioner for human rights Zeid Ra&#8217;ad Al Hussein, in a blunt speech in Washington, called rising support for Ms Le Pen&#8217;s nationalist ideas a potential threat to world peace.</p>
<p>Ms Le Pen wrote Zeid an open letter last year in which she criticized international organizations as representing a &#8220;global hyperclass &#8230; which scorns peoples, and thus human beings, their diversity and specific riches.&#8221;</p>
<p>Mr Zeid countered that Ms Le Pen&#8217;s anti-immigrant party &#8220;manifests evident intolerance of diverse customs, beliefs and modes of thought&#8221;.</p>
<p>He expressed concern that nationalist politicians like Ms Le Pen seem &#8220;to feed off the threat of terrorism&#8221;.<br />
&#8220;Can we be so reckless, so stupid, as to risk the future of humanity, simply for the sake of ballots?&#8221; he asked.</p>
<p>Elsewhere, protesters angry at perceived corruption greeted conservative presidential candidate Francois Fillon by banging on pots on a campaign stop in northern France.</p>
<p>The incident in the town of Tourcoing is the latest hiccup for Mr Fillon&#8217;s once-dominant campaign.<br />
He is under investigation over allegations that his family members had high-paying but fake parliamentary jobs. Mr Fillon denies wrongdoing.</p>
<p>As he arrived for a security meeting, about left-wing activists shouted &#8220;Fillon in prison!&#8221; and chanted &#8220;We want fake jobs too!&#8221;, while a small group of Fillon supporters nearby shouted &#8220;Fillon, president!&#8221;<br />
Riot police stood by but no violence was reported.</p>
<p>Mr Fillon responded: &#8220;When you prevent people from campaigning, we&#8217;re not really in a democracy any more.&#8221;</p>
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