French News 23 February

Strauss-Kahn freed by police in prostitution inquiry

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The inquiry has become known as the "Carlton affair" because of a hotel in Lille

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Former IMF head Dominique Strauss-Kahn has been released after two days of questioning by French police over an alleged prostitution ring.

He is to appear before an investigating magistrate on 28 March who will decide whether to press charges.

Mr Strauss-Kahn had been held at a police station in Lille since Tuesday.

Once a potential candidate for the French presidency, he was questioned about an alleged pimping operation and misuse of company funds.

Eight men have already been arrested as part of the inquiry known as the "Carlton affair" - named after a Lille hotel where clients were said to have been supplied with call-girls.

Investigators had earlier interviewed prostitutes who said they had sex with the former Socialist politician.

Although having sex with a prostitute is not illegal in France, the judge will want to find out whether he was aware the women had been paid for by company expense accounts.

"He is entirely satisfied to have been heard,'' his lawyer Frederique Beaulieu told reporters after he was released.

She said Mr Strauss-Kahn's questioning had answered all questions asked.

"The fact that he is released free is a very good thing," she said.

Mr Strauss-Kahn resigned as head of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) in May 2011 after he was charged in New York with the attempted rape of a hotel maid. The case was later dropped.

Mr Strauss-Kahn returned to France in September 2011 although the hotel maid involved in the case is pursuing a civil action.

Court rules Le Pen must reveal backers' names

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French far-right presidential hopeful Marine Le Pen lost a legal battle with the Constitutional Court ruling that her backers' names must be made public. Her party had argued that the disclosure would violate her allies' privacy.

By News Wires 

 

French far right leader Marine Le Pen has lost a legal battle in her bid to run for president, with the Constitutional Court ruling that her backers’ names must be made public.

The decision upholds current electoral rules, which say that anyone wishing to run for president must submit signatures of 500 mayors or local officials supporting the candidacy.

The signatures are then made public.

Le Pen, who enjoys strong support in opinion polls, says the signature
rule works against her anti-immigrant party, which has argued that the rule violates the constitution.

The Constitutional Court ruled that the public signatures are constitutional and aimed at increasing political transparency.

The deadline for submitting signatures is March 16 and the first round of elections is April 22.

Bardot backs far-right leader Le Pen's attempt to stand for president

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Would-be presidential candidate Marine Le Pen at a rally in Strasbourg

Reuters/Vincent Kessler

By RFI

French former film star Brigitte Bardot has backed far-right leader Marine Le Pen’s efforts to stand for president, a day after France’s Constitutional Council ruled against an appeal by the Front National (FN) chief on pre-poll procedure.

Would-be presidential candidates have to collect the signatures of 500 elected officials, usually mayors, who think they should be allowed to stand.

The deadline is 16 March and Le Pen said Wednesday that she has only been able to collect about 430 signatures.

She has accused the major parties of bullying mayors into not signing her papers and appealed to the Constitutional Council to allow the signatures to be kept secret.

Le Pen slammed the decision Tuesday, declaring that there was “no more democratic practise” in France.

She later told a radio interviewer that she had been forced to cancel campaign events, including a trip to the French West Indies, for lack of finance because banks would not grant her loans until she had the necessary number of signatures.

Bardot entered the fray on Wednesday with a call to mayors to sponsor Le Pen.

The former film star, who is now an animal rights campaigner, said they should do so because Le Pen “defends animals and has the courage to strength to restore our country, France, to the place that ought to occupy in the world”.

Bardot has been found guilty of incitement to racial hatred on five occasions.

Marine Le Pen’s father, Jean-Marie, who preceded her as the party’s leader and presidential candidate, also complained that he had difficulty collecting signatures. He obtained 533 in 2002 and 507 in 2007.

Le Pen has refused to debate with hard-left presidential candidate Jean-Luc Mélenchon on a television programme Thursday. She accused the state-owned France 2 channel of “dishonouring the public service” for “wanting to force her” to debate with the Left Front candidate, claiming that he had insulted her in public on several occasions. An FN communiqué claims that Mélenchon has called Le Pen “a bat”, “a barbarian”, “half-demented”, “fascist” and two different French words for stupid. France 2 replied that the choice of participants in a debate are its own editorial choice and that it has never asked politicians if they accept an adversary. Marine Le Pen “wants to be president of the republic but runs away as soon as she faces the slightest contradiction”, the Left Front declared on hearing the news.

2 Western journalists killed as Syria shells Homs

BEIRUT (AP) — A French photojournalist Remi Ochlik - (right) and a prominent American war correspondent Marie Colvin (left) working for a British newspaper were killed Wednesday as Syrian forces intensely shelled the opposition stronghold of Homs. President Bashar Assad's regime also escalated attacks on rebel bases elsewhere, with helicopter gunships strafing areas in the northwest, activists said.

 "This tragic incident is another example of the shameless brutality of the Assad regime," U.S. State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said of the journalists killed.

The Obama administration opened the door slightly Tuesday to international military assistance for Syria's rebels, with officials saying new tactics may have to be explored if Assad continues to defy pressure to halt a brutal crackdown on dissenters that has raged for 11 months and killed thousands.

The White House and State Department said they still hope for a political solution. But faced with the daily onslaught by the Assad regime against Syrian civilians, officials dropped the administration's previous strident opposition to arming anti-regime forces. It remained unclear, though, what, if any, role the U.S. might play in providing such aid.

France was outraged over the journalists killed.

"That's enough now, the regime must go," said French President Nicolas Sarkozy.

 French spokeswoman Valerie Pecresse identified those killed as French photojournalist Remi Ochlik, 28, and American reporter Marie Colvin, who was working for Britain's Sunday Times.

France's Foreign Minister, Alain Juppe, said the attacks show the "increasingly intolerable repression" by Syrian forces. French Communication Minister Frederic Mitterrand said of the journalists killed: "It's abominable."

Syrian activists said at least two other Western journalists — French reporter Edith Bouvier of Le Figaro and British photographer Paul Conroy of the Sunday Times — were wounded in Wednesday's shelling, which claimed at least 13 lives.

Syria's stalwart ally and major arms supplier, Russia, remained behind Assad, but said the bloodshed adds urgency for a cease-fire to allow talks between his regime and opponents.

 An amateur video posted online by activist showed what they claimed were bodies of two people in the middle of a heavily damaged house. It said they were of the journalists. One of the dead was wearing what appeared to be a flak jacket.

Another amateur video shows the two injured journalists in a makeshift clinic, lying on two separate beds. The French journalist, Bouvier had her left leg tied from the thigh down in a cast. A doctor in the video explains that she needs emergency medical care. Conroy appears in the video and the doctors say he has deep gashes in his left leg.

Many foreign journalists have been sneaking into Syria illegally in the past months with the help of smugglers from Lebanon and Turkey. Although the Syrian government has allowed some journalists into the country their movement is tightly controlled by Information Ministry minders.

Colvin, from Oyster Bay, New York, was in her 50s and a veteran foreign correspondent for Britain's Sunday Times for the past two decades. She was instantly recognizable for an eye patch worn after being injured covering conflicts in Sri Lanka in 2001.

Colvin said she would not "hang up my flak jacket" even after the eye injury.

"So, was I stupid? Stupid I would feel writing a column about the dinner party I went to last night," she wrote in the Sunday Times after the attack. "Equally, I'd rather be in that middle ground between a desk job and getting shot, no offense to desk jobs.

In Geneva, the International Red Cross said it was holding talks with members of the opposition Syrian National Council. The ICRC called Tuesday for a daily two-hour halt to fighting in Syria so it can bring emergency aid to affected areas and evacuate the wounded and sick.

Head of ICRI operations for the Middle East, Beatrice Megevand-Roggo, told The Associated Press on Tuesday that the ICRC had almost no contacts with opposition figures inside Syria.

The journalists' deaths came a day after a Syrian sniper shot dead Rami al-Sayyed, a prominent activist in Baba Amr who was famous for posting online videos, Shaker and the Local Coordination Committees activist group said.

On Jan. 11, award-winning French TV reporter Gilles Jacquier was killed in Homs. The 43-year-old correspondent for France-2 Television was the first Western journalist to die since the uprising began in March. Syrian authorities have said he was killed in a grenade attack carried out by opposition forces — a claim questioned by the French government, human rights groups and the Syrian opposition.

France bids 'adieu' to the term 'mademoiselle'

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French women will no longer have to declare their marital status on official forms after the government demanded the term "mademoiselle" be dropped. Feminist groups have hailed the move as a victory in their battle against a "male-dominated" society.

By Ben MCPARTLAND 

 

French language learners might soon have to update their text books after the government signalled the beginning of the end for the term “mademoiselle”.

Under pressure from feminist groups the French government has decided that a women’s marital status should no longer matter when it comes to bureaucracy.

Up until now French women have been asked to identify themselves on administrative forms either as a married “madame”, or a “mademoiselle” - a term used for unmarried young women.

Having to make that choice is deemed sexist by many because men are always referred to as “monsieur”, whether they are married or not.

The Prime Minister’s office has now instructed authorities to only use the term “madame” in a move Solidarity Minister Roselyne Bachelot said would “end a form of discrimination”.

The shift has been hailed as an important victory by France’s feminist movement.

“Little by Little”

Clemence Helfter from Osez le Feminisme told FRANCE 24 the dropping of the term “mademoiselle” is more than just a symbolic victory for gender equality.

“People say to us ‘don’t you have better things to campaign about for women?’ but for us this is a real victory. This word is just a part of an unequal system and each time we gain a victory like this we are beating male domination little by little,” she said.

“Miss” - the English equivalent of the word “mademoiselle” - has been slowly phased out over the years as “Ms” has become the more commonly used term.

The German “Fraulein”, which literally means “little woman” was outlawed from official use back in 1972. In Spanish, a latin language like French, the use of “senorita” is now seen as old-fashioned.

But young women in France are still regularly greeted by the term “mademoiselle” whether it’s by a waiter in a café or when having to identify themselves when shopping online.

“Mademoiselle is not flattering it’s intrusive,” said Ms Helfter. “It’s old-fashioned. Let’s get a move on. Less and less people are getting married in France so what is the point of using it anymore?”

Changing times

Some local authorities have already heeded her call. Last week the council in charge of Paris suburb Fontenay-sous-Bois abolished “mademoiselle” from official documents because it was “condescending and sexist”.

They also banned the term “nom de jeune fille”, which means “maiden name” from all paperwork because it was “archaic” and had “connotations of virginity”.

Officials in Cesson-Sevigne, a town in Brittany, took a similar step two months ago.

Some feminist commentators have put the rejuvenation of France’s feminist movement down to the fallout from the sordid sex scandals involving former IMF chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn.

Groups like Osez le Feminisme were angry that comments made by members of the French elite and some media coverage of the case seemed to belittle rape and was too sympathetic towards Strauss-Kahn.

Just weeks after his arrest in New York on accusations he sexually assaulted a hotel chamber maid more than 40 feminist groups held what was considered the biggest conference on women’s rights in a decade. More than 600 activists turned up to the rally in Paris.

“Times are changing in France. While we have often heard it said that feminism was outdated and belonged in the past, we have recently seen a profound resurgence of a yearning for equality,” said Osez le Feminisme leader Caroline De Haas in an article for British daily the Guardian.

The fight goes on

If the feminist movement has been given a much needed boost it still has a big fight on its hands to gain real equality for women in a country where they were not allowed to vote until 1944.

Ms Haas points to the fact that 80 percent of casual workers in France are women and the wage gap stands at 27 percent in favour of men. Only 18.5 percent of members in the lower house of parliament are women compared to 21 percent in the UK, 33 percent in Germany and 46 percent in Sweden.

One of those representatives, Chantal Jouanno, has gone on record saying French politics was so sexist that she didn't dare to wear a skirt in parliament.

In French boardrooms, only 15 percent of executives in large French companies are women. A new law has set a quota for 40 percent by 2017.

The issue is coming to the fore at a key time with France just weeks away from the first round of voting in this year’s tightly fought presidential elections.

Dozens of feminist groups are set to meet the candidates from various parties at a meeting in Paris next month where they will demand more is done to tackle the wage gap and call for restrictions on sexual advertising.

“It’s very important for us to know whether the candidates have it in their minds to tackle these issues of gender inequality,” Marie-Noëlle Bas from the feminist group Les Chiennes de Garde President told FRANCE 24.

Ms Bas told FRANCE 24 that President Nicolas Sarkozy had still not confirmed he would attend the meeting. Socialist Party candidate Francois Hollande and the Green Party’s Eva Joly have said they would be there.

Sarkozy risks ‘gay vote’ over same-sex marriage stance

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In May 2007, Nicolas Sarkozy promised gay voters the right to marry. Five years later and no closer to the altar, where have his gay supporters gone? 

By Sophie PILGRIM 

 

Some 13 years after France adopted the PACS civil union, gay rights campaigners are calling on France’s presidential candidates to grant full marriage and parenting rights to same-sex couples, and polls suggest that it could be a strategic mistake not to hear what they have to say.

Just days after he was elected in 2007, Nicolas Sarkozy made a personal address to the French gay community via a recorded video. Speaking of “the difference between lust and love”, he promised to introduce a marriage-type contract which, save for adoption, would give same-sex couples the same rights as their heterosexual counterparts.

Five years on, the contract has long been forgotten. In an interview with Le Figaro Magazine this month, the president said that he had later “come to realise” that the plan had been an unconstitutional one, and that he was now decidedly against marriage equality. “In these troubled times,” he told the rightwing magazine, “we shouldn’t be clouding the image of such a crucial social institution.”

In response, the gay rights association affiliated to Sarkozy’s UMP party announced that it could no longer support the president in his campaign for re-election this spring. “He’s gone too far this time,” Emmanuel Blanc, leader of the GayLib association, told gay magazine Têtu. “If he was trying to put off gay voters, he couldn’t have done a better job.”

According to the latest polls, Sarkozy has done just that. A survey published by the CEVIPOF political research institute in January puts Sarkozy’s share of the gay vote at a measly 20%, while his Socialist rival François Hollande enjoys 53%.

“We no longer find Sarkozy credible,” explains Anne Boring, a former GayLib member who voted for Sarkozy in 2007. “Over the past five years, Sarkozy’s UMP party has done nothing at all for us. The Socialists on the other hand, have advanced enormously, and are now clearly in favour of marriage equality and granting parental rights to same-sex couples with children.”

‘Rather vote far-right than Sarkozy’

Boring represents a swathe of former UMP supporters who say they feel rejected by the ruling party’s failure to act on marriage inequality. But not all of them have shifted left. According to the CEVIPOF poll, over 17% of gay voters plan to vote for far-right candidate Marine Le Pen in April, despite her party’s strict anti-gay marriage stance.

In December last year, Le Pen spoke out in defence of the gay community – something previously unheard of from her traditionally homophobic party. “There are some towns in France where it’s not a good thing to be […] homosexual,” she said in a speech on Islamism. Her ploy was an obvious one, but Boring believes that some gay voters may have fallen for it. “She’s playing on people’s fears of Islam as a menace to gay rights – people who feel threatened may indeed be tempted. These are the kind of people who are not interested in getting married, they’re only concerned about public safety as a homosexual.”

Le Pen has good reason to appeal to the ‘gay vote’. Some 3.2 million of the French electorate, or 6.5%, define themselves as LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender). They outsize both practicing Muslim voters (at 5%), and practicing Catholics voters (4.5%).

Gay marriage above all else?

Bruno Vercken of the conservative Christian Democratic Party, which actively campaigns against same-sex marriage, argues that many gay voters will dismiss personal interests over economic concerns. “Right now, the real priority in France is not opening marriage and adoption up to homosexuals, it’s restoring confidence in the economy and politics,” he tells FRANCE 24. “I can understand the demand for gay marriage and adoption, even if I strongly disagree with it, but it is simply not the topic of the day, and there are plenty of gay people who recognise that and act on it.”

Benoit, a 32-year-old sales manager from Lille, is not one of them. He voted for Sarkozy in 2007 but will not be doing so this time round. Unable to marry his long-term Colombian partner, the couple separated in 2010 after the latter was forced to leave the country. “The rules are different for heterosexual couples,” he explains. “I still hope to get married and have children in the future. And while I strongly disagree with voting for your personal interests – in 2007 I clearly voted against mine – this is an issue which affects millions of people across the country.” Benoit, like many French voters irrespective of their sexuality, says he is disappointed with Sarkozy in general. “For me, voting for Hollande means an added bonus in terms of marriage equality.”

‘An embarrassment for France’

Boring says that unlike five years ago, the ‘gay vote’ has become one that encompasses not only gay voters themselves, but also concerned heterosexual voters. “LGBT people are making sure today that their friends and family know this is a major issue for them. Besides, so many European countries and other Western states have legalised gay marriage in the past five years, it’s starting to look embarrassing for France. People are questioning why we don’t have equal marriage rights like our neighbours.”

Opinion polls show steady support for same-sex marriage in France, with 64% of people saying they would like to see marriage equality between gay and straight couples, and 57% favouring parenting and adoption rights for same-sex couples. But in June 2011, UMP legislators voted en masse against a bill to legalise gay marriage, successfully blocking it from reaching the Senate or upper house.

If François Hollande wins the election, he has promised to make the issue a priority. “I’m pretty optimistic,” says Boring. “This is a major point in the Socialist party’s campaign platform – saying they’re a party who wants to promote equal rights. I’m confident that Hollande will use this as something which makes him really different from Sarkozy.”

THE PACS CIVIL UNION PACT

France introduced the 'pacte civil de solidarité' or PACS in 1999, allowing couples (both heterosexual and homosexual) to sign a solidarity contract recognised by the state. 
- Inheritance rules found in marriage do not apply, and neither do parenting rights. 
- The couple must file joint income tax returns. 
- Participants are recognised by the state as “pacsé” rather than single

Acta: EU court to rule on anti-piracy agreement

By Dave Lee BBC Technology Reporter

Protesters assembled across Europe in opposition to the agreement

The European Union's highest court has been asked to rule on the legality of a controversial anti-piracy agreement.

The Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (Acta) has been criticised by rights campaigners who argue it could stifle free expression on the internet.

EU trade head Karel De Gucht said the court will be asked to clarify whether the treaty complied with "the EU's fundamental rights and freedoms".

The agreement has so far been signed by 22 EU member states.

The European Commission said it "decided today to ask the European Court of Justice for a legal opinion to clarify that the Acta agreement and its implementation must be fully compatible with freedom of expression and freedom of the internet".

Several key countries, including Germany and Denmark, have backed away from the treaty amid protests in several European cities.

Acta is set to be debated by the European Parliament in June.

While countries can individually ratify the terms of the agreement, EU backing is considered vital if the proposal's aim of implementing consistent standards for copyright enforcement measures is met.

As well as the 22 European backers, which include the UK, the agreement has been signed by the United States, Japan and Canada.

'Misinformation and rumour'

Mr De Gucht told a news conference on Wednesday: "Let me be very clear: I share people's concern for these fundamental freedoms... especially over the freedom of the internet.

What is Acta?

• The Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement is an international treaty aiming to standardise copyright protection measures.
• It seeks to curb trade of counterfeited physical goods, including copyrighted material online.
• Preventative measures include possible imprisonment and fines.
• Critics argue that it will stifle freedom of expression on the internet, and it has been likened to the controversial Stop Online Piracy Act (Sopa).
• Acta has been signed by 22 EU members, including the UK, but is yet to be ratified by the European Parliament.

"This debate must be based upon facts, and not upon the misinformation and rumour that has dominated social media sites and blogs in recent weeks."

However, he went on to say that the agreement's purpose was to protect the creative economy.

"[Acta] aims to raise global standards for intellectual property rights," he said, adding that the treaty "will help protect jobs currently lost because counterfeited, pirated goods worth 200bn euros are currently floating around".

Acta's backers face strong opposition within the EU. Viviane Reding, the commissioner for justice, fundamental rights and citizenship, took to Twitter to outline her worries on the treaty.

"For me, blocking the Internet is never an option," she wrote in a statement.

"We need to find new, more modern and more effective ways in Europe to protect artistic creations that take account of technological developments and the freedoms of the internet."

Germany urged to end sex offender castration

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German law sets out stringent conditions for carrying out surgical castration

• Czechs criticised over castration

Europe's top human rights watchdog, the Council of Europe, has urged Germany to end the practice of surgically castrating sex offenders.

The council's anti-torture committee said such voluntary treatment, albeit rare in Germany, was "degrading".

In Germany no more than five sex offenders a year have been opting for castration, hoping it will lower their sex drives and reduce their jail term.

The committee's recommendations are not binding but have great influence.

The committee's official title is the European Committee for the Prevention of Torture and Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment (CPT).

"Surgical castration is a mutilating, irreversible intervention and cannot be considered as a medical necessity in the context of the treatment of sexual offenders", the CPT report said. It was based on an investigation in Germany carried out in November-December 2010.

The BBC's Stephen Evans in Berlin says the German authorities argue that castration is not a punishment but a treatment which enables, as a government statement put it, "suffering tied to an abnormal sex drive… to be cured, or at least alleviated".

Research for the report revealed that of the 104 people operated on between 1970 and 1980, only 3% reoffended, compared with nearly half of those who refused castration or were denied it by the authorities.

But the CPT objected to the practice, saying:

• The physical effects are irreversible and may have serious physical and mental consequences;
• Surgical castration does not conform to recognised international standards and is not mentioned in guidelines drawn up by the International Association for the Treatment of Sexual Offenders (IATSO)
• There is no guarantee of a lasting reduction in the sex offender's testosterone level
• It is "questionable" whether consent to surgical castration "will always be truly free and informed".

In February 2009 the Council of Europe made a similar complaint about the use of surgical castration in the Czech Republic.

Despite the criticism, the Czech Republic still offers prisoners the option of surgical castration.

The CPT says very few European countries still offer the procedure to sex offenders.

Catholics campaign to close sex shop near school

 

Sex shops in Pigalle district, Paris

Wikimedia Commons

By Colette Davidson

In early February, a Paris-based shop selling sex toys was taken to court by two Catholic groups.

Its manager is accused of selling pornography too close to a primary school.

The rift has raised the question of what exactly constitutes pornography and what types of laws should surround it.

French press review 

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By Michael Fitzpatrick

There's no getting away from the Greeks this morning.

Has the Catholic observation of Lent got something to teach us in the age of austerity? 

And did the Socialists hide in the toilets when it came to a vote on austere European legislation? 

The standard wisdom, since the legendary siege of Troy, has been "Beware of Greeks bearing gifts". That was because of the wooden horse full of military personnel which the Trojans thought was a present but which turned out to be their downfall. What we need, currently, is advice on what to do with Greeks bearing debts.

 The eurozone has decided to give them more money, 237 billion euros to be precise, with a wooden horse full of accountants from Brussels as part of the deal.

Le Monde says the agreement breaks all records but does nothing to relieve doubt about the fundamental solidity of the Greek economy.

The small print explains that Athens used to owe its creditors no less than 160 per cent of its gross domestic product; yesterday's agreement means that the good Greeks will get their debt level down to a mere 121 per cent of GDP by the end of the decade. In non-technical terms, they are still going to drown but the level of the water they're drowning in has been reduced.

French Finance Minister François Baroin was delighted to escape from yesterday's 11-hour negotiation and assured waiting journalists that the compromise reached would ensure a fair sharing of the Greek load between Athens and the other eurozone governments, and between the public and private sectors. In non-technical terms, everyone gets screwed.

Baroin's idea of a fair share might not be to the liking of some in the private banking business. According to today's financial paper, Les Echos, private banks are to write off three-quarters of the money owed to them by Greece.

And Les Echos follows Le Monde in wondering whether the whole ball of wax is going to be enough to get Greece and the euro out of intensive care.

Catholic La Croix headlines its front page editorial "Austerity" but the article is really about Lent, the 40-day period of fasting and penance which starts for Catholics today. La Croix says that the current economic crisis makes the lenten message of sacrifice and restraint even more relevant.

Left-leaning Libération also has the financial crisis on its front page with a main headline reading "The left gets caught in the European trap".

The reference is to yesterday's parliamentary debate on the ratification of something called the European Stability Mechanism, the communal sack of cash which is supposed to ensure that nothing like Greece ever happens again.

There had been widespread calls for left-wing representatives to vote against the proposals, seen by their critics as giving legal sanction to the demands for ever more austerity from those who now run our financial affairs at the European Central Bank and the International Monetary Fund.

What did the left do?

The Green Party got lost in the windings of its own rhetoric (I'm quoting, more or less, from Libé's editorial), the Socialists, petrified by the prospect of a presidential battle in two months' time, decided to abstain. And the far left of Jean-Luc Mélenchon spent most of their time criticising their supposed Socialist allies.

Mélenchon had some very harsh words to say. "Every elected representative is obliged to express an opinion. It is just not acceptable to go and hide in the toilets."

Especially since the Socialists could have a majority in the next French parliament and governments are not allowed to hide, anywhere.

22 February

The Troika seen from Dublin by Martyn Turner of the Irish Times

Greece gears up for tough reforms under new bailout

 Blind people were protesting against the cuts in Athens on Tuesday

The Greek cabinet is to meet for talks on launching the painful reform process stipulated by creditors in return for a massive bailout and debt write-down.

Loans of more than 130bn euros (£110bn; $170bn) and a write-down of at least 107bn were agreed overnight at marathon talks in Brussels.

Eurozone leaders said the deal had saved Greece from a default.

But Greeks face new spending cuts and state sector job losses in order to slash national debt within eight years.

Austerity measures implemented under the 2010 bailout, which was worth 110bn euros, sparked violent protests.

News of the deal was greeted with a mix of resignation and anger among the Greek public, correspondents say.

Responding to a remark by Prime Minister Lucas Papademos that it was a "historic day for the Greek economy", blogger Zoe Mavroudi tweeted: "Every time our unelected banker PM Papademos says 'historic day' please replace 'historic' with 'black'."

International financial experts have warned that Greece will need more help if it is to meet its debt reduction target.

Under the deal hammered out in Brussels  ·        

• ·         Greece's economic management will be subjected to permanent monitoring by eurozone experts on the ground
• ·         Greece will amend its constitution to give priority to debt repayments over the funding of government services
• ·         Greece will set up a special account, managed separately from its main budget, that must always contain enough money to service its debts for the coming three months

'Embarrassed to be Greek'

The country has just over a week to approve a round of spending cuts of more than 3bn euros tied to the bailout.

Tax and pensions will be affected, Finance Minister Evangelos Venizelos told reporters.

A meeting of the Greek coalition cabinet has been called for Tuesday evening, after which the cuts may be tabled to parliament for a vote on Wednesday.

While the cuts should be passed by the current parliament, it is unclear how the constitutional amendment on debt repayment will fare when it comes before MPs within the next two months.

An early general election is expected to be held in April, putting pressure on Greece's mainstream socialist and conservative parties.

Trade unions have called for new street protests on Wednesday and the head of the opposition Communist party has vowed to oppose new cuts.

"We insist on daily struggle to thwart the measures and this struggle cannot be a defensive one," said Aleka Papariga.

The prospect of permanent eurozone monitoring is also seen by many Greeks as a blow to national pride, and many question whether the austerity will actually improve the economy.

"The measures are just going to make us sink further into recession. We'll be worse off this year than last," Agelos Sotirchos told the BBC as he walked through Athens' main meat market.

Another shopper, Vasilis Bouzianis, said the bailout appeared to be the only option for Greece.

"There are a lot of difficulties for all the people; we lose more money, we pay more taxes, but if we went ahead with bankruptcy, the problem would be much bigger," he said.

'Greek problem'

The German and Dutch parliaments will vote on the bailout next week, amid strong reservations over lending more money to Greece.

Jose Manuel Barroso: "I am aware of the heavy burden that the Greek people are having to bear"

German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble recently caused an outcry by suggesting that Greece was a "bottomless pit".

But European Commission chief Jose Manuel Barroso said on Tuesday the new loans package would prevent "an uncontrolled default with all its grave economic and social implications".

Greece, he added, had no alternative but to pursue fiscal consolidation and structural reform.

Jean-Claude Juncker, who chairs the eurogroup of finance ministers, said the bailout would "secure Greece's future in the euro area".

Italian Prime Minister Mario Monti, himself a technocrat brought in to turn around his country's finances, said: "It's an important result that removes immediate risks of contagion."

Swedish Finance Minister Anders Borg said that while the Greeks remained "stuck in their tragedy" the talks had "reduced the Greek problem to just a Greek problem".

The agreement was thrashed out over 13 hours at talks involving the international "troika" of the IMF, the European Central Bank and the European Commission.

Analysis

Mark Lowen BBC News, Athens

It was a fraught few weeks in the run-up to the eurozone meeting. Athens saw the worst rioting in years as parliament passed the latest austerity package; there were furious words exchanged between Greece and other eurozone governments, mistrustful of this country's commitment to reform; endless deadlines came and went as Greece teetered towards bankruptcy.

Greece is a resilient nation, well-versed in surmounting obstacles through their history. But that resilience is being sorely tested. The country has been living with punishing austerity for much of the past two years: unemployment has reached record heights at over 21%, the economy contracted by 7% in the last quarter of 2011. And now, with the bailout deal approved in Brussels, the cuts are set to get deeper still.

And Greeks are growing ever more doubtful that the path ahead will lead them out of this crisis. The government is acutely aware that support for the bailout and the austerity measures is costing it dearly in the opinion polls.

Strauss-Kahn held in prostitution ring inquiry

The car carrying Dominique Strauss-Kahn arrives at a police station in Lille

Former IMF head Dominique Strauss-Kahn has been detained for questioning by French police investigating a prostitution ring.

Mr Strauss-Kahn, once a front-runner for the French presidency, could be held for 48 hours at a police station in Lille, northern France.

Investigators have already questioned a number of prostitutes who have admitted having sex with Mr Strauss-Kahn.

He insists he did not know that the women were prostitutes.

"I challenge you to distinguish a naked prostitute from any other naked woman," his lawyer Henri Leclerc has told French television.

Mr Strauss-Kahn resigned as head of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) in May 2011 after he was charged in New York with the attempted rape of a hotel maid. The case was later dropped.

In this separate inquiry, French police have already arrested eight men on suspicion of organising a prostitution ring and misusing corporate funds to pay for sex in a scandal known as the "Carlton affair" because of a Lille hotel where clients were allegedly supplied with call-girls.

Three of the suspects were said to have been close to Mr Strauss-Kahn, who is said to have taken part in sex parties in Paris and Washington in late 2010 and early 2011.

Analysis

The BBC's Christian Fraser, in Paris, says that although consorting with prostitutes is legal in France, supplying them to others and misusing company funds to pay for them are not.

Dominique Strauss-Kahn had been tipped as a potential Socialist candidate in the April presidential elections until his arrest in New York in May last year.

One of the sex parties, allegedly organised by two of the eight suspects, Fabrice Paszkowski and David Roquet, is believed to have taken place in the US shortly before he was detained.

Mr Strauss-Kahn returned to France in September 2011 although the hotel maid involved in the case is pursuing a civil action.

'Ear infection'

The former IMF head said nothing as he arrived at a Lille police station in a car that was immediately surrounded by dozens of journalists.

A lawyer acting on his behalf, Frederique Beaulieu, arrived some time later.

Four investigators are involved in the questioning, Le Figaro reports, and have three police cells and four offices at their disposal.

Mr Strauss-Kahn is reported to have an ear infection and has the right to request a doctor's examination while in custody. The doctor could, theoretically, call for questioning to be suspended although that is considered unlikely.

Christian Fraser BBC News, Paris

Mr Strauss-Kahn finds himself again in the midst of a rather sleazy investigation.

He has asked to be interviewed after a number of headlines were written about him and the so-called "Carlton affair".

It is alleged that he took women to orgies to which he was invited. A number of sex-workers from France and Belgium have come forward who said they slept with Mr Strauss-Kahn, a fact that he is not disputing.

He is disputing that he knew they were prostitutes.

It is also alleged that they were paid for out of corporate funds from a large construction company. It is illegal for a public official to receive gifts of any kind, including sex.

Hawk eyed Steve sent to WoW

"I challenge you to distinguish a naked prostitute from any other naked woman," his (DSKs) lawyer Henri Leclerc has told French television.

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Sarkozy and Le Pen clash over Halal meat claims

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President Sarkozy speaks with butchers at the Rungis wholesale market near Paris

Reuters/Philippe Wojazer

By RFI

French President Nicolas Sarkozy and his far-right election rival Marine Le Pen traded blows on Tuesday over claims that all meat in the Paris region is halal, prepared according to Islamic law.

The National Front’s Le Pen, trailing both Sarkozy and Socialist frontrunner François Hollande ahead of the April 22 vote, made the claim at a rally on Saturday and pledged 
to file a legal complaint for "misrepresentation of products".

Campaigning on Tuesday in Rungis, home of the main wholesale food market serving the Paris metropolitan area, Sarkozy accused Le Pen of creating an artificial controversy and getting her facts wrong.

"There is no controversy here. Every year we consume 200,000 tonnes of meat in the Paris region and 2.5 per cent of it is kosher or halal," Sarkozy said.

Le Pen, whose party plays on fears of growing Muslim influence, cited a recent public television documentary that said all abattoirs in the greater Paris region use halal methods but do not always label the meat as such.

"It turns out that all the meat distributed in Ile de France is, unbeknownst to the consumer, exclusively halal meat," she said on Saturday. "This is a real deception, the government has been aware of this for months."

On Tuesday she clarified her comments to say that all meat distributed in the region could be suspected of being halal, as without a label "neither I nor you know which is halal and which is not".

Halal meat is slaughtered according to Islamic rules that, among other requirements, ban the practice of stunning animals before they are killed.

Some animal welfare campaigners say this is more cruel than standard European practices.

"Widespread animal suffering, in violation of French and European law, is not trivial," she said on France Inter radio in response to Sarkozy.

"The fact that a majority of French people are being misled about what they buy is not a trivial controversy," Le Pen said.

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Montpellier:  250,000+ € worth of equipment stolen from hospital

Medical equipment worth between 250,000 and 300,000 euros was stolen from the regional cancer  at Val d'Aurelle in Montpellier on Tuesday according to a police source.

On Tuesday morning hospital staff found  eight bags of equipment including endoscopes and other specialized equipment, had been stolen from a cabinet.

No break-in  was observed.

The theft allegedly was  committed between Monday afternoon and Tuesday morning, according to preliminary investigations of the crime squad from Montpellier police station.

All examinations and procedures which should have been carried out on Tuesday were cancelled.

Most foreign troop killings not work of Taliban, Nato admits

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Getting ready for 2014: Afghanistan's Hamid Karzai, Pakistan's Asif Ali Zardari and Iran's Mahmoud Ahmadinejad meeting last week

Reuters/Mian Khursheed

By Tony Cross

Taliban infiltrators have been responsible for very few of the attacks on foreign troops by Afghan soldiers, a Nato official says. The deaths of four French soldiers last month led President Nicolas Sarkozy to announce that France’s troops would pull out early because its supposed allies were unreliable.

There have been several cases of fatal attacks on international troops by Afghan National Army (ANA) members, but only one of them has been proved to have been by a Taliban infiltrator, according to Brigadier-General Carsten Jacobson a spokesperson for the Nato-led international force, Isaf.

A Nato inquiry had revealed that only a few can be put down to a real infiltration strategy, he told the French daily Le Monde this week.

Two French foreign legionnaires were killed by an Afghan soldier and on 20 January another four were murdered by a man they were training.

“There are links with the insurrection,” French army spokesperson Thierry Burkhard assured reporters at the time.

But Jacobsen contradicts him, telling Le Monde that neither of the attackers was a Taliban member and that the explanation was arrived at after the facts.

Even a videoed confession, distributed by the Taliban, by a man who wounded three Australians and two Afghans in November was just a case of the rebels exploiting an incident they had not organised, he said, pointing out that the movement claims responsibility for nearly all attacks on foreign troops or representatives of President Hamid Karzai’s government.

Sarkozy, who faces an election in less than 60 days time, responded to the 20 January attack by declaring that France “can't accept that a single one of our soldiers be killed by our allies”. He later decided to bring French troops home in 2013, a year earlier than the pull-out date agreed by Nato at the US’s instigation.

Jacobsen’s statements do not undermine Sarkozy’s argument, although they do make it seem even more unlikely that Afghan security forces will be able to control the country after the planned withdrawal.

But cynics might judge the president’s apparent surprise at the unreliability of the Afghan state apparatus disingenuous and point out that the “allies” were brought to power by an international intervention that France supported.

Anyway, the unreliability of new army recruits is the Nato powers’ fault, according to Afghan Defence Minister Abdul Rahim Wardak.

With US President Barack Obama anxious to quit the country by 2014 and his allies even less keen to hang around, they have forced the ANA to increase its numbers too quickly, he told Le Monde.

Nato itself now admits that the main cause of attacks was insensitivity by foreign troops and trainers towards local traditions and Muslim beliefs and practises.

The participation in the international force is unpopular in France and Sarkozy’s chief rival in the presidential poll, Socialist François Hollande, has promised to wrap it up by the end of this year “at the latest”.

So Sarkozy’s announcement, which caught Nato and US officials by surprise, was undoubtedly influenced as much by the electoral combat in France as by the military one in Kapisa, the Afghan province that French troops are responsible for.

In the light of the inquiry into the killings, Nato will change its tactics: Afghanistan’s secret services, an institution that seems more consistently efficient than most, are to work with Nato recruiters and will be given new interception equipment; Protection measures will be standardised in all camps where foreign and Afghan troops are present; Nato trainers will have a reserved zone from which Afghans will be banned; Nato trainers will be better educated in local culture and Muslim beliefs to avoid “unnecessary” tension.

In any case, the handover to Afghan security forces will continue, even though US special forces and drones will remain, as the Wall Street Journal recently revealed.

The invading coalition may be racing to the door at the moment but the US, at least, is not going to leave a country that is strategically placed in resource-rich central Asia and next door to China, Pakistan and Iran entirely to its own devices.

French press review 

By Michael Fitzpatrick

What now for Europe after the debt deal for Greece was approved by eurozone finance ministers in Brussels Monday night and the Chinese artist Ai Weiwei are the issues making the front pages in the French media.

Le Figaro figures that it will cost 350 billion euros to save Greece.

Europe gave Athens 110 billion last May, which just about saw the moussaka munchers to the end of the month. Now they need another 130 billion to keep the wolf from the door, and they'd like the private banks who are due 100 billion additional sponduliks to quietly kiss that money goobye.

 All of this, sadly, won't make any real impact on the fundamental problem which is that Greece has no proper state administrative aparatus and is run like a black market on a national scale.

The average Greek is very angry at being told he has to live on bread and water for the foreseeable future in order to pay the national debt; the same average Greek will now have to accept bankers from Brussels who will take up residence in the Finance Ministry in Athens and dole out the latest rescue money with a small spoon.

Expect more fighting in the street.

Europe's money woes are on the front page of communist L'Humanité too. The communist daily wants left wing deputies to vote against the European Stability Pact, due to be discussed in the French parliament this very day.

Officially, the pact is an attempt to establish a savings fund, to which rich European countries will contribute and from which poor European countries will scrounge. France, for example, should contribute 143 billion euros to the pot.

L'Humanité says the proposals, concocted by French President Nicolas Sarkozy and the German Chancellor, Angela Merkel, will do nothing but imprison the people behind the bars of hardship, as austerity becomes not a reaction to a passing crisis but a permanent way of living in the straitjacket of poverty.

Libération has the Chinese artist and dissident, Ai Weiwei, on its front cover, with incidental comments throughout the paper from the man much feared by Beijing.

When he describes himself as a worker in the fields of "fantasy, suspicion, discovery, subversion and criticism," you can understand why the politburo gets nervous every time they let Weiwei out of jail.

Opposite an article on "The struggle for power in Senegal", for example, Libé quotes Weiwei's 2010 observation that there are only two forms of government . . . they are, democracy which encourages criticism, and dictatorship which is interested only in its own survival.

Abdoulaye Wade would know a thing or two about that.

French News - 21 February

Eurozone ministers back 130bn-euro bailout for Greece

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Eurogroup chief: "We are making every effort so that a new programme will be a success"

Eurozone finance ministers have agreed a second bailout for Greece after 13 hours of late-night talks in Brussels.

Greece is to receive loans worth more than 130bn euros (£110bn; $170bn).

In return, Greece will undertake to reduce its debts to 120.5% of its GDP by 2020 and accept an "enhanced and permanent" presence of EU monitors to oversee economic management.

Greece needs the funds to avoid bankruptcy on 20 March, when maturing loans must be repaid.

After five straight years of recession, Greece's debt currently amounts to more than 160% of its Gross Domestic Product.

The euro immediately rose on reports of the deal.

Deeper cuts

The agreement was announced early on Tuesday by Jean-Claude Juncker, prime minister of Luxembourg and chairman of the eurozone finance ministers group.

Mr Juncker said the "far-reaching" deal would lead to "a very significant debt reduction for Greece" and ensure its future within the eurozone.

He said "the eurogroup is fully aware of the significant efforts already made by the Greek citizens".

What went wrong in Greece?

Greece's economic reforms, which led to it abandoning the drachma as its currency in favour of the euro in 2002, made it easier for the country to borrow money.

Elections ahead

The deal also means that private holders of Greek debt will take losses of 53.5% on the value of their bonds.

When all the elements of the exchange are accounted for, the loss to investors is expected to be as much as 70%.

Eurozone leaders and the IMF said in October that Greek debt should be reduced to a more sustainable level of 120% of GDP by 2020.

The deal provides for the presence of EU monitors of Greece's economic management as some members doubt Greece's commitment to its spending pledges.

Greece will also have to pass within the next two months legislation that gives paying off the country's debts priority over funding government services.

Successive rounds of austerity measures, demanded by Greece's international creditors, have failed to restore growth and have provoked clashes between protesters and police.

The Greek government fell last year after ex-Prime Minister George Papandreou called for a referendum on the eurozone rescue package.

He was replaced by Mr Papademos, an unelected technocrat who is expected to lead Greece until parliamentary elections in April.

Measures passed by parliament last week set out 3.3bn euros' worth of cuts to salaries and pensions, and to health and defence spending - sparking a fresh series of protests.

Analysis

Mark Lowen BBC News, Athens

This is in effect uncharted territory for the eurozone - a managed Greek default, with over 50% of the country's private debt being written off. This was not even being considered as an option several months ago.

But the Greek people will be sceptical about this bailout. The deal that has been agreed will mean more austerity and spending cuts, and even more pain for Greeks.

Greeks say that the country's middle classes who have worked hard and pay their taxes are, unfairly, bearing the brunt of a crisis they did not create. They feel Greece's notorious corrupt politicans and wealthy Greeks who evaded tax are to blame.

But he added that "further major and joint efforts by all parts of the Greek society are needed to return the economy to a sustainable growth path."

The head of the IMF, Christine Lagarde, who also took part in the negotiations, said the deal "should give enough space for Greece to restore its competitiveness".

Speaking after the deal was reached, Greek Prime Minister Lucas Papademos said he was "very happy" with the outcome.

The BBC's Stephen Evans in Brussels says the agreement will mean deeper cuts in public spending that Greece had planned.

It also means there should be no default or any knock-on effects in the rest of the eurozone - at least for the moment, our correspondent adds.

But he says big questions still remain - including whether imposing medicine of this harshness will make the Greek economy stronger.

A first rescue package worth 110bn euros in 2010 was not enough to avert Greece's deepening crisis.

Coach crash: Driver investigated over 'involuntary homicide'

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The accident occurred on the A26 motorway near Chalons-en-Champagne

• The driver of a coach that crashed in France, killing a teacher, is being investigated over an allegation of involuntary homicide.

Derek Thompson, 47, was behind the wheel of the vehicle when it went down an embankment on the A26 motorway.

Peter Rippington, 59, who taught at Alvechurch School, died and more than 20 people were hurt in Sunday's crash.

Pupils from the school were returning from a skiing trip in Italy at the time of the crash.

According to the Foreign Office, seven people remain in hospital, including a 13-year-old girl who underwent surgery in Paris.

'Repeatedly swerve'

Mr Thompson appeared before a judge on Monday afternoon and is now free to return to England on the condition he will attend a French court at a later date.

In a statement, the Rheims prosecutor said Mr Thompson had been questioned by the examining magistrate (EM) on Monday afternoon.

"He explained to the EM that he had no recollection of the circumstances of the accident.

"He is under investigation for involuntary manslaughter and involuntary wounding."

Prosecutor Christian de Rocquigny said: "Witnesses who were driving in the area near the coach saw the vehicle repeatedly swerve towards the verge.

"The tachograph indicates some unexplained variations in speed in the nine minutes before the accident, the judge explained.

"While being questioned the driver, having denied falling asleep, has acknowledged that it was possible that he did so."

Police in France have confirmed Mr Thompson, who suffered minor injuries, tested negative for both drugs and alcohol.

There was also no evidence of him having worked excess hours or speeding at the time of the incident.

Col Laurent Vidal: "[The driver] did not drink any alcohol"

The school party had been on a skiing trip to Val d'Aosta, organised by travel company Interski.

The Mansfield-based firm said the crash happened at about 02:30 GMT, near the city of Rheims, as the party made its way home aboard two coaches.

The Foreign Office said it was working closely with French authorities and was also assisting the passengers involved and their relatives.

There had been 20 adults - including two drivers and six ski instructors - and 29 schoolchildren on board, the company added.

The vehicle involved was owned by Solus Coaches, which is based in Tamworth, Staffordshire. A spokesman for the coach company said it was "saddened" to hear of the crash and offered its "sincere condolences" to the family and friends of Mr Rippington.

Peter Rippington died in the crash and his wife, Sharon, was also hurt

Most of the children have now arrived back in Worcestershire.

Tributes have been paid to Mr Rippington, whose wife Sharon and daughter Amy were also injured in the crash, at the Church of England middle school, which opened as usual following the half-term break.

Speaking outside the school Bryan Maybee, chair of governors, offered his condolences to those "affected by this tragic accident".

He said: "[Peter Rippington was] a dedicated and inspirational teacher.

"We continue to wish for the swift recovery and safe return of those currently being treated for injuries abroad.

Mr Maybee was joined by the Reverend David Martin, rector of Alvechurch, who said Mr Rippington "was so much part of this community" and that he had given "his whole life to Alvechurch Church of England Middle School".

West Mercia Police said it was supporting the families of the children and members of the staff involved and family liaison officers had been put in place at the school.

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Eurozone Greek bailout talks begin in Brussels

Some eurozone ministers doubts Greece's austerity pledges

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Eurozone finance ministers are holding talks in Brussels aimed at securing a second vital bailout for Greece.

They have said they are hopeful of reaching a deal, with France's Finance Minister Francois Baroin saying all the elements are in place.

But his Greek counterpart Evangelis Venizelos said haggling would go on "until the very last minute".

Athens needs the 130bn euros (£110bn; $170bn) in order to avoid bankruptcy next month, when loans must be repaid.

The rescue plan would also write off 100bn euros of debt, with private lenders accepting a 70% reduction in what Greece owes them.

In return, they would receive cash and new bonds, expected to mature in 30 years' time.

Negotiations to write off even more debt are being held in parallel in Brussels between Greek officials and their international lenders on the one hand, and bank chiefs on the other, say officials.

'Permanent presence'

This is the second time Greece has sought a bailout from international lenders.

Jean-Claude Juncker - prime minister of Luxembourg and chairman of the eurozone finance ministers group - said Greece had fulfilled many of the conditions asked of it and he was hopeful the talks would be "the final consultations".

"I am of the opinion that today we have to deliver, because we don't have any more time," he said.

German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble also said he was "optimistic" a deal would be reached, while Mr Baroin said he would plead for the deal.

"All the elements are in place... both with the bankers, private sector creditors, and public sector creditors, the states and central banks," he told Europe 1 radio.

But as the talks began, Dutch Finance Minister Jan Kees De Jager said he would like to see "some kind of permanent presence" by the EU, International Monetary Fund (IMF) and European Central Bank (ECB) over Greece's revenues and public expenditure.

"When you look at the derailments in Greece which have occurred several times now, it is probably necessary," he said.

Elections ahead

After five straight years of recession, Greece now has a debt greater than 160% of its Gross Domestic Product (GDP).

Eurozone leaders and the IMF said in October that Greek debt should be reduced to the more sustainable level of 120% of GDP by 2020.

Successive rounds of austerity measures, demanded by Greece's international creditors have failed to restore growth and have provoked clashes between protesters and police.

The Greek government fell last year after ex-Prime Minister George Papandreou called for a referendum on the eurozone rescue package.

He was replaced by Lucas Papademos, an unelected technocrat who is expected to lead Greece until parliamentary elections in April.

Measures passed by parliament last week set out 3.3bn euros' worth of cuts to salaries and pensions, and health and defence spending.

Several thousand people protested in Athens on Sunday against further cuts agreed by Mr Papademos' cabinet on Saturday - but the numbers were far reduced from the tens of thousands who protested last week.

Mr Venizelos has said he now expects the "long period of uncertainty" to end.

"The Greek people send to Europe the message that they have made, and will make, the necessary sacrifices for our country to regain its position of equality within the European family," he said in a finance ministry statement issued in Brussels on Monday.

IMF chief Christine Lagarde praised the work Greece had done so far and said the IMF was ready to work with them.

US Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner said the US was encouraging the IMF to support the bailout, but it is not clear how much the IMF will contribute.

Some eurozone finance ministers doubt Greece's commitment to its spending pledges and want strong mechanisms to ensure its debts are paid.

It is not yet clear how the eurozone intends to keep the pressure on Greece to ensure it fulfils its commitments, says the BBC's Europe editor, Gavin Hewitt.

And, he adds, there are doubts that even with the bailout Greece will be able to reduce its debt to a sustainable level.

Funds from elsewhere may need to be found. A first rescue fund of 110bn euros in 2010 was not enough to avert the crisis.

How bond swaps work

• ·         Governments borrow money by selling bonds, promising to pay a lump sum in future and interest in the meantime
• ·         With a bond swap, the investors give up the original bonds in exchange for new ones with different payment terms
• ·         In the case of Greece, it is expected that the final payment will be half the original amount
• ·         When all the elements of the exchange are accounted for (including the discounting of future cash flows), the loss to investors is expected to be as much as 70%
• ·         Final repayment will be pushed further into the future, although investors will get some of their cash almost straight away

Analysis

Gavin Hewitt BBC Europe editor, Brussels

Greek ministers and European officials vividly describe the catastrophe if Greece defaults. "If there is a default," said the German centre-right MEP Elmar Brok, "then there would be no pensions, no salaries at all. It would become a failed state."

No-one pretends that default would be an easy option.

There would be a run on the banks and, at the most elemental level, there would be the question of how soon a new drachma could be printed and distributed.

But those who oppose the new bailout package argue that Greece is not being saved from the fate of a failed state, but being pushed into one - and for years to come.

France recalls Rwanda ambassador from Kigali

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Rwandan President Paul Kigame

© AFP/Thomas Samson

By RFI

France has recalled its ambassador to Rwanda Laurent Contini after the authorities in Kigali refused to accept Paris's choice of a new envoy. WeeklyJeune Afrique had reported that Kigali earlier this month rejected the nomination of Hélène Le Gal, currently France's consul in Quebec, because she was considered too close to French Foreign Minister Alain Juppé.

 The magazine said Juppé "has long been considered hostile to the current authorities in Kigali."

Juppé, who was also foreign minister during the Rwandan genocide in 1994, has said he will not "shake hands" with Kagamé or go to Rwanda following the release of a 2008 report accusing France of complicity in the genocide.

Juppé, who has dismissed the report as "lies and fabrications", did not meet his Rwandan counterpart when she visited France and was outside the country during Kagamé's visit.

Despite differences over the choice of a new envoy,  French foreign ministry spokesman Vincent Floreani said he two countries had a good relationship.

"Relations between France and Rwanda have not stopped strengthening since the visit of the president to Kigali in February 2010, which sealed at the highest level the political and economic recovery between our two countries," he said.

Contini, considered close to former foreign minister Bernard Kouchner, fell out of favour with Juppé last year after making statements considered too favourable to Kigali.

France and Rwanda have a history of difficult ties and relations between the two countries were broken off between 2006 and 2009.

Tensions have eased this year after experts mandated by a French inquiry to probe the 1994 downing of Rwandan leader Juvenal Habyarimana's jet cleared Kagamé's aides of involvement.

The assassination of Habyarimana was one of the triggers that unleashed a genocide that left around 800,000 Rwandans dead.

Following the 1994 attack, hardliners from the slain president's Hutu ethnic group, led by members of his inner circle, began to slaughter members of Kagamé's Tutsi minority.

Kagamé's rebel FPR eventually managed to overthrow the Hutu-led regime.

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Fuel: "lead free" crosses bar of 1.60 € per litre

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The average price of a litre of unleaded 95 rose to 1.614 euro to 18 February, while the super unleaded 98 averaged 1.64 euro.

With the cold and geopolitical tensions but also the weakness of the euro, the price of crude oil, the direct cause of the pump price, never ceases to be increasing. Even before the announcement of the cessation of Iranian oil sales to France and the UK , the barrel had almost never been sold as expensive in the history of oil. And fuels are being moved to record levels in France. 

Last week, all the average prices of unleaded passed the symbolic threshold of 1.60 euro per litre, including VAT. Since 1 ^stJanuary 2012, the average fuel prices increased 8.5 cents per litre of gasoline (5.5%) and 6.5 cents per litre of diesel (+ 4.7%).

Secretary of State for consumption Frédéric Lefebvre has recently announced a version dedicated to mobile phones official website www.prix-carburants.gouv.fr, which allows motorists to compare prices at service stations. This mobile version available at www.prix-carburants.gouv.fr/mobile 

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Eleven treated in hospital after fatal coach crash

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Tests show driver was not under influence of drink or drugs when the coach flipped over near Reims, northern France        

Peter Rippington, the maths teacher killed in the coach crash, and his wife Sharon, who was injured. Photograph: Foreign & Commonwealth Office/PA

Eleven people remain in hospital in northern France after a coach crash involving 29 British schoolchildren and 13 adult supervisors .

A teacher, Peter Rippington, died in the accident near Reims, which happened as the party was returning from a ski trip.

Six people were said to be seriously injured although their condition was not life-threatening, according to a local prosecutor investigating the crash. A 13-year-old was transferred to the Necker children's hospital in Paris where she underwent surgery.

Initial tests on the driver, who received minor injuries, showed he was not under the influence of alcohol or drugs, and local police are believed to be investigating whether he might have fallen asleep at the wheel. Another driver and six ski instructors were also on the coach, which flipped over and came to rest at the bottom of an embankment on the A26 at Châlons-en-Champagne.

Tributes have been paid to Rippington, head of mathematics at Alvechurch middle school in Worcestershire, who died in the crash. The school was open on Monday with pupils and adults being offered counselling. Police officers were on duty at all three entrances as pupils and parents arrived, some in tears.

Dozens of bunches of flowers and notes of sympathy in memory of Rippington had been left around a flagpole inside the school grounds.

A photograph of the teacher with his wife Sharon had been placed near the tributes. She and their daughter Amy were injured in the crash. In a statement, the Rippington family said they were devastated, describing the 59-year-old as "a wonderful husband, father, son, brother, son-in-law, brother-in-law, uncle, friend and teacher".

Rippington was a "dedicated and inspirational teacher", Bryan Maybee, chairman of the school's governors, said in a statement read outside the school. "He will be so sadly missed by all those who knew him."

After confirming that staff and children who were well enough to travel arrived back from France late on Sunday night, he added: "We continue to wish for the swift recovery and safe return of those who are currently being treated for injuries abroad.

"The school is open today and I can reassure you that specialist support is in place for children and staff."

Rev David Martin, the rector of Alvechurch, said: "The church community are holding all those affected by yesterday's shocking crash in our prayers, especially Peter's family. Peter was very much part of the wider community in Alvechurch and was known and liked by many"

St. Laurence's Church in the village was open to give people an opportunity to say prayers and light candles for Rippington, he said.

Pupils left a message that read: "Dear Mr Rip, you will be truly missed. You were a one-of-a-kind teacher and you can never be replaced. You were funny and kind and always made everyone's day.

"We will love and miss you forever and always."

Kate Vanderplank, who has two sons who were taught by him, said: "He was a fantastic teacher, really special. He was great not just within the school but in the community as well."

Vanderplank said her children were both in shock. A female pupil told Sky News: "He was an amazing teacher. You could talk to him about anything. He would just sit and listen."

Twenty-seven people were taken to two hospitals following the crash, with 22 of those said to have minor injuries.

Interski Snowsport School, the company that arranged the trip, said it was "saddened and distressed". In a statement, it offered its condolences to Rippington's family and friends and sympathy to those injured and others involved in the incident.

The bus was owned by Solus Coaches, which is based in Tamworth, Staffordshire, and was chartered by the ski company. "Our thoughts are with the bereaved, to whom we offer our sincere condolences," said a spokesman. "We are also obviously highly concerned for the welfare of the injured passengers and all others involved in this incident."

The Foreign Office is investigating the accident and providing consular assistance.

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China rebukes Iran for France, UK oil ban

China buys around 20 percent of Iran's oil exports

(Reuters) - China rebuked Iran on Monday for stopping oil sales to British and French companies at the weekend, calling for renewed efforts at dialogue over an escalating stand-off over Tehran's controversial nuclear programme.

China has repeatedly called for talks over Tehran's efforts to enrich its own uranium, which Western countries suspect is aimed at obtaining nuclear weapons. Iran has said the enrichment is for power generation.

"We have consistently upheld dialogue and negotiation as the way to resolve disputes between countries, and do not approve of exerting pressure or using confrontation to resolve issues," Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Hong Lei said when asked about Iran's ban on oil sales to British and French firms.

China "hopes all sides can get back onto the correct path of dialogue as soon as possible," Hong told a daily news briefing.

China is one of the largest users of Iranian oil, buying around 20 percent of total exports.

The European Union enraged Tehran last month when it decided to impose a boycott on its oil from July 1. Iran, the world's fifth-largest oil exporter, responded by threatening to close the Strait of Hormuz, the main Gulf oil shipping lane.

On Sunday, its oil ministry went a step further, announcing Iran has now stopped selling oil to French and British companies, a move which will however have little or no impact on supplies reaching France or Britain.

French and Anglo/Dutch oil majors Total and Shell have been big buyers of Iranian crude but Total had already stopped buying from Iran and Shell had scaled back sharply.

Iran has ramped up rhetoric in recent weeks while also expressing willingness to resume negotiations on its nuclear programme. Western powers have cautiously not ruled out the use of force if the programme continues. But speculation is high Israel may attack nuclear facilities in Iran.

Hong said the use of force would be the wrong answer.

"Attacking Iran militarily would only worsen the confrontation and lead to further upheaval in the region," he said.

The fast food revolution à la francaise

French baguettes

Julie Kertesz/Flickr

By Alison Hird

France, home to gastronomy and the long Sunday lunch is undergoing a food mini-revolution.

The takeaway food market is now worth more than 32 billion euros a year, up 66 per cent in the last seven years. 

French get tough on bank bail-outs

Any French bank that is bailed-out by taxpayers will be part-nationalised and forced to lend to businesses and households, the Socialist party has promised if it wins the forthcoming election as expected.

Segolene Royal said any French bank that is bailed-out by taxpayers will be part-nationalised and forced to lend to businesses and households. Photo: AFP/GETTY

By Philip Aldrick

Unlike Britain, which took an 83pc stake in Royal Bank of Scotland and 41pc of Lloyds Banking Group in return for £65bn of taxpayer support in the 2008 crisis, President Nicolas Sarkozy's government provided €360bn (£299bn) of support for French banks without taking any common shares.

Three of France's leading lenders, including BNP Paribas and Societe Generale, have been instructed to raise just over €7bn between them in the coming months.

They are expected to try to tap the markets, but may have to resort to state help.

Segolene Royal, a senior party figure and former wife of the Socialist candidate François Hollande, said today: "Whenever we have to bail out the banks, we will acquire part of their capital and demand the kind of behaviour that should never have been allowed to slide. That means lending to businesses and consumers in the right conditions."

Ms Royal, a former presidential contender, is expected to play a government role if Mr Hollande wins in the April-May presidential election

ArcelorMittal workers occupy French site over jobs threat

                                                                                         Workers at the ArcelorMittal's site in Moselle eastern France

Reuters/Vincent Kessler

Around 200 metal workers from global steel giant ArcelorMittal have occupied the company’s site at Florange in the Moselle region of eastern France in protest at management’s refusal to re-open two blast furnaces which have been out of operation since the middle of last year.

The workers say they will continue their action until ArcelorMittal reveals its plans for the site.

At the same time around half the company’s workforce, some 3,000 employees, were also temporarily laid-off and the company says it has no immediate plans to re-employ them.

Unions say they fear the company has plans to close down the site completely.

Earlier this month, the world’s biggest steel maker announced a net loss for the last three months of the year of 757 million euros.

At the time ArecelorMittal chairman said the situation in Europe was a ‘live’ concern.

The company says it intends to cut operating costs by 605 million euros this year

Montpellier New force to improve the city environment

DOWNTOWN Twelve officers employed to track down anti-social behaviour

"We have listed twenty to six spots in the City and its suburbs," says Regine  Souche, elected deputy responsible for security. 
The twelve municipal officers in this brigade patrol the streets in search of "uncivil behaviour.  Hopefully now the new fines will deter oafishness says mayor Helen Mandroux.

Dogs, and waste sites
These incivilities which spoils the City are primarily related to waste. "The traders or restaurateurs leave on their doorstep or on the street their garbage cans, cartons, without following the rules collection" says one agent.

 Sites in this new war include the abandonment of rubble on the street, or a blocking gutters. 

People responsible for dog excrement, the presence of animals in playgrounds, dogs not on leashes, paper and trash thrown onto public roads will all now be punished. 

"We will not seek fine everyone -we will inform and educate first, but in repeat behaviour will attract a fine " said one of the three municipal police officers in this new brigade.

AGDE - new port quay nears completion

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The new wooden decking which enlarges and improves access on the the walkway between the restaurants and the port.

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Work started last autumn and will be completed before the holiday season starts.

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French Press Review

By Michael Fitzpatrick

There are four different views of President Nicolas Sarkozy's first official steps towards reelection, taken  in the southern French city of Marseille.

For the right wing daily, Le Figaro, Sarko has decided to place himself in the Gaullist tradition, in the shadow of wartime hero General De Gaulle, suggesting that only Sarkozy has the courage and the vision necessary to save the nation in its latest hour of need.

The basic lesson is that France will have to accept certain sacrifices if it is to survive. Le Figaro's editorial salutes the courage of the out-going president, while condemning his principal opponent, the Socialist Party's François Hollande, for refusing to pronounce the dreaded s-word, "sacrifice".

Left-leaning Libération says the same General De Gaulle probably went for a quick spin in his grave yesterday, as Sarko tried to reinvent himself as a man of the people.

The problem, says Libé, is that none of the people have forgotten the hugely expensive celebration dinner in Fouquet's, the luxury holiday on a yacht owned by stinky rich Vincent Balloré, the tax havens for the president's billionaire friends.

And what has the right been doing for the past 10 years? How come they discovered the people just two months before the next presidential election?

Sarko is good at rhetoric, concedes Libé, and he's clearly got the bit between his teeth and is going to give Frank the Dutchman a run for our money. But the policy is "blindingly contradictory", to quote the Libération editorial, and will work only if the common man has a remarkably short memory.

Communist L'Humanité sees Sarkozy moving to the right, "extremely", an obvious reference to the candidate-president's efforts to capture the votes of supporters of the far-right Front National.

And Le Monde wonders, with more than a hint of irony, if Sarkozy has really changed over the past five years.

French News - 20 February

French Finance Minister Baroin optimistic over EU Greek bailout deal

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France's Finance Minister Francois Baroin

Reuters/Christian Hartmann

By RFI

French Finance Minister François Baroin says European Union ministers have all the elements in place for the approval of a second financial rescue package for Greece on Tuesday.

The Greek parliament last week approved a series of measures worth 3.2 billion euros in return for a second bailout deal which would write-off 100 billion euros of debt and provide an EU loan of 130 billion euros.

“I hope that we …can take into account what has been done in the last several weeks, in the last several months even, by the Greek government and the political groupings that make up the coalition in power in Athens,” he said ahead of a meeting of eurozone finance ministers in Brussels.

Baroin stressed urgent moves were needed on Greece as it had bond repayments of 14.5 billion euros due on 20 March.

On Sunday US Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner threw his weight behind the new austerity measures agreed by Greece and said the US backed the idea of a new IMF loan for Athens.

The International Monetary Fund which gave Greece a 30-billion-euro loan as part of the first bailout has so far remained silent over whether it will participate in a new loan.

GREEK BAILOUT PACKAGE

What is on the table at finance ministers meeting in Brussels. Greece needs 130 billion euros as part of a rescue package to avoid going bankrupt in mid-March when it must make a bond repayment of 14.5 billion euros. The rescue plan, to be approved by the EU, would also write off 100 billion euros of debt with private lenders accepting a 70 per cent reduction in what they are owed. In return they will receive cash and new bonds set to mature in 30 years What measures has Greece introduced to ensure the deal. The Greek parliament has approved a series of measures worth 3.2 billion euros. These include a 22 per cent reduction in the minimum wage and a 12 per cent cut to pensions of more than 1,300 euros a month. It has agreed to reduce the number of public sector workers by 150,000 by 2015. The government has agreed to open an ‘escrow’ account to ensure repayment to government creditors. The current economic situation in Greece After five straight years of recession, Greece now has a debt greater than 160 per cent of its GDP. Figures released last week showed a five-year recession increasing to a seven per cent contraction in the fourth quarter, outracing an earlier estimate of 5.5 per cent for the whole of the year. Unemployment stands at 20.9 per cent rising to 48 per cent for young people. There has been a 25 per cent increase in homelessness over the past three years.

Eurozone officials in talks to finalise Greek bailout

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Greece needs to secure bailout before 20 March 2012

Reuters/Yiorgos Karahalis

By RFI

Eurozone officials are holding 11-th hour talks on Sunday one day ahead of a crucial finance ministers meeting to finalise a second Greek bailout deal which they hope will remove the possibility of Greece leaving the Eurozone.

The deal to write off 100 billion euros of debt and provide a loan of 130 billion euros depends on new spending cuts by the government which will come amid violent protests on the streets.

On Sunday, hundreds of people joined a demonstration in central Athens against the austerity measures which include a 22 per cent reduction in the minimum wage.

For Greek Prime Minister Lucas Papdemos, securing the loan is essential because without the bailout Greece will be unable to meet a bond repayment of 14.5 billion euros on 20 march.

But while Greek party leaders seeking power in a general election set for April have committed separately to carrying out radical reforms, hardliners have floated a willingness to cut the country adrift of the euro.

The Italian government said on Friday that Prime Minister Mario Monti, German Chancellor Angela Merkel and Papademos were "confident that a deal can be reached on Greece at the Eurogroup," after telephone talks.

But Germany and The Netherlands still need to get the second bailout past sceptical parliaments.

Sarkozy promotes image as President of the People

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Nicolas Sarkozy at his campaign rally in Marseille, 19 February, 2012

Reuters/Jean-Paul Pelissier

By RFI

French President Nicolas Sarkozy positioned himself as the ‘president of the people’ in his first major campaign meeting since he announced he would run for re-election last week. “I will not be the candidate of a small elite against the people,” he told a 7,000-strong crowd of cheering UMP supporters in the southern port city of Marseille on Sunday.

“I want to be the candidate of the French people,” he stated in an hour-long speech that covered immigration, the financial crisis, unemployment and the possibility of introducing a form of proportional representation in legislative elections.

He insisted proportional representation would strengthen democracy to allow all political parties to have a representative in parliament.

“The Republic is stronger when everyone has a way of expressing themselves within the Republic,’ he said.

In an attack on Socialist Party candidate François Hollande, who is currently leading in opinion polls.

Sarkozy described him as a “Thatcher in London and a Mitterand in Paris” referring to Hollande’s sharp criticism of the financial world when in France, but the adoption of a more conciliatory tone when talking to European leaders.

Sarkozy also accused the opposition of ignoring the financial crisis and putting the future of the country in danger.

“Those who are acting as if nothing serious has happened over the past three years in the world are lying to the French people,” he said. “You do not defend yourself against danger if you deny it exists.”

In contrast, he described himself as the “protector of the French people” and claimed his policies had saved the country from “catastrophe”.

His speech was well-received by the party faithful in the crowd which included Foreign Minister Alain Juppé, UMP party chief, Jean-François Copé and Prime Minister François Fillon.

Also present was his wife, Carla Bruni-Sarkozy, who praised her husband’s first major meeting on the campaign trail as “moving”.

Far-right candidate attacks 'deadly' globalisation, immigration

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In a key campaign speech almost nine weeks ahead of France's presidential elections, French far-right candidate Marine Le Pen slammed globalisation and immigration, warning of adverse effects on the country's economy and national identity.

By Joseph BAMAT  Special correspondant, Lille 

Far-right leader Marine Le Pen slammed rival candidates on Sunday, calling them servants of the the banking and finance industries in a key election campaign speech in the northern city of Lille, only nine weeks ahead of presidential elections in France.

“There is no left, there is no right, just two candidates who represent the interests of financial markets and the banks,” Le Pen said in reference to incumbent President Nicolas Sarkozy and Socialist Party candidate François Hollande.

 

 With roughly 15% of voter intentions, according to opinion polls, the National Front candidate is in third place and battling to pull closer to leading candidates Sarkozy and Hollande.

Le Pen's speech packed the 1,500-seat auditorium in the northern city of Lille, where her party's two-day presidential convention has been organised ahead of the April 22 first-round poll.

 

In an hour-long address, the far-right candidate took aim at the globalised economy and immigration, claiming they're having a ravaging effect on France.

“We need to resist the free market policies that threaten our economy, and yes, even our identity,” Le Pen told cheering supporters. "And those princes of the finance and banking world who are nothing more than a global mafia and exploit man with no-one controlling them, ” the 43-year-old former lawyer added, once again infusing her speech with language more characteristic of the left than of the right.

 

“Patriots of the world, unite!” Le Pen clamoured at one point in her speech, and later argued that the human person needed to be “placed at the centre of the economy.”

 

Le Pen also announced a raft of policies in January aimed to balance France's books, including taxing imports, tapping the central bank for cheap loans instead of debt markets, and giving French citizens priority over foreigners for jobs.

 

Her anti-euro and protectionist stance has struck a chord here, especially among working class voters disillusioned by economic hardship since the start of the global financial crisis.

 

Taking on Merkel

 

Le Pen began her speech by mentioning the economic woes of France's north. The region surrounding the city of Lille has suffered from chronic unemployment for decades, ever since the decline of its once-important coal and textile industries.

 

She said she had personally travelled through the “industrial graveyard” that could be seen in the abandoned factories in the outskirts of the city. “They are a sad reminder of our glorious past,” Le Pen claimed.

 

However, she quickly turned her attention to the EU policies she said were stealing France's sovereignty and threatening to cripple the country's economy. “Brussels is destroying Greece. It will next ravage Italy and Spain, and eventually... us.”

 

The far-right leader slammed Sarkozy for his involvement and interest in the European Union, and on two occasions criticized German Chancelor Angela Merkel, telling the leader to stop meddling in France's affairs after Merkel's January announcement that she would be personally endorsing Sarkozy's re-election bid.

Le Pen also criticised what she called the EU's “pourous borders” but spent little time discussing the issue of immigration -- a traditionally key campaign issue for the National Front, along with insecurity -- and preferring instead to focus on the 'deadly' effects of high finance.

 

Le Pen vs Sarkozy

As Marine Le Pen tried to boost her support in northern France, her key rival Nicolas Sarkozy chose to present his re-election manifesto on the exact date and time in a massive party meeting at the opposite end of the country, in the southern city of Marseille.

Sarkozy’s victory in 2007 was in part due to his ability to siphon votes from the far-right party -- a strategy that Le Pen is hoping to counter in 2012.

"Nicolas Sarkozy is trying to renew 2007 by encroaching on our turf," Nicolas Bay, Le Pen's adviser on immigration issues, told reporters in Lille. "That means we have to go on the offensive, as we have no intention of letting him do it again."

The two candidates have been trying to lure voters with their anti-immigration rhetoric. Sarkozy has vowed to limit immigration, setting himself the goal of cutting legal migration to France to 150,000 people a year, having already cut the quota to 180,000 from 200,000 in past years. 

In a bid to draw more far-right voters, he also proposed a referendum on battling illegal immigration, something the far-right has been championing for several years.

For Le Pen, Sarkozy’s immigration and security policies are only a ploy for electoral gain. After two days of avoiding too much focus on immigration, she naturally and effortlessly returned to controversial anti-immigration territory by claiming she had proof that all meat in Paris was Halal.

According to Bay, speaking to the public on such issues such as halal meat is important for they show the influence of Muslim values in local policies and the danger that they pose to France’s secular tradition.

WoW hears - she will have all Brit pensioners deported - what a girl eh?

Iran cuts oil exports to France and Britain

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Iran has halted sales of crude oil to British and French companies, according to a statement published Sunday on the Iranian ministry of petroleum's website, amid rising tensions over Tehran's controversial nuclear programme.

 

REUTERS - Iran has stopped selling crude to British and French companies, the oil ministry said on Sunday, in a retaliatory measure against fresh EU sanctions on the Islamic state's lifeblood, oil.

"Exporting crude to British and French companies has been stopped ... we will sell our oil to new customers," spokesman Alireza Nikzad was quoted as saying by the ministry of petroleum website.

The European Union in January decided to stop importing crude from Iran from July 1 over its disputed nuclear programme, which the West says is aimed at building bombs. Iran denies this.

Iran's oil minister said on Feb. 4 that the Islamic state would cut its oil exports to "some" European countries.

The European Commission said last week that the bloc would not be short of oil if Iran stopped crude exports, as they have enough in stock to meet their needs for around 120 days.

Industry sources told Reuters on Feb. 16 that Iran's top oil buyers in Europe were making substantial cuts in supply months in advance of European Union sanctions, reducing flows to the continent in March by more than a third - or over 300,000 barrels daily.

France's Total has already stopped buying Iran's crude, which is subject to fresh EU embargoes. Market sources said Royal Dutch Shell has scaled back sharply.

Among European nations, debt-ridden Greece is most exposed to Iranian oil disruption.

Motor Oil Hellas of Greece was thought to have cut out Iranian crude altogether and compatriot Hellenic Petroleum along with Spain's Cepsa and Repsol were curbing imports from Iran.

Iran was supplying more than 700,000 barrels per day (bpd) to the EU plus Turkey in 2011, industry sources said.

By the start of this year imports had sunk to about 650,000 bpd as some customers cut back in anticipation of an EU ban.

Saudi Arabia says it is prepared to supply extra oil either by topping up existing term contracts or by making rare spot market sales. Iran has criticised Riyadh for the offer.

Iran said the cut will have no impact on its crude sales, warning that any sanctions on its oil will raise international crude prices.

Brent crude oil prices were up $1 a barrel to $118.35 shortly after Iran's state media announced last week that Tehran had cut oil exports to six European states. The report was denied shortly afterwards by Iranian officials.

"We have our own customers ... The replacements for these companies have been considered by Iran," Nikzad said.

EU's new sanctions includes a range of extra restrictions on Iran that went well beyond U.N. sanctions agreed last month and included a ban on dealing with Iranian banks and insurance companies and steps to prevent investment in Tehran's lucrative oil and gas sector, including refining.

The mounting sanctions are aimed at putting financial pressure on the world's fifth largest crude oil exporter, which has little refining capacity and has to import about 40 percent of its gasoline needs for its domestic consumption.

Government denies Le Pen's claims over halal meat

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Marine Le Pen at her presidential convention in Lille

Reuters/Pascal Rossignol

By RFI

The French food ministry has denied claims by the leader of the extreme right National Front party, Marine Le Pen, that all meat distributed in the Parisian region is ‘halal’ – slaughtered according to Islamic law.

A spokesman for the ministry said a law in place since the beginning of the year states that halal meat can only by provided by suppliers on demand and not systematically.

“If abattoirs are near a muslim or a jewish community then they can supply that community and therefore they must work in accordance with islamic or kosher customs,” he said.

On Saturday, Le Pen claimed all meat in the Parisian region was, without exception, halal and said she was going to take some of the most well-known supermarket chains to court over charges they were misleading consumers.

“The situation is a real cover-up,” she told a meeting in Lille. “The government has known about this situation for a month.” She added she had proof to back up her claim.

But Dominque Langlois, president of the association which represents meat suppliers in France denounced Le Pen’s claims as a “political move”

“ To suggest that all commercial meat in Paris or the Paris region is halal is completely wrong and does not reflect the truth,” he said in an interview on France Inter radio.

Roast beef and Yorkshire pudding also to be banned by the nice lady WoW hears.  Don't you luv her?

WoW has also heard that the nice blond (is it her own colour or the hair colour favoured by exponents of the dictat of the master race) will also ban - Curries, all Chinese takeaways and Microsoft, Google, Facebook, Twitter and all that other foul foreign muck from La France - obviously a clear leader to become President of the Republic eh?  She has also, WoW hears, declared that all French trains will soon have to drive on the right as Napoleon would have wanted had he lived long enough to know what a train is.  Hey - a true European.

Le Pen is also reported to be in favour of a French oil for French motorists campaign - sadly France does not produce too much oil.  A candidate to watch in the Presidentials.

French weekly magazines review

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By Clare Sharkey

In the weeklies, it is hard to avoid President Nicolas Sarkozy after he made his, not-so-surprise announcement that he will run for a second term as president.

The satirical paper Le Canard Enchainé points out that it was a "false surprise" and Nicolas Sarkozy is on the cover of most of the other weeklies.

The front cover of L’Express features both Sarkozy and socialist challenger François Hollande. And it poses the question as to whether Sarko can in fact beat Hollande.

Sarkozy's opinion poll ratings have shifted this week due to his announcement and the fact that this week Christian Democrat candidate, Christine Boutin, pulled out of the race and says she will support Sarkozy. This has been a of a blow for the National Front's Marine Le Pen.

Le Nouvel Observateur goes into some more detail about the man behind his strategy - his "guru" Patrick Buisson, who courted favour with the far right during the last election. But also analyses how Sarko is trying to move towards the left with his rhetoric on work conditions.

Left-wing Marianne changes tack somewhat with an exclusive interview with François Hollande. I don’t want to dwell too much on the elections, but Marianne draws attention to a very pertinent question over whether there is some unease about French identity.  This debate was started by Sarkozy himself when he introduce issues such as whether wearing the Islamic burka in public was compatible with French values.

This topic is very much linked to matters of immigration. The magazine cites former president François Mitterand who said in 1986 "in hospitable France, immigrants are as at home and they are in their own countries."

And no politician would dare utter that phrase these days. They include a selection of questions which, from 1 July, will constitute the test for naturalisation. Some of these questions concern, the Tour de France and rivers of France, the political system and so on...

But some of them I’m not sure I could answer, about footballers, for example. And of course immigration groups denounce this sort of arbitrary test as nonsense.

Another story that crops up in many of the papers is Greece, which has perhaps been a little overshadowed by other news stories this week, but where tensions still bubbling under the surface.

The Athens correspondent for the Nouvel Obs opens her article by describing the scene in the city last Monday where the smell of burnt plastic and tear gas lingered in the air after 170 buildings were burnt overnight.

There is a bit of a desperate tone to the article which describes the vote for the austerity packageas one adoped by a parliament with "a pistol to the temple."

The article concludes that people are despondent about their government and this is playing into the hands of parties on the extreme left and extreme right.

Marianne even wonders whether there is a sort of "Greek Spring" happening. It says that up to 40 per cent of voters now support left-wing parties, according to a recent opinion poll. This is the highest since the 1950's.

Some German right-wing politicians have remarked on references made by Greek protestors to nazism - a photoshopped image of Chancellor Merkel dressed as Hitler recently appeared in a Greek newspaper.

Le Point points out that actually other European countries are to blame for this situation for allowing Greece to enter the eurozone, despite its terrible fiscal history over the past 150 years.

Marianne also points out that the political temperature is rising in Spain and Portugal. Spanish protestors are to hit the streets today.

L'Express sparks a bit of a debate about "conjugal duty". Last year in France, a court of appeal granted 100,000 euros in damages for a woman who accused her husband of not completing his "duty" on a regular basis. His defence was chronique fatigue due to his work.

A sociology specialist tells L'Express that this stems from the 9th century when Christianity invented this obligation to pro-create as a backlash against the supposedly free-and-easy practices of paganism.

But this question of the woman being able to impose similar demands did not crop up until the Enlightenment. So this is a bit controversial, perhaps even for the 240,000 couples who married last year, that such a clause can be written into law. Having a headache is no longer a get-out clause.

An article which really caught my attention was about Qatar in L'Express. Now, Qatar is only a small state, about the size of Corsica, in the Gulf and Saudi Arabia rather looms over it.

But, as L'Express points out, it has taken a bigger and bigger role in the region, particularly since the beginning of the Arab Spring. But also in trying to broker dialogue between the Americans, Pakistanis and the Taliban.

L'Express gives a few reasons for this. Firstly that Egypt is no longer the regional power that it was, but also that it never aligned its policy with other Suni-dominated countries against Iran, as well as building bridges with Lebanon with reconstruction work after the war of 2006.

Some of the new found confidence started when the Emirate launched Al Jazeera in 1996, but has progressed since. The article concludes by saying that Qatar has decided that regime change in Syria is on the cards.

So as the Qataris are punching above their weight diplomatically, this could prove significant. We shall have to wait and see.

Also in L'Express, in the culture pages, they are using the exhibition which starts this week at the Jeu de Paume museum in Paris to look at the life and work of Ai Weiwei.

Ai Weiwei is the Chinese artist and dissident who was arrested last year by the Chinese authorities, supposedly for fiscal fraud of 1.7 million euros. The story really made the news because his supporters rallied around and got the money together.

L'Express looks at his work and accuses some of it as being somewhat banal, particularly photos take on his mobile phone. But acknowledges that some of these photos are destined for the web as Weiwei is a prolific blogger.

L'Express concludes that no matter whether he is more artist or dissident these days, no-one can question his credentials as a freedom activist.

And during the week, it was Saint Valentine's day for all the romantics. But apparently all the love in the air made the Thai police nervous. They were worried that teenagers would - and I quote Le Point - succumb to "sexual frenzy" and so they imposed a 10pm curfew! So the Thai police believe that to be the hour of sexual deviance.

Just a quick science story from this week in Le Point. Apparently, a Hungarian and a Swedish scientist have come up with another theory as to why zebras have stripes.

According to them, it is not to confuse the vision of lions but to protest them from horseflies, which are a menace to horses. Apparently, horseflies prefer horizontal stripes and so leave the the zebras alone!

French News - 19 February

Sarkozy inaugurates Paris campaign HQ

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President Nicolas Sarkozy's campaign headquarters, Paris

Reuters/Gonzalo Fuentes

By RFI

French President Nicolas Sarkozy officially opened his campaign headquarters on Saturday and confirmed current ecology minister Nathalie Kosciusko-Morizet as his spokeswoman.

The six hundred square metre offices are in the capital’s middle-class 15th arrondissement, a deliberate choice by the president who says these are the voters he hopes to attract in his bid to win a second term in office.

“This is a middle-class area and these are the people I first want to address,” he said.

 Sarkozy’s office itself is said to have a television surrounded by two white sofas. The photos on his wall include one of his wife Carlo Bruni-Sarkozy in South Africa with Nelson Mandela. As well as books by photographer Raymond Depardon, the president also has a collection of CDs by French rocker Johnny Hallyday.

The modest size of the offices has been compared favourably to those of Sarkozy’s main rival, Socialist Party candidate François Hollande, whose headquarters are housed in one thousand square metres in the chic 7th arrondissement.

“People say to me it is not very big, but yes we don’t need to have big offices,” explained Sarkozy. “When you have a large office you want to stay in the office. We want to go out into the field to meet the French people.”

Strauss-Kahn to be questioned over prostitution ring

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Former IMF chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn is to be questioned by French police Tuesday in connection with an illegal prostitution ring allegedly operating out of luxury hotels in the city of Lille in northern France.

 

AFP - Former IMF chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn is to be quizzed as a suspect about involvement in an alleged illegal prostitution ring, a source familiar with the case said Saturday.

He has been summoned for questioning on Tuesday in connection with a police probe into the organisation of sex parties in restaurants and swingers' clubs in Paris, Washington, Madrid, Vienna and Ghent, Belgium.

Strauss-Kahn could face charges if magistrates deem he was aware the women who took part were prostitutes and the funds to pay them were fraudulently obtained, as is being alleged against other suspects, the source said.

While theoretically he could be held for up to 96 hours the interrogation is not expected to last more than 48 and he can be accompanied by a lawyer.

A police source said it was not ruled out that Strauss-Kahn would be charged then taken before a judge to decide whether he should be remanded in custody.

Strauss-Kahn, 62, resigned as director of the International Monetary Fund in May after he was accused of raping a chambermaid in a New York hotel. He returned to France in August after the US case collapsed, only to face new allegations.

First, a 32-year-old writer accused him of attempting to rape her in 2003 but, while prosecutors said there was prima facie evidence of sexual assault, the case was too old to pursue.

Then he was implicated in an entirely separate investigation into the alleged prostitution ring said to have operated out of luxury hotels in the northern French city of Lille.

Magistrates have already charged several leading local figures with organising the ring and there are suspicions that a construction company executive used his firm's money to entertain guests at sex parties.

Strauss-Kahn is also expected to be asked if he gave anything in return for the parties organised and funded by businessmen Fabrice Paszkowski and David Roquet, who have already been charged.

Lawyers for Paskowski, head of a medical equipment firm, and Roquet, former director of a subsidiary of public works group Eiffage, have denied any quid pro quo.

Others charged in the case include three hotel bosses, a lawyer and a local police chief.

Strauss-Kahn had demanded to be questioned by judges leading the inquiry, hoping to halt what his lawyers brand a "media lynching."

A book published in December quoted him as admitting to having an uninhibited sex life, including attending swingers' parties, but he denied knowing that any of the participants were prostitutes.

The last party he attended took place from May 11-13 in Washington, just before the incident with chambermaid Nafissatou Diallo in New York.

Once seen as the favourite to oust Nicolas Sarkozy and win April's French presidential election, Strauss-Kahn is now an embarrassment to his Socialist Party, shunned by the campaign and former close allies.

He still faces a civil suit from the New York hotel maid, Nafissatou Diallo.

Strauss-Kahn's journalist wife Anne Sinclair, 63, who stood by the disgraced former IMF chief during the New York scandal, was named editor of the French edition of the Huffington Post Internet newspaper last month.

Sarkozy admits Cameron was right to veto treaty

David Cameron was right to “defend Britain’s national interest” when he vetoed the new European treaty, Nicolas Sarkozy, the French president, has admitted.

Nicolas Sarkozy welcomed David Cameron to the Élysée Palace where both men drew a line under recent clashes  Photo: GETTY

By Rowena Mason, Daily Telegraph Paris

Drawing a line under months of bitter clashes over the future of Europe, Mr Sarkozy said he might have done the same if his country was threatened in a similar way.

“We have had divergences of views but perhaps had I been in David Cameron’s position I would have defended British interests in exactly the same manner as he has,” Mr Sarkozy said. “There has never been a personal opposition between us.”

The two leaders acknowledged they recently had a strained relationship, after Mr Cameron refused to let Britain bind its finances closer to other European countries in the treaty. It was reported that Mr Sarkozy had called the Prime Minister an “obstinate kid” over Britain’s refusal to share taxation and spending policy with the rest of Europe. However both leaders were yesterday anxious to underline they are “friends” as well as colleagues and have got to know each other better since their disputes.

Mr Sarkozy said he now understood where Britain’s “red lines” lie when it comes to being part of Europe. He even said he “admired” Britain’s staunch defence of the City.

In a show of unity at a meeting in Paris, Mr Cameron and Mr Sarkozy highlighted their common military goals by suggesting they could intervene in Syria if the country’s rebels “unite and organise” in a revolution.

The Prime Minister also set aside the “bumps and bounces” in his relationship with Mr Sarkozy by backing the French president’s struggling re-election bid.

Mr Cameron politely declined to join the president on his campaign trail, saying it might not have the desired effect of winning over the French people. But he praised Mr Sarkozy’s “leadership and courage” while wishing him well in his efforts to win another term as president.

“I believe it’s a relationship easily strong enough to survive the odd bump or bounce when we sometimes have a disagreement,” Mr Cameron said.

The comments have the potential to backfire for the Prime Minister as Mr Sarkozy is behind his socialist rival, François Hollande, in the opinion polls. It could also be counter-productive for Mr Sarkozy amid public annoyance that Britain appeared to lecture Europe over its financial problems. The two leaders agreed a raft of new deals, including contracts between French and British companies to start work on new nuclear power stations in the UK and for unmanned military aircraft.

Both men also expressed concern over Syria’s “butchery” of its own people and said they would work harder to make links with rebels in the nation.

They did not rule out joint military action in Syria but said the current circumstances were not right. “The main obstacles are not to do with such and such country’s attitude at the UN,” Mr Sarkozy said. “The fact is we cannot bring about a revolution without the Syrian people. We cannot bring this about if the Syrian opposition does not unite and organise to help us help them.”

Britain yesterday announced it would be sending humanitarian aid to Syria for the first time.

Court dismisses case against muslim man in polygamy row

Lies Hebbadj with his wife

©Reuters

By RFI

A French court has dismissed fraud charges against a man at the centre of a polygamy row in 2010 in Nantes, western France, which emerged after his wife was stopped by police for wearing the niqab, the full-face veil.

 Lies Hebbadj, an Algerian-born, 35-year-old who has lived in France since he was two years old, was accused by the then interior minister Brice Hortefeux, of living a polygamous lifestyle with several wives who had given him 12 children.

In the charges, he was accused of fraudulently obtaining welfare benefits and having hidden a married life with two children.

The prosecutors claimed Habbadj and two other woman were living in ‘de facto polygamy’, but his lawyer said the investigation into the charges failed to reveal any serious proof against her client.

The prosecutors, who estimate the fraud cost the French state 90,000 euros, have appealed the decision.

The controversy over Hebbadj and his wife came as the government was preparing legislation to ban the wearing of the full-face veil.

Police stopped Hebbadj’s 31-year-old wife in Nantes in April 2010 and she was fined 22 euros on the grounds her niqab restricted her view so she could not drive safely.

French authorities in 2010 examined whether Hebabadj should lose his French nationality which he acquired after marrying a French woman in 1999.

Hitler had son with French teen

Adolf Hitler had a son with a French teenager while serving as a soldier during the First World War, according to new evidence.

Hitler is said to have had an affair with Charlotte Lobjoie, 16, as he took a break from the trenches in June 1917 Photo: AP

By Peter Allen, The Telegraph - Paris

Jean-Marie Loret, who died in 1985 aged 67, never met his father, but went on to fight Nazi forces during the Second World War.

His extraordinary story has now been backed up by a range of compelling evidence, both in France and in Germany, which is published in the latest edition of Paris's Le Point magazine.

Hitler is said to have had an affair with Mr Loret's mother, Charlotte Lobjoie, 16, as he took a break from the trenches in June 1917.

Although he was fighting the French near Seboncourt, in the northern Picardy region, Hitler made his way to Fournes-in-Weppe, a small town west of Lille, for regular leave.

There he met Miss Lobjoie, who later told their son: "One day I was cutting hay with other women, when we saw a German soldier on the other side of the street.

"He had a sketch pad and seemed to be drawing. All the women found this interesting, and were curious to know what he was drawing.

"I was designated to approach him."

The pair started a brief relationship, which resulted in the birth of Jean-Marie, who was born in March 1918 after being conceived during a 'tipsy' evening in June 1917.

Miss Lobjoie later told Jean-Marie: "When your father was around, which was very rarely, he liked to take me for walks in the countryside.

"But these walks usually ended badly. In fact, your father, inspired by nature, launched into speeches which I did not really understand.

"He did not speak French, but solely ranted in German, talking to an imaginary audience. Even if I spoke German I would not be able to follow him, as the histories of Prussia, Austria and Bavaria where not familiar to me at all, far from it.

"My reaction used to anger your father so much that I did not show any reaction."

Jean-Marie was, like thousands of other French children with German soldier fathers, badly treated by his peers at school.

He was referred to as 'the son of the Bosh', and often had fights as he tried to defend his father, who had by now disappeared over the border back to Germany.

Miss Lobjoie, meanwhile, refused to discuss Jean-Marie's father, and ended up giving her only son away for adoption in the 1930s to a family called Loret.

His real father would not recognise Jean-Marie, but continued to stay in contact with Miss Lobjoie.

Incredibly, Mr Loret went on to fight the Germans in 1939, defending the Maginot Line before it was bypassed during the Nazi invasion which resulted in France being occupied from 1940 until 1944.

Mr Loret even joined the French Resistance, and was given the codename 'Clement'.

Just before her death in the early 1950s, Miss Lobjoie finally told Jean-Marie that his father was arguably the most infamous dictator in human history.

Mr Loret said: "In order not to get depressed, I worked non-stop, never took a holiday, and had no hobbies. For twenty years I didn't even go to the cinema."

Mr Loret recently began investigating his past in great detail, employing scientists to prove that he has the same blood type as Hitler, and that they even have similar handwriting.

Photographs of the two also reveal an astonishing resemblance.

Other elements which corroborate the story are official Wehrmacht, or German Army, papers which show that officers brought envelopes of cash to Miss Lobjoie during the Second World War.

When Miss Lobjoie died, Mr Loret also found paintings in her attic which were signed by Hitler, who was an accomplished artist.

In Germany, meanwhile, a picture of a woman painted by Hitler looked exactly like Miss Lobjoie.

Francois Gibault, Mr Loret's Paris lawyer, said: "He first came to see me in 1979, but was a bit lost and did not know whether he wanted to be publicly recognised as Hitler's son, or to erase all that completely.

"He had the feelings of many illegitimate children: the desire to find a past, however heavy, but also the fear of returning to the old routine.

"I talked with him a lot, playing the role of psychologist rather than lawyer."

Mr Gibault said that Mr Loret's own children might now be in a position to claim royalties from Mien Kampf ('My Struggle'), Hitler's famous book which has sold millions of copies around the world.

Mr Loret wrote a book called 'Your Father's Name Was Hitler' in 1981, and it is now set to be re-published with all the new evidence.

Hitler, who was born in an Austrian village, frequently spoke of his love for France, and especially for Paris.

In December 1940, he paid an emotional visit to the capital city, where he was pictured saluting Napoleon's tomb in front of his bemused generals.

More intriguingly still, Hitler transferred from Vienna part of the remains of Napoleon II, Napoleon Bonaparte's son with Marie Louise of Austria.

Hitler often enthused about the greatness of Napoleon, saying that he wanted to have as big an impact on history as the Frenchman.

Although he never officially had any sons or daughters of his own, Hitler often spoke of his love of children and animals.

He married his mistress, Eva Braun, as the Red Army shelled his bunker in Berlin, in 1945, and committed suicide shortly afterwards.

French press review

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By Clare Sharkey

The worsening situation in Syria, how French President Nicolas Sarkozy and British Prime Minister David Cameron 'kissed and made-up' and French fears over the introduction of new identity cards grab the headlines in the French media.

Left-wing Liberation continues with its series of exclusive reports from within Syria and especially the city of Homs, the major rebellion battleground.

They have a rather dramatic photo of a rebel with explosions in the background. Their New York correspondent analyses the UN general assembly vote which condemns the violence.

They also question the Russian and Chinese obstruction to demanding an orderly transition of power in Damascus.

They look at French Foreign Minister Alain Juppé's idea of creating humanitarian corridors. Apparently, Juppé has been pitching the idea to his Russian counterpart. So, perhaps a little insight into the diplomacy going on behind closed doors in the UN.

Le Monde sticks with Syria. In its front page editorial poses the question of whether the events in Syria are pulling the whole region to the brink of civil war.

They draw attention to the fact that part of the Syrian Free Army is based in Turkey and that Iraqi Suni tribes are supplying weapons to the insurgents whilst al-Qaida leaders are also trying to muscle in on the situation. The tension in Syria may have wider consequences than just those of the people of Homs.

Right-wing Le Figaro chooses to focus on some issues closer to home. Their front page photo features British Prime Minister David Cameron who was on a visit to Paris yesterday, mainly to discuss nuclear energy cooperation.

But what Le Figaro focuses on is that Cameron is lending his support to Sarkozy. There seem to be no hard feelings between the two after their spat over the EU. Cameron is of course following the German Chancellor Angela Merkel in backing the president in his re-election bid.

In Le Figaro's editorial, they also try to explain the remarks made by Sarkozy in a speech on Thursday when he claimed that the opposition socialists lie "day and night".

That is, apparently, in response to accusations from the Socialist Party that Sarko is like American swindler Madoff amongst other things. So we may be in for a pretty rough campaign of insult-trading.

They also draw attention to yesterday's Celebrations in Bengazhi to mark the one year anniversary of the beginning of the Libyan revolution. 

 

Le Figaro seems to be keen to highlight another of the perceived successes of Sarkozy in pushing for the no-fly zone.

In centrist Le Monde, there is an interesting article about documents leaked from a climate change sceptic think- tank in the US, which reveals some quite untoward practices.

The substantial cache of documents leaked from the Chicago-based Heartland Institute clearly show that the think-tank is not simply trying to do research, but is deliberately trying to propagate climate change sceptic websites.

They are also courting groups which can launch an action at very short notice if there are any new scientific breakthroughs which do not fit in with the Heartland Institute's agenda.

The documents also reveal how well financed this work is and indeed how lucrative it is for people involved. They receive donations of several thousand dollars from figures such as Anthony Watts, a prominent climate sceptic blogger in the US.

And a private consultant, who also works for the US energy department is to receive 100,000 dollars for this work.

Left-wing Liberation dedicates three pages to examining the new biometric identity cards which are to be discussed in parliament this week.

France already has a system of identity cards, but these new ones if approved will contain digital fingerprints and eye scans.

The Interior Minister Claude Guéant supports the cards, but the opposition socialists call the cards 'liberticide' or 'freedomicide'. And they are not the only ones worried about these cards.

And Libé highlights several charities and local associations which work with foreigners and they fear that the identity cards will unnecessarily discriminate against these people. They say that, Roma, Asians and north Africans are already discriminated against in penal procedures.

Although, Libé argues, it is not just foreigners. There is already a database on people who have committed offences in France, and 44,5 million French people have files, and that is out of a population of approximately 65 million.

So, the daily is highlighting the dangers of the state having too much information on its citizens.

A little bit closer to home and Aujourd'hui en France is looking at the flu epidemic which is sweeping France, in about half of the country, this has reached epidemic levels and hospitals are starting to see a small rise in the number of patients being admitted due to complicated cases.

And just a quick summary of the main headlines from the main dailies in France, Le Mondeand Liberation are keeping Syria on the agenda in Le Monde's editorial and Liberation's exclusive reports.

And Le Figaro is sticking to Sarkozy's election bid, with news that British PM is backing him.

French News - 18 February

New faces of Pezenas - see WoW notes for pix

______________________________________

 Martyn Turner on the Eurozone for this mornings Irish Times - Martyn is a frequent visitor to his house in Pouzolles

Parisians queue on last day to trade francs for euros

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Hundreds of people queued outside France's central bank on Friday for their last chance to exchange their old franc notes for euros. France replaced its national currency with the euro in 2002.

 

AFP - Hundreds of people queued at the offices of France's central bank on Friday to take advantage of their last chance to hand in old franc notes after the currency was replaced by the euro in 2002.

The Bank of France set Friday as the last day to exchange leftover franc notes and hundreds were rushing to meet the deadline at the downtown branch on Paris's Boulevard Raspail.

Those in line said they found the bills in places like drawers or a box of foreign currency or even in an old pair of trousers that no longer fit.

Opera singer Euken Ostolaza, 50, came to exchange two 200-franc bills and one 50 as a favour for his elderly aunt "who has a very small pension and who I love more than anything."

The tenor stopped by after rehearsals but said he had no excuse for waiting until the last minute.

"I'm a procrastinator -- may God forgive me," he said, after he dropped off his francs and learned he would be notified in March regarding when to pick up his euros.

Franc coins and older notes were only exchangeable until 2005 but newer notes were given the longer grace period until Friday, at an exchange rate of 15.24 euros for 100 francs.

More than 45,000 people had lined up across the country in 2005 for the first round of exchanges.

The line outside the Paris office Friday extended halfway down the block and on Thursday around 1,100 people stopped by, a bank representative said.

The central bank said those who were unable to get to branches before they closed Friday would still be able to drop off notes in letter boxes until midnight.

But the bank representative said he had received an order to discourage stragglers from doing so and the branch kept its doors open past the regular 3:30 pm closing time.

A series of advertisements ran in advance of the deadline to remind people to exchange the notes and a website was created to help them find their nearest central bank branch.

Restaurateur Didier Montanari, 55, came after hearing about the deadline on the news but left disappointed after his three 100-franc bills from the 1980s were deemed too old to exchange.

"They don't exchange the Eugene Delacroix," he said, referring to the French artist whose likeness graces the bills.

"Oh well," he said, "I'll frame them and keep them as a souvenir."

It was estimated that at the end of 2010 there were still 50 million franc notes at large, worth the equivalent of 602 million euros ($792 million).

Sarkozy brands Socialist rival a 'liar' at campaign rally

French President Nicolas Sarkozy said his main rival for the presidency, Socialist François Hollande, "lies from morning to night" at his first re-election campaign rally .

Sarkozy lags behind Hollande in polls ahead of the April 22 vote.

AFP - French President Nicolas Sarkozy used his first re-election campaign rally Thursday to launch a blistering attack on his frontrunning Socialist rival, calling him an inveterate liar.

ELECTING A FRENCH PRESIDENT France's president is elected by direct voting for a five-year term. Presidential elections have historically been organised into two rounds. If no candidate wins more than half of all ballots in the first round, voters must pick between the two top candidates in a run-off. The first round of the next presidential elections in France will be held in April 22, 2012, with a run-off on May 6 if necessary.

Francois Hollande "lies from morning to night," Sarkozy told cheering supporters at the Alpine town of Annecy, the day after officially declaring his candidacy for the election in 10 weeks.

"When you tell the English press that you are pro-market (economically liberal) and when you come to explain to the French that finance is the enemy, you are lying, you are lying from morning to night!," he said.

The president was referring to an interview in The Guardian published Monday in which the Socialist favourite said he wanted to reassure the City of London that it need not worry about his plans to regulate the financial world.

Hollande said in his first campaign rally late last month that the "enemy" was "the world of finance."

Polls consistently show Hollande as the clear frontrunner and, with less than 10 weeks to go until the first round of voting on April 22, the election is shaping up to be a classic two-horse race between right and left.

Britain and France sign nuclear power deal

..

Britain and France sign a deal on nuclear energy at a summit in Paris between UK Prime Minister David Cameron and French President Nicolas Sarkozy. Under the plan, French nuclear giant Areva would develop new reactors in the UK.

 

AFP - Britain and France were to strike a landmark cooperation deal on civil nuclear energy at a summit between Prime Minister David Cameron and President Nicolas Sarkozy on Friday, officials said.

France and Britain have often clashed recently over economic policy in the eurozone, an area in which Paris is much closer to Berlin, but they are still close partners in defence and now plan to share nuclear expertise.

Germany has decided to phase out nuclear power, but France still uses it to generate around three-quarters of its power and is keen to seize the market for the world's next generation of more powerful reactor technology.

"At our last summit, we signed a historic partnership on defence. Today, we will match that ambition on nuclear energy," Cameron said, in remarks released by Downing Street before he left London for Friday's talks in Paris.

"As two great civil nuclear nations, we will combine our expertise to strengthen industrial partnership, improve nuclear safety and create jobs at home. The deals signed today will create more than 1,500 jobs in the UK."

French nuclear giant Areva is pioneering development of the modern EPR reactor, but Cameron said that thanks to the agreement, British firms would make "the vast majority of the content of our new nuclear plants".

Downing Street said that, under the deal, the British engineering firm Rolls-Royce will secure a £400 million (481 million euro, $632 dollar) share in the work build Britain's first EPR at Hinkley Point in southern England.

Other British firms will sign deals worth a total of £115 million with France's state-owned energy giant EDF as part of the Hinkley project.

France and Britain will also work more closely on training and safety technology in order to ensure that the next generation of reactors are safe.

Renewed safety fears in the wake of last year's Fukushima nuclear disaster in Japan contributed to German Chancellor Angela Merkel's decision that the EU's biggest economy would begin to phase out nuclear power by 2022.

But France, which generates 75 percent of its power in reactors remains committed to the technology, and Sarkozy has made bashing an opposition plan to gradually reduce this proportion a key part of his re-election drive.

Both Downing Street and the Elysee Palace said Friday's summit would also tackle the crisis in Syria and the broader question of Franco-British defence cooperation following their close collaboration in the Libyan campaign.

"One year on from the Libya uprising, we are working together to stand up to the murderous Syrian regime and to stop a nuclear weapon in the hands of Iran," Cameron said, in the same pre-summit statement.

On the diplomatic front, France and Britain will press for a stronger UN Security Council position on Bashar al-Assad's vicious crackdown on a popular revolt, despite Russian and Chinese opposition to outside intervention.

And on the question of practical military cooperation, the NATO partners plan to review progress on a year-old defence agreement that will see them pooling more resources and technology, especially in naval forces.

According to reports in France, the partners are due to take another step towards building a European armed drone -- an un-manned bomber and spy plane that would be a joint project between France's Dassault and Britain's BAE.

Cameron was due to arrive in Paris shortly before midday (1100 GMT), hold talks and a joint news conference at the Elysee followed by a working lunch.

French PM: must avoid Greek default, some in Germany disagree

 (Reuters) - French Prime Minister Francois Fillon said on Friday that everything must be done to avoid a Greek default which would be painful for Europe, though he noted that there were some voices within the German government which diverged from this opinion.

"We must do absolutely everything to ensure there is no default in Greece. That would be dramatic for the Greeks themselves and dramatic for Europeans," Fillon told RTL radio.

Asked if there was a difference of opinion with Germany over this point, he said: "There is no divergence with the Chancellor (Angela Merkel), who absolutely shares our position, but we hear people sometimes in Germany express different opinions...within the German government."

"The Greeks have promised very important reforms ... The Europeans now have to keep their commitments. The bankers have agreed to waive 70 percent of the value of their bonds, the Europeans now have to keep their promises," he said. "To play with the default of Greece is very irresponsible."

Marine Le Pen's father gets suspended sentence over Nazi remarks

A French court has upheld presidential candidate Marine Le Pen's father's suspended jail sentence for calling the Nazi occupation of France "not especially inhumane".

Jean-Marie Le Pen, center, with his daughter, Marine Photo: AP 

An appeals court in Paris upheld a three-month suspended jail sentence against former far-right leader Jean-Marie Le Pen. The punishment, which also included a 10,000 euro ($13,000) fine, was first imposed in 2008 after Le Pen was found guilty of denying a crime against humanity.

Le Pen made the remarks in an interview with a far-right magazine in 2005. He told Rivarol magazine that "in France, at least, the German occupation was not especially inhumane, even if there were a number of excesses - inevitable in a country of 550,000 square kilometres".

Le Pen said he would appeal the ruling to France's Court of Cassation, the country's court of last resort, and linked Thursday's decision with the French presidential election in April.

"I will make an appeal in cassation against this decision, which I'm not surprised comes during the election period," Le Pen told AFP, accusing the courts of "opportunism".

The far-right leader handed over the reins of his National Front (FN) party to his daughter Marine last year and she is currently in third place in opinion polls, with around 20 per cent, ahead of the presidential vote.

Le Pen, who founded the FN in 1972, had been convicted of racism or anti-Semitism on a number of previous occasions. In 1987 he described the Nazi gas chambers as a "detail of history".

With the help of the Vichy government during World War II, the German authorities deported more than 70,000 French Jews to death camps, and thousands of French civilians died in reprisals by the German army.

In 2002 Le Pen shocked observers by making it through to the second round of France's presidential election.

Paris police seize luxury goods worth millions from Obiang mansion

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Police outside the Paris home of Téodorin Obiang in Paris's avenue Foch

AFP/ERIC FEFERBERG

By RFI

French police have hauled away two lorry-loads of precious objects from the luxurious Paris mansion of Teodorin Obiang, the son of Equatorial Guinea’s Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo, and on Friday were unsure if they would finish by evening after four days work.

The six-storey building on the French capital’s swish avenue Foch, just off the Champs Elysées, has 101 rooms, each one containing “hundreds of treasures”, reports RFI’s Franck Alexandre.

The building is worth more than 500 million euros and its contents are worth at least 40 million euros, according to Le Parisien newspaper.

Among the furniture wrapped, noted and taken to a secret storage place, is Louis XIV desk whose value is estimated at 1.5 million euros.

Many of the antiques and objets d’art come from the collection of late fashion designer Yves Saint Laurent and his lover, Pierre Bergé. Teodorin Obiang spent 18 million euros at the auction of the collection in 2009.

Investigating magistrates Roger Le Loire and René Grouman ordered the raid as part of their inquiry into allegations that several African leaders have siphoned off embezzled public funds to France.

A document in their possession reportedly shows that another building bought by the Obiang family in France was paid for from an account opened by the Guinean treasury at the French central bank.

Shortly before the latest action, Teodorin Obiang was appointed to the Guinean representation at the UN’s Paris-based cultural arm, Unesco, which allowed him diplomatic immunity.

His lawyers claimed that the raid was a violation of diplomatic norms.

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Jean-Christophe Parisot - first handicapped prefet in France

.   "Since Wednesday, Jean-Christophe Parisot, 44, is both one of the youngest and the first disabled prefect in France in l'Herault

 
"It's a great honour done to me," he enthuses. 

But this appointment has nothing to chance for a man whose life is worthy of a novel. 

 Coming from a family of resistance in the Paris region, he discovered the meaning of sacrifice and patriotism. "I realized that the duration of life was less important than quality. ", despite being a quadriplegic on a respirator. "I had to accept very young to lose use of my body. 

 I have always fought to have a normal life. "

Desiring "serve others", he joined the civil service, having been "the first student in a wheelchair at Sciences-Po". 

"Married with four children, he has been sub-prefect of the Herault since 2010 in charge of social cohesion. 

Appointed prefect of public service on the theme of exclusion, he plans to address "issues that have no noise, "such as loneliness, poor housing, illiteracy in prison ... 

He is "apolitical", supported by politicians of both right and left, closer to "religious ministry" than a "career plan".

 "If I can give hope that anything is possible, my appointment has been helpful. 

Council bans Mademoiselle - it is 'sexist'

By DAILY MAIL REPORTER

'Sexist': A French council has banned the word 'Mademoiselle' from official documents because they say discriminates against women by asking them to reveal if they are married (picture posed by model)

A council in France has abolished the word 'Mademoiselle' from all official documents because it is 'condescending and sexist'.

The Paris suburb of Fontenay-sous-Bois said the term - the French equivalent of 'miss' - discriminates against women by asking them to reveal if they are married.

From now on, men and women will only have to tick boxes asking if they are male or female, council bosses said.

Officials in the borough have also banned the term 'nom de jeune fille' meaning 'maiden name' from all paperwork, because it is 'archaic' and has 'connotations of virginity'.

Instead, women who have changed their surname will be asked only for their 'birth name' on documents.

A council spokesman said: 'There is no good reason why women should have to reveal their marital status while men don't. It's is simply outdated and unfair.'

The Brittany town of Cesson-Sevigne also banned the term 'mademoiselle' two months ago after pressure from a local women's group.

The blows for feminism come after French solidarity minister Roselyne Bachelot demanded a nationwide law to ban 'discriminatory' titles last year.

Ms Bachelot said: 'It is an invasion of privacy to ask a woman to identify herself as single or married.

'We don't ask men to do the same thing. I am just asking for complete equality on how we treat the sexes on official government forms.'

The title Mademoiselle is the equivalent of the English 'Miss', German 'Fraulein' and Spanish 'Senorita' - all terms which have now fallen into disuse.

 

Miss it out: Members of the French feminist group 'Chiennes de Garde' have previously called for a ban on the use of the term 'Mademoiselle'

Julie Muret of campaign group Osez Le Feminisme, meaning Dare Feminism, said in September that the equivalent word for men of 'Damoiseau' - meaning squire - was abolished decades ago.

She added: 'That disappeared because it was an old-fashioned and outmoded title, and the same should be happening to mademoiselle.

'These days men are never asked if they are married if they wanted to get a credit card or a mobile phone or pay their taxes.

'But women are always obiliged to reveal this aspect of their private lives - and it's practically only in France that this still happens.' 

Osez Le Feminisme and another feminist group, Les Chiennes de Garde, launched campaigns last year to remove the term from state and company forms.

In Britain and the US, the term 'Ms' was available, in Portugal, Denmark and Germany only the madame form is used, and in Quebec it is seen as rude to use the term mademoiselle, she said.

Martinique welcomes MP after Nazi jibe at

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 Interior Minister

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Serge Letchimy in 2009.

FRANCE (MARTINIQUE), Fort-de-France : Serge Letchimy (C), deputy mayor of Fort-de-France steps in between demonstrators and French gendarmes during a demonstration, on March 6, 2009 in Fort-de-France on the French Caribbean island of Martinique. 

By RFI

French opposition MP Serge Letchimy received a warm welcome in his constituency on the Caribbean island of Martinique on Wednesday. Right-wing MPs' indignation over his linking Interior Minister Claude Guéant to ideologies that led to Nazism seemed not to have hurt his support base. 

A parliamentary disciplinary committee decided on Wednesday to take no action against Letchimy, after a speech that caused right-wing MPs to walk out of the National Assembly and him to be punished. 

Their protest was sparked by his accusation that French Interior Minister Claude Guéant's widely reported remark that not all civlisations are equal was a throwback to colonial ideolgies that led to the Nazi concentration camps.

But wellwishers turned out to greet him when he returned to the French caribbean territory of Martinique.

On arrival at the airport, Letchimy thanked them and claimed to have received international support.

He said he was moved by the message he received from prominent US black politician Jesse Jackson, who told him that when he stood up in the French parliament and reminded his colleagues of the fundamental values of the French republic - liberty, equality, fraternity - that it was a moment of pride for “all humanity”.

Paris ranked world’s best city for students

In a world ranking of university cities, using criteria from results, employability, fees and the price of a hamburger, a UK research group has ranked Paris the best city in the world in which to study.

By Tony Todd 

Paris has been ranked the best city in the world for students, according to a UK study, although some French undergraduates felt the results were wide of the mark.

THE BEST STUDENT CITIES (QS) 1. Paris, France 2. London, UK 3. Boston, US 4. Melbourne, Australia 5. Vienna, Austria 6. Sydney, Australia 7. Zurich, Switzerland 8. Berlin, Germany 9. Dublin, Ireland 10. Montreal, Canada 14. Lyon, France 46. Toulouse, France

Researchers at QS Best Student Cities looked at quality of life and affordability in terms of fees and living costs, as well as the number of institutions and their overall reputations among employers.

QS has been ranking individual universities since 2004, although this is the first time their researchers took the cities into account.

Cambridge in the UK and Harvard in the US (Boston) have consistently come out first, but the 2012 city survey placed Paris top, with London ranking second and Boston third.

QS Head of Research Ben Sowter said: “Paris has always been one of the world’s most important centres of higher education, but its [individual] universities have under-performed in international rankings.”

Sowter explained that under the new ranking system, the generally good standard of Paris’s many universities had improved the French capital’s status as a student city.

“Excellence has in the past been spread across numerous institutions rather than concentrated in large comprehensive universities,” he said. “This is one of the reasons for the vast improvement in its performance in this city-wide ranking”.

But where Paris beats its nearest rivals hands down is in student fees, at an average of 1,700 euros. Undergraduates in Paris who are from France pay from nothing (if they are from low-income households) to just 500 euros a year.

Studying in London meanwhile costs an average of 15,800 euros (with international fees factored in), while in Boston a year’s tuition will set students back an eye-watering 30,000 euros.

Sceptical students

A handful of Paris students canvassed by FRANCE 24 were sceptical of the survey’s value – saying that while the French capital is a pleasant place to study, state universities do not offer the best work prospects compared with other countries.

Sorbonne literature student Astrid, 22, said that while there were advantages in low fees “we students are just numbers in the system – we work hard but there is little personal attention and the employment prospects are not great.”

He friend Isaure, 22, added that while she wanted to do her studies in France “because I’m French”, she felt that undergraduates in London and Boston finished their courses better armed for the job market.

She wondered if employment prospects were not the most important criteria for the study: “Yes the fees are much lower, but if you want to get ahead in terms of my employment, you have to go to one of the ‘Grande Ecoles’ [which are outside of the French University framework and select students based on competitive written and oral exams].

“The competition to get in is very tough and the fees are extremely high. And whatever you say about Paris, living here is not cheap.”

Sowter told FRANCE 24 that his research team had looked at the amount of employer activity in each city, rather than how employment relates to local graduates, and that adjustments would be made for future studies.

“We also recognise that France’s two-tier higher education system causes complications,” he said. “And in terms of employability the study focussed on international students, so we looked at international recruitment in each city.

“This will be taken into account in future research and we will also be canvassing the students themselves.” 

Presidential heart-throbs? France’s sexiest has one clear winner

Less than three months ahead of presidential elections in France, a handful of hopefuls already had their hearts broken. Facing a deficit in endorsement love, left-wing nationalist Jean-Pierre Chevenement dropped his bid in early February, and super-conservative Catholic candidate Christine Boutin left the race on Feb. 13. Many small party candidates are reportedly struggling for the mayoral endorsements needed to make their candidacies official, so no one really knows whose names will be on the ballot on April 22.

However, the race for France’s sexiest presidential hopeful has one clear winner.

He may be bringing up the rear in terms of voter intentions, but he’s number one when it comes to looks: former prime minister Dominique de Villepin.

On Valentines Day, French RTL radio, M6 television and MSN News commissioned a bona fide survey of who the French consider the sexiest presidential candidate. Unsurprisingly, Villepin -- who is struggling to secure more than 1% support in the election, according to recent opinion polls -- tops the “most sexy” list with 22% of votes.

Yes, his good looks are not a matter of debate in France

Far-left candidate Nathalie Arthaud came in a distant second with a mere 9% of all sexy votes, the poll showed. Far-right candidate Marine Le Pen and President Nicolas Sarkozy tied for third with 7% each.

 

And the current frontrunner candidate, Socialist François Hollande (photo below)

A meek 2% showing.

Lucky for Hollande - and really every other candidate besides Villepin - that France’s election is not a beauty contest.

French press review 

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By Clare Sharkey

Much of the French press has moved on from Sarkozy’s announcement on French television that he will run for a second term, but the election theme is still very much to the fore.

Right-wing Le Figaro is the only paper to headline with Sarkozy’s first public meeting, which they hail as a "stunning" success.

The paper focuses on Sarkozy’s accusations made in yesterday’s speech in Annecy in the Alps that opposition candidate François Hollande tells lies, "morning noon and night".

Le Figaro also publishes viewer figures for that announcement on Wednesday night. Apparently 10.7, out of about 65 million people tuned in to see Sarkoy’s announcement on Wednesday in what was really quite an anticlimax.

Centrist Le Monde leads with results of a survey that far-right candidate Marine Le Pen has suffered a blow in her opinion ratings following Sarkozy’s announcement.

The press has previously speculated that it could be Le Pen and Hollande in the second round of the presidentials, as Sarkozy has been trailing in the polls, but the certainty of his candidacy seems to be slowly changing this to a two-horse race between Sarkozy and Hollande.

Le Monde also claims that Hollande is trying to capitalise on Sarkozy’s shift to the right, as he is aiming to pick up some of the National Front’s votes.

I just want to bring up one last element of the election: Aujourd’hui en France has an exclusive interview with yet another candidate, centrist François Bayrou.

DOSSIER

He has made the headlines less than some of the other candidates. But in the interview he warns against the ‘Sarkhollandisation’ of the campaign.

Unfortunately for him, the trend revealed in Le Monde, as I mentioned earlier, seems to run against this plea.

 Libération, in usual style, is bucking the trends of the papers. On its front cover it has a full-page photo of a dissident in Syria in army garb and a balaclava.

They have an exclusive report from within the rebel city of Homs. Their special envoy tells eyewitness accounts of families living in their basements and just listening to the bombardment and the fighting outside.

Libération also has another interesting international story buried later in the paper about China doubling military funding from now to 2015.

Libération speculates that the country is trying to reinforce its position as a superpower. It poses the question of whether China is engaged in an arms race in the region as Vietnam and Indonesia are also beefing up their defence budgets.

China already has the largest army in the world, with 1.25 million men.

Although the exact military capacity of China is kept under tight wraps, it is clear that it is projecting its power in the region, despite its obstensible 'active defence' doctrine whereby it will only act militarily in retaliation.

The biggest worry concerns the US which is also known to be reinforcing its naval presence in the Asia-Pacific region.

French News - 17 February

German President Wulff quits in home loan scandal

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German President Christian Wulff: "I have acted without fault and always been honest"

German President Christian Wulff has announced his resignation, after prosecutors called for his immunity to be lifted.

An ally of Chancellor Angela Merkel, Mr Wulff is embroiled in a scandal over a home loan that he accepted when he was premier of Lower Saxony.

Mrs Merkel cancelled a visit to Italy on Friday to deal with the crisis, and said she regretted that he had quit.

German media say the crisis is unprecedented in post-war Germany.

Mrs Merkel had fought to get Mr Wulff, an ally in her centre-right Christian Democrat party (CDU), appointed as president. He had been in the job for less than two years.

She said she accepted his resignation "with respect but also with regret"

French MPs vote for Sarkozy's Robin Hood tax

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Reuters/Ralph Orlowski

By Angela Diffley

Members of the French lower house of parliament passed a tax on financial transactions on Wednesday night in the first stage of the legislation process, which Nicolas Sarkozy hopes will lead to France becoming the first European Union country to adopt such a levy.

Sarkozy maintains that a pioneering group of 10 other EU countries will soon pass similar laws, but Britain, one of the world’s biggest financial centres, refuses to introduce any tax on financial transactions.

The French law, to apply to all transactions from the beginning of August, would impose a 0.1 % tax on transactions in companies headquartered in France, whose market capitalisation is above a billion euros.

A smaller tax 0.01 per cent would be levied on certain operations which encourage speculation, such as so-called credit default swaps, and high frequency trading, where computers buy and sell money which changes hands in nanoseconds.

Some in France’s banking sector fear the tax could cause traders to leave Paris for London.

Socialist François Hollande, frontrunner in France’s upcoming presidential elections, would keep the tax if elected.

French lower house MPs also passed the so-called Social VAT on Wednesday night, despite reservations among Sarkozy’s own UMP supporters, who fear the tax will lose Sarkozy votes in the upcoming elections. VAT would be increased from 19.6 to 21.2 per cent. The idea is to create revenue to compensate for a planned reduction in employers’ contributions to social security. Sarkozy feels these are too high and lead companies to re locate outside France. The tax would take effect in October, but Socialist frontrunner François Hollande has promised to axe it, if elected president.

President Nicolas Sarkozy confirms France election bid

BBC's Gavin Hewitt: Sarkozy is "a president still bubbling with ambition"

French President Nicolas Sarkozy has formally declared he will stand for re-election in the presidential polls on 22 April.

Mr Sarkozy's candidacy has never been in doubt but he issued the confirmation during an interview on France's TF1 channel.

Mr Sarkozy's main challenger in the election is the Socialist candidate Francois Hollande.

Opinion polls suggest Mr Hollande will win both the first round and a run-off.

'Respectable'

There are fewer than 10 weeks to go to election day, and Mr Sarkozy said his decision had been "serious" and "not automatic".

But he said he believed he had the right policies for France over the next five years.

He said: "I took this decision because France, Europe and the world have for the last three years seen a series of unprecedented crises, which means that not seeking a new mandate from the French people would be abandoning my duties."

Mr Sarkozy pointed to the growth in the French economy in the final quarter of last year, which he said was higher than all other major European economies.

He said: "There are still too many people unemployed but our reforms are beginning to have an effect."

Mr Sarkozy criticised Mr Hollande for concentrating too much on attacking him.

Mr Sarkozy said his main opponent was "respectable" but asked: "Where are the ideas he is going to put forward?"

The president has been stepping up his profile recently, launching his own Twitter account on Wednesday and planning a large rally in the southern port of Marseille on Sunday.

Mr Sarkozy said he was "the captain of a boat in the heart of a storm".

Mr Hollande tried to upstage Mr Sarkozy by staging a televised rally in his hometown of Rouen shortly before the president's announcement.

"He has been wrong for five years and now he calls that experience," Mr Hollande told supporters.

The latest Harris survey on Wednesday suggested Mr Hollande would take the first round by 28% to 24% and a run-off vote by 57% to 43%.

The only other candidate opinion polls suggest may be close in the first round is the far-right National Front leader Marine Le Pen, who is generating support of about 20%.

Centrist Francois Bayrou is hoping to repeat his good showing of 2007.

Other candidates include the communist Jean-Luc Melenchon, Green candidate Eva Joly, and bitter Sarkozy enemy and former PM Dominique de Villepin.

Hugh Schofield BBC News, Paris

Nicolas Sarkozy is a man of enormous resource, boundless self-confidence, and energy-levels that are exhausting merely to observe.

But even with this armoury of talent, the task ahead is monumental. More than likely, he will win through to the second round in May.

The threat of being reduced to third place by the National Front's Marine Le Pen - and thus getting a humiliating early electoral bath - seems to be receding.

But the poll soundings on a Sarkozy-Hollande play-off are unforgiving. In every survey, the Socialist candidate is the winner - and by a mile.

National Assembly approves Sarkozy's tax reform

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The French lower house of parliament have approved President Nicolas Sarkozy's proposal to cut companies' welfare contributions and raise VAT sales tax from 19.6% to 21.2%. Sarkozy's reforms are aimed at economic stimulus.

 

REUTERS - French President Nicolas Sarkozy’s plans to cut companies’ social welfare contributions has won backing in the lower house of parliament even though a key panel had earlier rejected the reform aimed at reviving the competitiveness of French firms.

Trailing his Socialist challenger Francois Hollande in the polls by a wide margin, Sarkozy aims to cast himself as best placed to help drag France out of an economic slump.

The reform is unpopular with voters as the cut in companies’ welfare contributions would be financed by raising the VAT sales tax to 21.2 percent from 19.6 percent. 

The National Assembly’s finance commission rejected the plan on Monday as the opposition was able to muster a majority, with many lawmakers in Sarkozy’s conservative UMP absent.

Prime Minister Francois Fillon later rallied UMP lawmakers and the house approved the measure as part of a bill updating the 2012 budget which would create the tax reform from Oct. 1.

The Assembly, where the UMP has a majority, still has to vote on the bill in its entirety before it can go to the opposition-dominated Senate. Even if the Senate rejects it there, the Assembly has the last word in a final vote.

Sarkozy’s government says the reform would create 100,000 jobs and save companies 13 billion euros, but it is deeply contested by the Left as unfairly increasing the burden on all taxpayers. Hollande has promised to repeal it if elected.

Sarkozy officially declared his candidacy on Monday, setting the stage for a tough battle for a second term in the two-round April 22-May 6 election with unemployment claims at a 12-year high and growth anaemic. 

France says final farewell to franc

GettyImages

By Sarah Elzas

The end of the franc has come. If you have any old notes hidden away, rush to the Banque de France right away. Friday 17 February 2012 is the last day they can be exchanged for euros. For those hoping to save them as collectors’ items, numismatists say they will not be worth anywhere near their face value after Friday.

The currency has been out of circulation since the beginning of 2002, when the euro was introduced. The French central bank has been gradually winding down redemption of the old bills.

At the end of 2011, the Banque de France, France’s central bank, estimated that about 50 million franc bills were still in circulation, worth about 600 million euros.

The bank's deputy director, Henri Jullien, says that, despite the 17 February exchange deadline, he does not expect all of it to come back. The government will probably recuperate about 500 million euros, mostly bigger bills, he says.

“We think that by we’ll get back only about one and a half million bills. Many will never be returned. They’re either overseas, or destroyed, or forgotten,” he told RFI.

Not all of them, though. Some businesses have been accepting francs since January, as a publicity stunt, and to make it easier for people in remote areas to get rid of their old bills. Francs can only be exchanged for euros at the Banque de France offices, usually located  in bigger cities.

Outside the Paris exchange office last week, seveal people said the deadline had pushed them to bring in their francs.

One man found a 200-franc note in an old wallet and 73-year-old Yvette Florentin, from northern Paris, found a 50-franc bill when she was cleaning out her house.

“I got seven euros and 62 cents! Not bad!” she declared proudly.

Not everyone had such small amounts. Georges Dibe, 63, brought in 7,000 francs.

“I forgot about them, like everyone did,” he said. “You think that you’ll exchange them one day.”

The day had come, and he walked out with 1,567 euros.

“If I missed the deadline and kept the francs, I would have lost. Now I can say that I won.”

Indeed, he did.

Michel Prieur, a numismatist with cgb.com says franc bills are unlikely to become collectors’ items.

Franc notes “are very, very common”, he told RFI. Those holding onto them in the hopes at hitting the jackpot on eBay will be disappointed.

He uses the example of 500-franc banknotes, worth 76.22 euros. The only bill that can still be exchanged today is one with scientists Pierre and Marie Curie on it. A previous version had a portrait of mathematician Blaise Pascale, which Prieur says you can buy today on eBay for five euros.

“We think that after 17 February, a 500-franc Pierre et Marie Curie will be probably worth five euros. So the people who keep these notes will lose 70 euros,” he said.

Only five bills can still be exchanged and Prieur says two of them could be worth more than their face value: mint-condition Saint-Exupéry 50-franc bills and any of the 20-franc bills printed with the portrait of composer Claude Debussy.

Twenty francs are worth 3.05 euros. Prieur says he’s buying Debussy bills for 3.50, to resell them for four or five.

“We think that people will be interested to buy a Debussy because it's a nice note, it's a famous musician. It will keep a value over the face value,” Prieur said. “All the others: get them back to the Banque de France and get euros!”

Not all European countries have deadlines like this. You can still exchange marks in Germany and pesetas in Spain. But French law requires any banknote that goes out of circulation to be exchanged within 10 years.

That's because France has always been concerned about cash, according to Henri Jullien of the central bank. There is a limit on the amount of cash you can pay for something - 3,000 euros for individuals and 15,000 for businesses.

The idea is that too much cash can lead to money-laundering or an incentive to avoid taxes, says Jullien, “so the idea is either you declare within 10 years, or else it has no more value”.

 

French prison governor jailed for affair with femme fatale inmate

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Former Versailles women's prison director Florent Goncalves arrives at court Wednesday

Reuters/Gonzalo Fuentes

By Tony Cross

A French prison governor who fell in love with a notorious inmate has been jailed and fined for giving her preferential treatment. Florent Gonçalves wrecked his career and ended up on the other side of the bars after he fell for femme fataleEmma Arbabzadeh, who was in prison for entrapping a Jewish youth in an extortion plot that ended in his death.

A court in Versailles on Wednesday sentenced Gonçalves to one year in prison plus one year suspended and fined him 10,000 euros. They also banned him from ever again holding a public-service job.

Although sex with a prison inmate is not illegal in France, the court convicted him for “carrying on a correspondence” with Arbabzadeh and granting her favours, notably giving her mobile phone smart cards and money and setting up a Facebook page for her under the name, Fleur d’Orient (Oriental flower).

At the time Gonçalves, now 42 years old, was France’s youngest prison governor, living in an 120-metre-square apartment that went with his job at Versailles women's jail, where he had lived with the same woman for 12 years and had a six-year-old daughter.

But he lost it all thanks to his affair with Arbabzadeh, a 21-year-old of Iranian origin who had been jailed for her part in one of France’s most notorious cases of kidnap and extortion.

Shortly after arriving at Gonçalves’s prison, the young femme fatale requested an interview with the governor, according to Le Parisien/Aujourd’hui newspaper. She asked to be transferred again and, when he asked if she had any complaints about her treatment, she told him that she had fallen in love with him and it would thus be unwise for her to stay under his supervision.

The couple subsequently had sexual relations at least twice in the prison’s computer room, made steamy phone calls at night and continued to keep in touch after Arbabzadeh was finally transferred to another prison in the Paris region.

Arbabzadeh had been sent to prison for nine years for entrapping Ilan Halimi, a 23-year-old mobile phone salesman, on behalf of the so-called Gang des Barbares (Gang of barbarians), in 2006 when she was 17 years old. After 24 days in captivity, Halimi was found dumped on a railtrack with signs of torture on his body. He died on the way to hospital. Gang leader Youssouf Fofana was jailed for life and 25 other people were convicted as accomplices. The abduction and killing were found to be a hate crime because they believed that rich Jews would pay for Halimi’s release.

 Gonçalves insists that he was not manipulated.

“We fell in love with each other and, in reality, it was the governor who seduced Emma,” he told RTL radio, adding that “I have enormous support on Facebook.”

Emma Arbabzadeh was sentenced to an extra two months in prison and eight months suspended at Wednesday’s trial.

Also in the dock was Olivier Pinson, a warden and trade unionist who tried to blow the whistle on the warden’s affair but ended up falling for Emma himself, becoming an accomplice before being demoted by the governor who had become jealous of his apparent closeness to the object of both men’s affections.

Greece bailout: Eurozone calls for tighter oversight

Greek Finance Minister Evangelos Venizelos leaves the Presidental Palace in Athens after his meeting with the Greek President. (AFP Photo/Louisa Gouliamaki) 

Eurozone finance ministers have demanded much greater oversight of Greece's economy in return for a 130bn-euro (£110bn; $170bn) bailout package.

In a three-hour conference call on Wednesday, the ministers scrutinised Greece's planned budget cuts.

The single currency bloc praised Greece's "substantial progress", but demanded more detail, including a full timeline for implementing the measures.

A decision on the bailout is expected to be finalised on Monday.

Greece faces a looming deadline in mid-March when it needs to make repayments on a 14.5bn-euro bond, or face bankruptcy.

The EU and IMF have demanded that Greece make deep cuts and restructure its economy in return for the bailout.

'Bottomless pit'

Speaking after a conference call between the 17 eurozone finance ministers on Wednesday, Jean-Claude Juncker, head of the so-called Eurogroup, praised the progress Greece had made.

But he said more work was needed to strengthen oversight of how Greece would implement its austerity plans.

The BBC's Chris Morris in Brussels says the call reflects scepticism that Greece is willing or able to deliver on its promises of reform.

The "troika" of institutional lenders - the EU, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the European Central Bank (ECB) - had been demanding that Greece identify 325m euros of further spending cuts.

Mr Juncker said work on this had been carried out, including a timetable for implementation.

The ministers also insisted that the major Greek political parties promise in writing to implement the cuts, regardless of who wins a general election scheduled for April.

Leaders of the two main parties have now signed letters committing them to enacting the changes.

Meanwhile, President Karolos Papoulias hit out at German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble, whose comments during the talks stirred anger in Greece.

"I do not accept having my country taunted by Mr Schaeuble, as a Greek I do not accept it," Mr Papoulias said.

Earlier, Mr Schaeuble said: "We can help, but we are not going to pour money into a bottomless pit."

Chris Morris BBC News, Brussels

Some countries are demanding that the Greek economy must be put under much tighter surveillance, giving the eurozone far more control over what Greece does with its money.

That reflects scepticism that Greece will be willing or able to deliver on its promises of reform. In return, angry comments have emerged from Athens about demands made in Berlin and elsewhere.

Greek Finance Minister Evangelos Venizelos suggested that some countries want to see Greece leave the eurozone. Chancellor Merkel still says she wants Greece in, not least because she fears the alternative.

But if the eurozone manages to strengthen its bailout fund in the next few months, creating a more robust firewall to protect countries like Italy and Spain, then opinion could harden further. This current phase of the crisis could be Greece's last chance to stay in the euro-club.

Flu epidemic getting stronger

THE FLU epidemic sweeping through France has now affected 280,000 people over the past two weeks, with Auvergne, Provence-Alpes-Côte d’Azur, Rhône-Alpes, Nord-Pas-de-Calais and Languedoc-Roussillon particularly hard hit.  With a total of 173,500 cases in the last week alone the epidemic is strengthening and it is thought the number of cases will continue to rise this week.  The flu - mostly of the virus A/H3N2 - is characterised by a sudden fever with temperature above 39C, muscle and joint pains and breathing difficulty.  Figures collected by the GPs' network Sentinelles show that the grippe epidemic limit of 161 cases per 100,000 inhabitants had been smashed in the worst-affected regions.  Auvergne has 584 cases per 100,000, Paca 546, Rhône-Alpes 395, Nord-Pas-de-Calais 316 and Languedoc-Roussillon 311 - with the national average being 273 cases per 100,000. However, in Auvergne there are large areas with very few cases.  Each year between two and eight million people are hit by flu and it can cause between 1,500 and 2,000 deaths, mainly of over-65s. The present epidemic has started later in winter than usual because of the unusually mild weather.

From http://www.connexionfrance.com/

Hérault: Police surround house in Salleles Bosc after man shoots wife  

After wounding his wife with gunshot during an argument, a platoon of police called in reinforcements.

 According to police sources the 67 year old man, who is suffering from neurological disorders, shot his wife, hitting her in the shoulder after a domestic dispute.

The woman was airlifted to hospital in Montpellier but the prognosis is not thought to be serious.

The man, with his gun, has been surrounded in his house at Salleles Bosc. 

The gendarmerie from Pigg in Vaucluse was called in the evening after the police from Lodève failed, despite nearly six hours of negotiations, to secure the surrender of the man, said the source.

Protest calls for France to ban bullfighting

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© CRAC Europe/COLBAC

By Colette Davidson

Despite the freezing temperatures in Paris last Saturday more than 1,000 people came from across Europe to protest outside parliament against France’s bull-fighting tradition.

Protesters not only want politicians to remove French bull-fighting from the Unesco heritage list but to ban it altogether.

French press review 

By Michael Fitzpatrick

Give seven different editors the same story and see what they manage to do with it. The facts are simple:on Wednesday night, at seven minutes past eight precisely, Nicolas Sarkozy ended weeks of not-really-suspense by announcing that he is, indeed, a candidate for reelection in 66 days time.

Tabloid Aujourd'hui en France goes for the simple option, with a colour photo of the man and the fateful words "Yes, I'm going to run again".

On its inside pages the daily quotes what it considers to be the three key elements in last night's television performance.

First, Sarko's call to all French voters, both left and right, to accept that the state can no longer spend more than it takes in.

Second, his dismissal of his chief opponent, the Socialist Party's François Hollande, as someone who has no ideas of his own, and has managed only an endless litany of criticism directed at Sarko himself.

"Has he nothing better to do than talk about me?" asks the candidate-president.

Third, and finally, Sarkozy's defence of his first term at the helm, saying he has achieved a lot but that you can't change a nation in five years.

Aujourd'hui en France also quotes François Hollande who was addressing the Socialist faithful in Rouen at the time of the broadcast. Told that Sarko had made his long-awaited announcement, Hollande offered an ironic "What a shock, it's an upheaval, sensational news."

Catholic La Croix goes for the same colour photo and the headline "The president-candidate", stressing the right-wing campaign slogan which promises "A strong France".

The Catholic paper also notes the presidential promise to make his second five years in charge, if he gets them, very different from the first mandate, a concession which Sarko's opponents won't be long about turning into a guilty admission of failure.

Left-leaning Libération has the man who would be president "talking to the common man" and promising said common man that he or she will be given a greater say in the running of the nation because, henceforth, all crucial legislation will be subject to ratification by referendum.

Libé's scathing editorial ends by quoting the president as saying that "he is eager to reestablish contact with the French".

How eager they are to reestablish contact with him will become clear on 22 April.

According to business daily Les Echos, Sarkozy has set himself up as the candidate of "truth", suggesting that Hollande is the candidate of something else entirely.

Right-wing Le Figaro has a smiling president promising the reforms that will, once again, make France strong.

Le Figaro editorial says the election will be fought between a man who has the honesty and the courage to accept the world as it is and do the best he can to improve France's position in that world and a man who thinks that old-fashioned rhetoric will make the problems magically disappear.

The headline in communist L'Humanité says "He wants to finish us off", suggesting that five years has been sufficient to knock the stuffing out of the French social model and that five more years will see it dead and buried.

Centrist Le Monde, which went to press before the actual announcement, has to settle for a profile of a man who, according to one close advisor, needs to advance by two or three points in the opinion polls over the next two weeks or he can throw his hat at reelection.

Le Monde sees a man who still has enormous self-belief and who remains convinced that Lady Luck is on his side.

But the paper wonders if he still has the physical strength and the intellectual sharpness that made him such a formidable proposition back in 2007.

French News 16 February

President Sarkozy officially declares re-election bid

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French President Nicolas Sarkozy officially declared he will run for re-election in the country’s upcoming presidential elections in a televised appearance on Wednesday.

 

After months of “will he” or “won’t he”, French President Nicolas Sarkozy officially announced his intention to run for a second term in the country’s upcoming presidential elections during an appearance on prime-time television Wednesday.

When asked point-blank if he planned to run for the presidency, Sarkozy responded bluntly, “Yes, I am [a] candidate for the presidential election”.

Sarkozy has teased the French public with his reluctance to declare his bid for re-election ahead of the country’s first round of voting on April 22, causing widespread speculation as to when and where he would finally do it. Wednesday’s announcement on French television TF1’s evening news means that the centre-right president has formally entered the race against rival Socialist Party (PS) candidate François Hollande.

“Now the real campaign starts”, French Foreign Minister and Sarkozy ally Alain Juppé told French radio station France Info earlier on Wednesday. “We will have a real debate and see the weaknesses of the Socialist candidate”.

‘It’s just another mundane event’, says PS

To all appearances, the PS has thus far treated Sarkozy’s long-awaited declaration with tepid interest.

“It’s going to be a routine announcement,” PS party spokesman Benoit Hamon said in a press conference on Monday. “When Nicolas Sarkozy speaks, there are no flashing red lights, it’s just another mundane event.”

Hamon also took the opportunity to accuse Sarkozy of “playing games of suspense” with the public, and manipulating his undeclared status over the last few months to promote himself using public financing. As an official candidate, Sarkozy is now subject to limited air time and funds for his campaign.

Yet behind closed doors, the PS apparently holds a very different view of the potential consequences of Sarkozy’s candidacy. In an interview on Tuesday with Europe 1 radio, a PS insider said “Nicolas Sarkozy’s declaration is going to have a very big impact”, adding that the party was working hard to come up with a coordinated and measured response.

Coming up from behind

Sarkozy’s re-election bid comes at a critical moment, as France grapples with the fallout from Europe’s sovereign debt crisis and struggles to shore up its own economy. For the last several months, polls have consistently put Sarkozy behind Hollande, even forecasting he would lose to the socialist candidate in the country’s May 6 runoff.

Yet it looks as though the incumbent’s tidings are possibly changing. According to a February 13 study by French polling centre IPSOS, Sarkozy’s popularity has inched upwards by two points, while Hollande’s has ebbed by four, narrowing the gap between the two candidates.

Sarkozy is expected to reveal his campaign platform in France’s port city of Marseille on Sunday.

Euro-Zone Economy Shrinks

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PARIS—The euro-zone economy contracted in the fourth quarter of 2011 as nine member states posted a fall—five of which entered a recession—increasing concerns the wider region will follow in the first three months of 2012.

Data from European statistical bureau Eurostat on Wednesday showed that gross domestic product across the 17 regions that share the euro contracted 0.3% in the final quarter of 2011 compared with the third, and grew 0.7% compared with a year earlier. That is the first quarterly contraction since a 0.2% drop in the second quarter of 2009, while the year-to-year gain is the smallest since the fourth quarter of 2009 when GDP shrank 2.1%.

Five euro-zone member economies are now confirmed as being in recession.

Data from the Netherlands and Italy earlier Wednesday and Portugal and Greece Tuesday reported sharp quarterly contractions in the fourth quarter of 2011 and confirmed all regions are now in recession. And, the Eurostat release also reported that Belgium GDP fell 0.2% on the quarter in the fourth quarter of last year, following a 0.1% drop in the third quarter. The technical definition of recession is two consecutive quarters of contracting gross domestic product.

Germany was among the remaining four economies which posted contraction in the fourth quarter of last year, but that followed growth in the third quarter, and economists aren't expecting a recession in Germany this year.

The French economy expanded in the last quarter of 2011, countering expectations for a moderate contraction, and suggesting that the country was more resilient than expected to the effects of the sovereign-debt crisis.

Meanwhile the German economy, the largest in Europe, contracted in the fourth quarter of last year slightly less than expected, mainly as a result of higher fixed investment in construction, official data released Wednesday showed.

Gloomier news emerged from Italy, where data indicated the economy contracted sharply in the fourth quarter, shrinking 0.7% from the previous three months. As expected, Italy is now in a technical recession.

France's gross domestic product grew 0.2% on the quarter and 1.7% from a year earlier, Insee said. The statistics office said late last year that the French economy had slipped into a recession.

Despite signs that industrial output and consumer spending both contracted in December, Insee said an increase in production and investment over the last three months of the year boosted the economy in the fourth quarter.

"The figure backs our growth forecast for 2012," Finance Minister François Baroin said in a radio interview.

Last month, the French government cut its growth forecast for 2012 to 0.5%, from 1% previously. The lower growth has large implications on public finances: with the revised forecast the government had to factor in a shortfall of about €5 billion ($6.57 billion) in tax receipts

Russia expels French journalist 'for talking to foes of Putin'

Rights groups accuse Kremlin of 'cack-handed' expulsion after immigration officials swoop on Anne Nivat

The Kremlin: accused of failing to properly investigate the killings of crusading Russian journalists. Photograph: Yuri Kochetkov/EPA

Russia has expelled a prominent French writer and journalist three weeks before the country's presidential election, in the latest move by the authorities against press freedom.

Immigration officials detained Anne Nivat on Friday, after she met members of Russia's opposition. The officials interrogated her for four hours. They then annulled her multi-entry business visa and told her she had to leave Russia within three days. She flew back to Paris over the weekend.

Nivat, a former Moscow correspondent and the author of an acclaimed book on Chechnya, had been conducting interviews for her latest book. She said that the officials from Russia's federal migration service (FMS) made it abundantly clear that they were unhappy about her contacts with locals opposed to Vladimir Putin.

Russia's prime minister has faced unprecedented street protests in the wake of parliamentary elections last December, widely seen as having been rigged. Despite middle-class discontent with his rule, Putin is certain to win the presidential election on 4 March. So far he has made few concessions to protesters, dismissing them as western stooges and comparing their white ribbon to a condom.

Formally, FMS officials accused Nivat journalist of "violating" the terms of her business visa. "It clearly didn't please them that I was having conversations with people from the opposition – they clearly said it many times," Nivat told the Wall Street Journal in an email on Monday, adding that she had been under surveillance for several days before the officials swooped.

Rights groups said Nivat's expulsion was the latest cack-handed move by the Kremlin, which stands accused of failing to properly investigate the killings of crusading Russian journalists, including Anna Politkovskaya, shot dead in Moscow in 2006, and of using KGB tactics against reporters who displease those in power.

"We call on Russian authorities to allow Anne Nivat to return to the country and report on the important events in the run-up to March presidential elections without fear of reprisal," said Nina Ognianova, of the New York-based Committee to Project Journalists.

She made clear: "Cancelling Nivat's business visa because she interviewed members of the Russian opposition is an unacceptable reprisal for doing her job as a journalist."

The head of the FMS, Konstantin Romodanovsky, hinted on Monday night that Nivat's expulsion might be reversed. "Preliminary facts show that the decision was wrong. Perhaps, it will be overturned, Romodanovsky said, according to the state news agency RIA Novosti. On Tuesday he said he had fired the head of the FMS in Vladimir, the BBC's Russian service reported.

In his blog, writer Andrey Dmitriev described how officials turned up at Nivat's hotel in Vladimir and took her to their headquarters. He suggested that the official explanation for the journalist's expulsion – that she had "broken the rules" – was absurd.

"Anna didn't just meet with representatives from the opposition, but with a wide spectrum of people – from my colleagues to the inhabitants of villages in Karelia … Anna asserts that nothing similar happened during her numerous previous working trips to Russia," Dmitriev wrote.

Before her deportation, Nivat had travelled to several areas of Russia, including Petrozavodsk in Russia's picturesque European north-east. She met representatives of Yabloko – the liberal party whose leader, Grigory Yavlinsky, has recently been disqualified from standing in next month's elections against Putin – as well as local communists.

In 1998, Nivat became a correspondent for the French daily newspaper Libération in Moscow. She has also reported for other newspapers from Russia, including Le Soir, Ouest France, Le Nouvel Observateur and the Washington Post.

The following year Nivat travelled undercover to Chechnya disguised as a peasant. Her book, Chienne de guerre. Une femme reporter en Tchétchénie, describes her experiences of daily life during the Kremlin's brutal second war in Chechnya.

French auto giant PSA Peugeot Citroen profits slump

PARIS: French auto giant PSA Peugeot Citroen, struggling to cut costs, said Wednesday its 2011 net profit slumped by half and that it would take additional measures to reverse the slide.

It said net profit tumbled 48 percent to 588 million euros ($776 million) even as sales rose 7.0 percent to 59.9 billion euros.

Operating profit dropped 27 percent to 1.3 billion euros but the core auto business was in the red with a loss of 92 million euros at this level.

PSA said it would increase its cost cutting plan to 1.0 billion euros from the 800 million euros announced in October which included thousands of job losses across its European operations.

"The additional 200 million euros in cost savings will have no impact on employment levels," Finance Director Jean-Baptiste de Chatillon told a conference call.

PSA said it would also sell assets to raise 1.5 billion euros.

The company gave no specific forecasts for this year, saying its main objective was to reduce its debt of 3.4 billion euros at end-2011.

It said it expected the French auto market to shrink 10 percent this year, with Europe down 5.0 percent as a whole but there should be gains in China, Latin America and Russia.

The company, France's largest automaker and Europe's second-largest after Germany's Volkswagen, employs more than 205,000 people around the world, including 100,000 in France. It employs 167,000 people in total in Europe.

Analysis: German boom casts shadow over French election

 (Reuters) - Germany's booming economy has dominated the early exchanges in France's presidential election campaign but President Nicolas Sarkozy and his Socialist rival draw very different lessons from across the Rhine.

While Sarkozy believes France must copy Germany's painful budget cuts, wage restraint and labor market deregulation to boost prosperity, Socialist poll frontrunner Francois Hollande warns that such austerity could choke off a fragile recovery.

He wants to emulate Germany's investment in research, its support for small firms and its bigger role for trade unions in decision-making while keeping France's generous welfare system.

"Not everything in Germany's economic model deserves to be copied," Hollande's campaign chief Pierre Moscovici said.

While French growth has stalled, Germany's robust recovery stands in painful contrast. Stripped of its AAA credit rating by Standard & Poor's last month, Paris posted a record trade deficit last year. Unemployment is at a 12-year high.

Over the border, joblessness is at 20-year lows and exports hit a record last year. Small wonder perhaps that a recent poll found that 62 per cent of voters thought France should take the German model as an example.

"Germany has had huge success. That doesn't make us jealous, that inspires us," Sarkozy said in a television interview, pledging to learn from Germany's export-led growth.

He praised the 2003-2005 Hartz reforms under former Social Democratic Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder that liberalized the German labor market, helping it to shake off the hangover of unification with former-Communist east Germany in 1990.

Sarkozy plans to raise VAT to cut France's high labor costs by shifting the tax burden from payrolls to consumption, copying a step Germany took in 2007. He also wants to let firms bypass sectoral wage deals and negotiate on a company basis -- effectively burying the national 35-hour work week which the Socialists introduced in 2000.

Accusing Sarkozy of "capitulation to Germany," the Socialists say the Hartz reforms generated underemployment and raised the number of working poor. With no national minimum wage, roughly one-fifth of German workers are in low paid jobs -- a higher ratio even than in Greece.

Hollande has vowed to renegotiate a fiscal discipline pact adopted by 25 European leaders last month, which Berlin made a condition of its support for euro zone bailouts. He wants to give more priority to growth and a larger role to the ECB.

The Socialists aim to emulate German spending on research and support for small- and medium-sized companies that power exports -- the Mittelstand. They cite studies showing non-price factors have given German goods the edge over French merchandise -- technology, quality and product specialization.

"The Socialists seem to be missing the lessons of Germany's success: wage restraint and moving part of the supply chain to cheaper countries," said Gilles Moec, senior European economist at Deutsche Bank. "The lack of serious supply side reforms in their program is disappointing."

WAGES CRUCIAL

Many on the French left see Germany's decade of wage deflation, accepted by trade unions to preserve jobs, as having sown the seeds of the euro zone crisis by helping make southern European countries less competitive.

There can be little doubt that it has been instrumental in the divergent economic fortunes of France and Germany, its biggest trade partner.

While unit labor costs in Germany crept up by just 2 percent between 1999 and 2010, in France they leapt by more than 20 percent, OECD figures show, as productivity gains were pumped back into wage increases to fuel domestic demand.

French labor costs, which were a competitive advantage in the 1990s, have long since overtaken its neighbor's. Germany's federal statistics office said domestic wages averaged 29.20 euros per hour in 2010, 12 percent below France's.

Non-wage labor costs such as health insurance and welfare charges accounted for 49 euros per 100 in France, almost twice the 28 in Germany -- something Sarkozy aims to address with the VAT changes he is seeking to rush through parliament.

After ending the 1990s in trade surplus, France swung into deficit in 2000, the year it introduced the 35-hour week.

Over the next decade, its trade deficit steadily grew while Germany's surplus boomed -- with most of this surplus coming from within the euro zone as its goods became steadily more competitive against France and southern European nations.

Germany accounted for nearly one-quarter of France's 70 billion euro trade deficit last year -- the second largest factor after China.

TOO MUCH SWAY

Hollande argues that Germany has gained too much sway over the shape of the euro zone.

He wants to remold the Franco-German alliance with a new bilateral treaty next year to bring greater equality to the relationship driving Europe, 50 years after the Elysee Treaty established regular summits between two countries.

Critics say he is imitating one of his mentors, former Socialist Prime Minister Lionel Jospin, who tried to renegotiate the euro zone's stability pact -- its set of budgetary rules -- after winning office in 1997.

Jospin won a symbolic victory which did little more than change the name to "stability and growth pact" and many observers believe Hollande may struggle to achieve more in the face of German intransigence.

However, Socialists close to Hollande are watching carefully for signs of Germany loosening its wage restraint. They see signs that German Chancellor Angela Merkel is already trying to unpick some of the Schroeder's reforms, such as favoring the introduction of a national minimum wage by sector.

They are also hoping that elections in Germany in September 2013 usher in a left-leaning SPD-led government, which could pave the way to a more expansionary policy.

UNIONS' ROLE

Sarkozy says his proposed 1.6 percent rise in VAT to 21.1 percent will save companies some 13 billion euros a year in labor costs, easing the competitiveness gap with Germany. But some economists doubt the move will bring sufficient relief.

"More consumption tax and less taxes on labor can help but it's not a slam dunk. It's too small," Nobel prize-winning economist Paul Krugman told Reuters. "There is nothing wrong with the proposal but it's not going to solve the problem."

Hollande has pledged to scrap that policy if elected and also wants to unpick Sarkozy's landmark reform raising the minimum retirement age to 62. He believes France's unions should have a more prominent role on the German model.

Under German law, union members sit on the supervisory boards of bigger companies, leading to shared responsibility, fewer strikes and a tradeoff between temporarily shorter working hours and job preservation -- known as Kurzarbeit.

French industrial relations are much more combative, dating back to a landmark 1906 Charter of Amiens, in which unions vowed to take no part in politics and pursue class struggle.

With one of the most generous welfare systems in Europe, French voters are quick to protest against any reduction in entitlements. Millions demonstrated against Sarkozy's pension reform while there was hardly any protest when Germany raised the retirement age to 67.

"We need make our unions more responsible," said one Hollande adviser, who requested anonymity because he works for a public institution. "In that respect, Germany can be a model."

GLOBALISATION SPLIT

France has yet to embrace globalization in the way that Germany did in the late 1990s, when companies ramped up direct investment in eastern Europe and shifted part of their supply chains there. Berlin's share of foreign investment in the region increased to almost 30 percent in 2004-2006.

The French public debate is dominated by the fight to save old jobs rather than create new ones. A spate of corporate closures, from ferry operator SeaFrance to lingerie maker Lejaby, has caused an outcry. Politicians on all sides slammed carmaker Renault (RENA.PA) when it opened a low-cost plant in Morocco this month.

Studies show German offshoring not only boosted productivity of subsidiaries in Eastern Europe almost threefold compared to local firms, but also increased the productivity of the parent companies in Germany by more than 20 percent.

Both Sarkozy and Hollande have pledged to prevent the relocation of industrial production outside French borders, particularly in strategic industries such as the car sector.

Hollande has promised tax breaks for firms which repatriate production or keep it in France and vowed to make companies which move production outside France repay any past state aid.

"France has not yet come to terms with globalization," said Deutsche's Moec.

French police to interview Norwegian mass murderer Breivik's father

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Anders Behring Breivik poses for the cameras in Oslo

Reuters/Lise Aserud

By RFI

French police are to question the father of Norway’s far-right mass murderer, Anders Behring Breivik, after Paris prosecutors agreed to a Norwegian request for help. Former diplomat Jens Breivik lives in southern France.

Norway has defined Breivik’s Oslo killing spree as a terrorist crime and Paris public prosecutors are responsible for investigating terror crimes in the whole of France.

Jens Breivik is retired and lives in Cournanel in the southern Aude department.

Although he has not seen his son for several years and has not lived with him since he the boy was one year old, Norwegian police believe that his testimony is important in establishing apsychological profile of the mass murderer.

But he has so far refused to return to Norway or go to its embassy in France, so the Paris officials must now seek an interview with him and invite Norwegian observers.

Anders Behring Brevik, who has admitted to the killing spree while claiming he was fighting off a “Muslim invasion” and its left-wing agents, was put under psychiatric observation to establish his mental competence on 10 February.

Uproar after French MP denies gays deported from Nazi-occupied France

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Logo: Les oublié(e)s de la mémoire, who campaign for greater recognition of homosexual victims of Nazi holocaust

www.devoiretmemoire.org

By RFI

Nicolas Sarkozy’s ruling right-wing UMP party has taken action against one of its MPs who denied that homosexuals were deported from France during World War II.

Christian Vanneste can be seen on the internet site www.libertepolitique.com declaring that homosexuality is “the refusal of the other”, and talking of what he calls “the famous myth about the deportation of homosexuals [from France]”

UMP leader Jean-François Copé told journalists that members at the party’s weekly meeting on Wednesday were unanimous in their condemnation of Christian Vanneste’s comments, which he called “unacceptable, profoundly shocking and intolerable.”

Copé said that Vanneste will not be able to stand for the UMP in legislative elections in June, it was decided at the meeting, and the question of expulsion was to be discussed at a meeting next week.

Copé declared that the UMP would put up a candidate to oppose Vanneste in the legislative elections.

In 2007 Vanneste had the party backing withdrawn after making homophobic comments, but on that occasion he succeeded in keeping his parliamentary seat, largely because the UMP did not put up a candidate to stand against him.

This time around even the Front National rebuked Vanneste. The party’s number two Louis Aliot said “Monsieur Vanneste should re read his history books. It’s a really stupid thing to say.”

French historian Mickaël Bertrand, who led a team of researchers who produced a report on the question, suggests that 62 people were deported from France to German camps or prisons, because of their homosexuality. French Nazi-hunter Serge Klarsfeld says that he has never seen a document relating to the deportation of homosexuals in France. He says that German law on the arrest of homosexuals was never introduced in France, except in parts of France which at the time were German, such as Alsace. The French group Les oublié(e)s de la mémoire (Forgotten by history) campaigns for greater recognition of the homosexual victims of the Nazi holocaust.

The question of whether or not to legalise gay marriage in France is moving up the political agenda ahead of presidential and legislative elections this spring.

The last gay concentration camp survivor, Rudolf Brazda, a German-speaking Czech who had taken French nationality, died in Alsace last year.

France wants humanitarian corridors in Syria

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Smoke rises from the pipeline near Homs Wednesday

Reuters

By RFI

France wants the UN to consider setting up “humanitarian corridors” in Syria, French Foreign Affairs Minister Alain Juppé said Wednesday. The West is trying to persuade Moscow to support a new resolution on the conflict there, but his Russian counterpart dubbed efforts to “isolate” Bashar al-Assad’s regime “a mistake”.

The UN General Assembly is to vote on a resolution condemning Bashar al-Assad’s repression of opposition protests on Thursday evening and France hopes to win 130 to 140 votes, Juppésaid.

Humanitarian corridors should be established to get aid to “zones where there are absolutely scandalous massacres”, the minister told France Info radio, reviving a proposal Paris first raised in November.

And, he said, that Western powers were putting pressure on Russia to back “the only initiative that can bring an end to the crisis, that of the Arab League”.

But there seemed to be no change in the position of Russian Foreign Affairs Minister Sergei Lavrov.

Speaking in The Hague, he opposed “outside interference” and called for dialogue, which “must be inclusive and Syrian”.

"Unfortunately, some of our partners long ago wrote off the government of Syria," Lavrov told reporters after talks with his Dutch counterpart Uri Rosenthal. "Instead of a dialogue, there is an attempt to isolate the Syrian government. This is a mistake."

Chinese officials, too, warned against taking "wrong initiatives" that might lead to "more bllod being spilt".

France on Tuesday set up a million-euro emergency fund for “humanitarian” aid in Syria and is discussing the Arab League plan, which raises the possibility of sending UN troops, with its allies.

Developments in Syria on Wednesday included: A referendum on a new Syrian constitution will take place on 26 February, the official news agency, Sana, announced Wednesday, while local media report it is likely to limit the president’s mandate to two seven-year terms; An oil pipeline in Homs, a focus of opposition demonstrations, was on fire Wednesday, opposition activists said pro-regime troops shelled it, state media blamed "armed terrorist gangs”; Pro-Assad troops stormed the central city of Hama, according to opposition sources; The Syrian military put up roadblocks around the Barzeh district of DamascusWednesday and launched house-to-house searches for member of the rebel Free Syrian Army, opposition activists say.

Assad’s regime on Tuesday slammed its foreign critics, accusing some countries of wanting to tarnish its reputation and ignoring “terrorist crimes committed by armed groups” on its soil.

‘Forbidden Love’ prison boss in court for affair with notorious inmate

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The governor of a women’s prison has admitted that he had sex with a prisoner who played a crucial role in a brutal kidnapping and murder. Despite the end of the relationship after her release, he denies he was manipulated.

 

A disgraced prison governor “has no regrets” after admitting having sex with a female inmate who made headlines in 2006 as the honey trap in a notorious kidnapping and murder case.

Florent Goncalves, 42, (pictured) whose trial for having an inappropriate relationship with an inmate and for providing her with mobile phone SIM cards began on Wednesday, faces up to three years in prison and a hefty fine.

He described the relationship in a book titled “Forbidden Love”, which hits the shelves on Thursday.

“I told myself repeatedly that what I was doing was an act of idiocy,” wrote Goncalves of his growing affection for the woman, known only as “Emma S” because she was 17 years old when convicted.

“And yet today I have no regrets about that idiocy, despite all the suffering and damage it has caused.”

The affair was exposed in early 2011 and Goncalves was immediately suspended from his job. His partner, who is the mother of their daughter, left him soon after.

But when his illicit lover was released on bail in September 2011, Goncalves had to come to terms with the fact that their relationship was nothing but an empty fantasy.

“In the space of a few hours I realised that my whole life had been turned upside down for a dream,” he wrote. “I’d waited for seven months to come to the conclusion that we had no future together.”

Three weeks of torture

Emma, now 23, was sentenced to nine years in 2006 for luring 23-year-old Parisian Ilan Halimi to meet her for a supposed “date”.

Instead, Halimi was abducted by a gang called who called themselves “The Barbarians” , who subjected him to three weeks of torture in a Paris suburb while they tried to extort money from his family.

Gang leader Youssouf Fofana was convicted of killing the 23-year-old Jewish man, and was sentenced to life in prison after judges ruled that the murder was racially motivated.

Emma, who arrived in France in 1998 as an 11-year-old refugee from Iran and was living with her mother, found herself incarcerated at a prison in Versailles, south-west of Paris, where Goncalves was governor.

According to Goncalves’s book, the relationship started in 2009, when he began a clandestine correspondence and gave her mobile phone SIM cards, which are illegal in prison.

He went on to describe how the pair fell headlong into a relationship “marked by passion and jealousy” and that they had sexual relations twice while she was incarcerated.

‘Profound personal humiliation’

Despite the relationship’s abrupt end, Goncalves insists that he had acted out of love and was not manipulated by Emma.

“It was an improbable and sentimental affair,” he said in a television interview on TF1. “But it was totally sincere.”

Also on trial is a prison warden who is accused of providing SIM cards to inmates, while Emma herself faces the charge of receiving and concealing illicit goods.

Goncalves’ lawyer Pascal Garbarini told reporters on Wednesday: “He knows how serious these offences are, but what he went through was a profound personal humiliation.

“Facing judgement from the court means he will be punished twice for these mistakes.” 

French press review 

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By Michael Fitzpatrick

There's an awful lot of Nicolas Sarkozy on this morning's front pages. But whoever wins the April/May poll has a tough job sorting out the economy.

According to the main headline in the popular tabloid, Aujourd'hui en France, "This time, it's for real".

The front page of left-leaning Libération has the out-going president "On the starting blocks".

Le Monde says Sarkozy will base his 67-day campaign on an appeal to "the people". The centrist daily goes on to point out that, whenever or however they choose to get into the race, outgoing presidents never profit in the opinion polls from the announcement.

Communist L'Humanité says the "president of the rich" has consistently accepted the line laid down by French bosses over the past five years and has already been given his road map for the next five.

Perhaps with a belated glance at St Valentine's Day, L'Huma says, the love story between Sarko and top management will last forever. Or at least for another 67 days.

Sarkozy had better come up with something dramatic tonight. The latest opinion polls put the right-wing candidate streets behind Socialist contender, François Hollande, with an eight-point gap between the two in the first round, rising to 16 points between them in the decider.

As business daily Les Echos makes very clear, all candidates are going to have their work cut out for them. The business paper's main headline reads "French employment figures collapse again".

According to official statistics, 32,000 jobs were lost in the final three months of last year, and the prospects for 2012 are far from inspiring. Management jobs continue a relative boom, except in small and medium businesses but the prospects for young, unqualified workers remain poor.

Right-wing Le Figaro gives front-page prominence to a left-wing row. According to the paper owned by the man who makes Rafale jet fighters, François Hollande has annoyed Jean-Luc Mélenchon.

Frank recently said that there were no communists left in France. Mélenchon, who heads a group of far-left elements, including the French Communist Party, feels that this shows the insufferable arrogance of Hollande in his attitude to the rest of the left.

Opinion polls currently credit Mélenchon with eight per cent support in the first round.

"If he doesn't believe they exist," fulminates the far-left leader, "how will he get them to vote for him in the second round?"

Mélenchon wants Hollande to stand by his early promise to attack the twisted worlds of banking and finance, a promise which put the fear of God up some big international investors and has since been toned down by the Socialist front man.

"The left was in power for 15 years under Mitterrand," says Hollande, "and during that time we liberalised the economy, opened the way to investment and privatisation. There is nothing to fear."

Le Figaro also reports that there'll be no punishment for Socialist-alligned deputy Serge Letchimy, who recently evoked the concentration camps of Nazi Germany when criticising Interior Minister Claude Guéant's comments to the effect that not all civilisations are of equal value.

Letchimy's case was heard by a committee dominated by his Socalist colleagues, because there were too few majority representatives to attend all Tuesday's parliamentary committees.

While expressing the wish that parliamentary debate should always take place in an atmosphere of mutual repect, the committee said the decision not to punish Letchimy was proof that France remains a nation committed to freedom of expression and democratic principles.

Told about the decision, Claude Guéant said he had nothing to say.

Europe economy: Recession hits Italy and Netherlands

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Europe's debt crisis has hit demand for German exports

Two of the eurozone's biggest economies have fallen into recession, according to the latest economic figures.

Italy and the Netherlands both saw their economies shrink by 0.7% in the fourth quarter, the second consecutive quarter of economic contraction.

Germany had its first negative quarter since 2009 with a decline of 0.2%, compared with the previous quarter.

But in France there was surprise growth of 0.2% at the end of last year, attributed to healthy export growth.

Overall the 17 nations that make up the eurozone saw economic activity shrink 0.3% in the fourth quarter. By comparison the United States reported growth of 0.7%.

"Greece may be burning. Growth may be slowing. But the recognised German barometer of hope over fear shows far more Germans looking on the bright side than those down in the dumps”

Stephen Evans BBC News, Berlin

• Germany: Reasons to be cheerful

The eurozone has not slipped into recession as it reported growth of 0.1% in the third quarter.

'Better than feared'

For 2011 as a whole, the French economy grew by 1.7% and Germany 3%.

Europe's debt crisis has already pushed Greece, Portugal and Belgium into recession, defined by two consecutive quarters of contraction.

Economists forecast that Germany is likely to avoid that scenario and say the latest growth figures could have been worse.

"This is better than feared after retail sales and industrial production turned out badly in December. The decline is due to the euro crisis. It caused a drastic loss in confidence among companies and consumers." said Christian Schulz, an economist at Berenberg Bank.

"Action from the ECB and the government has restored confidence. There is hope that we will emerge quickly from the economic dip. We expect growth again in the second quarter at the latest, provided that the euro crisis remains under control." he said.

Peter de Keyzer from BNP Paribas Fortis: ''Europe has de-coupled from the rest of the world''

The French growth figures were better than forecast, with many analysts having expected the economy to have contracted in the fourth quarter.

"Each of the three main components of the economy - foreign trade, household consumption and investment - had a positive contribution in the last quarter of 2011." said Finance Minister Francois Baroin in a statement.

"This strengthens the government's forecast for 0.5% [growth] this year."

That will come as a boost to President Nicolas Sarkozy who, if he chooses to run again, faces a national election in April.

Economists say that of Wednesday's figures, France was the most surprising.

"It boils down to a very positive net trade position in the fourth quarter, business investment has also been very positive. I'm not sure the pace can be maintained in the first half but at least it suggests that France, at worst, will go through a very shallow recession. " said Gilles Moec, Senior European Economist at Deutsche Bank.

Confidence in France was undermined in January when it lost its top-notch AAA credit rating, after one of the leading ratings agencies, Standard and Poor's, downgraded the nation's debt.

At the time the agency blamed Europe's debt crisis and the failure of Europe's leaders to tackle the region's problems.

European growth rate Column 1 = 3rd qtr - Column 2 = 4 qtr - Column 3 = 2011
Eurozone	- 0.3%	0.1%	1.5%
Germany	- 0.2%	0.6%	3.0%
France	0.2%	0.3%	1.7%
Italy	- 0.7%	- 0.2%	0.4%
Austria	- 0.1%	0.2%	1.2%
Netherlands	- 0.7%	- 0.4%	1.3%

French News 15 February

Eurozone leaders 'call off Greece crisis talks'

The 17 finance ministers of the eurozone nations had been due to meet in Brussels on Wednesday

The head of the eurozone countries has downgraded an eurozone finance ministers meeting on Wednesday, saying Greece has not yet given the necessary assurances about its austerity plan.

Ministers, who had demanded Greece find an extra 325m euros of savings, had been set to meet in Brussels.

But Eurogroup President Jean-Claude Juncker said the talks would be replaced by a conference call.

He said technical work with Greece was still needed "in a number of areas".

Finance ministers had not received assurances from leaders of Greek political parties on a programme of proposed cuts, Mr Juncker was quoted as saying by Reuters news agency.

He said that "against this background, I have decided to convene ministers to a conference call tomorrow in order to discuss the outstanding issues".

As well as 17 ministers from nations that use the euro, the president of the European Central Bank Mario Draghi and the Commissioner for Economic and Monetary Affairs, Olli Rehn, had also been due to attend the meeting.

Mark Lowen, the BBC's Athens correspondent, says the Greek Prime Minister's office confirmed that the face-to-face meeting had been called off.

'Harsh' 

The latest 130bn-euro bailout ($169.5bn, £108.7bn) was agreed in principle by EU leaders in October, conditional on Greece adopting further measures to cut its deficit and restructure its economy.

On Sunday, Greek MPs approved extra cutbacks, but parties had to expel more than 40 deputies for failing to back the bill.

Thousands protested in Athens, where there were widespread clashes and buildings were set on fire. Violent protests were reported in cities across the country.

"As time has gone on more and more people believe that austerity measures can't be met because the economy is doing too badly and that they are far too harsh especially for the working and middle classes in the private sector." said Nick Malkoutzis, Deputy Editor, of Kathimerini English Edition.

"The feeling is they are being made to pay for failure to reform the public sector." he said.

There is pressure on Greece to make progress, as the country will not be able to pay debts due on 20 March unless it can qualify for more bailout funds by satisfying its European partners.

By that date Greece needs to repay 14.5bn euros to lenders.

When and if eurozone ministers are convinced Greece is making progress on cuts, and if the German parliament agrees to the bailout (as it must under national law), then any new bailout could be signed off in early March.

But there have been warnings that politicians in Germany, Europe's biggest economy, may be losing patience.

"Given the increasing hard line we have seen out of German policymakers over the past few days, you would wonder if Germany is trying to push Greece out [of the euro]," Michael Hewison of CMC Markets told the BBC.

Meanwhile, an official report on Tuesday showed that the decline of the Greek economy accelerated in the final three months of 2011.

The estimate showed that, compared with a year earlier, Greek GDP contracted by 7% in the fourth quarter of 2011.

That is an acceleration from the 5% contraction in the third quarter.

The report also shows that the Greek economy shrank 6% last year, an increase on earlier estimates and the fifth year of recession.

Matthew Price BBC News, Brussels 

It's now a question of who will blink first.

Greece - which has to receive this second multi-billion Euro bailout if it's not to default and, it's assumed, therefore leave the euro.

Or the EU - which is demanding that Greece comply with every aspect of the bailout agreement before the money is handed over - but which is also publicly desperate to avoid the chaos it's believed would follow a Greek exit from the single currency.

Bearing in mind the difficulties of selling more austerity to a nation already on its knees, it is by no means certain that the bailout will be granted.

If it is not, Greece will not be able to meet its debt repayments, and the economic uncertainty for the eurozone, Europe and indeed the world will intensify.

Sarkozy to declare presidential candidacy this evening

Candidate-to-be Nicolas Sarkozy addressed gendarmes near Paris on Monday

Reuters/Philippe Wojazer

By Tony Cross

French President Nicolas Sarkozy is to announce that he will stand in this year’s presidential election on television news this evening, his supporters told journalists. His main opponent, Socialist François Hollande, shrugged off the news with a declaration that “we knew that already”.

Although nobody doubts that he will stand for reelection, Sarkozy earlier planned to leave his official announcement until mid-March. But with Hollande way ahead in the opinion polls and far-right candidate Marine Le Pen gaining ground, it had become increasingly clear that he would bring the date forward and launch his official campaign soon.

The 8pm news bulletin on the privately owned TF1 channel will apparently be the occasion of the long-awaited announcement. The timing is apparently chosen to upstage Hollande’s second election rally, taking place in Rouen at the same time.

Sarkozy himself will hold his first rally in Marseille on Sunday but is due to make a public appearance that is bound to attract the cameras in the eastern city of Annecy on Thursday.

True to the literary bent of French election campaigns, Sarkozy will also publish a book but, according to centre daily Le Monde, it is not yet ready because, in an uncharacteristic display of discretion, the president finds it too personal.

Ecology Minister Nathalie Kosciusko-Morizet is to be the Sarkozy campaign spokesperson, supporters say.

“Everybody already knew he was a candidate,” was Hollande’s laconic reaction to the news Tuesday. “It doesn’t change a thing. It doesn’t make any difference to my campaign.”

Sarkozy last week indicated the main campaign issues he is likely to concentrate on: Oppositon to granting non-EU nationals voting in local elections (as proposed by Hollande); Opposition to gay marriage (supported by Hollande); Opposition to euthanasia (supported by Hollande “under precise conditions”); Restriction of the right to some unemployment benefits; The “values” of “work, responsibility and authority”.

Former right-wing housing minister Christine Boutin on Tuesday declared herself sufficiently impressed by Sarkozy’s “support for marriage and life” to pull out of the presidential race.

Boutin, who heads the small Christian Democrat Party,  was at about one per cent in the polls and had so far failed to collect the 500 signatures of mayors she would have needed to stand.

Moody's moves towards downgrading French AAA rating

http://quotidien-mark.blogspot.com

By RFI

Exactly one month after France was downgraded from a coveted triple A by rating agency S&P, Moody’s has put the country on ‘negative outlook’ alongside Great Britain and Austria while Italy, Spain and Portugal were among the eurozone nations to have their credit ratings lowered.

The rating agency says the negative outlook for France, which means there is a 30 per cent chance it will be downgraded over the next 18 months, is due to the continued worsening of public debt.

It says there are significant doubts over whether the government can successfully manage its sovereign debt and reverse the downward trend.

Finance minister Francois Baroin says the Moody’s announcement is a “confirmation” that France still has a AAA rating of its sovereign debt.

He said the negative outlook reflected the economic situation in the eurozone as a whole and insisted the government would continue its policies to promote growth and productivity.

With just 70 days to go before the first round of the French presidential election, the announcement is not good news for President Nicolas Sarkozy who is trailing Socialist Party candidate Francois Hollande in opinion polls.

The opposition blames Sarkozy for the country’s current economic crisis.

Meanwhile, Britain's finance minister defended his government's deep public spending cuts on Tuesday after Moody's said the country risked losing its AAA credit rating.

George Osborne, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, insisted the assessment justified the austerity measures being implemented by the Conservative-Liberal Democrat coalition government, aimed at reining in Britain's budget deficit.

French wine and spirits exports soar to record 10.1 billion euros

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Champagne corks were popping in the French wines and spirits sector today

Getty Images

By Tony Cross

France’s income from wine and spirits exports soared 10.5 per cent to 10.1 billion euros in 2011. But, while Asians and Americans have never bought so much French wine, the main reason for the rise is higher prices, not more bottles sold.

For the first time ever wines and spirits earned France more than 10 billion euros in a single year, coming second only to aerospace and contributing a surplus of 8.6 billion euros to the country’s trade balance.

The leadingregional marketsare: Europe, 4.1 billion euros, up three per cent; Asia, 2.5 billion euros, up 29 per cent; TheAmericas, 2.1 billion euros, up nine per cent.

Despite the world economic crisis, income rose 10.5 per cent, the Federation of Wine and Spirits Exporters said on Tuesday.

But the growth was mainly due to a 10.5 per cent rise in prices, federation president Louis Fabrice Latour told a press conference.

Sales volume has only risen 2.4 per cent volume increase, he said.

So, although 2011 beat the previous record of 9.6 billion euros in 2007, volume is still not higher than that pre-crisis year and wine sales have fallen 12 per cent in volume over the last 10 years.

Although Europe remained France’s main market last year, emerging economies were the principal growth area, accounting for more than one billion euros, the federation said.

Asia is France’s biggest growth area. Sales to China, Hong Kong, Japan and Singapore together rose 29 per cent to 2.5 billion euros, mainly from the best-known regions of Bordeaux, Champagne and Cognac.

The US and Canada, where drinkers make more varied choices, rose nine per cent to 2.1 billion euros.

But in 10 years sales to Britain have fallen 38 per cent in volume and 13 per cent in value, while Germans are paying 11 per cent less to buy 13 per cent less booze.

Country by country, the UK is still the second-largest importer but France is losing out to competition from New World producers.

Germany has now lost its third place to China, whose nouveaux riches are ready to splash out massive sums on large quantities of prestigious labels.

Champagne is France’s most popular alcoholic export, earning 2.1 billion euros in 2011, up 9.3 per cent; Cognac brandy is now second, earning 2.04 billion euros, up 10 per cent; Bordeaux wine (Claret to the British) come third, earning two billion euros.

Fire destroys fire station

The fire station at Lanuejols, near Millau , was completely destroyed by

fire last night, causing no injuries. The blaze broke out around 1: 30 pm, probably an accident.   say the brigade investigators.

Where is a fire engine when you really need one?

Monsanto to appeal French herbicide poisoning judgement

Farmer Paul Francois arrives at Lyon court on Monday

AFP / Jean-Philippe Ksiazek

By RFI

Biotechnology giant Monsanto says it will appeal a decision by a French court in the southeastern city of Lyon on Monday which found the company legally responsible for the poisoning of a farmer with one of its herbicides in 2004.

Grain farmer Paul François, 47, inhaled the powerful weed killer Lasso when he opened up a sprayer in 2004. He became nauseated, began stuttering and suffered dizziness, headaches and muscular aches, rendering him unable to work for a year.

Yann Fichet, head of company relations for Monsanto France, said the company’s herbicides were dangerous, but stressed labels on the products gave sufficient warning to consumers. He claimed there was no proof that Lasso was the cause of François’ problems.

“Monsanto will appeal this decision…a thorough analysis of the case does not, in our opinion, give sufficient evidence for a causal link between the use of the herbicide and the symptoms described by François.”

François’ lawyer argued the company failed to say what its product contained on the label or warn of the risks of inhalation or advise the user to wear a mask. Monsanto was also accused of keeping Lasso on the French market until 2007 despite bans of the product in Canada, Britain and Belgium.

Generations Futures, which lobbies against the massive use of pesticides, hailed Monday’s ruling.

"The recognition of Monsanto's responsibility in this matter is essential: plant care companies know that from now on they can no longer shirk their responsibilities," said spokesman François Veillerette.

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VAT hike plan hits the rocks

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From the Connexion

THE government’s plan to raise VAT has hit an embarrassing snag after it was rejected by the National Assembly’s finance commission. 

The commission was examining the last amendments to a bill “rectifying” the 2012 budget, before the bill goes to parliament. Due to absences – there was a majority of Opposition MPs present, rather than ones from the ruling UMP. 

The commission adopted a Socialist amendment striking out the “social VAT” plan, which is meant to raise the basic rate of VAT from 19.6% to 21.2% on October 1. 

In fact the majority will be able to reinsert it at a later stage, however according to the Socialist leader in the assembly Jean-Marc Ayrault, the fact it happened “reveals a malaise” among those on the right. 

“They already know Sarkozy’s record is catastrophic and they are going to go back to their constituencies with a VAT increase that will hit purchasing power and halt growth. I understand why they’re not enthusiastic about that,” he said. 

“We, on the other hand, were in strong numbers because we’re very mobilised against it.” 

His UMP counterpart, Christian Jacob, however claimed it was a “trick”, and that the Socialists had temporarily appointed some MPs to the commission who do not usually sit on it. 

The government insists on the importance of its plan, which involves raising the tax so as to lighten employers’ social charges. Prime Minister François Fillon said this week it was “necessary to lessen our [employment] costs compared to our competitors in the eurozone.” 

The Finance Ministry estimates it will create 100,000 jobs. 

Answering claims that the rise will affect low-income families the most, the ministry put out a statement pointing to the fact that many daily purchases attract no VAT (medical and financial services, rents…) or a reduced rate which is not affected by the plan (food, transport, newspapers…). 

In fact, the ministry added, purchases of things affected by full VAT represent a slightly higher proportion of the outgoings of rich families compared to the less well-off, therefore “it is not correct to say the increase weighs more heavily on the poorest.” 

From  http://www.connexionfrance.com

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Hollande Attacks Plan for Greece

Regis Duvignau/Reuters

François Hollande, the Socialist Party candidate, said austerity measures were misguided because “there is no rebound in growth in Europe and in Greece.”

PARIS — The front-runner for the French presidency, the Socialist candidate François Hollande, criticized European policy on Greece  saying that mandatory austerity measures were too severe and would never produce the desired results because “everyone knows” that “there is no rebound in growth in Europe and in Greece.”

Mr. Hollande’s remarks, one day after the Greek Parliament adopted austerity measures demanded by the European Union and the International Monetary Fund, while violent protests left many buildings in Athens in flames, offered a critical assessment of European and Greek leaders’ handling of the crisis. The Greek government, he said, would “have a short life,” while the austerity plan forced on Greece amounted to a “purge.”

The French presidential race is heating up with President Nicolas Sarkozy expected to make his candidacy for re-election official this week. Mr. Sarkozy is still running behind Mr. Hollande in the opinion polls for both the first round of voting on April 22 and in a runoff on May 6. In a luncheon interview with a group of foreign journalists here, Mr. Hollande was pleasant and expansive, but remained vague on the details of his programs.

But predictably, he was sharper about what he saw as the failures of Mr. Sarkozy and other European leaders. While there had certainly been a failure of Greek governance, Mr. Hollande said, there was also “a failure of European governance.”

Greece should have been tackled sooner, with a larger bailout fund to substitute for a part of public debt and to bring it down to 60 percent of gross domestic product, he said, with both public and private creditors sharing the burden. Or the European Central Bank could have lent directly to Greece, he said, although that is banned by its charter.

The point is not to allow Greece to escape belt-tightening and reform, Mr. Hollande said. But without growth there was no way out for Greece, he said. He predicted that after private investors discounted their holdings by about 70 percent, public debt would also have to be restructured.

“Everyone wanted to treat Greece with ordinary measures,” Mr. Hollande said. “It was necessary to treat Greece with extraordinary measures,” and now the situation in Greece is almost intolerable, with the government blocked. “Who is paying taxes today in Greece? It’s a real question,” he said. “The wealthiest people — there are plenty in Greece — have gotten on their escape boats, they’ve left. And the poorest people are in the underground economy.”

Mr. Hollande also said that he would work with all of France’s allies, and that it was vital that Britain remain actively engaged in the European Union.

Mr. Sarkozy and his aides had no direct comment. But he has worked closely with Chancellor Angela Merkel of Germany to try to manage the Greek crisis, urging stronger measures than either the German leader or the European Central Bank was willing to accept. European leaders have said that the Greek government has been unwilling or unable to follow through on its promises — to collect unpaid taxes, for example, or to sell off state assets.

Mr. Hollande was more ambivalent about NATO and Mr. Sarkozy’s decision to reintegrate France fully in the alliance’s military command, a decision Mr. Sarkozy said was vital for the successful military mission to defeat the Libyan government of Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi.

On Syria, he, like Mr. Sarkozy, opposed a military intervention to drive out President Bashar al-Assad, saying that Syria was much more complicated than Libya. Mr. Hollande praised the recommendation of the Arab League to have joint peacekeepers with the United Nations, a plan that is largely unworkable because of the intense fighting and because Syria has already rejected it. “What’s required is not an intervention to chase out Assad,” he said, “but at least to allow the blue helmets to arrive so that the massacres stop.”

Mr. Hollande said he would, as promised, move to accelerate the withdrawal of French troops from Afghanistan, but would do so “in consultation with our allies” and not in response to particular tragedies there. If elected in May, one of his first major international obligations will be the next NATO summit in Chicago a little more than a week later.

Asked if NATO is still useful, he said, “NATO, we’re there, we’re in the alliance and we are not going to leave.” But he said that Mr. Sarkozy had not achieved a “European defense” that was a condition of re-entering NATO, and that France must “keep our independence and our singularity” in certain military matters. That could require a discussion of leaving the integrated military command once more, Mr. Hollande said, but he did not make a strong point of it.

EU leaders in China for debt crisis talks 

China has indicated it is considering helping with an EU bail-out fund

Leaders from China and the European Union are meeting for a summit set to focus on Europe's debt crisis.

Premier Wen Jiabao is set to meet EU President Herman Van Rompuy and European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso in Beijing.

Syria and Iran may also be discussed plus the refusal by Chinese airlines to pay an EU tax.

But the top topic is expected to be the financial crisis in Europe and how China might be able to help.

"The debt issue is at a critical juncture," foreign ministry spokesman Liu Weimin said on Monday.

"We believe that as China's largest trading partner and the largest economy in the world [collectively], it is important for the European Union to resolve this issue."

The two EU leaders will also meet President Hu Jintao on Wednesday.

'Pro-active support'

They want Beijing to invest in a bailout fund to help nations crippled by debt - something China has indicated it is considering.

China's foreign exchange reserves are the largest in the world.

But Mr Liu said the EU needed to continue to make structural reforms to "give a clearer signal" to the international community.

"Heavily indebted countries should, according to their national condition, adopt appropriate fiscal policies," he said.

"The international community should continue to pro-actively support the EU's efforts to deal with the crisis."

In a commentary, in the Communist Party mouthpiece the People's Daily said China's interests lay in helping Europe.

"China does not have the ambition or capacity to 'buy out' or 'control' Europe, like some European media said. China always supports the euro and the European Union," the daily said.

The summit came as one of the main international credit agencies, Moody's, downgraded its ratings for six European countries, including Italy, Portugal and Spain.

It also downgraded the credit outlook for France, Britain and Austria.

Moody's said the changes reflected Europe's weak economic prospects and the uncertainty over the resources that will be made available to tackle the continent's debt crisis.

On Sunday, the Greek parliament approved tough new austerity measures.

Greece is trying to secure a 130bn euro ($170bn; £110bn) bail-out from the EU and IMF to prevent it defaulting on its massive debts.

The deal, which has not yet been finalised, could write off around half of Greece's privately-held debt.

French politicians refuse to help far right's Le Pen

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France's mainstream parties dismissed suggestions they should lend a helping hand to Marine Le Pen on Monday. The far right leader unveiled her manifesto but is struggling to gain enough mayoral signatures to run in April’s presidential elections.

By FRANCE 24  / News Wires (text)

 

Politicians among France’s mainstream parties were embroiled in a row on Monday over whether to come to the aid of the far right presidential candidate Marine Le Pen.

FRENCH ELECTIONS Candidate endorsements enrage small parties, again

Le Pen who leads the National Front party launched her presidential manifesto on Monday, but is still not legally allowed to run in the elections for the Elysée Palace.

 

To do so she needs signatures of support from 500 of France’s local mayors, but her party revealed on Monday they were still around 140 short. The first round of voting is now just under ten weeks away on April 22.

 

This week centrist presidential candidate Francois Bayrou called for France’s mainstream political groups, the UMP led by President Nicolas Sarkozy and Francois Hollande’s Socialist Party, to lend a helping hand or two to Le Pen.

 

The far right leader is regularly polling around 17 percent of the country’s vote and it is inconceivable to most that her name will not be on the ballot paper on April 22.

 

Bayrou, who heads the Democratic Movement Party (MoDem), believes Le Pen’s absence in the first round of elections on April 22 would create “disorder” around the ballot.

CAMPAIGN CHRONICLES Marine Le Pen unable to run in elections: fact or fiction?

 

If the mainstream parties were game to discuss the issue then so was he, Bayrou said, because “democracy is more important than political parties”.

 

 “If there is a political movement, even one that I have fought against all my life, that is backed by a large number of French people but cannot express itself then it is an issue for all supporters of democracy in France,” Bayrou argued.

 

His contentious proposal would appear to have the backing of the French public. An opinion poll taken last month revealed 70 percent of the public believe it would be bad for democracy if Marine le Pen was unable to take part in the presidential elections.

 

“Backroom politics”

 

But even if it had public backing, the notion that local mayors would simply sign up to back Le Pen against their wishes was ridiculed by the heavyweight parties.

 

“An election is supposed to be a meeting between a man or a woman - meaning the candidate and the people,” Manuel Valls, director of communications for Francois Hollande, told Europe 1 radio station. “It is not about meeting up in a backroom to divide up signatures saying ‘Here you have this county and I’ll have this mayor’,” he said.

 

Xavier Bertrand, Labour Minster for Nicolas Sarkozy’s UMP party also rejected a request to discuss the issue.

 

“I am mayor of Saint-Quentin. My signature will go to Nicolas Sarkozy and nobody else,” he said.

 

Green Party presidential candidate Eva Joly also waded into the row. “Its not my problem so don’t count on me,” she said. “Rules are rules and they should be respected.”

 

For her part Marine Le Pen insisted on Monday that she would not be “begging” mayors for their signatures. Her preferred solution to a growing predicament is a change in the law which would allow the officials to give signatures anonymously.

 

FRANCE 2012: THE ELECTION BLOG

Throwing food at politicians usual in France

The question of whether the National Front will gain enough signatures is not new to the 2012 presidential election, a point not missed by politicians and the French press.

 

Many believe it is just a stunt to gain attention.

 

“It’s the same old song at every election,” said left wing newspaper Humanite. “Apart from 1981, the far right has always managed to put forward a candidate”.

 

Humanite’s views were backed by Prime Minister Francois Fillon.

 

“She will have enough signatures. The National Front play this game every election,” Fillon said in an interview with French daily Le Monde.

 

A “transparent”country

 

Le Pen shrugged off the issue Monday to announce her presidential manifesto.

 

In a clear bit of electioneering, Le Pen vowed to cut the number of MPs and senators from 925 to 750 and reduce the salaries of both the head of state and ministers.  She also said all their expense accounts would be published on the internet and elected representatives would have their pensions capped at €5,000 a month.

 

Her proposals would create an “exemplary”, rigorous” and “transparent” country, Le Pen insisted. She also vowed to destroy the political structures and reconcile “the elite and the people”.

 

The proposals were announced outside the Palais de d’Iéna in Paris, home to the Economic, Social and Environment Council (CESE). It was a “symbolic” location Le Pen said because it was an example of a costly and “useless” state institution, which she vowed to tackle.

 

Le Pen is unlikely to win enough support to ever be in a position to introduce these proposals. But what is more worrying for her is whether she will even get the opportunity to campaign on them.

 

With her rivals turning their back on her she will need to find support from somewhere.

Moody's rating agency places UK on negative outlook

The UK's top-rated AAA credit rating has been placed on "negative outlook" by US credit ratings agency Moody's.

It said its decision followed concerns over growth prospects and the possible impact from the eurozone crisis.

The move implies the UK has a 30% chance of losing its AAA credit rating within 18 months.

France and Austria have also been warned by Moody's over their top rating, and Italy, Spain and Portugal's ratings have been lowered.

The Chancellor, George Osborne, said: "This is proof that, in the current global situation, Britain cannot waiver from dealing with its debts."

Shadow chancellor Ed Balls described Moody's action as a "significant warning".

He said: "We have consistently argued that the chancellor's gamble - raising taxes and cutting spending too far and too fast - would backfire," he added.

“Britain could go through all this austerity and still lose its Triple A, due to a slow or stagnant economy.” 

BBC economics editor Stephanie Flanders said there was no suggestion that the agency would prefer the UK government to change its economic policy of austerity.

However, she added the agency's warning means spending cuts may not prevent the UK losing its credit rating - if growth falls.

In its statement, Moody's said: "Any further abrupt economic or fiscal deterioration would put into question the government's ability to place the debt burden on a downward trajectory by fiscal year 2015-16."

The downgrades had been justified by the "growing financial and macro economic" risks from the eurozone crisis, it said.

'Little impact'

Like personal credit scores, sovereign credit ratings are an indication of how risky it is to lend money to a country.

Analysis

A high credit rating from the three main agencies, Moody's, Standard & Poors and Fitch, implies that borrowing to fund public spending will be relatively cheap.

If the rating is lowered this can push up the interest rate on new borrowing for governments.

However, many analysts believe a fall in the UK's rating would have little effect.

"It's all relative," said Laura Lambie from William de Broe

"We did see America being downgraded, they lost their AAA rating last year and that didn't have a huge detriment, in actual fact it was reasonably positive they are still seen as a safe haven when compared to other countries such as Greece and Spain, and I suspect Britain will be the same." she added.

The UK's "negative outlook" is the lowest level of warning offered by the agency - and can be followed by a "negative watch" implying a more than 50% chance of downgrade.

The agency said the UK faced three main risks to its top rating; slower growth and the possible impact on spending cuts, a sharp rise in borrowing costs due to inflation or a new crisis in the banking sector.

However, the agency noted the UK "continues to be well supported by a large, diversified and highly competitive economy, a particularly flexible labour market, and a banking sector that compares favourably to peers in the euro area".

Norman Smith Chief political correspondent, BBC News Channel

Treasury sources have sought to play down the significance of the ratings agency Moody's decision to place the UK's Triple A rating at risk.

The source said the decision was not "entirely unexpected" given the difficult economic situation facing the UK.

The source said that Moody's made clear any "discretionary fiscal loosening" would make a downgrade more likely and that this underscored the need for the government out stick to its deficit reduction strategy.

French press review

By Michael Fitzpatrick

The situation in Greece dominates this morning's front pages with predictions of revolution at the Acropolis ... or will the whole country just go bust? And there's a look at the Iran-Israel face-off.

Communist L'Humanité's main headline reads "Uprising" with the small print explaining that the cradle of European civilisation is on the brink of revolution because the common people have had enough of the economic hardship being demanded by Europe and the International Monetary Fund.

The problem, says L'Humanité, is that the Greek Prime Minister, Lucas Papademos, is a technocrat, imposed by the European Central Bank to look after its money and he has absolutely no democratic legitimacy. So he's hardly in an ideal position when he calls on the rioters who are burning the centre of Athens to respect democracy.

The Papademos government has agreed to cut the minimum wage to 586 euros a month.

With the rent of an ordinary one-bed apartment in Athens currently 350 euros and a monthly travel pass for public transport at 45 euros, that leaves precisely 191 euros to pay the bills and buy the food. Always assuming you're lucky enough to earn the minimum wage. Nearly half the Greek population under the age of 25 is on the dole.

Catholic La Croix wonders what would happen if Greece does finally go bankrupt and has to leave the eurozone.

What can be predicted would be a huge drop in the value of Greek goods and sevices, making the place very attractive to buyers. Imported goods would be beyond the reach of most Greeks, at least initially. There would also probably be a massive exodus of the rich, each lugging his personal fortune across the border in suitcases, hoping to get to Switzerland.

The state would have to let thousands of civil servants go, since it wouldn't have the means to pay them.

And a Greek departure would also provoke chaos on the world financial markets, as investors flee other fragile members of the eurozone.

It looks as if the Greeks are facing a choice between Brussels-imposed and self-imposed misery, with many feeling they might be better off with the second option.

Le Figaro's main story looks at Israeli determination to use force to put an end to the Iranian nuclear programme. The hardliners in Tel Aviv are asking why they should wait for American permission to go and knock the nobs off Ahmedinejad's nuclear nick-nacks.

Israel believes that it is important to act quickly, before key parts of the programme can be so deeply buried as to be beyond the reach of even the most powerful bunker-busters. Washington is afraid of the impact of any military action on the fragile stability of the region and on the price of petrol.

Thirty-five per cent of the global trade in crude oil passes through the Straits of Hormuz and Iran says it will close off that vital supply line if it is attacked. US President Barack Obama has an election to win later this year and petrol at 10 dollars a gallon won't help him one little bit.

Les Echos looks at yesterday's parliamentary coup here in France where a hastily convened group of Socialist deputies, profiting from the absence of a huge number of majority UMP MPs, who rarely make it back to the capital for Monday sessions, managed to have the so-called "social sales tax" rejected by the parliamentary finance commission.

It was a purely symbolic move, which won't prevent the proposals from eventually becoming law, but the Socialists are triumphant, chortling that the level of disinterest shown by the majority yesterday says a lot about their overall committment to this much-disputed law.

French News - 14 February

Socialists claim Sarkozy illegally uses public money to

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fund campaign

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Socialist Party candidate François Hollande is leading President Sarkozy in opinion polls

Reuters/Charles Platiau

By RFI

France's Socialist Party is to file a complaint accusing President Nicolas Sarkozy of using public funds to finance his re-election campaign, party spokesman Manuel Valls told the Europe 1 radio station on Monday.

Sarkozy "is not respecting the law. He is organising real (campaign) rallies with public funds," Valls said, pointing to a visit last week to the Fessenheim nuclear power plant where Sarkozy met with workers.

"Enough is enough," said Valls, adding that the party would file the complaint with the national committee on campaign accounts.

The Socialists have repeatedly accused Sarkozy, who is expected to officially declare his candidacy this week, of violating campaign financing rules with a series of official visits throughout the country.

The Socialists filed a similar complaint in December, after which the committee said that Sarkozy would have to include the cost of the meetings in his campaign if they were used to promote his electoral programme.

France will vote in the first round of a presidential election on 22 April, followed by an expected second-round run-off on May 6.

Opinion polls have shown Socialist candidate François Hollande with a strong lead over Sarkozy.

Sarkozy to announce candidacy ‘this week’

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Experts anticipate that French President Nicolas Sarkozy will this week announce his candidacy to run in this spring’s presidential election. Why has he held off until now?

By Tony Todd 

 

French leader Nicolas Sarkozy is widely expected to announce his candidature for May’s presidential election in the coming days.

On the surface, things are not looking good for incumbent president, with opinion polls showing Sarkozy trailing some ten points behind 57-year-old Socialist rival Francois Hollande.

Hollande was nominated as the Socialist Party’s candidate in a new US-style primary back in October 2011. The primary proved popular in France and fixed him in the mind of the French electorate as the main opposition candidate.

Not so Sarkozy, who has resolutely avoided all mention of his own candidacy to the frustration of his opponents, keen to let battle begin.

Some have accused him of holding off until the last minute so that he could make maximum use of his presidential exposure as an unofficial platform to promote himself.

Once he declares himself candidate, however, Sarkozy will have to separate his official line as president from that of presidential hopeful. Candidates are given strictly equal air time during the official campaigning period which ends on April 20.

Rallying the conservatives

With less than three months to go before the election, Sarkozy needs to begin getting his house in order now if he is to have any chance of winning, according to Mathieu Doiret, head of research at French pollster IPSOS.

“Sarkozy doesn’t really have any choice,” he told FRANCE 24. “He’s been holding out because he wanted and needed to be the president, rather than a presidential candidate, for as long as possible.

“But he is trailing behind Hollande in the polls and you can’t catch up a lead like that in a few weeks - he needs three months to do it. He has no choice than to put his candidacy forward now.”

Sarkozy certainly has much to achieve in the next three months. Doiret anticipates that the centre-right leader’s only hope for success will be to rally the country’s conservative voters behind him, something he achieved before the 2007 election.

But over the past five years, Sarkozy has been losing that critical support. Rising prices and concerns over immigration have turned many of his supporters to other conservative candidates, particularly Marine Le Pen’s far-right National Front.

Referendums on foreigners and the unemployed

The last year has seen the government harden its stance on conservative issues including immigration.

To drive this home, Sarkozy told right-leaning daily Le Figaro Saturday that he wanted to hold referendums on unemployment rules and the status of foreigners living in France – inviting accusations from the left of populism.

“Sarkozy absolutely needs to get a critical mass of conservative support,” said Doiret. “If he can get 25% of the population intending to vote for him, then he will be in a position to fight Hollande effectively in the second round of the election.

“He has everything to fight for, and despite Hollande’s current poll lead, he is still in with a chance.”

This view was shared by Prime Minister and Sarkozy ally Francois Fillon, who told left-leaning daily Le Monde on Monday that the game was wide open.

“Nothing is a foregone conclusion,” he said. “The polls and the commentaries will change completely in the three weeks before the election once the public has seen the candidates go head to head.

“Nicolas Sarkozy has a very good understanding of the feeling in the country. He has a direct connection with the French people and in the course of the campaign he will find the right words and the right way to address the people directly.”

Fillon also rejected the charge that the campaign was drifting ever more to the right following Sarkozy’s promise to hold referendums on contentious issues like unemployment and the status of foreigners.

“If politicians fail to address these issues, the president has every right to circumvent the deadlock by asking the people what they think,” he said.

Last days of the Franc

 

By Sarah Elzas

This is the last week to change your francs!

The French currency has been out of circulation since 1999, when the euro was introduced.

The French central bank has been gradually winding down redemption of the old bills and 17 February is the last day to do it.

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French film sweeps BAFTAs

The French silent film sensation "The Artist" swept Sunday's

 BAFTA awards, winning best film, best director, and best leading actor for star Jean Dujardin (pictured).

AFP - Silent movie "The Artist" and US actress Meryl Streep continued their march towards Oscar glory on Sunday after scooping top awards at the BAFTAs, the biggest night of the British film industry.

At a celebrity-packed ceremony at the Royal Opera House in London, "The Artist" won gongs for best film, best director and best original screenplay for Michel Hazanavicius and best actor for Frenchman Jean Dujardin.

Dujardin -- who is also nominated for an Oscar for his portrayal of a silent film star overwhelmed by the arrival of the 'talkies' -- paid tribute to his director, saying: "Michel, what have you done to me? It's all your fault".

Brushing shoulders on the red carpet earlier with Hollywood stars George Clooney and Brad Pitt, a clearly excited Dujardin told AFP that he was overwhelmed at being ranked alongside such top actors.

"To be here -- it's an honour to be nominated with such great actors, with Gary Oldman, (Michael) Fassbender, Brad Pitt, Clooney, pinch me, please!" he said, moments before beating all those named to the best actor award.

True to predictions, Streep was named best actress, although she lost her shoe on the way to collect her award and had to be rescued by Colin Firth.

The American has already won a clutch awards for her portrayal of former British prime minister Margaret Thatcher in "The Iron Lady", and is tipped to take the third Oscar of her career on February 26.

There were no surprises in the best supporting actor and actress categories either, as BAFTA echoed last month's Golden Globes and awarded them to Christopher Plummer for "Beginners" and Octavia Spencer for "The Help".

At the age of 82, Plummer, who like Spencer is also nominated for an Oscar for the role, becomes the oldest recipient of a BAFTA award.

Veteran British actor Gary Oldman missed out in his bid for a BAFTA for "Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy", although the Cold War thriller, featuring the cream of British acting talent, won the award for outstanding British film.

"Senna", Asif Kapadia's film about Brazilian Formula One racing driver Ayrton Senna who died in a crash in 1994, won best documentary, while Pedro Almodovar's "The Skin I Live In" was named the best non-English language film.

Adam Deacon, the London actor who starred in gritty British teen drama "Kidulthood", was given the Rising Star Award, after a public vote.

Long a highlight of the British film industry calendar, the BAFTAs have been growing in stature over the years and are now seen as one of the key indicators of Oscar success in a fortnight's time.

French nuclear reliance seen easing price hikes

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French electricty bills will remain lowest if the life of nuclear reactors extended

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PARIS, Feb 13 (Reuters) - France's electricity bills will rise less over the next two decades if it continues to rely on nuclear power for its energy needs, a government-commissioned report showed on Monday, two months ahead of the country's upcoming presidential election.

Cost hikes will be the smallest if the lifespan of France's ageing nuclear reactors is prolonged to 60 years from 40 years, said the report headed by Claude Mandil, the International Energy Agency's former chief and Jacques Percebois, a professor at Montpellier University.

Its conclusion echoes that of a Court of Audit report last month saying France had no option but to extend the lifespan of its nuclear power plants as investments to renew its nuclear capacity or increase its reliance on other energy forms would be too costly and come too late.

French President Nicolas Sarkozy has decided to extend the plants' lifespan beyond 40 years, Energy Minister Eric Besson said on Sunday, adding that 60 years was standard in the United States.

Sarkozy's centre-right government is trying to convince voters two months ahead of the election that nuclear energy should remain its main source of electricity nearly a year after the Fukushima disaster shook the world.

Socialist front-runner Francois Hollande wants to lower nuclear energy's part of the electricity mix to 50 percent from 75 percent by 2025 and has vowed to shut France's oldest nuclear power plant Fessenheim, on the German border, if elected.

The report estimates the closure would mean operator EDF would lose out on around 190 million euros per year in stable nuclear revenue.

France is the world's most nuclear dependent nation but enjoys western Europe's lowest household power prices. Those electricity bills will inevitably rise by 2030 as natural resources become more expensive and demand rises, said the report by a panel of six unnamed experts overseen by Percebois and Mandil.

LONGER LIFESPANS?

Still, French users could pay around one quarter less at the end of the next decade if the country decides to keep relying on nuclear power for at least 70 percent of its power instead of boosting renewable energy's role and lowering nuclear output to 20 percent of its needs, figures in the report showed.

If nuclear energy still dominates by 2030, consumer electricity prices will rise by 10 euros per megawatt hour (MWh) to 50 euros. But prices would surge to 70 euros/MWh if the current share of nuclear power in the electricity mix drops to 50 percent, Besson said in the report's concluding remarks.

A massive roll-out of renewable energies would also have a major impact on consumer bills, as it would boost electricity production costs by 50 to 100 percent, the report showed.

The report also recommended France not shut down any of its nuclear reactors before they reach 60 years of age unless its safety watchdog (ASN) decides they are no longer safe to run.

There is no official limit to France's nuclear reactors' lifespan but the ASN carries out in-depth controls every 10 years on each reactor. The watchdog has agreed in principle for all reactors to operate until their 40th birthday.

In a scenario in which nuclear energy continues to account for most of France's power supply, it is hard to predict what production costs will be by 2050, when most reactors will have been replaced, the report added.

Some 48 reactors out of the country's 58 will have will have reached 60 years of age by 2050.

Investments in the transport and distribution grids will be massive regardless of the scenarios, the report said. They will cost between 135 and 155 billion euros ($204.43 billion)depending on the share of renewable energy sources in the energy mix. ($1 = 0.7582 euros) 

Tuareg rebels behind January killings, confirms Mali army

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Henri de Raincourt

RFI

By RFI

The Malian army confirmed on Monday that Tuareg rebels had carried out the summary execution of soldiers and civilians during an offensive in the north-eastern town of Aguelhok on 24 January.

Earlier French Development Minister Henri de Raincourt condemned the murder of 82 people in northern Mali in an interview with RFI, accusing the killers of adopting Al-Qaeda-style tactics.

Colonel Idrissa Traore, head of the Mali army's information service, said civilians were among the dead and he believed these acts could only have been committed by Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb, AQIM.

"There were indeed summary executions on this day. People's throats were cut, others were simply shot in the head," he said.

De Raincourt described the attacks in Aguelhok as “absolutely atrocious and unacceptable violence”. He said he could not give the exact number of dead, but it was "about 60."

An officer involved in burying those killed told the French news agency he had counted 97 dead soldiers and saw a military camp completely destroyed and burning cars.

The Tuareg rebels - whose numbers include those who had returned from fighting in Libya for Moamer Kadhafi - are demanding greater autonomy for their nomadic desert tribes.

The latest fighting began on 17 January, when the Azawad National Liberation Movement  launched an attack in northern Mali. This sparked clashes with the army and has become the largest offensive by Tuaregs since 2009.

Greece MPs pass austerity plan amid violent protests

The BBC's Mark Lowen: "It was some of the worst violence Athens had seen for months"

Greek MPs have approved a controversial package of austerity measures, demanded by the eurozone and IMF in return for a 130bn euro ($170bn; £110bn) bailout.

The vote was carried by 199 in favour to 74 against.

Coalition parties expelled more than 40 deputies for failing to back the bill.

Tens of thousands protested in Athens, where there were widespread clashes and buildings were set on fire. Violent protests were reported in cities across the country.

Protesters outside parliament threw stones and petrol bombs, and police responded with tear gas. Scores of police and protesters were injured.

Prime Minister Lucas Papademos urged calm, insisting that the austerity package would "set the foundations for the reform and recovery of the economy".

At the scene

Chris Morris BBC News, Athens

Late into the night, buildings in Athens were burning. It was clear that in some areas of the city police had effectively lost control, if only for a short time.

Violence has occurred during votes before, but buildings have not been set ablaze for some time. Every event chips away at the confidence that the state is holding things together.

Emotions were also running high in parliament, with no-one voting for the plan with much enthusiasm. Greeks on the streets feel that the country cannot bear any more austerity. The eurozone's strategy for its survival is feeling the full force of public anger.

"Vandalism, violence and destruction have no place in a democratic country and won't be tolerated," he said in a speech in parliament before the vote.

The bill passed parliament easily as the two largest parties in the coalition - Pasok and New Democracy - account for more than two-thirds of the deputies.

The austerity measures include:

• ·         15,000 public-sector job cuts
• ·         liberalisation of labour laws
• ·         lowering the minimum wage by 20% from 751 euros a month to 600 euros

Eurozone ministers must now ratify the measures at a meeting in Brussels on Wednesday before bailout funds can be released.

The ministers rejected proposals put forward by the Greeks last week, which they said fell 325m euros short of the cuts needed.

The BBC's Mark Lowen in Athens says the public are increasingly angry with the austerity measures and feel that the impact is beyond the value of the bailout.

At least 80,000 people were reported to have joined demonstrations in Athens, with another 20,000 protesting in Thessaloniki.

Running battles with police continued in the capital until late on Sunday, although no new clashes were reported after the vote.

Protesters hurled flares and chunks of marble torn up from the square. Some had tried to break through a cordon of riot police around the parliament.

Several historic buildings, including cafes and cinemas, were set alight.

Ioannis Simantiras, 34, said the protesters were boxed in by police.

"Nobody could get away from the gas," he told the BBC.

"When it engulfed everybody, and everybody was choking the police drew back and opened up a corridor for us away from the parliament - that's when everybody made a run for it."

Violent protests also spread to other Greek towns and cities, including the islands of Corfu and Crete, according to state TV.

 

Greece's economic reforms, which led to it abandoning the drachma as its currency in favour of the euro in 2002, made it easier for the country to borrow money.

Finance Minister Evangelos Venizelos said the question was not "whether some salaries and pensions will be curtailed, but whether we will be able to pay even these reduced wages and pensions".

"When you have to choose between bad and worse, you will pick what is bad to avoid what is worse," he said.

Greece needs the bailout the make its next repayment on its huge sovereign debt.

If it cannot make the payment, it will default and in effect become bankrupt.

Analysts say such a "chaotic default" could endanger Europe's financial stability and possibly even leading to a break-up of the eurozone.

As part of the deal with international lenders, Greece will also be able to write off 100bn euros of privately held debt.

Earlier this week several ministers from the coalition government, including two from Pasok, quit in protest at the measures.

The leader of the far-right Laos party, the junior coalition member, announced his 15 deputies would not back the austerity measures.

George Karatzaferis complained that the measures amounted to Greeks being "humiliated" by Germany.

The eurozone bloc has demanded "strong political assurances" that the packages will be implemented regardless of which party wins a general election due in April.

 

French press review 

By Michael Fitzpatrick

This could be the week, folks. According to three of this morning's dailies, President Nicolas Sarkozy will officially anounce his intention to stand for re-election within the next few days.

Right-wing Le Figaro says it will happen before Thursday, it could even be as early as this very Monday, with the first campaign meeting to take place in Marseille next Sunday. The right-wing daily is also happy to point out that Sarko's campaign headquarters will be on the very ordinary rue de la Convention in the 15^th arrondissement here in Paris, the idea being to mark the contrast with Socialist contender, François Hollande, who has set up shop on the very fancyavenue de Ségur.

Sarko intends to present himself, according to Le Figaro and without as much as a hint of irony, as "an ordinary Frenchman among ordinary Frenchmen". Extraordinary!

"Sarkozy's big gamble" reads the main headline in popular tabloid Aujourd'hui en France. The man is way behind Hollande in every opinion poll, so he cannot afford to make a mess of this crucial campaign kick-off.

The message of history is a mixed one.

Valéry Giscard d'Estaing waited until early March 1981 before he confirmed his candidacy, and then went on to lose.

François Mitterrand left it even later, 22 March 1988, and then went on to win.

Jacques Chirac got off the mark very early in 2002, when his standing in the opinion polls was even lower than Sarko's is at the moment, and Jolly Jacques went on to beat Jean-Marie Le Pen in the second round.

Communist L'Humanité expects an announcement "within hours" and says Sarkozy's campaign will be nothing, more nor less, than an effort to dredge up support among admirers of the extreme right policies of the National Front.

The communist daily says the so-called "social sales tax," expected to be passed by parliament tomorrow, is particularly unjust since it applies equally to all households but will have the greatest impact on the poor.

Business daily Les Echos looks at the same taxation proposals and finds that, not only will industrial concerns profit from the reduction of the cost of labour, the new measures will also favour the little-loved banks and the service sector. French employers will save a total of 13 billion euros each year if the law is passed. It remains to be seen how much of that money will be used to create jobs for the unemployed young.

 Libération's main story comes from the troubled streets of Greece, where thousands of people have been protesting against the new round of austerity measures passed last night, in the latest effort by parliament to prevent the country from going bankrupt. Greece is due to pay back 14.5 billion euros in government bonds by the middle of next month, otherwise the country goes down the gurgler.

Catholic La Croix looks at the recent cold spell here in France, finding that the authorities did fairly well but suggesting that the real impact on public health may not be known for some time.

And the weekend edition of Le Monde looks at how the United States and Israel are divided on what to do about Iran's nuclear programme. Certain voices in Tel Aviv basically want to obliterate Teheran; Washington is pleading for a more measured policy.

The situation in Syria has further complicated the problem, with Bashar al-Assad one of Teheran's few remaining regional allies. If there's a change of rule in Damascus, Teheran will be even more isolated. And possibly even more dangerous.

French News - 13 February

New snow and ice warnings as temperatures rise in France

By RFI

After two weeks of arctic weather conditions, temperatures in France are set to rise although the warmer weather will give rise to snow and ice in some parts of the country.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                         Ice flows block pleasure craft in the port Trentemoult on the Loire Estuary

Reuters/Stephane Mahe

The national weather service, Météo France, on Monday lifted alerts for the cold in 23 of France’s departments, but 48 were still under warnings for snow and ice including the region around the Paris area

Despite the news of warmer weather, temperatures in some parts of France on Monday were still well below normal for the time of year including minus 9 in Aix-en-Provence,  minus 11 in Lyon and minus 16 in Mulhouse.

The snowy conditions are not expected to last more than a few days except in the mountains which is good news for holidaymakers heading to ski resorts for the February school vacation at the weekend.

According to Météo France, the recent cold snap could rival France’s previously coldest months – January 1987 and February 1986. But temperatures did not drop as low as in February 1956 which is recorded as the coldest in France.

The death toll from the freezing conditions across Europe, including Russia, is around 620.

 Eva Joly launches struggle for anti-Sarkozy vote

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Eva Joly at the Roubaix rally

Reuters/Charles Platiau

By RFI

Ecologist candidate for France’s president Eva Joly called on the French to “vote with their hearts” at the first public meeting in her campaign for this year’s presidential election. She proposed ending nuclear power within 20 years and creating a million eco-jobs but her main challenge is to be taken seriously as a presidential contender.

Credited with only two to three per cent in opinion polls, the Norwegian-born Green candidate has to convince left-leaning voters to back her in April’s first round of voting rather than rallying round Socialist François Hollande in the hope of kicking President Nicolas Sarkozy’s out.

At her first major public meeting in Roubaix, northern France, Joly accused Sarkozy of wanting to “humiliate the unemployed” with a proposal for a referendum on changing the conditions for receiving benefits while “giving his mates, the rich” presents” in the form of tax cuts.

Although he has yet to officially announce that he is standing for reelection, Sarkozy gave a campaign-style an interview to the right-wing Figaro magazine in which he defined his “values” as “work, responsibility and authority” and made a point of opposing gay marriage and euthanasia.

Sarkozy’s values have nothing to do with the “generous France” that welcomed her when she was a young au pair, Joly told her audience.

After “five years of division” she wants to “reconcile France with Europe [and] the French with each other and the future” through a transition to an eco-friendly world.

The main points of Eva Joly’s programme are: Create a million jobs in green industries; End nuclear power within 20 years; Scrap military nuclear capability; A carbon tax; Tax reform, including 70 per cent on income over 500,000 euros a year; Return to retirement at 60; Raise minimum social security payments by 50 per cent; Stamp out financial crime.

Despite a divisive selection process, the best-known members of her EELV party pledged their support for Joly at the rally, with the single exception of Euro-MP Daniel Cohn-Bendit, who sent a videomessage judged unenthusiastic by journalists present.

Outrage at planned statue of Carla Bruni as Italian immigrant 

Statuesque? Carla Bruni-Sarkozy was a super-model, now she's a sculptor's model

Reuters/Thibault Camus/Pool

By RFI

A French mayor has sparked a row with a plan to erect a statue of President Nicolas Sarkozy’s wife, Carla Bruni-Sarkozy, dressed as a 19th-century Italian immigrant worker.

The statue, part of a project to build a Little Italy in the Paris suburb of Nogent-sur-Marne, is reported to be costing 82,000 euros.

Nogent mayor Jacques Martin, a member of Sarkozy's UMP party, commissioned sculptor Elisabeth Cibot to create the statue to commemorate women of Italian origin who worked in a factory that made clothes and decorative objects from feathers.

It would be part of a project to revamp part of the town in Italian style to mark the fact that some of the first of a wave of Italian immigrants to France settled there.

Bruni-Sarkozy is of Italian origin, although her career as super-model, recording artist and president’s wife has been more glamorous than those of the women she has been chosen to represent.

“It’s an insult to the Italian feather-workers, to give them the face of a super-rich person,” stormed Socialist councillor William Geib. “I’ve nothing against Carla Bruni-Sarkozy but she does not represent the world of work.”

Even some of Martin’s political allies have dissociated themselves from the move, claiming that Bruni-Sarkozy’s name was never mentioned when they voted to erect the statue.

The artwork would cost 82,000 euros, according to reports in Le Parisien newspaper, with the council paying half and a property company paying the other 41,000 euros.

A photo-shoot has already been organised so that Cibot has an accurate record of Bruni-Sarkozy’s looks, according to anonymous sources close to the president’s wife.

They say she agreed to serve as model but that “it was never suggested that her name would appear”.

Martin has already opened a martial arts centre named after former Karate champion and current Sports Minister David Douillet, according to independent right-wing councillor Michel Gilles.

The mayor hit national headlines last year when he banned people from rummaging through dustbins in Nogent-sur-Marne.

Jean Perdrizet’s fantastic machines

 

Robot worker by Jean Perdrizet

By Susan Owensby

A rare collection of plans of Jean Perdrizet’s fantastic machines, some of which are meant to help you communicate with ghosts, are on view at the Christian Berst Gallery in Paris.

British and Irish 'least romantic'

British and Irish couples are the least romantic about Valentine's Day judging by how much they spend, according to a survey.

The Spanish, French, Italians and Germans fork out far more on special Valentine's breaks than British Isles' tourists, the poll by lastminute.com showed.

Irish couples spend just £134 and UK couples only £145 compared with the Spanish figure of £218.

The French (£208), Italians (£176) and Germans (£153) also outspend the UK and Irish, the survey revealed.

London is the favourite Valentine's hotel destination for UK and Irish couples, with UK couples also favouring Edinburgh and Manchester.

London is also a top hotel spot for Italians looking for some February romance.

For UK couples travelling abroad, the top Valentine's Day destination is Paris, while for the Irish it is Barcelona, which is also the top spot for Italians taking to the air.

Rome is the favourite city for French and Spanish couples prepared to leave their own country, while Germans prefer Istanbul.

Syria: veteran French surgeon saves lives 

'We are just here to help in some way', says Dr Jacques Bérès, 71, pressed into action within hours of arriving in Homs area

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Syrian people protest against president Bashar al-Assad in Homs. Photograph: Reuters

When Dr Jacques Bérès crossed into Syria by truck last week, his hulking suitcase full of surgical kit was perched against an awkward cargo – two dozen rocket launchers.

The retired French surgeon – who has volunteered his services in nearly every major global conflict since Vietnam in 1968 – said he rarely had to share transport with gunrunners on his mercy missions. But nothing about this war in Syria seems to be going to script.

"It's not good," Bérès said of his arrival. "In principle, it is forbidden for humanitarian people to travel with weapons. But it is their country and their war. We are the observers. We are just here to help in some way."

But on Saturday, even as diplomats sought UN backing for an Arab plan to end the bloodshed, reports came from the state-run news agency that a senior army general had been assassinated in Damascus, the first killing of a military figure in the Syrian capital since the uprising began in March last year.

As Syrian forces continued the week-long siege of Homs with a rocket bombardment of its opposition neighbourhoods, while sending shells into the mountain town of Zabadani, north of Damascus, violence reaching the capital was a new development.

The UN estimates that 5,400 people have been killed in Syria since the uprising began, but it stopped counting in January and hundreds are reported to have died since.

In the three days that the 71-year-old orthopaedic surgeon Bérès has been near Homs, he has been at the centre of an escalating uprising. Hours after arriving on Thursday he helped to save the life of a gunshot victim and gave first aid to five seriously wounded opposition fighters.

On Saturday he operated in Zabadani on a civilian shot in the leg, as the victim's family and Free Syrian Army soldiers waited anxiously outside. The fighting has seen opposition fighters launching attacks last week against key government posts.

But the destruction during the past week of the two most prominent resistance hubs in Homs, Baba Amr and al-Khalidiyah, had its effect in the city's outskirts, where residents are waiting for an invasion.

"It's 100% certain that they will do the same here that they have done in Homs," said Abu Mahmoud, a Free Syrian Army captain, as he arrived at Zabadani's medical clinic. "We know they are coming and we are preparing for them. We only have light weapons," he said, pointing at the webbing around his waist that carried five ammunition clips for a Kalashnikov and a hand grenade.

Only six weeks ago, this hard-bitten rebel was a career officer in the Syrian army. "But they wanted us to kill our own people, our own families," he said, standing in the muddy courtyard of the improvised clinic. "I waited for the chance to run. There were a group of officers who they thought were going to escape and a military firing squad killed 17 of us. I got away."

Abu Mahmoud is a recent defector; he waited for almost 10 months before fleeing and was party to some of the most prominent operations of the regime crackdown, in Idlib, Deraa and Homs. But the time it took him to defect is not being held against him in his home town, where he is now one of the Free Syrian Army's local leaders.

"Every officer like him had three people from Assad's army watching him," said the lead physician at the clinic, Dr Qassem. "He couldn't run. If he did, he would have been killed."

Captain Mahmoud offered a warning: "In Homs they are firing from the hospital and other high ground. Here, they are only five or six kilometres away, in the military firing range. They have positions on every exit from town and some units are less than one kilometre away."

He picked up a box of medicines, turned for the gate and left.

Minutes later the wounded civilian arrived, blood pouring from a bullet wound above his right knee. Dr Bérès has personal experience in treating such injuries; he has been shot three times himself. One bullet in Monrovia claimed a finger, another in Chechnya caused a deep wound to his side, and a third in Sudan left his right arm scarred. "It is normal to treat such things," he said. "Very normal. I have been doing it all my life."

His war wounds have won him kudos among the band of medics at the clinic. All of them fled the nearby state-run hospital, which is now being used as a firing position by the Syrian army. "They know where we are and we are all wanted," said Dr Qassem. "I don't know why they haven't bombed us yet. We saw what happened to the clinics in Homs."

Frontline medics have been killed and wounded in Homs and their facilities and dispensaries have been hit by mortars and rockets. So, too, has a hospital. The opposition-held sectors of the city have been battered into submission by the eight-day barrage.

Few people are making it out of the satellite towns and villages that spill north to Hama, or south towards Lebanon. "We still can't get there," said one medical worker. We want to go very much, but the roads are not safe."

So, too, does Bérès. "The symbolism is very strong," he said of the presence of foreign doctors in a war zone. "People here are happy to meet a surgeon from a well-developed country who just wants to be with them. "It seems to be a war here, yes. But I don't know if it's a continuation of the (Arab) spring, or a religious war between the Alawite and the Sunni people."

For Bérès, some 44 years in the field, including 10 trips to the war zones of Lebanon, Gaza, the Balkans, Ivory Coast, Afghanistan and Iraq, interspersed with time at Paris hospitals, have chipped away at the ideals he first brought to the profession. "Humanity is not drifting away, but it's not improving," he said.

As he prepared to move on into Homs itself, which could for him be perhaps his last stop on a long road of humanitarian help, he delivered a prediction that seemed to echo around this place, in the hinterland of civil war. "I am not optimistic about Syria," he said gravely. "It is a very difficult situation."

French weekly magazines review

By Vladimir Smekhov

It’s about time to come back to the basics of life. Politics, sex and money, the three “pillars of modern life” are dominating this week’s French magazines.

“How to bring down François Hollande?” asks Marianne on its front page. A rather provocative title from a left-wing publication, n’est-ce pas?

The cover story gives an account of disarray in the conservative camp. So far no attempts to discredit the Socialist candidate have managed to stem his steady rise in the opinion polls, a kind of honeymoon period with public opinion.

“When François Hollande steps in a puddle, the media thinks he’s walking on water,” laments conservative minister Xavier Bertrand. According to another government minister, “personal attacks on Hollande have only reinforced his position”.

It seems, says the magazine, that the “carpet-bombing” strategy aimed to discredit the Socialist hopeful has backfired.

“Hollande has chosen a strategy of ignoring the bullets aimed at him, giving an impression that they haven't even touched him,", says the article. Clearly Sarkozy and his camp have underestimated their adversary by a conceited republican monarch's “péché d’orgeuil” [sin of pride].”

The weekly does not believe Sarkozy will be able to turn the tables.

“It would be difficult for the outgoing president to embody a change from himself,” says the author, meaning that it might be too late to “bring Hollande down". 

“Why are certain company bosses and sportsmen raking in millions while professors and nurses are underpaid?” The cover story of Le Point hits on one of the values that are part of the debate underpinning /towering over the presidential elections – the pay disparity.

 The magazine’s special report analyses the phenomenon which gained prominence since the financial crisis broke out. It also features presidential candidates’ proposals to cap executive pay.

“In recent years," says the report, "the bosses of the top 40 French multinationals have become a symbol of a closed caste defying the laws of social nature”.

Far-left presidential candidate Jean Luc Mélenchon is proposing a 1/20 rule. According to him, a company’s boss should be paid a maximum of 20 times the minimal salary of his employees.

The report also puts the question into historical perspective. In 1980 the best- paid company boss in France was making 351 times the minimum wage. In 2010 the chief executive of carmaker Renault made 548 times the minimum wage.

Another article examines the salaries of lawyers and doctors. Being a top trial lawyer could be a very lucrative profession with certain “stars” making five million euros a year. Doctors, too, seem subject to serious pay differences. A self-employed radiologist can make over 217,000 euros whereas his psychiatry counterpart can earn a meagre 63,030 euros. 

At the bottom end of salary ladder are the underpaid.

“They are indispensable, they work hard but earn too little,” says another article - 690 euros a month for a cleaner, 1,200 for a supermarket cashier, 1,600 euros a month for a schoolteacher or 1,900 euros for a nurse at a public hospital. One out of 10 employees earns the minimum wage of 1,096 euros a month. No doubt, in the coming months the pay disparity will have a major place in the presidential campaign.

Don’t call them prostitutes, call them “les call-girls”. L’Express devotes its front cover to escort girls.

The newest version of the oldest profession doesn’t seem to have suffered from the recession, says the weekly.

 The special report examines the latest trends in the sex trade world: the internet and students. According to the authors, about 40,000 French students are thought to be part-time escort girls. They can now easily access potential clients thanks to specialised internet listings and agencies. 

Another article is taking us to Geneva, a “city of luxury and hanky panky”, where about 40 escort agencies are employing 700 upscale “well-being professionals”.

In a country where prostitution is legal, a glamorous escort girl can bill up to 675 euros an hour, more than some top lawyers.

Most of the women (and presumably men) are part-time workers: students, clerks, pharmacists, beauticians…and young lawyers who wish to make some extra money.

“The escort agency business is not only about sex, it’s also about a good dinner and conversation,” says one of the women. The weekly calls them “half sex specialists, half shrinks”, telling stories of women helping clients with emotional stress, getting over a bad divorce or a never-realised sexual fantasy. 

The special report ends with an interview of Eric de Montgolfier, the Nice public prosecutor.

“I think the clients of prostitutes should also bear the weight of the consequences of their behaviour,” he tells the weekly. To counter the massive increase in human trafficking in the south of France, the well-known prosecutor would like to harden existing anti-prostitution legislation, extending criminal responsibility to include the clients. 

“Arabic music is making it’s revolution”. On its culture pages, Marianne features a new generation of Arab singers, Emel Mathlouthi and Dorsaf Hamdami, These brave new voices gained global fame when millions heard them singing à capella on the streets of Tunisia and Egypt. 

Today, reports the magazine, these singers have put out their debut albums,  true hymns for freedom!

French News - 12 February

France - ice and cold cause chaos

The Louvre pyramid, Paris, 11 February 2012

Tony Cross

More than half of France was on high alert for snow and ice on Sunday, as the death toll from cold across Europe went over 600. It looked pretty, though, as our slideshow of France's week under ice shows.

Although most of the victims were in eastern Europe, two more deaths were reported in France Friday, bringing the total to 14. 

A couple in their 60s were found dead at the side of a the Etang de Thau near Belaruc on Friday. The man appeared to have fallen into the water while they were boating and the woman had dived him and dragged him to land. But they both died of hypothermia before the emergency services found them.

Other weather news included:

• The north of the Mediterranean island of Corsica was the worst hit Saturday, with all flights to Bastia cancelled and 600 households without electricity because of the surge in demand.
• Snow and ice disrupted traffic in mainland France, especially in the southern regions of the Var, Corrèze and Dordogne.
• Frozen pipes deprived households of water across the country. A municipal campsite, which was closed for the winter, was opened in the Ardèche town of Annonay so that residents could use the showers.
• Although demand for electricity remains high, the power supply company does not expect a repeat of this Wednesday’s record consumption of 101.700 megawatts.

Sarkozy set to announce presidential reelection candidacy early

Reuters/Lionel Bonaventure

By Sarah Elzas

French President Nicolas Sarkozy is on the verge of announcing his candidacy in April's presidential election. On Friday his UMP party announced a first support meeting for Sarkozy later this month, on 19 February, in the southern city of Marseille.

There was no confirmation of whether or not Sarkozy himself would actually be the rally. Rumours, stoked by his advisers, are circulating that he is going to jump the gun on his initial plan to announce his candidacy in mid-March and do so some time next week.

A further indicator came from UMP general secretary Jean-François Copé, who has been accused of spamming unsuspecting French ctizens with his regular emails on the good wroks of the president and his party.

A Copé email on Friday annouonced the opening of a new Facebook page devoted to Sarkozy, known as Le Timeline. That name might just be hint of the president's intentions.

In the meantime the president has been acting as if he is already on the campaign trail and one tactic has emerged: praise Germany as much as possible.

DOSSIER

Sarkozy has had nothing but good things to say about France’s neighbour: its competitiveness, its low unemployment.

During his nationally-televised interview two weeks ago, Sarkozy kept returning to Germany as a model for France. This week there was a Franco-German summit here in Paris on Monday, with an extended joint appearance with German Chancellor Angela Merkel, a joint TV interview and more mutual praise.

At a dinner held by France’s Jewish lobby group, the Crif, Sarkozy even went so far as to evoke the Franco-German relationship as a model for Israel and the Palestinians.

Merkel said she would be rooting for Sarkozy; her party is, after all, is in the same political vein as the UMP.

For Sarkozy, linking himself to Europe's strongest economy is not such a bad idea. But it could also backfire.

One of the things that got him elected in the first place was wooing hard right voters - voters who are now being heavily courted by Marine Le Pen and the Front National.

By tying his campaign to Germany, Sarkozy provides fodder for the euro-sceptics and those concerned about France's sovereignty.

He has already been criticised from the right and the left for concessions he made on budgetary control in the EU. This could easily come up again as the campaign progresses in the coming weeks.

In any case, Sarkozy is banking on this strategy to help him in the polls.

Though he and Merkel have not always been this close. There has been a push and pull of influence between the two ever since Sarkozy was first elected.

At the beginning of his term, France held the rotating presidency of the EU, in the second half of 2008. He took that role very seriously, determined to be the European president and an international statesman.

This meant he butted heads with Merkel, as when he launched the Mediterranean Union. Initially Germany was not part of it and that caused tension.

But in the last year, there has been a 180-degree shift in the relationship. Sarkozy now is playing second fiddle to Merkel. Accordingly, there is a big message change for him.

Those backing Sarkozy say this is a new era, which means new perspectives.

We'll have to see how voters react.

Greek coalition buckles amid strikes, EU diktat on debt

 

 

Riot police clash with a demonstrator during a 48-hour general strike in Athens. (AFP photo/Louisa Gouliamaki)

   

   

ATHENS - Greece's ruling coalition reeled amid protest violence, with the far-right party that supports the government rejecting tough conditions demanded by the eurozone for a debt rescue.

As the prospect of a chaotic default reappeared over the country, far-right leader George Karatzaferis said his deputies would not approve a new round of wage and pension cuts heading to a parliament vote on Sunday.

"We are not going to vote," Karatzaferis, leader of the small LAOS party, told a news conference, adding: "Humiliation was imposed on us. I do not tolerate this. And I do not allow it, no matter how hungry I might be."

Blasting Berlin's line on debt, Karatzaferis said, "Greece must not and cannot be outside the EU. But it can do without the German boot."

Greece, running out of time to finalise additional budget cuts to secure a eurozone bailout worth 130 billion euros (US$171 billion), was hit by a 48-hour general strike on Thursday.

The country risks bankruptcy on March 20 when it must repay nearly 14.5 billion euros (US$19 billion) in maturing debt, if it does not get financial assistance.

Prime Minister Lucas Papademos summoned a Cabinet meeting later on Friday as clashes erupted on the sidelines of union demonstrations against the new cuts, which had caused a junior labour minister to resign on Thursday.

Television footage showed youths in hoods and motorcycle helmets breaking masonry around central Syntagma Square and throwing stones at police, who responded with bursts of tear gas. At least one person was injured.

Eurozone finance ministers on Thursday delayed a decision on a new bailout, giving Greek officials less than a week to meet conditions in exchange for 130 billion euros (US$172 billion) in aid.

The far-right has 16 deputies in the 300-seat chamber, and although several lawmakers from other parties have also declared their opposition to the new cuts, the other two coalition parties have enough support to secure passage on Sunday.

Eurozone ministers demanded that Greek lawmakers formally approve the measures, which include additional structural spending cuts of 325 million euros for 2012.

They also want a written pledge from coalition leaders that they will implement the reforms, Eurogroup chief Jean-Claude Juncker told a news conference in Brussels.

If those conditions are met, the Eurogroup would meet again on Wednesday, he said.

The hard line in a new five-day deadline from the eurozone was clear: "The Greeks have to help themselves. There is no other way," French central bank governor Christian Noyer told Europe 1 radio.

But Greek unions went ahead with the general strike against what they describe as "barbaric" wage and pension cuts. This backs up a 24-hour general strike held three days ago. More protests are planned for the weekend.

"The measures they are trying to sign and ratify will be the tombstone of Greece," said Nikos, a demonstrating pensioner.

"The people must take matters into their own hands," added Constantinos Amonas, a plastics factory worker. "They should not wait, they should not be fooled by the political parties," he added.

Greece on Thursday had announced a last-minute agreement among coalition parties on alternative ways of finding budget savings demanded by the European Union and International Monetary Fund.

But it turned out that in the eyes of eurozone finance ministers there was still a shortfall, and they were not prepared to accept a "general agreement" by Greek politicians.

Instead the eurozone wants cast-iron commitments on the numbers.

Financial markets reacted negatively to the latest developments, with stock exchanges falling in Asia and Europe. Sentiment on the oil market was also hit.

The tough position by European leaders echoes a change recently in the tone of comment which until now held that a departure of Greece from the eurozone could not be contemplated.

Greek Finance Minister Evangelos Venizelos told reporters in Brussels that Greece's place in the eurozone was in the hands of the country's conservative party, a senior coalition partner alongside his socialists.

"It must decide -- if they want (Greece) to stay in the eurozone, they have to say so clearly. If they don't, then they have to say that clearly as well," Venizelos said.

EU economic affairs chief Olli Rehn said eurozone partners were "seriously considering" opening an escrow account for Greece, which would block a portion of state revenues to guarantee the repayment of bailout loans.

But whether a rescue package consisting of 130 billion euros from the European Union and International Monetary Fund and a 100-billion-euro cut in debt owed to private creditors will resolve the crisis "is a very open question," Berenberg Bank chief economist Holger Schmieding said.

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LOCAL NEWS - Montpellier

Conflict between the tram and the bar

The conservatory must go at the bottom of rue Maguelone, near the station. 

Mr. Girard owner of the bar for twenty-five years, is threatened by the expansion of Line 3. 

Mr. Girard got provisional authorization to occupy public roads with a porch until four months ago when he was told the porch must be removed to make way for the expansion of the tram. 

An exchange of letters and unsuccessful negotiations left the situation unresolved, until Friday when Mr. Girard threatens to lie on the rails to block the tram. 

"I'll have to close the bar during the works."

But Serge Rigoulay the deputy director of the project successfully mediated by agreeing a reduction of the size of the structure, losing just  5 m 2 of retail space. 

Now, the challenge remains to raise the money needed to finance the work, which will not be completed before the end of August. 

French press review 

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By Vladimir Smekhov

Behind the scenes of the French online presidential campaign. The mega profits of the biggest French multinational company. The last days of the French bank notes before they turn into collection pieces. Are there alternatives to eating caviar while drinking vodka? And a new music sensation, who makes football stars dance on the football pitch. Today’s French newspapers are full of surprises!

Let’s start with a bit of politics. In addition to publishing an exclusive “My values for France” interview we are not going to talk about, the conservative Le Figaro praises President Nicolas Sarkozy’s “shift to the right” and speculates about possible dates and venues of Sarkozy’s “official” - is it sure this time ?!!? - entry into the presidential campaign.

“They [our enemies] will see our real presidential campaign” the paper quotes one of his advisers.“The time has come to speak to 31 per cent of the voters who voted for him during the first round of the 2007 presidential elections," says the paper. Will Sarkozy declare his candidacy on TF1 or during a visit to a factory? In any case, Sarkozy’s troops are ready for big battle.

The real campaign – “where dirty play is allowed” - is going to play out on the internet, saysAujourd’hui on France.

The paper’s special report takes us behind the scenes of the online presidential fight!. We discover that even though Sarkozy is not yet an official candidate, the party’s web unit has already prepared his brand new Facebook page.

But even more astonishing is the scope of resources Socialist candidate François Hollande has put into his web campaign: 35 people and two million euros, ie 10 per cent of the total campaign budget.

“The huge advantage of the social networks,” says the head of digital at the ruling UMP party, “is the possibility to bypass the filters of the traditional media. It’s like permanently holding a huge public rally.”

The future candidate Sarkozy should beware. His Socialist rival has a war chest of one million email addresses gathered during the Socialist primaries.

Twelve-billion-euro profits as petrol prices are rising?!

To prevent the public outcry, the president of the biggest French oil company, Total, chose tabloid Aujourd’hui en France to justify the company's rude health.

“Does the company make huge profits at the expense of drivers paying huge petrol prices?” asks the daily. “Yes, our prices are rather high. But no one prevents the drivers from buying their petrol from supermarket gas stations. Louis Vuitton [the luxury good maker] does not sell their bags at the supermarket prices and it does not shock anyone. Why should we sell our quality products cheap?”

Christophe de Marjorie alsoclaims that last year Total distributed seven out of 10 billion euros of profits to its employees, most of whom are also shareholders.

Why should vodka be consumed with the caviar? Because the cereals and the potatoes at -18°C make vodka’s taste particularly pure. This, in turn, makes caviar’s succulent flavour more pronounced. But for those of us who cannot afford caviar, “the ideal vodka’s partner”, the paper suggests smoked salmon as a substitute.A vodka manual features prominently in the lifestyle pages of Le Figaro. Vodka is an abbreviation from the Russian word “voda”. It means “little water”, explains the paper.

If you still have stacks of old bank notes, the good ol’ French francs, you have only seven days to change them into euros! There are still some 50 million bank notes out there, worth four billion francs, says Aujourd’hui en France. The equivalent of 600 million euros.

The Treasury estimates that after the ultimate return date, the equivalent of 500 million euros will become “collectors' items”, which is great news, reckons the daily, since this money will become a godsend for the French budget. Who knows, if France saves 500 million euros, we might get our triple A back…. I must be dreaming….

“The Brazilian who makes football stars dance.” On its entertainment pages, Aujourd’hui en France reveals the latest global music sensation, Michel Telo. The 31-year-old Brazilian artist’s title, Ai se eu te pego (Oh! if I ever catch you), has become a web sensation with 158 million views.

It rivals the iTunes sales of Shakira’s French-inspired hit Je l’aime à mourir (I love him to death). According to the paper, the song has become a global hit when Brazilian footballersChristiano Ronaldo and Marcello danced to the song during a Real Madrid Match.

“I love French language, the language of love," says the Brazilian Julio Iglesias. "But I don’t know when I’ll be able to come to France.”

French News - 11 February

Little change in the weather map - cold now expected to last at least until Sunday

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Greece eurozone bailout: Coalition hit by defections

The BBC's Mark Lowen says that social unrest is on the rise in Greece

Greece's coalition has been hit by the resignations of four senior politicians over the latest planned spending cuts.

The deputy foreign minister and three ministers from the far-right Laos party quit, amid protests and a 48-hour strike over the austerity proposals.

Greek leaders are trying to enact cuts demanded by the EU and IMF for a 130bn-euro ($170bn; £110bn) bailout.

The prime minister says he will do "whatever it takes" to get the deal approved in a parliamentary vote.

"We cannot allow Greece to go bankrupt," Lucas Papademos told his cabinet, according to comments translated by Reuters news agency.

"It goes without saying that whoever disagrees and does not vote for the new programme cannot remain in the government."

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Flu bug cases near epidemic levels

From the Connexion THE FREEZING weather - which has already seen power consumption record smashed - has led to an increase in people suffering flu and it has reached epidemic levels in Ile-de-France, Languedoc-Roussillon and Provence-Alpes-Côte d’Azur.  Nationwide the numbers of new cases are just below the epidemic level and the medical watchdog Sentinelles says they see 148 cases per 100,000 inhabitants (epidemic level is set at 165 cases per 100,000).  It is too late to benefit from the anti-flu jab which takes 15 days to be effective but it is known to work against the main flu type being seen at the moment, called H3N2.  For those who have not had the jab, doctors recommend following general good hygiene practices: washing hands regularly with soap and water, especially after sneezing or coughing; using paper tissues and throwing them away after use, and getting plenty of fresh air.  Flu epidemics generally last about nine weeks, with the peak around the fifth week.  Gastro-enteritis cases have already exceeded the epidemic level with 287 cases per 100,000 inhabitants, making 182,000 new cases this past week. In the last five weeks nearly 900,000 people have consulted their GP about gastro-enteritis symptoms.

France's glacial temperatures show no sign of easing

Blocks of ice float on the surface of the Loire river, Orleans

Reuters/Charles Platiau

France’s glacial weather is set to continue over the weekend as the national weather centre - MeteoFrance kept 50 of the country’s 95 departments on high alert and the authorities say at least 12 people have died because of the freezing temperatures.

Météo France recorded average temperatures of between -4 and -11 on Friday morning,

Two homeless people have died in the cold snap in Paris and three in the northern Pas de Calais 

 region. Two of them, a 90-year-old woman and a 59-year-old man, were found inside their homes.

And France’s railway operator, SNCF, says it was forced to cancel trains in the central

Limousin region.

But the cold weather is not all bad news. The French Pyrenees are expecting a huge numbers of

skiers this weekend when the school holidays begin for some regions of the country.

The Pyrenees, which has 38 ski resorts scanning the region from the Atlantic to the Mediterranean

coasts, has seen snowfall of up to 20 centimetres over the past few days.

The region is fully booked for the four-week period which represents 50 per cent of turnover for

the year.

Over the Christmas period, these ski resorts were only able to manage 40 per cent occupancy. 

French ex-minister Woerth charged with corruption

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Ex Minister arrives at the tribunal in Bordeaux

Reuters/Caroline Blumberg

A French probe has charged an ex-minister close to President Nicolas Sarkozy with corruption one day after he was charged with influence peddling in a case involving the country's richest woman, Liliane Bettancourt.

Eric Woerth, formerly Sarkozy's budget minister and treasurer of his UMP party, was charged with "corruption, abuse of trust, money laundering... and receiving (illicit funds)", prosecutors said in a statement.

The new charges came after the second day of Worth's interrogation by judges in the southwestern city of Bordeaux about the alleged influence peddling and alleged illegal campaign donations by L'Oreal heiress Bettencourt.

The influence peddling charges are likely to relate to allegations Woerth secured the Legion of Honour, France's highest award, for Bettencourt's financial manager, Patrice de Maistre, after he secured a job for Woerth's wife to help manage the heiress's fortune.

They are punishable by up to 10 years in prison and a 150,000 euro fine.

Bettencourt, France's richest woman, is at the centre of a series of long-standing, overlapping legal

inquiries.

They include one into claims she showered leading right-wing figures with envelopes stuffed with

undeclared campaign donations in the run-up to Sarkozy's election in 2007.

The Woerth case is one of several corruption investigations plaguing Sarkozy as he prepares for a tough re-election fight against Socialist flag-bearer Francois Hollande in a two-round vote in April and May.

Sarkozy, who as president is immune from criminal prosecution, has fiercely denied any personal

wrongdoing.

Woerth left the government in 2010 and in 2011 police carried out searches of his home and the

UMP's offices in connection with the case.

He has strongly denied the allegations.

'Progress' on free trade deal at EU-India summit

EU and India leaders hope to finalise the free trade agreement soon

European Union and Indian leaders have made "substantial progress" towards a free trade agreement, says European Council President Herman Van Rompuy.

There is hope that a deal will be worked out at the "very earliest", said Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.

The two sides are holding a summit in Delhi to strengthen bilateral trade.

Negotiations on a free trade agreement (FTA) have been taking place since 2008 with little success amid a number of tariff and visa issues.

Disagreements over matters such as Indian duties on cars and spirits and limited access for India to the European labour market have held up a final deal.

Other issues at the summit have included energy co-operation and security concerns.

Indian Commerce Minister Anand Sharma said the talks were in the "final stage" but a "few gaps" still remained.

The European Union is India's largest trading partner, accounting for 14% of India's foreign trade.

Iran concerns

One major concern over a free trade deal is the issue of generic drug manufacture.

Critics such as Medecins Sans Frontieres fear the FTA could seriously harm India's production of generic drugs, which are sold to millions of patients at reduced prices in poorer countries.

The EU has suggested a clause "to ensure that nothing in the proposed agreement would limit India's freedom to produce and export lifesaving medicines".

Another key issue at the summit was Iran.

India has been defiant in maintaining trade ties, particularly on oil imports, despite a strengthening of trade sanctions by the West.

Mr Van Rompuy said he would share his "deep concern on the Iranian nuclear programme and will ask Prime Minister Singh to use India's leverage towards Iran to help bring Tehran back to the negotiating table".

Mr Singh said the problems with Iran's nuclear programme "should be resolved by giving maximum scope to diplomacy"

Firemen control blaze at iconic Marseille building

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Firemen in Marseille on Friday brought under control a fire that had broken out at the city's iconic ‘Cité Radieuse’ housing complex. The full extent of the damage is still not yet known.

A fire that broke out Thursday afternoon at Marseille’s iconic ‘Cité Radieuse’ housing complex was under control Friday morning, firemen said.

1500 people were forced to evacuate their homes overnight as fire consumed parts of the historic Le Corbusier building in Marseille. Several apartments and rooms were destroyed.

 The extent of the damages were hard to assess, said a spokesperson for the city’s fire department. A few hundred firemen were still on site early Friday morning.

La Cité radieuse was built in 1947 and comprises some 337 apartments, several hotel rooms, a gastronomic restaurant and sporting, medical and educational facilities.

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Eurozone sets conditions for Greek bailout

 

  

BRUSSELS: Eurozone finance ministers put off a decision on a new bailout to save Greece from bankruptcy, giving Athens less than a week to meet three conditions in return for the aid.

The demands were set during talks between Greek Finance Minister Evangelos Venizelos and his 16 eurozone counterparts in Brussels, hours after rival Greek politicians struck a deal on austerity measures demanded by foreign lenders.

"Despite the important progress achieved over the last days, we did not have yet all necessary elements on the table to take decisions today," Eurogroup chief Jean-Claude Juncker told a news conference.

The eurozone will hold a new meeting next Wednesday if all conditions are met, said Juncker, Luxembourg's prime minister.

Venizelos had urged his counterparts to endorse the debt relief deal, but the ministers first demanded that the Greek parliament approve the austerity measures agreed by the political parties when it convenes on Sunday.

The two other conditions are additional structural spending cuts of 325 million euros for 2012 and "strong political assurance" from coalition leaders that they will implement austerity measures, Juncker said.

Greek political leaders reached a last-minute deal Thursday on new austerity measures demanded by international lenders in return of the 130-billion-euro ($171 billion) bailout.

In parallel, Greece has negotiated a debt writedown with its private lenders, hoping to slash 100 billion euros from its 350-billion-euro debt mountain.

But after seeing Greece drag its feet on reforms for the past two years, finance ministers want proof that Athens will follow through on its promises this time, warning that April elections should not thwart the reforms.

"All these measures are important to ensure a smooth implementation of the programme, also after the upcoming (Greek) general elections," Juncker said.

"These three elements that I mentioned need to be in place before we can take decisions," he added.

EU economic affairs commissioner Olli Rehn said eurozone partners were also "seriously considering" opening an escrow account for Greece, which would block a portion of state revenues to guarantee the repayment of bailout loans.

The Franco-German proposal is "one possibility for reinforcing surveillance and effectively implementing the programme," he said.

Greece needs the aid soon since it has bond payments of 14.5 billion euros due March 20.

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Beziers - cold freezes  Canal 

Midi Libre

 

The banks of the Orb  yesterday - a beautiful ornament of frozen spray. 

Temperatures we down to between -4 and -7 ° C, yesterday morning, at daybreak in Beziers.

This Northwest wind led to chill factors of  -15 ° C and -20 ° C. 

In consequence: the Canal du Midi Nine in Beziers were covered with a thick layer of ice.

And thanks to Gabby and Richard of the ANPQ gallery for these lovely images of Lake Salagou

 2011: record year for Customs Montpellier

Some "53 473 articles in the Gard, Herault and Lozere were seized through 303 raids. (PHOTO ILLUSTRATION - FREE MIDI ARCHIVE DAVID CRESPIN)

Some 53,473 counterfeit items were seized, including clothing and accessories, watches, perfumes or medicines, made 2011 a record year for Customs in Montpellier, according to the Regional Director Philippe Savary.Some "worth 3.48 million euros  up from 1.78 M in  2010

Two major seizures, one on March 9 of 16,000 perfume bottles in Nimes, and a second on June 14, from a ferry from Morocco, in a van registered in Germany, fake watches of many brands. 

Another reason, according Tabaries Andre, head of communications at the Customs Authority, controls  were "better targeted" .

As for drugs, 1,727 kilos of cannabis resin, 2.746 kilos of cocaine and 3.8 kilograms of heroin, worth a total of 3.67 million euros and 426 kilos of counterfeit tobacco were seized.

Acta: Germany delays signing anti-piracy agreement

Continue reading the main story

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Germany has halted signing a controversial anti-

piracy accord, the Anti-Counterfeiting

Trade Agreement (Acta), after the justice ministry voiced concerns

A foreign ministry spokesperson told AFP that the delay was to "give us time to carry out further discussions".

Latvia also put off signing on Friday. Poland, the Czech Republic and Slovakia have already delayed ratification.

International protests against the agreement are expected on Saturday.

Measures within Acta to tackle online piracy have proven particularly controversial.

"Hacktivists" claiming to act on behalf of Anonymous have attacked official websites supporting the international agreement.

Supporters of the treaty argue that the measures are necessary to clamp down on growing levels of piracy.

The treaty has yet to be ratified by the European Parliament.

French News and weather - 10 February

Provence and Corsica - snow

The presence of a large anticyclone from Russia to France means a northeast wind so the east of Francewill remain cold.

 Temperatures will remain very cold until the weekend in the East side.

 In contrast, a depression off the coast of Var will promote the development of new snow in Provence and Corsica on Friday. 

 Find your local time on, hour by hour, on your phone at 32.01 *

Air France resumes normal operations as strike ends

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Air France said on Friday that its services were returning to normal after a four-day staff strike over a draft law that would require workers to give 48 hrs notice before striking. The strike caused hundreds of flight cancellations.

 

AFP - French flag-carrier Air France said it expected its services to return to normal Friday after a four-day strike that saw hundreds of fights cancelled at airports across the country.

But the airline warned in a statement that there could be some delays as it worked to get its schedules back on track amid freezing conditions and snow in some parts of France.

Air France cancelled around a third of its long-haul flights and a quarter of shorter journeys every day since the start of the strike Monday by aviation workers.

The strike by pilots, flight attendants and ground staff was costing Air France eight to 10 million euros ($11-$13 million) per day, the company said.

Air France, the firm the worst hit by the industrial action, had urged customers to postpone travel and sent out tens of thousands of emails and text messages to clients warning them their flights had been cancelled or delayed.

The strike hit services at Paris's Charles de Gaulle airport, a global aviation hub, as well as several French regional airports.

Unions called the strike to protest against a draft law that would require aviation workers to individually give 48 hours notice prior to striking, saying this limits labour rights.

The bill was approved by France's lower house last month and is due to be debated in the Senate.

The head of the SNPL pilots' union, Yves Deshayes, said the union was to meet transport ministry officials on Friday and then decide whether to pursue further action against the bill.

But Transport Minister Thierry Mariani said the government would not drop the bill, which he said was aimed at protecting passengers' rights.

____________________________________________________________________________________

Greek austerity plans not ready, say eurozone ministers

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German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble: Negotiations 'haven't come far enough'

Eurozone ministers have cast doubt on Greece's ability to push through austerity measures needed to release a 130bn euro ($170bn; £110bn) bailout.

At a meeting of finance ministers in Brussels, Germany's Wolfgang Schaeuble said a plan agreed by Greece's fragile coalition after days of talks was "not at a stage where it can be signed off".

The EU and IMF demanded stringent cuts in return for the bailout money.

Unions have already called a 48-hour strike in protest at the measures.

The BBC's Chris Morris, in Brussels, says European ministers want to see more evidence that the measures will actually be implemented.

There is also serious concern that the overall plan for Greece - involving the new bailout as well as an agreement for private banks to write off a substantial chunk of Greek debt - still doesn't do enough to put the country on a sustainable economic path, our correspondent says.

Luxembourg's Prime Minister Jean-Claude Juncker, head of the so-called eurogroup of finance ministers, also said he doubted whether the Greek plan was ready for approval.

"I do not have reasons to believe that there will be a definitive deal this evening," he told reporters as he arrived for the Brussels meeting.

But he hailed the progress Greece had made and said eurozone countries were likely to thrash out a deal with Athens by next week.

Greece is trying to negotiate the bailout from the EU and IMF

It is the second such bailout, and lenders insisted on more austerity measures in return for the loan.

The mood among eurozone countries appears to be toughening on Greece, our correspondent says.

While the official view is still that Greece must be saved, he says there is more and more talk on the margins that a Greek default would not be a disaster.

'Painful measures'

The plan agreed by the Greek government includes 15,000 public-sector job cuts, liberalisation of labour laws, lowering the minimum wage by 22% and negotiating a debt write-off with banks.

But a key demand of the EU, IMF and European Central Bank was reform of the pension system, an issue that proved to be a stumbling block.

Prime Minister Lucas Papademos tried to convince his coalition partners to overhaul pensions and save 300m euros a year.

Talks broke up without an agreement, but officials later announced that a compromise had been reached. It was not clear how the 300m euro saving would be made.

The government needs the backing of the eurozone ministers and the approval of the Greek parliament before the deal can be finalised.

Neither Mr Juncker nor Mr Schaeuble detailed their doubts about the plan, but IMF officials had earlier hinted that it lacked any proposals for major institutional reform.

They were also seeking assurances that the agreed measures would not be affected by elections due in April.

Greece is already feeling the effects of an earlier round of austerity, put in place as part of a deal to release funds from a previous bailout.

Those cuts triggered widespread unrest and violent protests.

Greece is deep in recession with unemployment rising above 20%.

Unions have already said they will go out on strike over the latest austerity plans, condemning them as "painful measures" that would create misery.

Meanwhile, US President Barack Obama reaffirmed America's willingness to help stabilise the eurozone.

In a meeting with Italian Prime Minister Mario Monti, he also urged European countries to promote a strategy of growth.

Analysis

Chris Morris BBC News, Brussels

The pieces of an overall deal on Greece are beginning to fall into place. But the agreement between political parties in Athens is just one part of a complex set of negotiations involving the second financial bailout and a deal with private banks to write off 100bn euros of Greek debt.

Crucially the whole package has to satisfy the demand from creditors like the IMF that it will make Greek debt sustainable - and it's not clear that that point has yet been reached. So no-one will be signing any cheques straight away.

The question is who's going to pay. Eurozone countries like Germany believe they're contributing enough already. Private banks feel the same. Some have suggested that the European Central Bank could, under strict conditions, play a role. But there will be considerable argument over this complex choreography - not least because it involves vast amounts of money, and significant political risk.

French airport unions keep up pressure on final day of strike

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Poster at Nice International airport

Reuters/Eric Gaillard

By RFI

French flag-carrier Air France cancelled more than a third of its long-haul flights and a quarter of medium and short-haul flights on Thursday as a four-day strike by aviation workers entered its final day.

 About the same proportion of flights had been cancelled on the third day of the strike on Wednesday.

The strike hit services at Paris's Charles de Gaulle airport, a global aviation hub, as well as several French regional airports. Air France says the strike by pilots, flight attendants and ground staff is costing eight to 10 million euros per day.

Unions said more than 60 per cent of pilots were participating in the strike, but Air France said only 30 per cent of pilots and 15 per cent of flight attendants were taking part.

Unions called the industrial action to protest against a draft law that would require aviation workers to individually give 48 hours notice prior to striking, saying this limits labour rights.

The bill was approved by France's lower house last month and is due to be debated in the Senate.

The head of the SNPL pilots' union, Yves Deshayes, said the union was to meet transport ministry officials on Friday and then decide whether to pursue further action against the bill.

"Depending on the proposals made we will decide whether to continue the strike or not," he said, adding that industrial action could take place during France's February school holidays.

But Transport Minister Thierry Mariani said the government would not drop the bill, which he said was aimed at protecting passengers' rights.

"It is out of the question that we move on this text because it is not only useful but indispensable," he told AFP. "French policy is decided in parliament and not in a union headquarters."

Sarkozy vows to keep Fessenheim nuclear plant running

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France's President Nicolas Sarkozy speaks with workers at Fessenheim nuclear plant

Reuters/Philippe Wojazer

By RFI

French President Nicolas Sarkozy told cheering workers at France's oldest nuclear power plant at Fessenheim that he will keep it running and slammed his Socialist opponent François Hollande for promising to close it down.

Without mentioning Hollande by name, Sarkozy said the closure of the plant would come "at the cost of jobs in the nuclear industry, the cost of our industrial competitiveness and the cost of our energy independence.

"We will not close this station, it's out of the question," Sarkozy said during his visit to the plant, in Alsace in northeastern France on Thursday

Ahead of a two-round presidential election in April and May, Socialist frontrunner Hollande has promised to reduce France's reliance on nuclear energy from 75 per cent to 50 per cent by shutting down 24 reactors by 2025.

The Socialist plan includes closing the two reactors at the Fessenheim plant, which dates from 1977.

"I will never accept the closing of the Fessenheim station for political reasons," Sarkozy said. "Wanting to close Fessenheim is a scandal, because it would mean sacrificing your jobs for backward political thinking."

France, the world's most nuclear-dependent country, operates 58 reactors and has been a leading international proponent of atomic energy.

But the country's reliance on nuclear power has been called into question since the Fukushima disaster in Japan, which prompted Germany to announce plans to shut all of its reactors by the end of 2022.

Greece leaders agree bailout cuts package

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Greece has been convulsed by strikes, protests and riots over existing austerity measures

Greek politicians have reached a deal on austerity measures needed for a new 130bn euro ($170bn; £110bn) bailout, Prime Minister Lucas Papademos says.

He announced the deal after days of talks with his coalition partners.

The plan needs to be approved by eurozone finance ministers, who are meeting in Brussels later.

Continuing austerity measures have led to widespread unrest, and unions have already promised a 48-hour strike to protest against the latest proposals.

Greece is trying to negotiate the bailout from the EU and International Monetary Fund (IMF).

It is the second such bailout, and lenders have insisted on more austerity measures in return for the loan.

'Social uprising'

The prime minister held talks for eight hours on Wednesday night with the leaders of the three parties in his coalition - Pasok, New Democracy and the far-right Laos party.

The talks ended with no agreement on pension reform, but hours later the prime minister announced a compromise.

Mr Papademos said in a statement that the EU, IMF and European Central Bank (ECB) - the so-called troika - were happy with the deal.

Greek deadlines

• ·         Thursday: Eurozone finance ministers to hold a meeting to approve the latest bailout
• ·         15 February: Deadline for plan to be finalised, to allow time for Greek debt exchange
• ·         20 March: Greece must have received its next tranche of bailout cash to meet a 14bn euro debt payment
• ·         April: Elections expected

"The consultations between the government and the troika on the issue which remained open for further discussion were successfully completed this morning," Mr Papademos said.

The IMF later said it was still in talks with the Greek government.

The fund was reportedly seeking assurances that the agreed measures would not be affected by elections due in April.

Specific details of the deal have not yet been released.

The IMF, EU and ECB were demanding that the Greeks make cuts of 1.5% of GDP, slash pensions and make thousands more civil service job cuts

They also told Athens to make its economy more competitive by introducing flexible labour laws and cutting the minimum wage.

ECB chief Mario Draghi said Mr Papademos had spoken to him about the deal.

"This afternoon we will be having a euro group meeting with the ministers, and we will be having a full report of this, the agreement, and also a discussion of the further steps," he said.

Last year Greece agreed to huge public sector job cuts and tax rises as part of a deal to release funds for a previous bailout.

The previous round of cuts to public spending sparked huge unrest, general strikes and riots.

The socialist government eventually fell late last year and was replaced by a government led by technocrats.

But Greece remains mired in recession with an unemployment rate of about 20%, and the austerity policies remain deeply unpopular with much of the public.

Even before the new proposals were announced, unions representing about half of Greece's workforce said they were calling a strike for Friday and Saturday - the second strike this week.

"The painful measures that create misery for the youth, the unemployed and pensioners do not leave us much room," Ilias Iliopoulos of the ADEDY union told Reuters news agency.

"We won't accept them. There will be a social uprising."

Debt restructuring

A situation in which a borrower renegotiates the terms of its debts, usually in order to reduce short-term debt repayments and to increase the amount of time it has to repay them. If lenders do not agree to the change in repayment terms, or if the restructuring results in an obvious loss to lenders, then it is generally considered a default by the borrower. However, restructurings can also occur through a voluntary debt swap, in which case it can be very hard to determine whether it counts as a default.

Sarkozy promises populist unemployment referendum

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French President Nicolas Sarkozy said in an interview that he intends to hold a referendum on whether unemployed people receiving benefits should be allowed to turn down jobs. He also said he was hoping to reform policy on illegal immigration.

 

AFP - French President Nicolas Sarkozy took another big step towards confirming he will stand for re-election on Thursday, taking a populist turn with promises of referendums on jobs and immigration.

Le Monde reported he might declare his candidacy as early as next Thursday, but there was no official confirmation from the office of the right-wing leader, who polls say would lose the vote to a Socialist rival.

Sources in his UMP party said that, in an interview with Le Figaro magazine to be published this weekend, Sarkozy proposes holding a referendum on whether the unemployed should be allowed turn down a job and still keep their benefits.

He also said he was hoping to reform the way in which illegal immigrants could be kicked out of France, and tabled a series of other propositions that could be seen as an electoral programme, the sources said.

Sarkozy places great emphasis on "values" in the Figaro interview, rather than on his economic programme, they said.

Last month, the president gave his strongest hint yet he will be a candidate in the two-round election to be held in April and May. "I have a rendezvous with the French people. I will not shy away from it," he said.

ANGELA MERKEL WILL SUPPORT NICOLAS SARKOZY'S CAMPAIGN

"I am determined," he added, in an interview to unveil reforms aimed at lifting France out of the economic doldrums and boosting his credibility ahead of the vote in which Socialist Francois Hollande is the frontrunner.

Members of Sarkozy's entourage have said he will stand for re-election, but Sarkozy himself has never done so publicly.

On Monday, German Chancellor Angela Merkel threw her weight Sarkozy in his tough re-election battle, saying the two right-wingers were from the same "political family".

Despite accusations in both countries of interference, Merkel used a visit to Paris for a joint Franco-German cabinet session to make clear her support for Sarkozy, who has increasingly cited Germany as a model for France.

Study claims French weight loss drug, Mediator, killed at least 1,300

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Mediator was widely prescribed in France as a 

slimming aid

Getty Images/Mixa

By RFI

At least 1,300 people died from Mediator, a drug licensed for use by diabetics that was used in France as a slimming aid before it was withdrawn, according to a study published by the French National Institute of Health and Medical Research, Inserm, on Thursday.

The study gives a more accurate figure for the number of deaths from the drug, known by the lab name as benfluorex, which had previously been put at between 1,000 and 2,000.

Its French manufacturer, Servier, is being probed on suspicion of dishonest practices and deception.

Mahmoud Sureik of Inserm, who co-led the investigation into the drug, estimates 3,100 people had required hospitilisation during the 33 years the drug was sold.

In 2009, the drug was pulled from the European market amid evidence that it damaged heart valves and caused pulmonary hypertension. The figures for the deaths are based on those from faulty heart valves, and not from hypertension, among major users of the drug.

According to Servier, 145 million packets of Mediator were sold on the French market before it was pulled.

Mediator was initially licensed as a way of reducing levels of fatty proteins, lipids, with the claim that it helped diabetics control their blood sugar level. But it also suppressed the appetite which meant it gained a second official use to help obese diabetics lose weight.

The Mediator case came to light after a scandal involving a similar type of anti-obesity drug, fenfluramine, in the late 1990s.

French presidential elections 2012

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The French will vote in Presidential elections

on 22 April,

with a probable second round

on 5 May. 

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Perfumier Guerlain on trial for racist slur

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Perfume impresario Jean-Paul Guerlain went on trial in Paris Thursday over a 2010 incident in which he described himself as working like a "negre" – a racist slur - and then implying that black people were lazy.

 

AFP - French parfumier Jean-Paul Guerlain, for decades the "nose" behind the world-famous perfume brand, went on trial Thursday on racism charges after televised remarks caused widespread offence.

Asked in an October 2010 interview about how he created the Samsara scent, Guerlain replied using a racial slur -- the French term "negre" -- and implied that black people are lazy.

"For once, I set to work like a negro. I don't know if negroes have always worked like that, but anyway..." he said.

The incident sparked widespread condemnation, with anti-racism groups saying it highlighted deep prejudice in French society.

On Thursday, the 75-year-old heir to one of the world's oldest perfume houses appeared in court here to face charges of making "racist insults" during an interview on French public television.

Guerlain, who entered the court on crutches, faces up to six months in prison and a 22,500 euro ($30,000) fine.

At the time, his comments were quickly denounced, with France's Movement Against Racism and for Friendship (MRAP) saying the remarks revealed "the state of ordinary racism that still permeates French society."

Guerlain apologised but protests erupted outside the company's boutique on the Champs Elysees in Paris and there were calls for a boycott of Guerlain and its owner, luxury brand giant Louis Vuitton Moet Hennessy (LVMH).

"I offer my apologies to all those who might have been hurt by my shocking words," Guerlain said in a statement after the interview. He said the comments "in no way reflect my true thinking, but were a slip of the tongue."

The Guerlain company also distanced itself from the remarks, saying his words were "unacceptable" and noting that Guerlain had not been a shareholder since 1996 or on salary since 2002.

Guerlain took over the family perfume house from his grandfather, Jacques, in 1959, by which time he could recognise 3,000 subtly different smells.

The perfume house was run by the Guerlain family for five generations and created over 300 fragrances since doctor and chemist Pierre Francois Pascal Guerlain opened his first perfume boutique in Paris 183 years ago.

LVMH purchased the company in 1994 and Guerlain remained as master perfumer until he retired in 2002.

During his time at the company he was hailed as one of the great perfume "noses" of the 20th century and created famous scents including Samsara, Nahema and Jardins de Bagatelle.

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France's Juppé calls Syria's promises "manipulation"

Alain Juppé at the UN Security Council in New York at the end of January

Reuters/Mike Segar

By RFI

France’s Foreign Minister Alain Juppé said Wednesday that President Bashar al-Assad’s promises to Russia to end the violence in Syria were mere manipulation. The comments came after several EU and Gulf countries recalled their ambassadors from Syria.

Juppé said during a French radio program that he did not believe the commitments made by the Syrian regime and said it was a manipulation “which we are not going to fall for.”

British Prime Minister David Cameron echoed Juppé’s comments, dismissing Assad’s promises. “I think we have very little confidence in that,” he told Parliament.

The statements came after President Assad met with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov on Tuesday in Damascus, where he said he was “fully committed” to ending the bloodshed.

Regime forces continued to attack the Syrian city of Homs on Wednesday, which has seen a spike in violence in recent days.

EU leaders are contemplating a ban on flights in and out of Syria, as well as making contingency plans if it needs to evacuate EU citizens from the country.

The 27-member EU bloc is also considering banning phosphate imports from Syria and freezing the Syrian central bank’s assets.

The new raft of sanctions could be adopted during the next meeting of EU ministers on February 27.

EU nations such as France, the Netherlands, Italy, Spain and Belgium have pulled their ambassadors out of Syria, as did the United States on Monday.

The six members of the Gulf Cooperation Council – Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates – have also withdrawn their ambassadors from Damascus.

Russia sparked anger in the West last week when it joined China in vetoing a UN Security Council draft resolution to end the violence in Syria.

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton called the veto a "travesty."

French former government minister charged with corruption

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Eric Woerth alleged to have taken cash from L'Oreal heiress Liliane Bettencourt to fund Sarkozy's 2007 election campaign

Liliane Bettencourt and ex-budget minister Eric Woerth, who has been charged with corruption. Photograph: Fred Dufour/Jacques Demarthon/AFP/Getty Images

A former government minister has been charged with corruption by judges investigating whether he took envelopes stuffed with cash from France's richest woman to fund Nicolas Sarkozy's 2007 election campaign.

The charge of influence-peddling against Eric Woerth, the one-time labour minister and treasurer of the president's ruling right-wing UMP party, is a blow to Sarkozy's already difficult re-election battle this spring.

It is the first corruption fall-out from a long-running family feud which has torn apart the L'Oreal hairspray dynasty, headed by the elderly billionaire heiress Liliane Bettencourt. If Woerth is found to have used his position of influence to secure favours from Bettencourt's financial manager or to solicit wads of cash from 89-year-old Bettencourt – who suffers from Alzheimer's – he risks up to 10 years in prison and a heavy fine.

The Bettencourt saga began four years ago as a family feud between mother and daughter in one of the richest families in France, but it has sparked a raft of judicial investigations including on tax evasion and illegal party funding. In 2007, Liliane Bettencourt's daughter began legal action claiming that a dandy Paris socialite and photographer had befriended her ageing mother and taken advantage of her frail state of mind to persuade her to give him over €1bn in artworks, insurance policies and cash.

The ensuing legal battle lifted the lid on activities at the Bettencourt mansion west of Paris, including talk of politicians who came to dinner and left with brown envelopes of cash. When a disgruntled butler hid a tape-recorder in the drawing room, the spotlight turned to Woerth and Sarkozy's 2007 election campaign.

Bettencourt's former accountant, Claire Thibout, testified to having been asked in 2007 to provide batches of €150,000 to Woerth, who was then Sarkozy's campaign treasurer. She described how on one occasion in January 2007, three months before Sarkozy's election battle, Bettencourt's financial manager Patrick de Maistre asked her for €150,000 which she understood would be given to Woerth for the election campaign. She said she couldn't produce that amount of cash and gave de Maistre €50,000. She understood he intended to take the rest from Swiss accounts. Under French election law, individual election campaign donations cannot exceed €4,600.

The influence-peddling charge is likely to relate to Woerth's links to de Maistre, who secured a job for Woerth's wife, Florence, on the team that managed the heiress's fortune. Allegedly in return, Woerth secured him the Legion of Honour, France's highest award. On the butler's tapes, de Maistre is heard instructing the confused elderly lady to sign cheques for politicians and saying Woerth was a "friend" to whom she should give money.

Woerth has not so far been charged with illegal campaign funding.

Woerth, who has denied any wrongdoing or illegal cash for Sarkozy's election campaign, had to leave government in 2010 over the affair. But he is now on Sarkozy's campaign team for the president's reelection battle in April. De Maitre, who denies wrongdoing, has been charged with abusing Bettencourt's mental frailty.

The case calls into question Sarkozy's election pledge to inject some "morals" into descredited French politics. The president's entourage is already under fire over allegedly trying to hush up the affair. Two close Sarkozy allies, a top prosecutor and the head of France's domestic secret services, have been charged with spying on journalists to unmask their sources for reports on the Bettencourt case.

Sarkozy, who as president is immune from criminal prosecution, has denied any wrongdoing. But if he loses the election, which pollsters currently predict will be won by the Socialist favourite François Hollande, judges could request to question him. The case is one of several corruption investigations that have damaged Sarkozy's closest circle.

French press review 

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By Vladimir Smekhov

The cordial handshake between Nicolas Sarkozy and François Hollande, a warning over French public spending by the financial watchdog, the Cour des Comptes, the industrial espionage at the heart of French industry and the school for lottery winners are among the top stories in today’s French papers.

We start with the conservative Le Figaro. On its front page, it features the handshake betweenthe Socialist candidate François Hollande and President Sarkozy during a dinner last night.

“A duel between Sarkozy and Hollande will definitely take place,” claims the weekly on its politics pages.

According to a pollster quoted by Le Figaro, it looks like public opinion is entering the “crystallisation stage”, where the two main candidates are leaving the rest of the competition behind.

The second round of the presidential election could become a pure referendum “for or against Sarkozy”, says the daily.

On its special reports page, the daily publishes a piece on Libya. “Tripoli under control of war lords”, reads the title.

The paper’s correspondent tells a riveting story of rivalry between former fighters from Misrata, Zentane or Nalut. Once revolutionaries who risked their lives in battles, they are now fighting for military and political control of the Libyan capital.

According to the journalist, the armed groups who helped to topple the Khadafi regime, are refusing the central government’s efforts to make them lay down their arms.

They claim they are protecting the “weak government “. There is also the armed group of Abdalhakim Beklhadj who became the “Chief of the Tripoli military council”. The rival groups suspect him of having a “hidden islamist agenda”.

Moustapha Abdeljalil, the head of the NTC tells the paper that most of the fighters will soon become part of the national army. But some of the armed groups plan on entering politics.

The article concludes by saying “Tomorrow’s Libya will have two kinds of political parties. Those with an armed wing and those without”.

“The financial watchdog asks for real austerity”, announces centrist Le Monde. In its annual 1,000-page report, la Cour des Comptes gives Sarkozy's government kudos for keeping spending in check - the most progress they say since 1994.

However the paper says that if the structural deficit stays at its 2011 level, French state debt could reach 100 per cent of GDP by 2015.

Le Figaro’s media pages reads “The incredible health of Time Warner”. The “Harry Potter magic” is still intact, reports the paper, since the group’s profits last year increased by 12 per cent.

The Harry Potter sequel has for the 10th consecutive time boosted the profits of the legendary Warner Bros studios.

But Harry Potter is not the only reason for the exceptional profits of the company. The group’s television assets, like CNN or the HBO cable channel are in great shape. Must be thanks to addictive HBO TV series like Boardwalk Empire or the Game of Thrones.

The popular Aujourd’hui en France features two fascinating stories on its front page. “The curious practices of our companies" is a special report on industrial espionage conducted in some of France’s leading companies. Spying on competitors, employees or potential rivals – the report reads like a true spy novel.

And finally, how can you overcome your shyness if your are a freshly minted multi-millionaire? Aujourd’hui en France invites us to follow a workshop organised by the national lottery.

We follow 27 winners of the French Loto, Euromillions or other lotteries as they discover the delights of the Parisian capital.

This time the workshop includes a tour of the l’Opera Garnier.The aim is to make them feel comfortable in an unfamiliar setting. And if by the end of the day, they are still not at ease, they shouldn’t worry – more workshops are planned at the famous Le Drouot auction house or a gastronomic discovery lesson with Michelin star winner, Guy Martin.

Probably, a good recipe to teach the nouveaux riches how to spend their money in style!

French News - 9 February

Further cancellations as airline strike enters last day

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Air France cancelled 65% of its long-haul flights and 75% of its medium- and short-haul flights on Thursday, the final day of a strike over the airline's striking policies. The airline claims the stoppage is costing EUR8-10mn per day.

 

AFP - French flag-carrier Air France cancelled more than a third of its long-haul flights and a quarter of shorter journeys Thursday as a four-day strike by aviation workers entered its final day.

The strike by pilots, flight attendants and ground staff was costing Air France eight to 10 million euros ($11-$13 million) per day, the company said.

Air France said it was operating 65 percent of its long-haul flights and 75 percent of medium- and short-haul flights, including by regional subsidiaries.

About the same proportion of flights had been cancelled on the third day of the strike on Wednesday.

Air France, the firm the worst hit by the industrial action, urged customers to postpone travel and sent out tens of thousands of emails and text messages to clients warning them their flights had been cancelled or delayed.

The strike hit services at Paris's Charles de Gaulle airport, a global aviation hub, as well as several French regional airports.

Unions called the strike to protest against a draft law that would require aviation workers to individually give 48 hours notice prior to striking, saying this limits labour rights.

The bill was approved by France's lower house last month and is due to be debated in the Senate.

The head of the SNPL pilots' union, Yves Deshayes, said the union was to meet transport ministry officials on Friday and then decide whether to pursue further action against the bill.

"Depending on the proposals made we will decide whether to continue the strike or not," he said, adding that industrial action could take place during France's February school holidays.

But Transport Minister Thierry Mariani said the government would not drop the bill, which he said was aimed at protecting passengers' rights.

"It is out of the question that we move on this text because it is not only useful but indispensable," he told AFP. "French policy is decided in parliament and not in a union headquarters."

Unions said more than 60 percent of pilots were participating in the strike but Air France said only 30 percent of pilots and 15 percent of flight attendants were taking part.

Cold spell will continue until Sunday

The very cold air mass now present in Eastern Europe is linked to a Siberian anticyclone.

Until the end of the weekend, the average daytime temperatures will often be 10 ° C  lower than seasonal norms.

This cold continental air will be accompanied by a strengthening wind which accentuates the cold chill.

This morning it's especially cold on an axis running from southwest to northeast and the Alps.

Temperatures are below -10 ° C.

Last night temperatures fell to

 -17 ° C in  Romorantin (41),

 -16 ° C in Bergerac (24) where a new record low for the month of February was brocken,

-15 ° C in Aurillac (15),

-14 ° C in Vichy (03) and Luxeuil (70),

-12 ° C in Strasbourg and even -11 ° C to Toulouse.

Frosts are also widespread from the tip of Brittany to Nice. 

OUTLOOK

The cold snap will last at least until Sunday in the east and central-east with night temperatures generally strongly negative between -10 ° C and -15 ° C and maximum values between -3 ° C and -5 ° C during the day.

In other regions, there will be frost at dawn, usually between -5 and -10 ° C, but in some places down to -15 ° C.

Daytime temperatures will rise by 1 to 3 degrees today and will be generally between 0 and -2 ° C. 

They fall again by 1 or 2 degrees tomorrow and Saturday . 

A more widespread thaw is expected Sunday afternoon in most regions.

Next week could be warmer, but more snow is expected. 

________________________________________

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French power levels soar as big freeze bites

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Most of France remained on high alert on Wednesday as Arctic conditions continued to bite a day after electricity consumption in the country hit record levels as residents battled the bitter cold. Freezing temperatures are set to continue.

By FRANCE 24  (text)

 

France remained in the tight grip of the big freeze on Wednesday with over two thirds of the country still on high alert because of treacherous conditions.

On Tuesday evening electricity consumption hit record levels in the country despite warnings being issued to save power during the cold snap.

National weather service Météo France predicted minimum temperatures could drop as low as -12°C on Wednesday.

People are also being advised to take care when travelling on the country’s icy roads.

The weather has affected flights at the country’s airports, including Paris’s Charles de Gaulle, which has already been crippled by an Air France strike.

Threat of power blackouts

There were concerns on Tuesday that parts of France would be hit by power blackouts as the levels of electricity consumption soared as people turned up their heating to battle the big chill.

At the peak time of 7pm on Tuesday, electricity consumption hit a total of 100.500 megawatts (MW) beating the previous record of 96.71 megawatts set in 2010.

RTE, the company that runs the national grid, has assured the public that they would be able to cope with the soaring levels of power and stated that there will not be power cuts.

But in Brittany, a region vulnerable to power outages, residents have been advised to reduce the amount of electricity used.

In the southwest of France, thousands of homes in Toulouse, as well as several schools and a retirement home were left without heating during the freezing conditions after a heating system failed.

France on ‘orange alert’

In all, 55 departments across France were placed on ‘vigilance orange’ – the second highest alert on Wednesday because of the “exceptional” conditions.

From the Alsace and the Auvergne to the Dordogne and Charente residents have been advised to take precaution and ‘keep up to date with the changing situation’.

The Arctic spell which has claimed more than 400 lives across Europe will continue to bite over the coming days, forecasters say.

The freezing conditions continue to claim the lives of several people in France.

A retired couple were reportedly found dead in their flat in Villetaneuse, Seine-Saint-Denis after being poisoned by carbon monoxide gas from a faulty heater. A farmer in Vaucluse was also killed trying to clear ice from the roofs of his greenhouses.

Deficit falls as Bank of France forecasts zero growth

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France's Budget Minister Valérie Pécresse at the Elysée Palace on 19 January 2011

AFP/Boris Horvat

By RFI

France’s budget ministry announced on Wednesday that the central budget deficit had fallen at the end of 2011, and was hailed as a sign that the country was making financial progress. The Bank of France, however, predicted economic stagnation for the first part of 2012.

The country's deficit fell to 90.8 billion euros from a record 148.8 billion euros the previous year.

France’s Economy Minister Francois Baroin told RTL radio on Wednesday that France is “a serious country, which is modernising itself and will be ahead of schedule on the plan to reduce its deficit, whereas six months ago we were told it was unattainable."

Meanwhile, The Bank of France predicted on Wednesday that France, the eurozone’s second largest economy, would stagnate in the first three months of 2012.

It said that France’s industrial activity only progressed slightly during the month of January, with added slowdowns in the service sector.

The bank blamed fewer temporary work contracts and weak activity in the information technology sector as reasons for the January slowdown.

Also on Wednesday, France increased its public debt forecasts for 2012 and 2013, acknowledging the 6.6 billion euros it must pay into the eurozone permanent rescue fund.

Forecasts showed that public debt would be 89.1 percent of gross domestic product instead of 88.3 percent, originally predicated for this year.

France’s stocks remained close to desired levels, with prices continuing to increase slightly.

A380 fleet to be checked for further wing cracks

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The European Aviation Safety Agency ordered Airbus to check all superjumbo A380 planes for wing cracks Wednesday following cracks found during "an unscheduled internal inspection". Airbus claims there is no safety risk.

 

AFP - The European Aviation Safety Agency ordered Wednesday that all Airbus A380 superjumbo planes be checked for wing cracks, even as the aircraft manufacturer insisted there was nothing to worry about.

The cracks had been found "following an unscheduled internal inspection of an A380 wing," EASA said in a statement.

Further to the finding, inspections were carried out on a number of other aeroplanes during which a new form of cracking was identified which, "if not detected and corrected, may lead to reduction of the structural integrity of the aeroplane," the statement said.

EASA, which had already said last month ordered that 20 such jets be inspected following the discovery of cracks in the wings of Singapore Airlines, Emirates and Air France planes, has expanded the checks to all 67 A380s currently in operation, a spokesman said.

The announcement came after Australia's Qantas removed one of its A380 from service after discovering "minor cracks" in its wings, but said that there was no risk to flight safety.

When the first checks were announced last month, Airbus's vice president Tom Williams insisted the tiny wing cracks could be easily repaired and did not pose any danger.

"This is not a fatigue cracking problem," Williams said, blaming the cracks on design and manufacturing issues instead.

"The cracks do not compromise the airworthiness of the aircraft," he insisted.

Airbus reiterated that stance again on Wednesday.

The EASA spokesman said the checks comprised both a "detailed visual inspection", but also more intense testing that would be able to detect potential faults invisible to the naked eye.

There was no urgency to the inspections and those aircraft that had already flown more than 1,800 flights would be checked first, he said.

Earlier, Qantas took one of its A380s out of service Wednesday after discovering "minor cracks" in its wings.

The Australian airline stressed that it was not the "type two" cracking found across the global A380 fleet last month which was "now the subject of a European airworthiness directive."

"To date, type two cracking has not been found on Qantas aircraft," a Qantas spokeswoman told AFP.

The small cracking, on "some wing rib feet", was discovered during an extra round of precautionary checks requested by Airbus on the Qantas superjumbo after it hit severe turbulence over India in January.

Seven passengers were injured and four required hospital treatment in Singapore following the incident.

"This cracking is not related to the turbulence, or specific to Qantas, but is traced back to a manufacturing issue," the Qantas spokeswoman said.

"Airbus has confirmed that it has no effect on flight safety."

Qantas, which has 12 A380s in its fleet, said an "inspection and repair regime has been developed" in conjunction with Airbus and it expected the jet in question to return to service within a week.

"We will follow Airbus instructions on any further action that may be required," the spokeswoman said.

It is the second Qantas A380 to be found with wing rib cracks, with a superjumbo involved in a dramatic mid-air engine explosion over Indonesia in November 2010 also suffering cracking.

The A380 is the world's biggest passenger jet and a key product in Airbus's line-up as it battles its main rival, US giant Boeing, for the top spot in the world civil airliner industry.

The double-decker plane entered service in 2007 after years of technical delays. There are now 67 in service around the world and, while they have never had a fatal accident, there have been teething problems.

Former French minister questioned in Bettencourt affair

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Eric Woerth at the National Assembly in Paris on 7 February 2012

Reuters/Charles Platiau

By RFI

A former French minister headed to a Bordeaux court on Wednesday to testify before investigating judges, over his role in an illegal financing campaign by L’Oreal heiress Liliane Bettencourt. Eric Woerth could be charged with illegally raising campaign funds and taking advantage of Bettencourt.

Woerth, France’s former labour minister, is accused of having used illegal funds from Bettencourt to help finance President Nicolas Sarkozy’s 2007 presidential campaign.

Bettencourt’s former accountant, Claire Thibout, has testified that she was asked to provide batches of 150,000 euros to Woerth numerous times in 2007, while he was treasurer of Sarkozy’s UMP party.

After leaving the government in 2010, police lead several searches of Woerth’s home, as well as the UMP office implicated in the case.

Sarkozy has always denied taking illegal sums during his presidential campaign.

Heiress to the L’Oreal cosmetics empire, Bettencourt is France’s wealthiest woman at 88, and is estimated to be worth over 16 billion euros.

Paris commemorates deadly Algerian War protest

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France's left-wing parties commemorated the 50-year anniversary of the Feb. 8, 1962 killing by French police of nine demonstrators protesting the war in Algeria at the Paris Charonne metro station. The state's role in the killings remains divisive.

 

AFP - Fifty years on, France remains divided over how to mark the Algerian war, a bitter conflict which ended 132 years of colonial rule in the north African territory while very nearly tearing French society apart.

For years, rival factions have commemorated their own victims while drawing a veil over past responsibilities for a war marked on all sides by torture and massacres, and the final exile of French-born settlers.

French communists have long commemorated the February 8, 1962 killing by police of nine demonstrators at the Paris Charonne metro station.

On Wednesday, left-leaning demonstrators will once again mark the event by rallying at the metro station which witnessed the violent police assault on a peaceful, but outlawed demonstration which had seen some 30,000 people rally to call for peace in Algeria.

"We knew the demonstration had been declared illegal, but we went with the idea we'd just be beaten up as usual rather than killed," said sociologist Maryse Tripier, who took part in the rally as a schoolgirl.

Fifty years on, trade unions and left-leaning political parties continue to demand that the French state fully account for its role in the killings.

Others however claim that by highlighting the Charonne massacre the Left helped bury another less well known police massacre of some 200 pro-independence Algerian demonstrators in Paris on October 17, 1961.

The death toll has never officially been made public, and may never be known, as many of the bodies were simply thrown into the river Seine.

For French historian Olivier Le Cour Grandmaison, "France has still not acknowledged its responsibility for this state crime".

It was only last year that Francois Hollande, the socialist presidential candidate, and Bertrand Delanoe, the socialist mayor of Paris, paid tribute to the 200 dead.

French-born Algerian settlers, over a million of whom resettled in France as a result of Algerian independence, have their own memorial date -- July 5, 1962.

On that day hundreds of them were massacred in the Algerian coastal city of Oran by pro-independence forces, despite the fact that a ceasefire to end the war had been signed in Geneva three and a half months previously.

Algerians who served as auxiliaries in the French army, the "Harkis", many of whom also sought refuge in France, for their part remember the systematic killings they were subjected to by pro-independence forces when French forces withdrew from Algeria.

Far-right presidential candidate Marine Le Pen, whose father fought in Algeria, last month called for France to honor the Harkis and the former settlers, while rejecting the idea of a commemoration to mark March 19, 1962 when the Geneva peace accords were signed.

"It's as if no one is able to acknowledge the suffering of others," said French historian Benjamin Stora.

"Everyone has his own date. His own dead. At a time when everyone should be able to jointly honour all the victims, be they Communists, Algerians, pieds-noirs (the name given to the French settlers) or Harkis," he said.

For French historian Gilles Manceron, a former deputy president of the human rights' league, most French people "just want to turn the page" on the whole drama.

Long-term campers win right to stay

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guidedumobilhome.com

By Alison Hird

Around 70,000 people in France live on camp-sites all year round, either through choice or necessity.

A draft bill, passed by the national assembly late last year, sought to limit the time people could stay there to just three months.

Under pressure from housing advocates, the MP behind the amendment has just agreed to withdraw it.

A stay of execution for those who cannot find any other housing solution.

Unemployment - an issue for voters

Unemployment rate in France is nearly 10 per cent

Reuters/Jean-Paul Pelissier 

By Angela Diffley 

At a 12 year high of nearly ten per cent, it's frequently cited in surveys as the main concern among voters.

According to Les Echos, the French financial daily, almost 900 factories have been closed since the economic crisis of 2008, with the loss of some 100,000 jobs in industry.

Sarkozy aims to push through measures before the election in a bid to reduce unemployment.

He hopes to make employers more willing to hire staff by removing some of the social security contributions they pay and including them instead in a sales tax, dubbed by some as a “Social VAT”.

He also wants to give employers the power to negotiate working time with their staff: to reduce hours and salaries at company level if deemed necessary, in order to maintain threatened jobs.

Opponents point out that Sarkozy had five years to introduce such reforms and say the moves now smack of desperation.

Socialist François Hollande promises 60,000 new jobs in schools, and plans to reduce tax on smaller companies.

He wants improved credit for research and says he will force companies who re-locate outside France to pay back any state subsidies received.

Critics say he is vague about how to pay for his plans.

Immigration - not an election issue - yet.

Members of Strasbourg's Muslim community

Reuters/Vincent Kessler

By Angela Diffley

Always in the background, but so far not as prominent an issue as it was in 2007.

Back then, Sarkozy actively tried to attract sympathisers of the far-right Front National but polls show that many who voted for him then intend to go back to their old party this time.

However, their old party is trying to change. New leader Marine Le Pen (daughter of Jean-Marie) has re-vamped the party’s image.

She talks less of immigration, much more about protecting French jobs and industry and the negative effects of globalisation.

Sarkozy’s so-called “immigration choisie” policy was inspired by the systems in Canada and Australia, where quotas are set to attract immigrants to work in sectors where jobs are unfilled, such as the construction industry.

He was criticised when he tightened the rules on immigration for family reasons and for foreigners wishing to work after graduating in France.

Socialist François Hollande was asked in a TV programme whether he would continue Sarkozy’s policy. After much equivocating he failed to give a clear answer, saying instead that he favoured “immigration intelligente” without specifying what he meant.

The question of immigration in France is inextricably linked to the place of muslims in society.

France colonised several north and west African countries, and many people from these countries later settled in France where they and their children now make up Europe’s largest muslim population.

Sarkozy’s presidency saw two major initiatives in this area: a debate on national identity which was widely seen, even by supporters of the idea, as divisive, damaging and unproductive; and the ban on wearing a burka in public places, which polls show was a popular reform.

Most immigrants to France come from European Union countries, so France has little control over them. When Sarkozy sent back Romanians living in illegal camps in France, creating a huge furore, most returned a few months later.

Economy and debt - losing the AA rating no impact on France

Demonstrators outside Standard and Poor's in Paris

Reuters/Mal Langsdon

By Angela Diffley

France was downgraded in mid-January by credit ratings agency Standard and Poors, though its triple A rating has been maintained by the 2 bigger agencies.

Though the S&P downgrade did not trigger the calamity predicted by some, it was seen as politically damaging for Sarkozy.

The gap in France between imports and exports reached a record high in 2011 and there is concern that France is not doing enough business in lucrative emerging markets.

Sarkozy stresses that many big economies are suffering amid difficult conditions worldwide, and hopes that his prominent role in trying to manage the eurozone debt crisis will earn him votes. He’s gambling that voters will see Socialist plans to tax and spend as irresponsible.

Socialist François Hollande says he would renegotiate aspects of the fiscal pact (which was agreed after a hugely difficult EU summit in December) persuading Germany's Angela Merkel to include more unspecified measures to stimulate growth.

Marine le Pen of the Front National has been loud in her condemnation of the whole euro project. She wants France to pull out of the shared currency, and advocates a protectionist economy

Centrist François Bayrou was a lone voice in 2007 when he insisted France should urgently deal with its deficit...This time around he has a new authority.

The economy is stagnating and whoever wins the election, there are few options to kickstart it because of the constraints imposed by eurozone budget rules.

French press review

By Michael Fitzpatrick

In today's French press, it's a battle of political extremes, while Interior Minister Claude Guéant causes a kafuffle amongst UMP party members.

Jean-Luc Mélenchon and Marine Le Pen are on the front page of Le Monde, where they represent the "battle of the extremes".

Le Pen is the leader of the far right National Front party, while Mélenchon can be found at the other end of the political spectrum. He is the presidential candidate of an extreme Left coalition, including the Communist Party, the Unified Left and the Party of the Left.

The two have a lot in common, despite the political gap. Both are loudly critical of the way the economic crisis is being managed, and see the working class as their natural support. Both also hope to seduce those disappointed by mainstream politics.

And they despise one another personally, to the point where their little war has become a festering side issue in the main race. Le Pen currently accounts for 16% of voting intentions, Mélenchon for about 8%, so their supporters are not to be ignored by the leading contenders.

Yesterday saw the first mass walk-out by the French government since 1898. At that time, the Dreyfus Affair was a bone of contention.

Yesterday, it was the Guéant Affair. After his weekend statements to the effect that not all civilisations are equal, Guéant was yesterday associated with Nazi Germany and the concentration camps. The comparison provoked a riot among UMP members and saw the Prime Minister, François Fillon, lead his chattering charges from the debating chamber.

Elsewhere, communist L'Humanité recalls the tragic events around the Charonne metro station here in Paris fifty years ago.

Police attacked a group of people protesting against the war in Algeria, killing nine and injuring dozens. No one has ever been charged in connection with the killings.

How the French presidential election works

Babsy/Wikimedia Commons

By Angela Diffley

France is gearing up to vote in the ninth presidential election since the fifth republic was introduced in 1959. The first round takes place on 22 April. If there is no clear winner, there will be a second run-off round on 6 May. RFI explains the rules and regulations governing the vote.

Who can be president? A French president can serve for a maximum of two five-year terms (changed from seven-year terms by former president Jacques Chirac.) Candidates must be French citizens. In order to stand they must first gather 500 signatures from elected officials (eg.mayors). Those who sign are sometimes called sponsors, though their signatures don't necessarily imply support for a candidate's ideas. The names of the sponsors are published shortly before the election date so mayors are careful about giving their signatures. The rule is designed to limit the number of frivolous candidates. Who can vote? The president is directly elected by the French people, no electoral colleges as in USA. Voters must be French citizens aged 18 or over. Voting is not compulsory. How and when? The election nearly always has two rounds. In theory, if any candidate wins an absolute majority (50% of the vote plus at least one extra vote) he or she is immediately elected. In practice, this has never happened. Charles de Gaulle came the closest, winning 44 % in the first round in 1965. Usually the two candidates with the highest scores in round one, face each other in a second round, held 14 days later. The eliminated candidates often advise their voters who to back, among the two remaining hopefuls. A candidate who comes second in the first round could win the presidency if he has broader support in the second round. Elections are always held on Sundays. Campaigns finish at midnight on the Friday before the vote. Voting stations open at 8 am and close at 6 pm in small towns, 8 pm in cities. Publication of results or estimates before 8 pm is illegal, but foreign radio, TV and internet sites now make estimates available before that time. For this reason, voting in French overseas constituencies in the Americas (eg. French Guiana, Martinique, Guadeloupe) as well as embassies and consulates there, now takes place on Saturdays in a special exemption.

French News - 8 February

Expected Montpellier Airport Cancellations  today - see

travel page

2 more flights cancelled

A l’Arrivée à Montpellier Paris Orly >>  Montpellier AF 7550 –17h05

AU DEPART DE MONTPELLIER Montpellier >>  Paris Orly AF 7551 – 17h50

easyJet French strike – update at 08:00 on 08th February 

easyJet can confirm that it has operated a full programme yesterday and it plans normal operations for today, Wednesday 08th February.The contingency measures proactively taken have enabled us to mitigate the impact of the industrial action.

Although the situation is beyond our control, easyJet apologises for any inconvenience caused and strongly advises passengers to check the status of your flight before departing for the airport.

It also appears that Ryanair flights in and out of l'Herault have been operating normally

.

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Ruling party storms out of parliament over 'Nazi' slur

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French President Nicolas Sarkozy's conservative UMP party stormed out of parliament Tuesday after a Socialist MP accused Interior Minister Claude Guéant (pictured) of reviving Nazi ideology with a comment about not all civilisations being equal.

 

AFP - French Prime Minister Francois Fillon and his ministers stormed out of parliament in protest Tuesday after an opposition deputy accused the government of flirting with Nazi ideology.

The accusation from opposition Socialist lawmaker Serge Letchimy came in response to Interior Minister Claude Gueant's remark at the weekend that not all civilisations were equal.

Letchimy said in parliament: "You, Mr. Gueant... you bring us back day after day to those European ideologies which gave birth to the concentration camps".

He then asked: "Mr. Gueant, the Nazi regime, which was so worried about purity, was that a civilization?"

That provoked uproar among government ministers and deputies from President Nicolas Sarkozy's right-wing UMP party, who walked out en masse. The weekly question time was subsequently suspended.

Gueant, who is also responsible for immigration and is known as a hardliner, provoked a storm of controversy with the comments on Saturday.

"Contrary to what the left's relativist ideology says, for us all civilisations are not of equal value," he told a gathering of right-wing students.

"Those which defend liberty, equality and fraternity seem to us superior to those which accept tyranny, the subservience of women, social and ethnic hatred," he said in his speech, a copy of which was obtained by AFP.

He also stressed the need to "protect our civilisation".

The left denounced his speech as an attempt by Sarkozy's camp to woo supporters of rival candidate Marine Le Pen's far-right National Front ahead of a two-round presidential election in April and May

.

Electricity consumption in France to hit new high

as cold snap continues

.

A sign posted near the partially frozen Saint Martin canal in Paris

Reuters/Charles Platiau

By RFI

Electricity consumption in France is expected to hit a record high on Tuesday night as the biting cold continues to grip the country and people are being advised to conserve as much power as possible. The UN weather service said temperatures would remain low until March.

Power warnings have been issued in Brittany and the Var and Alpes Maritimes region as electricity consumption is set rise to 100.200 megawatts compared to the previous record of 96.710 megawatts recorded on 15 December 2010. But RTE, the company which runs the energy grid, says there should not be any power blackouts.

Meanwhile, 400 people are reported to have died in Europe from the freezing weather since the cold snap began 11 days ago.

More bodies were found either on the streets, in their cars or in their homes in Germany, Greece, Italy, Poland, Hungary and across the Balkans.

In a dramatic effort to prevent two of the Serbia's main waterways from becoming completely blocked, officials have called up army explosive experts to break up huge blocks of ice which had formed.

The Authorities also hired icebreaking ships from Hungary to ease the flow on the Danube, the main waterway for all commercial shipping in Serbia. The port authority said the Danube was navigable around Belgrade but with difficulty.

There was similar chaos elsewhere in the Balkans with a train linking Croatia's central coastal town of Split and the capital Zagreb derailing as a result of a snow drift. There were no reports of injuries.

Large parts of eastern and southern Bosnia were also cut off by the snow and avalanches. There has been no contact since Friday with the hamlet of Zijemlje, some 30 kilometres from the town of Mostar.

The numbers killed by hypothermia in Poland rose to 68 after the authorities there recorded another six deaths in the last 24 hours. The majority of those who have died were homeless, many of whom had been drinking heavily.

The cold snap has also seen a sharp rise in the number of people being killed by carbon monoxide poisoning from faulty gas heaters.

France follows Spain, Italy, Britain and Belgium in recalling Syrian ambassador

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France's Syrian ambassador Eric Chevallier (L) with US counterpart Robert Ford in Syria 2011

AFP PHOTO/HO/YOUTUBE

By RFI

France has followed Spain, Britain, Belgium and Italy in withdrawing its ambassador from Syria, a foreign ministry spokesman said on Tuesday, amid the regime's ongoing bloody crackdown on a revolt against Bashar al-Assad's rule.

"Faced with the worsening repression being carried out by the Damascus regime against its own population, French authorities have decided to recall France's ambassador to Syria for consultations," Bernard Valero said. He added the ambassador would be back in Paris “within the next few days”.

The United States closed its embassy in Damascus on Monday and recalled the ambassador Robert Ford. The Gulf Cooperation Council  - Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Kuwait, Oman - is also recalling its ambassador.

But the European Union says it has no plans to withdraw its head of delegation from Syria stressing that the EU needs a presence there to "report and observe".

The Western powers have denounced the decision on Saturday by Russia and China to veto a motion before the UN Security Council to condemn Syria, and Assad's forces have stepped up their assault on the rebel city of Homs.

Meanwhile, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, who is visiting Syria, says he has held "very useful" meetings with Syria's leadership and President Bashar al-Assad assured him he was "fully committed" to a cessation of violence.

Valero called on Lavrov to use Russia's influence to pressure Syria into accepting a regional peace plan.

"We expect Mr Lavrov will use his visit to Damascus to make the regime understand its isolation and to support the Arab League plan, a brave initiative that must be the basis of any solution," he said.

French trade deficit reaches record high in 2011

.

Ministry of Finance, Bercy, Paris

(CC)/Wikipédia

By RFI

France has posted a record 69.6 billion euro trade deficit for 2011 although the trade gap for December alone showed a slight improvement at 4.99 billion euros, compared with 5.35 billion euros in the same month a year earlier.

 In an interview with French daily Le Figaro, junior minister for trade Pierre Lellouche defended the figure saying it was better than the original estimate of 75 billion euros announced in January.

In 2011, France's imports rose by 11 per cent to 498 billion euros while exports rose by 8.6 per cent to 429 billion euros, allowing for the creation of 90,000 new jobs, Lellouche told the newspaper.

"We can be satisfied at the good results in certain sectors, the agro-food sector saw a historic surplus of 11.4 billion euros. Aeronautics also saw a surplus, of 17.7 billion, thanks to the sale of 534 Airbus planes," he said.

However French exports rose less last year than in Germany, Britain, Spain, Italy or the United States. And France's global trade share has fallen sharply since 1990 from 6.2 per cent to 3.6 per cent.

Elsewhere in the eurozone, Greece was in the grip of a 24-hour general strike on Tuesday called by the country's biggest unions to fight a new wave of austerity measures being negotiated with the EU and IMF.

The strike was called by Greece's biggest unions, including the private sector GSEE and the civil servants' union, Adedy.

There was only a skeleton service operating in schools, ministries, hospitals and banks while commuters using buses and metros faced major delays in Athens. Air travel was expected to remain unaffected however.

On Tuesday, Prime Minister Lucas Papademos is to meet the heads of the socialist, conservative and far-right parties that form his unwieldy coalition and reach agreement on budget cuts demanded by Greece's creditors.

Papademos, who is being pulled one way by his EU partners and the other by domestic sentiment, met officials from the EU, European Central Bank and IMF again on Monday evening.

Those talks were aimed at wrapping up weeks of negotiations and saving his country from a historic default in March that could roil the 17-nation eurozone and undercut a global economic recovery.

Greece exit would not end euro, says EU commissioner

 Ms Kroes said the euro could survive even if Greece left the single currency

Pressure is rising on Greece's national unity government to agree tough reforms demanded by the country's lenders.

The EU, IMF and European Central Bank have made further spending cuts, labour market reforms and bank rescues a condition of extending a new bailout.

European Commission Vice President Neelie Kroes told a Dutch newspaper that there would be "absolutely no man overboard" if Greece left the euro.

Greek party leaders meet on Tuesday afternoon amid a general strikes.

A previous meeting on Sunday night proved inconclusive, leading to further last-minute talks between Prime Minister Lukas Papademos and the Troika of official lenders on Monday.

Meanwhile, public transport and the country's ports ground to a halt as two of the largest Greek public-sector unions began a strike on Tuesday in protest at continuing austerity.

The Greek economy is expected to suffer a fifth consecutive year of recession this year, and has already shrunk 12% since 2008.

'Good will'

"What's a man overboard?" Ms Kroes told the Dutch newspaper Volkskrant. "It's always said that if you let one country get out, if it asks to get out, then the whole structure collapses. But that's simply not true.

"The Greeks have to realise that we Dutch and we Germans can only sell emergency Greek aid to our taxpayers if there's evidence of good will."

A similar message was delivered with a more optimistic spin by Jean-Claude Juncker, chairman of the "eurogroup" of eurozone finance ministers, who said he had no doubt that Greece would remain within the eurozone, provided that it met its obligations to other members.

"The euro will outlive us all," he said.

There has been growing speculation that eurozone leaders are preparing the way for a Greek exit from the single currency.

"It would take a true optimist to expect the Greece's fiscal difficulties will start to improve once its second bailout is agreed," said Dutch bank Rabobank in a research note on Tuesday.

"For [eurozone] politicians it is not necessary sympathy with Greece's position that is keeping Greece in [the euro], but rather the potential for the Greek crisis to deal the rest of [the eurozone] an enormous blow through contagion, that is underpinning support to maintain the status quo."

Debt write-off

Fears have most recently focused on Portugal, whose government is rumoured to be sounding out lenders about a restructuring of its own heavy debtload.

As part of Greece's new 130bn euro ($170bn; £110bn) bailout deal, private sector lenders have agreed to write off up to 70% of the value of the money that the Greek government currently owes them.

Eurogroup chairman Mr Juncker gave his backing to a German plan that a proportion of future bailout money should be paid into an escrow account that can only be used by the Greek government to repay its other, private-sector lenders.

On Monday, Greek Finance Minister Evangelos Venizelos said the negotiations in Athens - which went on until four in the morning - were "so tough that as soon as one chapter closes another opens".

He was speaking after meetings with EU, International Monetary Fund and European Central Bank delegates.

Mr Venizelos went on to criticise the political parties for not reaching a deal with the nation's benefactors.

"Instead of looking at this tragic dilemma... there are many who spend their effort on a conventional, outdated, party confrontation as if nothing has happened.

"Sadly, we are distracted and we are not telling the Greek people the truth," he said in a statement.

Greece was bailed out once in 2010 and another bailout deal was agreed last year by the EU and IMF.

Athens needs the 130bn euros from the latter bailout and help from private lenders to avoid a debt default.

Deadlines have come and gone during the negotiations, but Greece faces one unavoidable deadline on 20 March - a 14.4bn euros debt repayment that it cannot currently afford to pay.

Austerity measures

On Monday, Greece agreed to pass a new law allowing more government employees to be fired - it is likely to lead to 15,000 civil service jobs being cut.

But Public Sector Reform Minister Dimitris Reppas said he was "opposed to indiscriminate firings".

"The workforce reduction is strictly connected with the restructuring of services and organisations at each ministry.''

Analysis

 Mark Lowen BBC News, Athens

This is a day that shows the bind this government is in: as ordinary Greeks gather on Syntagma Square to protest against austerity, party leaders are locked in crucial talks on more cuts to unlock Greece's bailout funds.

The country is dangerously close to the financial abyss. If the loan money doesn't flow into Greek coffers within the next month, Athens will be unable to pay bond redemptions and would be forced into a potentially catastrophic default.

The framework of a deal to reduce the minimum wage and fire 15,000 civil servants is there, but needs a sign-off by politicians unwilling to back unpopular measures.

Once again Greece seems to be edging towards agreement at the eleventh hour - the fear of failure still appears too great to contemplate by Greece and the eurozone.

Strictly speaking, a default occurs when a borrower has broken the terms of a loan or other debt, for example if a borrower misses a payment. The term is also loosely used to mean any situation that makes clear that a borrower can no longer repay its debts in full, such as bankruptcy or a debt restructuring.
A default can have a number of important implications. If a borrower is in default on any one debt, then all of its lenders may be able to demand that the borrower immediately repay them. Lenders may also be required to write off their losses on the loans they have made.

Nigeria military detains French TV journalists

By JON GAMBRELL, Associated Press

LAGOS, Nigeria (AP) — Soldiers guarding a city at the heart of ethnic and religious clashes in Nigeria detained and later threw out journalists working for a French television station trying to cover the ongoing unrest there, the reporters said.

The military stopped TF1 journalist Jeremie Drieu, a videographer and local journalist Ahmad Salkida as they tried to work Sunday in the city of Jos, where thousands have been killed in recent years in violence pitting Christians against Muslims. When they attempted to ask for permission to film in an area of the city, soldiers there arrested the journalists and took them to a military command center, where they faced increasingly hostile interrogation, Drieu and Salkida said.

"They started reproaching us for not interviewing the governor," Drieu told The Associated Press on Monday. "They considered when you go to a place, you have to interview the governor."

The soldiers also went through some of the material they filmed, the journalists said. Salkida said military commanders said he was "not patriotic" for helping the journalists work on stories dealing with the unrest.

After the interrogation, soldiers escorted the journalists to their hotel, where they were forced to pack and leave Jos and Plateau state as night fell, the reporters said.

"The official reason was security, which was absurd, because it is not safe to take the road at night," Drieu said.

Drieu left Nigeria on Tuesday to return to France.

A military spokesman for the region, who only gave his name as Capt. Marcus, said Monday that the journalists "didn't get proper clearance" to work in the area. However, Drieu previously received federal accreditation from Nigeria's Information and Communication Ministry to work in the country — the only requirement for foreign journalists working in the country.

Jos sits in Nigeria's "middle belt," where dozens of ethnic groups vie for control of fertile lands. While the violence often cuts across religious and ethnic lines, it often finds its root in political and economic disparities.

Nigerian authorities have become increasingly sensitive to foreign reports coming from journalists working in the nation of more than 160 million as it has become beset by attacks by a radical Islamist sect and popular unrest. Members of the nation's secret police raided a Lagos office complex in January where both the BBC and CNN have offices during a national strike over fuel prices.

While Nigeria has an unruly free press, local journalists have been attacked and killed in the oil-rich nation over their reporting in the past. Underpaid journalists often also accept so-called "brown envelope" bribes slipped into briefing documents at news conferences or cash from interview subjects.

Lenovo loses French lawsuit over Windows bundles

Laptop buyer gets refund after four year battle

By Dave Neal

CHINESE PC MAKER Lenovo has lost a lawsuit in France over whether it can make customers pay for pre-bundled Microsoft Windows software.

This story began four years ago when Frenchman and GNU-Linux user Stéphane Petrus bought a Lenovo 3000 N200 laptop but baulked at the idea of taking it home with Windows on it. He asked the company for a refund for the Windows operating system and finally took it to court.

A French law states that one item cannot be tied to another when it is sold, but initially a court rejected his claims and his case. That ruling was overturned in late January in a small claims court, and Lenovo was fined and ordered to pay damages, including €120 for the software, €800 for personal damages and €1,000 for legal expenses.

"The current victory symbolizes the crumbling of hardware-software bundling in France. This means that the legal arguments in Mr. Pétrus's case can be used again in any EU country," said the campaigning web site No More Rackets.

"Similar free software teams and lawyers will now stand across Europe to broaden this victory and eradicate hardware-software bundling, for the benefit and freedom of choice of all computer users."

The lawyer representing Petrus has published his response to the findings. According to that report Lenovo argued that buying a laptop without software on it was like buying a car without wheels, an argument that the judge rejected.

Source: The Inquirer (http://s.tt/15zNU)

Cap d'Agde – New lifeboats on the way by the end of 2012.

Built by a shipyard in Martigues, Estienne d'Orves the two new boats will replace the previous one dating from 1991.

12 meters long, the boats are powered by two 450 HP engines and cost € 520 000. 

Devastation of the Canal du Midi

Man and machines are removing hundreds of kilometers of 200-year-old plane trees whose twisted trunks now groan, crack and splinter as power saws devastate one of France’s crown jewels.

Soon such bucolic scenes on the Canal du Midi will be no more. Photo: French News Online

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For as FrenchNewsOnline reported  a year ago: “A virulent incurable canker stain disease is killing the magnificent plane trees shading the banks of the 240km-long Canal du Midi and threatening the survival of an extraordinary 17th century feat of French engineering.”

Unesco declared the canal a world heritage site in 1996, saying it had “provided the model for the flowering of technology that led directly to the Industrial Revolution and the modern technological age”.

The 60,000 trees planted along the canal serve three purposes: to buttress the banks, reduce water evaporation by the strong Midi sun and shade canal boats which originally transported textiles and wine but today carry canal boating enthusiasts.

Experts have hesitated until they can wait no longer and so to stop the spread of the canker they are now removing thousands of trees each year in a task that will take a decade or more.

They will be replanted with a canker-resistant variety but the new trees will take years to reach the same size and shape as the gnarled soldiers that shade the waters today.

Read more: http://french-news-online.com/wordpress/?p=8760#ixzz1ldXHnpRM

French press review

By Michael Fitzpatrick

The German Chancellor, Angela Merkel, and the French President, Nicolas Sarkozy, were on television last night, talking about European debt. They weren't speaking the same language, but everyone seems to have got the message. It's the main story on three of this morning's front pages.

Le Monde asks why Merkel has decided to campaign for Sarkozy.

Right-wing Le Figaro says it's a simple case of Germany wanting to keep Socialist Frank Hollande at bay.

Communist L'Humanité cynically says "Merkel votes for Sarkozy".

According to the various analysts, Merkel wants Sarko to hold onto his job as French president, because she's scared of the Socialist contender, Hollande, and his determination to demand a re-negotiation of the so-called stability pact, the basis of the European monetary union, and the brian-child of the German financial-industrial machine.

The fact that it hasn't worked for Greece or Ireland or Portugal is beside the point. It works very well for Germany, and that will do nicely, thank you.

But Merkel can't allow herself to become isolated as the High Priestess of Hardship for the rest of Europe. She needs the support of the Good Soldier Sarkozy to make it all look like a consensus.

And he needs to maintain the image of the man who can save France, Europe and the Galaxy from financial chaos.

And of course Sarko is very keen on copying the German model, where employment costs and job security are low, but production high.
  

French News - 7 February

Nature note

Please try to provide the birds and little animals with some water each day - most of their normal resources are frozen at the moment.  

_________________________________________

More cancellations as French airline strike continues

Air France said it cancelled one in two long-distance flights and one in three medium-haul flights Tuesday as airline workers ratcheted up the pressure on the second day of a strike over a law designed to protect passengers from industrial action.

REUTERS - Air France cancelled one in two long-distance flights and about 30 percent of medium-haul flights on Tuesday as pilots stepped up protests over government plans to make strikers give two day's notice before walk-outs, an airline spokeswoman said.

Some 25,000 passengers have been notified of cancellations via text message or email and further Air France flights could be delayed or scrapped on both long- and short-haul routes, she said.

The industrial action, which adds to disarray caused by freezing temperatures across Europe, should run until Thursday night and has been widely backed by France's pilots union.

Transport Minister Thierry Mariani has said the government will push through legislation allowing airlines to plan minimum services during a strike rather than finding out on the day that staff have not showed up to work.

The legislation, adopted in the lower house of parliament at the end of January, will pass to the Senate in mid-February.

Unconfirmed reports say some easyJet flights have been cancelled

Sarkozy and Merkel vow to support Syria despite

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China, Russia block

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France's President Nicolas Sarkozy and German Chancellor Angela Merkel at news conference in Paris,

Reuters/Philippe Wojazer

By RFI

France and Germany will not accept the blocking of international action on Syria by Russia and China, French President Nicolas Sarkozy said on Monday after a meeting in Paris with German Chanchellor Angela Merkel.

 Russia and China on Saturday blocked a UN Security Council resolution proposed by Arab states condemning Syria for its crackdown on protests.

"Germany and France will not abandon the Syrian people. What is happening is a scandal. We are not ready to accept indecision or the blocking of the international community," Sarkozy said. He added that Prime Minister François Fillon was set to speak with Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin later on Monday.

The president’s statement comes as Syrian forces on Monday pounded the restive city of Homs with mortars, rockets and shelled another protest hub according to activists.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said at least 17 people had died in Homs and at least one person in the town of Zabadani near the capital Damascus.

As well as Syria, the French and German leaders discussed the economic crisis in the eurozone and called on Greece to "live up to their responsibilities" by voting in favour of an unpopular austerity package designed to slash its deficit.

Speaking at a joint news conference. Merkel warned that Greece can receive no more EU aid to cope with the crisis until it reaches a deal with the European Commission, the European Central Bank and the International Monetary Fund on tightening up its budget.

Merkel said both she and Sarkozy, leaders of the two largest economies in the eurozone, would remain united and determined in their approach to Greece.

The German Chancellor and the bulk of the German cabinet descended on Paris, Monday in what is seen as a mission to rescue her French ally President Nicolas Sarkozy's struggling re-election campaign.

Sarkozy trails Socialist challenger François Hollande in the opinion polls, less than 80 days before the French election, and Merkel fears that a new left-wing French administration will diverge from her austerity plans.

Sarkozy, still smarting from France's loss of its AAA debt rating, now cites Germany's success almost daily to justify his own policies, drawing inspiration from both Merkel and her centre-left predecessor Gerhard Schroeder.

The leader of Merkel's CDU party, Hermann Grohe, has confirmed that Merkel will support Sarkozy "at campaign events in the spring".

French politicians visit Jersey to discuss tax and finance

Tax and finance will be

discussed with the

visiting French politicians

Continue reading the main story

Two senior French politicians are in Jersey to discuss tax and finance and its role as a financial centre.

Two members of the Senate Finance Committee, which looks after finance laws in France, are leading the

visit to Jersey.

It follows an official visit by Jersey politicians last year.

They will be holding discussions with the Chief Minister Senator Ian Gorst and his Assistant Chief Minister

Senator Sir Philip Bailhache.

The talks are expected to concentrate on Jersey's role as a finance centre and the regulations it uses.

The Senate Finance Committee president, Senateur Philippe Marini and the Committee's Rapporteur General, Senatrice Nicole Bricq, are in Jersey for the day.

Senator Bailhache said: "We are pleased to have the opportunity to host the Senate Committee in Jersey

and to continue the valuable dialogue that began in Paris last year.

"It is important that senior politicians are able to see at first hand the high levels of regulation and transparency

that are the cornerstones of Jersey's reputation as an international finance centre."

PM Wen says Europe stability in China's interests

	Wen Jiabao (AFP FILE PHOTO/STR)

BEIJING: China's Premier Wen Jiabao said a stable Europe was key to stability at home, in comments published on Sunday, at the end of a week that saw Germany's chancellor visit Beijing.

"Firstly, our biggest export market is Europe," Wen said in the southern city of Guangzhou, adding that Europe was also a main source of technology for China.

"Helping stability in the European market is actually helping ourselves... We have to keep import and export policies stable."

Wen was echoing comments he made on Thursday during German Chancellor Angela Merkel's visit to China, intended to boost her hosts' confidence in Europe.

At a conference with Merkel in the capital on Thursday, China's premier warned of an "urgent" need to solve the European debt crisis and said Beijing was looking at ways it could contribute to bailout funds.

The sovereign debt crisis in Europe has seen a wave of credit-rating downgrades and brought Greece to the brink of bankruptcy.

Wen called on the international community to work together on the embattled region, which is China's top export market.

"China is investigating and evaluating ways, through the International Monetary Fund, to be more deeply involved in solving the European debt problem via ESM/EFSF channels," Wen said.

He was referring to the European Financial Stability Facility, a temporary rescue fund that was established to help struggling economies in Europe, and the European Stability Mechanism - a newer, permanent fund.

China, the world's second-biggest economy, has watched with increasing concern as the debt crisis has deepened, repeatedly urging European leaders to get a grip on the situation.

- AFP/de

EU 'not backing down' on airline emissions in Chinese row

   

 

China Southern Airlines' Airbus A380. (AFP/File - Pascal Pavani)

   

BRUSSELS - The European Commission said Monday it will stand by a new law that imposes charges on airline carbon emissions after China banned its carriers from paying for such permits.

"We are not backing down and this legislation will apply to companies operating in Europe," said Isaac Valero-Ladron, spokesman for EU climate action commissioner Connie Hedegaard.

Valero-Ladron warned that the law, which came into force January 1, carries fines for airlines that ignore it but he said the commission "remains confident" that Chinese airlines will comply with the rules.

All Chinese carriers "have complied with the legislation" so far and applied for free pollution permits handed out under the EU's Emissions Trading System (ETS), he said, adding that the airlines are set to receive the permits.

"It will be much more costly for any airline not to comply with the legislation than doing so," the spokesman said.

Airlines receive 85 percent of their carbon permits for free but have to purchase the remaining 15 percent under the system. Refusing to participate can carry a fine of 100 euros per tonne of CO2 emitted.

The inclusion of airlines in the ETS system is opposed by the United States, China, India, Russia and other nations but the European Union has remained firm on its stance since the European Court of Justice backed the law late last year.

The EU says it decided to impose its own system to curb airline emissions since talks have so far failed to yield any global agreement.

Valero-Ladron said Brussels was "open to keep discussing with all partners their concerns," including through the United Nations' International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO).

"I understand that some countries have concerns about the so-called unilateralism of this measure but I don't think you can find a partner in the world who has fought harder than the European Union to get a global agreement done," he said.

China's State Council, or Cabinet, announced Monday a directive barring airlines from participating in the ETS "without the approval of relevant government departments."

Beijing fears its aviation sector will have to pay an additional 800 million yuan (US$125 million) a year on flights originating or landing in Europe, and that the cost could be almost four times higher by 2020.

First public Muslim-only cemetery opens in Strasbourg

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Tomb at private Muslim-only cemetery in Bobigny

Hegor/Wikimedia Commons

By RFI

France’s eastern city of Strasbourg on Monday opened the first-ever public cemetery for Muslim-only burials aimed at new generation of Muslims in France who want to be buried on French soil instead of being sent back to their country of origin.

In other parts of the country, the law forbids the public building of cemeteries restricted to one religion only, but the Alsace-Moselle region benefits from a different law governing the separation of the Church and State.

“Local law in the Alsace-Moselle region allows us to construct a cemetery run by the local council,” explains Anne-Pernelle Richardot, deputy mayor of Strasbroug. She points out that elsewhere in France, towns have had to created Muslim-only sectors of public cemeteries.

The only other Muslim-only cemetery in France is a private one in Bobigny which was built in 1934 as an annexe to a hospital.

The cemetery, which cost around 800,000 euros, faces Mecca, has a room for washing before prayers, a separate prayer room and a space for keeping bones left in abandoned tombs. It was felt Muslims may be discouraged from burying members of their family in the cemetery over fears their remains may one day be exhumed and destroyed to make room for other burials.

According to French law, Muslims must be buried in coffins which goes against tradition which states a burial on the day of death and that the corpse be wrapped in a simple shroud.

There has been an increase in the number of Muslim-only sections in local cemeteries over the past few years, but some Islam specialists say the 200 sections currently in France are not enough to meet demand.

A report published by the Regional Council for Muslim Affairs, CRCM, in the Rhône-Alpes region estimated some 600 muslim-only sections were needed in France and every town which had a mosque should provide this facility.

“This cemetery meets a pressing and legitimate need by Muslims and shows how migrants are increasingly putting down roots,”said Erkin Acikel, head of the CRCM. “ We belong on this soil and being buried here is a sign of intergration.”

Depardieu to star as Dominique Strauss-Kahn

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Gerard Depardieu met Abel Ferrara at the Deauville film festival

Gerard Depardieu is to star as Dominique Strauss-Kahn in a film about the New York sex scandal that caused the former IMF chief to resign.

US director Abel Ferrara told France's Le Monde newspaper he would be making the film, with Isabelle Adjani playing Mr Strauss-Kahn's wife, Anne Sinclair.

Mr Strauss-Kahn left the International Monetary Fund last May after being charged with raping a hotel maid.

The case was dropped but ended his ambitions for the French presidency.

Before the scandal Mr Strauss-Kahn, a former French finance minister, was thought to have had aspirations to run as a Socialist contender for the post.

French writer Tristane Banon later accused him of trying to sexually assault her during an interview in 2003, claims he denied. No action was taken because of a three-year statute of limitations but Ms Banon has indicated she may still file a civil suit.

Ferrara told Le Monde the film would be shot in New York, Paris and Washington.

"In all the places of power: It's a film about the rich and powerful," said the director.

The project has long been rumoured but Ferrara confirmed he would be going ahead with it in June, despite the doubts of his producers Wildbunch.

"I am the director. No one is going to stop me talking about my film," said Ferrara.

Ferrara met Depardieu, 63, at the Deauville film festival in September and said the French star was everything a director could wish for in an actor.

Ferrara is best known for hard-hitting films dealing with the dark and seedy side of life, such as Bad Lieutenant, starring Harvey Keitel as a corrupt New York policeman with a drug and gambling addiction.

 

Greece crisis talks over EU bailout to resume

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Lucas Papademos (right) put on a brave face on Sunday, saying limited progress was achieved

Party leaders in Greece's governing coalition are to resume crisis talks on new austerity measures.

The measures are in exchange for a 130bn-euro (£108bn; $171bn) EU bailout and a 100bn write-off of private sector debt. Athens needs the money by March to avoid a debt default.

Talks on Sunday between Greek PM Lucas Papademos and the leaders of three parties ended without agreement.

Meanwhile, the German and French leaders are due to hold talks in Paris.

Chancellor Angela Merkel and President Nicolas Sarkozy - who have worked closely on resolving the eurozone debt crisis - will take part in a joint Franco-German cabinet session in the French capital.

Investors reacted cautiously to the latest developments. The euro fell 0.7 cents, just over 0.5% against the dollar to 1.307 in early trading.

'Unable to bear'

Mr Papademos had hoped to reach a deal with the leaders by Sunday night - but the talks ended without agreement on the painful reforms demanded by the EU and also the International Monetary Fund (IMF).

"Political leaders should give a response in principle tomorrow [Monday] afternoon," Socialist Party (Pasok) spokesman Panos Beglitis told Reuters news agency.

The leaders of the other two parties in the coalition said after the end of Sunday's talks that they were still opposed to further austerity measures.

"I am not going to contribute to a revolution that will humiliate us and that will burn Europe", said Giorgos Karatzaferis, leader of the far-right Laos party.

 “A date is approaching, however, when - if there isn't a deal - Greece faces bankruptcy. On 20 March Greece has to find 14bn euros (£12bn; $18bn) to service its debts. As things stand it does not have the funds.”

Gavin Hewitt BBC Europe editor

Antonis Samaras, leader of the conservative New Democracy party, said the country was "being asked for more austerity, which it is unable to bear," AFP reports.

However, the BBC's Mark Lowen in Athens reports that Mr Papademos's office has put out a statement saying some agreement was reached on the reduction of public spending by 1.5% of GDP, and on bank recapitalisation.

But there was no deal on cuts to the minimum wage or to holiday bonuses, he said.

If there is no agreement, then Greece's international loan will be blocked and the country would be staring default in the face - something that could send shockwaves through the global economy, our correspondent adds.

Athens faces loan repayments to private lenders of 14.4bn euros on 20 March.

Eurozone ministers had hoped to meet on Monday to finalise the bailout - Greece's second - but that meeting had already been cancelled.

High stakes

EU officials have expressed frustration with Greece over delays in backing the terms of the latest rescue package.

Reforms that international lenders want to see include a lower minimum wage, the removal of a "13th and 14th month" extra salary which is paid to workers as an annual bonus, and the liberalisation of workplace regulations.

Opponents say that more cuts will worsen living conditions which have already been affected by two years of austerity measures.

Unless Greece promises to implement reforms, the eurozone ministers say Greece will not be able to go ahead with a plan to restructure its privately-held debt.

Greece has prepared a debt plan with private creditors to halve the value of Greek debt and in return receive new, 30-year bonds with an average interest rate of less than 4%.

The restructuring is to help cut Greek debt to 120% of GDP in 2020 from 160% now.

Analysis

Mark Lowen BBC News, Athens

Greeks have lived with austerity for much of the last two years and the country is now in its fifth straight year of recession. Unemployment is nudging 20%, businesses are closing and homelessness is increasing.

Two of the three party leaders in the coalition say they are still resistant to the new austerity measures. They fear that they could be stabbing themselves in the back just weeks before possible early elections in the spring.

The cost of failure would be extremely high. If Greece does not reach agreement on these EU and IMF proposals, it could be staring default in the face within weeks. That could send fresh shockwaves through the global economy.

 

Driving badly - in Herault DNA?          

In 2011, 99 Héraultais died on the road (104 in 2010). C.ROSSIGNOL /

Prefectures of Hérault and Gard initiate a study on driving behaviour

The Herault and Gard are they genetically programmed to misbehave? The question is asked, since the prefecture decided to launch a study on user behavior and driving. "It must be understood if it is a local peculiarity or whether it is a misconception to say that in the South, people are less respectful of the rules," says Catherine Mallet, responsible for road safety in the prefecture of the Hérault . The study was commissioned by the Ministry of Transport, in 2010, the black year with 104 lives lost on the roads of the departement. A statistic that placed the Hérault as the second "worst" for accidents after the Bouches du Rhone.

Play with life
, "I wonder if Héraultais are colourblind, ironically Remy, Montpellier last six months, after living all over France. “Traffic lights - when they go with orange it is as if it were green. It's terrible, but I got used to it too. " Native Sophie knows about her that she "misbehaves". "I place myself in the wrong place in the roundabouts, I do not give way to pedestrians. People of the Eastern Pyrenees and Lozère bother me. They have no large cities, then they panic in Montpellier! This is when I drive I also tell myself that it is I who am mad!"" It takes some bad habits here, says Catherine Mallet. People tend to play with life, take risks, - it can be seen in the town festivals or alcohol. " 

The study will scrutinize the social practices of the Herault and Gard to allow prefectures to better target their safety campaigns. The study results will be announced in September.

Test your alcohol tolerance on a new website - see travel page

Euro crisis could halve China's growth - IMF 

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China's rapid pace of growth is under threat from the eurozone crisis, says the IMF

A eurozone recession could almost halve Chinese growth this year, according to the International Monetary Fund (IMF).

The IMF forecasts China's economy will grow by 8.2% this year - but warns that a recession in the eurozone could cut this to 4.2%.

It said Beijing should get ready to inject billions of dollars into the economy to fend off any downturn.

China's economy grew by 9.2% in 2011, but growth was slowed by Beijing to avoid over-expansion.

The IMF's report comes as Greece enters another day of crisis talks aimed at finalising a 130bn-euro (£108bn; $171bn) European Union bailout.

Athens needs the money by mid-March to avoid default on its debts.

Room for manoeuvre

In its report, the IMF said: "China's growth rate would drop abruptly if the euro area experiences a sharp recession.

"However, a track record of fiscal discipline has given China ample room to respond to such an external shock."

The government should cushion the impact of a deeper slowdown with measures including tax cuts that amount to about 3% of gross domestic product, the IMF said.

It also noted that inflation had reached more comfortable levels by the end of 2011 and may continue to slow steadily in the first few months of this year.

The outlook expands on the IMF's warning last month that the world could plunge into another recession if Europe's financial crisis deepens.

IMF chief Christine Lagarde said last month that the world faced "an economic spiral reminiscent of the 1930s" unless the eurozone crisis was resolved.

Chinese leader Wen Jiabao reiterated last week that his government would "fine-tune" policies to support growth amid the eurozone's debt crisis.

French socialists’ Latin revolt against Germany

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The half-century habits of Franco-German condominium die hard. It is a painful process for French elites to admit that monetary union is asphyxiating their economy and must inevitably trap France in mercantilist subordination to Germany.

Nicolas Sarkozy has clung to the fig leaf of Franco-German parity, staking all on ties to Chancellor Angela Merkel. 

By Ambrose Evans-Pritchard – Daily Telegraph

The Carolingian union is all that anybody in French public life can really remember. It worked marvellously for two generations, levering French power on the global stage, and the euro was of course their own creation, intended to tie down a reunited Germany with “silken cords”. How can they now face the awful truth that this elegant strategy has blown up in their faces, enthroning Germany as undisputed hegemon?

Yet they can hardly ignore the evidence. While German unemployment has fallen to a post-Reunification low of 5.5pc, France’s jobless rate has crept up to a post-EMU high of 9.9pc and is certain to rise further as recession bites again.

While both countries had the same sorts of export surplus in the early 1990s, they have diverged massively since the D-Mark and franc were fixed in perpetuity. Germany has a current account surplus of 5pc of GDP: France has a deficit of 2.7pc, anathema for Colbertistes.

You can see from IMF data that the silent coup took place in the fat years of the global boom when Germany forced down unit labour costs; -1.7pc in 2003, -4.0pc in 2004, -3.3pc in 2005, -1.8pc in 2006.

France lost ground year after year due to wage creep and weaker productivity. Enough time has now gone by to leave it stuck inside EMU with a misaligned exchange rate, and talk of euro exit is at last starting to be heard.

 “The single currency is condemned to an uncontrollable explosion sooner or later,” wrote 12 economists in a recent letter to Le Monde, calling for an orderly return to national currencies. “The obstinate determination of governments to take us by forced march deeper into the euro impasse can only lead to the general aggravation of the economic situation in Europe,” they said.

President Nicolas Sarkozy has no answer to this. He has clung to the fig leaf of Franco-German parity, staking all on ties to Chancellor Angela Merkel, rather than seizing leadership of the Latin bloc to force a radical change of policy.

His gamble on the status quo has failed. Mrs Merkel has not yielded an inch, and has now forced him to swallow a fiscal treaty that erodes French sovereignty without offering any remedy to the crisis at hand.

Her contradictory medicine for half of Europe has itself cost France its AAA rating, as Standard & Poor’s made clear when it unleashed its volley of downgrades last month. “Fiscal austerity alone risks becoming self-defeating,” it said.

So it has fallen to the Socialists – less compromised lately – to start the rebellion. “We cannot let the Germans alone appoint themselves experts and judges,” said party leader François Hollande. He called for “substantial modifications” to the fiscal compact if elected president in May, as he may well be since he is running six points ahead in the polls.

Pierre Moscovici, his campaign manager (and former Europe minister), has since upped the ante by threatening a referendum – mischievously noting the French voted ‘Non’ last time they had a chance in 2005.

“I am convinced that we will find allies for a renegotiation aimed at a policy change to pull out of its austerity spiral and recession. We don’t like the idea of a popular vote because we are pro-Europeans and we don’t want a “No”, but nor can we allow tensions to spill over.

It is a revolt against a 1930s policy that imposes all the burden of adjustment on the debtor states and fails to recognise that North-South imbalances must be closed from both ends, and ultimately condemns all EMU to ruinous slump.

It is revolt too against subservience to a Germany that has stopped listening and no longer pretends to mask its power. “French diplomacy must rediscover its nobility and regroup with partners who feel deceived or humiliated by Mr Sarkozy and Mrs Merkel, and build an alternative with them,” said Najat Vallaud-Belkacem, the Socialist spokesman.

My own view is that Germany has overplayed its hand badly and will face a whirlwind diplomatic retribution. Its narrative of the EMU crisis – virtuous Northerners rescuing profligate Greco-Latins – was oppressively dominant for two years but has at last been discredited and is now repeated only by pub bores.

The Soros-Roubini narrative has replaced it – a tale of self-feeding contraction as austerity cuts into the muscle and the bone itself, a “German taskmaster” bent on deranged policies that will destroy the EU itself. As Portugal’s elder statesman Mario Soares put it, the strategy is leading nowhere and everybody knows it.

Only France has the heft and credibility to lead the Latin revolt. Its shifting loyalties mark a revolution in EU affairs. For a year or more, we euro-watchers have been hanging on every word from Berlin. We may soon have to pay even closer attention to Paris.

French far right say big parties muzzling democracy

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 (Reuters) - French far-right leader Marine Le Pen accused the two major parties of telling mayors across the country not to endorse her presidential candidacy, a move her allies said was "muzzling democracy".

Despite strong public support, Le Pen says she is 150 signatures short of the 500 required from elected local officials in order to stand.

Speaking at a campaign rally in the southwestern city of Toulouse, she urged mayors to ignore the "lies" of the frontrunning Socialists and the conservative ruling UMP party.

"Those cliques are giving lessons on democracy when they are the ones that are lying," she told supporters. "It's not me that the system wants to shut up, it's the French people."

Le Pen is running third in opinion polls, with 15 to 20 percent of voter intentions ahead of the April 22 first round. Like her father Jean-Marie in 2002, she hopes to knock out one of the frontrunners to reach the two candidate run-off on May 6.

At one point in January she was a couple of points behind incumbent Nicolas Sarkozy but has since slipped back.

According to a newspaper poll published on Sunday, Sarkozy would benefit most if the former lawyer was unable to stand.

The survey for Journal du Dimanche showed the president would pick up 8.5 points, while his Socialist challenger Francois Hollande would win 3.5 points more, leaving them level on 33 percent after the first round.

"POLITICAL TREND"

Defence Minister Gerard Longuet, a member of Sarkozy's party, said on Sunday it would be a backward step if Le Pen failed to make it through.

"She represents a political trend and this movement should be able to express its views," he said.

"But we have to ask ourselves why not even 1 percent of (about 36,000) mayors are not signing up for her. Maybe it's because she says some absurd things."

National Front Vice-President Louis Alliot suggested "establishment" parties were indirectly encouraging elected officials, of which the bulk are from the two main parties, not to give her the backing she needed.

"(There are) political calculations aimed at muzzling democracy and preventing all opposition to the establishment," he said in a statement on Sunday.

Prime Minister Francois Fillon and Socialist Party chief Martine Aubry have both said Le Pen is bluffing. The suggestion she may not get sufficient official backing is seen as a ploy to promote her outsider status and remain in the public eye.

"For weeks I've been trying to get nominations, but they have been preventing me," Le Pen told jubilant supporters.

Prospective candidates have until March 16 to secure enough signatures and Le Pen has taken her case to France's highest court to challenge the 1976 rule, arguing many officials would rather choose anonymously and are boycotting the process.

The Constitutional Council is set make its decision before February 22.

Le Pen, who replaced her father as party chief last year, has tried to broaden the National Front's appeal beyond its traditional anti-immigrant base to a younger generation with a more anti-euro and protectionist stance.

She says a failure to secure 500 endorsements, like her father in 1981, would represent the end of French democracy, given that a fifth of voters would be effectively denied a vote.

French press review

By Michael Fitzpatrick

The failure to curb killing in Syria and Interior Minister Claude Guéant's attempt to explain why his racist comment, about all civilisations not being equal, grab the headlines in the French media on Monday.

Catholic La Croix gives front-page prominence to Syria, with a headline reading "Powerlessness and Anger".

The powerlessness springs from the weekend failure of the United Nations Security Council to agree what to do about the murderous regime of Bashar al Assad.

That failure was due to a Russian-Chinese veto of proposals in support of Arab League calls for the departure of Assad.

The Chinese are scared of doing anything to dislodge people in power, perhaps afraid that the winds of change are eventually going to reach Beijing.

The Russians are interested in maintaining their sole remaining regional ally. The Russian fleet has an important base in the Syrian port of Tartous, and Moscow's weapons merchants sell an awful lot of guns to Syria, and through Syria to a whole range of regional factions.

An estimated 6,000 people have died in clashed with the Syrian security forces since confrontations began about 12 months ago.

You will know that the French Interior Minister, Claude Guéant, has come in for some violent criticism for his weekend comments to the effect that not all civilisations are equal.

Guéant is interviewed in today's right-wing Le Figaro, and he defends his proposition as founded on common sense and clear evidence.

What he actually meant, he explains, was that not all civilisations support the humanist viewpoint which is fundamental to right-wing republicanism.

"Who can argue," he goes on, " that there is no difference between a civilisation which favours democracy, which protects individual liberties and promotes the rights of women, and a civilisation which accepts tyranny, has no regard for freedom and denies the equal rights of men and women".

We must defend that first vision of civilisation," says the Interior Minister. And in case you're wondering what exactly Guéant means by "civilisation", he explains that too, as "the collection of characteristics which create a human group: its history, its culture, its intellectual and moral heritage."

Civilisation as a frozen monolith, sealed from all possibility of contagion, safe from the dangers of exchange, sharing, growth and development.

Minister Guéant then accuses the Socialist Party of being poor republicans, allowing the emergence of diverse trends in France, organised around cultural, religious and traditional values that are clearly not French.

Claude Guéant is the man who has organised a record number of expulsions of immigrants from France over the past 12 months (32,292 to be precise, most of them black Africans and Roma people from eastern Europe).

He was also instrumental in banning the public wearing of the full islamic veil, and the holding of Friday prayers in the street.

French News - 6 February

Paris airports downplay impact of strike

Paris airport authorities said Monday that airlines have limited the damage of an aviation workers’ strike by rescheduling flights in advance. Aviation unions called the strike over a law aimed at ensuring minimum service during industrial actions.

AP - The Paris airports authority says carriers like Air France have so far limited the damage from a strike by aviation industry workers, by canceling or rescheduling roughly 100 flights in advance.

Airports authority ADP says early signs were the strike led by labor unions representing pilots, cabin and ground crews and others didn’t draw a large walkout.

ADP said French flag carrier Air France mostly managed any fallout by rebooking travelers as the strike was announced last week. However, it said low-cost carrier easyJet was forced into canceling five flights Monday.

Air France was planning a statement later today.

Unions called the strike through to Thursday to protest a bill in Parliament that would require air transport workers to give 48 hours notice before striking.

Far right's economic plans not credible, French say

The economic policies espoused by the far-right National Front of Marine Le Pen (pictured) ahead of April's presidential election, including a plan to leave the euro, lack credibility among 70% of French voters, a poll released Saturday showed.

REUTERS - France's far-right is pushing a nationalistic economic platform for April's presidential elections, but 70 percent of voters believe its financial programme lacks credibility, including its plan to leave the euro, a poll published on Saturday showed.

Marine Le Pen, who replaced her father as head of the National Front last year, has sought to broaden the appeal of the party beyond its traditional anti-immigrant constituency to attract a younger generation of voters.

She ranks third in opinion polls with just under three months to go before the first round of the contest on April 22, and at one point in January, was just a couple of points behind conservative incumbent Nicolas Sarkozy.

According to a CSA poll for M6 television, which questioned 1,008 adults, 69 percent of people found the National Front's economic policies not credible with less than two in eight people considering them favourably.

"Seven people in 10 interviewed want France to keep the euro with just a quarter wanting a return to the franc," CSA said. "This explains in part the difficulties the National Front candidate has in convincing people about her economic plan."

Le Pen announced a raft of policies in mid-January to balance France's books including taxing imports, tapping the central bank for cheap loans instead of debt markets and giving French citizens priority over foreigners for jobs.

Her anti-euro and protectionist stance has struck a chord, especially among working class voters disillusioned by economic hardship since the start of the global financial crisis.

In a preview of an interview to be aired Sunday on M6, Le Pen appeared to downplay her plans to exit the euro saying she did not want to leave the bloc too quickly or cause panic.

"I don't want us to find ourselves overnight facing the collapse of the euro," she said. 
"It's for that reason that my project ... will prepare for a return to national currencies in six to eight months."

In the running

Since Le Pen unveiled her plan, both Sarkozy and Socialist front runner Francois Hollande have outlined economic proposals and appear to be extending their lead over her. Fourth-placed centrist Francois Bayrou is showing signs of narrowing the gap.

A daily IFOP poll for Paris Match magazine on Friday put Hollande firmly ahead in the first round with 29.5 percent of voter intentions, followed by Sarkozy on 24.5 percent, Le Pen on 19 percent and Bayrou on 12.5 percent.

According to the Institut Montaigne think tank, France would stand to lose up to a million jobs and up to a fifth of its economic wealth if it abandoned the euro. Gross domestic product would shrink by anywhere between 6 and 19 percent over a decade.

When asked if she would still lead France out of the euro zone without the agreement of European partners, Le Pen appeared to open the door to a change in policy.

"No (France would not leave), but I think they will agree," she said. "People have had enough of these bailout plans."

Le Pen has said France would raise almost 87 billion euros ($114 bln) by leaving the euro -- although she refused to explain how.

Despite strong public support, the former lawyer is also facing a battle to win the backing of 500 elected local officials, such as mayors, before the end of February in order to run.

Her father, Jean-Marie Le Pen, barely squeezed through in 2007, and Marine Le Pen said this week she was still 150 signatures short.

French presidential rolling poll: http://r.reuters.com/was36s

French socialists riled by Merkel backing of Sarkozy

BERLIN 

(Reuters) - German Chancellor Angela Merkel's backing of French President Nicolas Sarkozy in the upcoming presidential vote has riled his socialist rival Francois Hollande's camp, which warned her to exercise restraint, a German newspaper reported on Saturday.

It is unusual for German leaders to intervene in elections abroad. Merkel's backing for Sarkozy was announced in January by her Christian Democrat (CDU) party, whose second-in-command Hermann Groehe said Hollande's policies would weaken Europe.

"Party politics should not weigh on the future relationship," Pierre Moscovici, campaign chief for Hollande was quoted as saying by German weekly Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung in an article due to be published on Sunday.

"The chancellor is obliged to show a certain reserve."

Insiders at Sarkozy's UMP party say the push to involve Merkel came from the French president himself, who is lagging behind in polls ahead of the two-round election on April 22 and May 6.

The German chancellor is seen in France as a trustworthy leader capable of dealing with the euro zone debt crisis, and so could boost Sarkozy's credibility on economic issues.

But the move could also backfire if voters view her involvement as unwelcome interference, and some of the austerity policies she has pushed for have been unpopular in Europe.

Merkel's party has said she plans campaign appearances with Sarkozy in a move aimed at underlining the importance of the two leaders' relationship to Europe.

A poll this week showed Hollande had widened his lead over Sarkozy.

Seven reported dead from cold in France, 300+ in Europe

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The snowbound banks of the Seine and the Eiffel Tower on Sunday

RFI/Anthony Terrade

By Tony Cross

Seven people are reported to have died from cold in France, with a child and two homeless people the latest victims. Snow that fell on two-thirds of the country disrupted road and air traffic Sunday.

A 12-year-old boy died when the ice broke on a pond he was playing on in the eastern Visges region on Saturday and a Dutch skier was killed by an avalanche in the Alps.

A 46-year-old woman died in a squat in Compiègne, near Paris, while a homeless man was found dead on a doorstep in Champigny-sur-Marne, on the outskirts of the capital.

And an 85-year-old man died on Friday night after being found suffering from hypothermia, according to France 3 television.

Two older people suffering from Alzheimer’s disease had already been reported dead.

A group of five hikers in the Jura mountains were luckier. With the temperature at -15°C, they were found suffering from hypothermia after getting lost. Emergency services rescued them and they survived.

Flights to Paris’s Charles de Gaulle and Orly airports were late leaving or arriving Sunday and road traffic continued to be disrupted.

Forecasters expect the cold to last at least until Wednesday, although the snowfall was already slacking off in parties of the country on Sunday afternoon.

France’s electricity company, EDF, says it is confident it can meet demand, which is expected to reach a historic high on Monday night.

Over 300 people have died in Europe, along with 16 in Algeria. Algeria: Avalanches, blocked roads, power cuts, asphyxiation and flooding have caused 16 deaths and 122 injuries; Ukraine: Nine people died on Saturday night, bringing the toll to 131; Poland: Eight people died overnight, in total 53 dead; United Kingdom: Europe’s busiest airport, Heathrow, was working at 30 per cent capacity, sections of motorway and the road to the port of Dover were closed; Snow was heading for Belgium and Germany on Sunday, according to forecasters, who said that there could be new snowfall in Italy, Greece and the Balkans.

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Afghan who killed French troops paid to infiltrate army

(AFP)

KABUL — A renegade Afghan soldier who shot dead four French troops paid a bribe to rejoin his country's army after deserting, the US news website McClatchy said on Saturday.

The 21-year-old soldier had already bribed a recruiter to enter the army a first time, he said during questioning after the killings in January, according to the first pages of his statement seen by AFP.

In April 2011, the recruiter "asked me if I wanted to serve in army, I said yes but told him I didn't have National ID," the soldier said in his statement, shown to AFP by McClatchy.

"He told me to pay him some money and he would take care of it."

He said he paid 500 Afghanis ($10) and the recruiter took him to a nearby hotel to prepare the paperwork, before going to the training centre.

After eight months in the army, the soldier said he "escaped" to Peshawar, Pakistan's main northwestern city that borders Taliban and Al-Qaeda strongholds near the Afghan border, where he stayed "some time".

When he returned to Kabul, he said he paid the same recruiter 800 Afghanis to re-infiltrate the army.

On January 20, the man shot dead four unarmed French soldiers during training at a base in Gwan, in the eastern province of Kapisa.

During initial questioning, the soldier claimed he carried out the attack because of a video showing US Marines urinating on the dead bodies of Taliban insurgents, security sources told AFP in the days after the killings.

The incident prompted French President Nicolas Sarkozy to say his country would end its combat role in Afghanistan by the end of 2013 -- instead of the planned NATO deadline of the end of 2014.

On Friday, NATO defence ministers meeting in Brussels endorsed a French proposal to beef up security measures to stop insurgents infiltrating the Afghan army.

NATO did not provide details about the plans but they are expected to focus on better controlling the recruitment of Afghans, more thorough investigations of potential recruits and the use of biometric technology.

Six percent of overall NATO deaths in Afghanistan have been attributed to attacks by Afghan security forces, according to a confidential alliance report leaked to the media last month.

"These events are rare but they are symbolically important for the credibility of the Afghan army," French Defence Minister Gerard Longuet said on Friday.

"Quantitatively, they are marginal. Media-wise, they are unbearable."

Some 40 attacks were committed by Afghan forces against NATO troops in the last four years, including 18 last year, Longuet said.

There are about 130,000 NATO troops in Afghanistan, working with more than 300,000 members of the Afghan security forces.

France will gradually withdraw its 3,600 troops, eventually leaving behind around 400-500 military trainers at the end of 2014, when NATO is scheduled to end its combat mission, Longuet said.

NATO allies voiced hope this week that Afghan forces would take the security lead across the country next year, with foreign troops in a backup role.

Not all civilisations equal, French minister says

(AFP)

PARIS — French Interior Minister Claude Gueant, who also holds the immigration portfolio, caused political uproar by claiming that not all civilisations are equal, with some more advanced than others.

"Contrary to what the left's relativist ideology says, for us all civilisations are not of equal value," Gueant on Saturday told a conference in the French parliament building, but closed to the media.

"Those which defend humanity seem to us to be more advanced than those that do not," he argued in his speech at a meeting organised by a right-wing students group.

"Those which defend liberty, equality and fraternity, seem to us superior to those which accept tyranny, the subservience of women, social and ethnic hatred," he went on his speech, a copy of which was obtained by AFP.

He stressed the need to "protect our civilisation."

The interior minister's comments provoked a torrent of criticism from the opposition and on the Internet, less than three months a head of a French presidential election.

The left denounced his speech as an attempt by President Nicolas Sarkozy to woo the far-right National Front voters ahead of the presidential election.

The Young Socialist Movement condemned Gueant's "xenophobic and racist" speech, while the minister's entourage attempted to dismiss his comments as merely condemning those who practise repression and inequality.

On his Twitter account Harlem Desir, the number two in the French Socialist Party, slammed "the pitiful provocation from a minister reduced to a mouthpiece for the FN (far-right National Front party)."

The ruling UMP party is in "electoral and moral decline," he added.

For her part, Cecile Duflot, national secretary of the French Green Party "Europe Ecologie les Verts," wrote of a "return to three centuries ago. Contemptible."

It is not the the first time Gueant has courted controversy.

Gueant has repeatedly linked immigration with crime in France and last month said the delinquency rate among immigrants was "two to three times higher" than the national average.

Last April, he declared that an increase in the number of Muslim faithful in France posed a "problem".

He also said then that he wants to reduce the number of legal immigrants entering France, including those coming to work legally or join their families.

His latest controversial comments come as the anti-immigration National Front's presidential candidate Marine Le Pen is credited with 20 percent support in the opinion polls, a figure which is sounding alarm bells throughout the French political establishment and beyond.

Incumbent Sarkozy is trailing in the opinion polls to Socialist presidential candidate Francois Hollande.

French weekly magazines review

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By Vladimir Smekhov

What are the French president’s little secrets? Who are the new rulers of the world? What if the right-wing electorate chooses the centrist leader Francois Bayrou? And has the internet turned us into megalomaniacs? These are the questions the French weeklies are trying to answer.

We begin with Marianne. The left-wing weekly puts forward the hypothesis that in the 2012 presidential election the conservative electorate might turn to the centrist leader François Bayrou. According to the candidate, both conservatives and the socialists are under pressure to move towards their respective extremes.

The centrist leader is convinced that incumbent Nicolas Sarkozy will collapse in the first round of the polls and that François Hollande is under pressure to move further to the left.

This, according to Bayrou, puts him in a position to win by gathering together the conservative and centrist votes.

“To win the election”, says the candidate, “ I will address the centre, the Socialists' and the conservative electorate.” And, according to the weekly, some conservative MPs are already preparing a public call to support Bayrou should Sarkozy’s already low popularity collapse in the coming months.

Nicolas Sarkozy’s confessions . Le Nouvel Obs’ paints a profile of pre-candidate Sarkozy. The French president is torn between accepting that he can be defeated and the raging desire to win again. Despite recent off-the-cuff remarks on “life after the presidency”, Sarkozy is more combative than ever. “It would be a total mistake to assume that the president is defeatist," the magazine declares.

"The only battles lost are those which were never waged”, says the weekly. At a time when governments across Europe have been ousted by the voters (with the exception of Germany), the French president firmly believes in his chances of reelection.

“Do you realise that I am the only president to have survived the crisis? Zapatero, Brown, the crisis took them down, and I’m still there with 25 per cent of vote intentions!” In private, Sarkozy accuses Socialist candidate François Hollande of “péché d’arrogance”, the “sin of arrogance”. According to the President, the Socialist “doesn’t have a true vision for the country”.

Who are the new rulers of the world?

The centrist L’Express publishes a special report on the issue.

“What if," asks the weekly, "beyond national governments, there were other, opaque and secret supra-national governing structures, taking over the world? Structures beyond any democratic control."

This is the thesis of the book called Circus Politicus, featured prominently by the weekly.

L’Express publishes excerpts from the book including revelations on little-known institutions like the Basel Committee on Banking Supervision or the Bilderberg Group, organisations behind some of the major international agreements or top nominations to some of the world’s most powerful institutions.

Nouvel Obs features a special report on the assault that Tunisian Salafists are waging against women’s rights.

“A veil on the face of the revolution”, reads the headline. Barely a year after the “jasmine revolution”, the radical islamists are trying to impose veils in the universities and stigmatise women who wish to have an abortion.

Feminist bloggers receive rape threats and a female director of a movie called Thank God for secularism received death threats. How far willthe radicals go if the “moderate” Islamic government allows them to push their agenda with “strange benevolence”? asks the author. The battle against the radicalisation has just begun, warns the article.

Does internet turn us into megalomaniacs?

The Saturday supplement of Le Figaro publishes a series of profiles of young people who became famous thanks to the internet.

“Have I become a little narcissistic monster, ready to give away my holiday pictures to gain an instant of celebrity? Yes, a million times yes!” exclaims one of them.

But the article also features inspiring stories of talented artists who were able to get their big break thanks to the internet.

One of them, Irma, is a singer born in Cameroon. Thanks to online fans, she was able to raise 70,000 euros to produce her first disc and later on signed up with a global record label.

The internet has not changed the fundamental rules of success, says the article. But at least, on the web, everybody can try their luck at becoming a celebrity.

French News - 5 February

UK airport snow problems - see travel page

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Syria: Russia China Veto UN Resolution

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Sarkozy condemned the veto and reveals he wants to create a 'Friends of Syria' group that would seek a solution to the crisis.

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 A UN Security Council resolution over ongoing violence in Syria has been vetoed by Russia and China.

The vote - which came as angry crowds of protesters attempted to storm the Syrian embassy in London - saw all the other 13 council members, including the UK, US and France, vote in favour of the resolution.

France's President Nicolas Sarkozy condemned the veto and revealed he wanted to create a 'Friends of Syria' group that would seek a solution to the crisis.

American ambassador to the United Nations Susan Rice said the US was "disgusted" - and that any further bloodshed in Syria would be "on the hands" of those countries which had failed to support efforts to end the killings.

And UK ambassador to the UN Lyall Grant insisted every effort had been made to ease Russian and Chinese misgivings over the wording of the resolution.

"There was nothing in this text that should have triggered a veto," he said.

"We removed every possible excuse. The reality is that Russia and China have today taken a choice to turn their backs on the Arab world and to support tyranny rather than the legitimate aspirations of the Syrian people."

He also echoed the US in highlighting the escalation in the death toll in Syria since a previous resolution was blocked by Russia and China.

And Mr Grant said he was surprised that China had blocked the latest resolution as the country's diplomats had not raised any problems with its wording during negotiations.

The UK had earlier joined increasing condemnation of Syrian security forces' shelling in the city of Homs overnight on Friday - thought to have killed around 350 people.

But despite the failure to find consensus ahead of the vote, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton "absolutely" ruled out military action.

An Arab League plan has called for President Bashar Assad to stand down and Russia's main objection to a draft resolution was that it contained measures against the leader, but not against armed groups opposing him.

Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov, who will fly to Syria to meet President Assad on Tuesday, had indicated a consensus was possible on the UN resolution.

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Second death in France as cold kills over 260 in Europe

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Au secours! A tow truck comes to the aid of a stranded motorist in Merignies, northern France

Reuters/Pascal Rossignol

By Tony Cross

A second person has died in the cold snap that hs hit France, as well as the rest of Europe, this week. Like the first victim, the 72-year-old woman was suffering from Alzheimer’s disease.

The woman was found frozen to death on Friday in a private park in the southern city of Toulouse, according the Dépêche du Midi regional paper.

Like the man whose death was reported earlier Friday, she was an Alzheimer’s sufferer and was dressed only in pyjamas.

In other developments:

• Temperatures fell to -19.7°C in the Champagne regional capital, Rheims, approaching the city’s record of -21°C in 1929, and to -20.1°C in the eastern city of Mulhouse, close to its record of -22.8°C in 1956 for Mulhouse.
• Hundreds of motorists were stuck on the A25 motorway near the north-eastern city of Lille for part of the night.
• As concern of for the estimated 133,000 homeless people grows, President Nicolas Sarkozy visited an emergency shelter just outside Paris on Friday evening and local councils made more places available.
• A football match between Saint Etienne and Lorient was stopped after 10 minutes Saturday because the pitch was frozen. The score was 0-0.

Forecasters predict snow in the west of the country on Sunday and several regions, including Ile de France around Paris, are on alert for snow and ice.

The icy weather crossed the Mediterranean, killing one person in Algeria on Friday night, as the death toll in Europe reached at least 260: Algeria: A 17-year-old man was carried away by the current after slipping and falling into a water channel; his body had still not been recovered Saturday; rain and snow hit much of the country; many flights were cancelled. Ukraine: 122 have died, with temperatures hitting -30°C at night; 65,000 people have taken refuge in emergency centres, 12,000 in the last 24 hours. Poland: 45 have died; -27°C in the north-east. Montenegro: One dead; hundreds trapped in a road tunnel. Romania: 28 dead; hundreds of schools closed. Bulgaria: 16 dead, most of them villagers frozen by the roadside or in unheated homes. Russia: 64 dead; -50°C in Yakutia; pro- and anti-government demonstrators braved the cold in several cities. Latvia: 10 dead. Lithuania: Nine dead. Serbia: Seven dead. Czech Republic: Six dead. Greece: Two dead. Slovakia: One dead. Macedonia: One dead. Italy: Five dead; Rome paralysed by snow. Austria: Four dead; -28°C in the Tyrol.

Europe freeze hits transport hubs

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The Bosnian capital Sarajevo has ground to a halt amid the big freeze

Freezing weather has hit transport hubs across Europe, closing airports, blocking roads and halting trains.

London's Heathrow cancelled 30% of Sunday's flights, and dozens of flights were delayed at Amsterdam's Schiphol.

Transport hubs in Central and Eastern Europe have been forced to close amid the biggest freeze in decades, which has claimed more than 200 lives.

Bosnian officials have declared a state of emergency in Sarajevo, where snow has paralysed the city.

In Serbia, a state of emergency is in place across much of the country.

Thousands of people are said to be trapped in their homes across both countries, and many travellers have been stranded.

"I've been waiting here two days and we don't know what we will do," said Turkish tourist Ducim Tahroglu, waiting at Sarajevo airport.

Ukraine has been hit hardest by the weather, recording more than 100 deaths so far.

Forecasters predict the freeze will ease in Ukraine, though parts of the country will still be enduring temperatures as low as -19C.

The Siberian weather system has brought heavy snow and temperatures plummeting to below -30C in parts of Central and Eastern Europe.

The spike in energy demand forced Russian gas supplier Gazprom to reduce its deliveries to Europe over the past few days.

The firm said it could fulfil the demands of all of its customers, but insisted that supplies were now back to normal levels.

The freezing weather is now moving westwards, with most of the UK expecting snow overnight on Saturday.

In Italy, canals in Venice have begun to freeze over, and the capital Rome has seen its most severe snowfall in more than 25 years.

The Netherlands marked temperatures of -21.8C in the town of Lelystad on Saturday, the lowest recorded in the country for 27 years.

Motorist associations reported hundreds of miles of traffic jams across Belgium and the Netherlands as the first snow fell on Friday.

French cruise passengers demand 11,000 € compensation

Salvage efforts at the wreck of the Costa Concordia

Reuters 

By RFI 

French passengers on the Costa Concordia cruise ship that sank off Italy last month are demanding 11,000 euros compensation each by Monday evening or they will sue the owners.

Lawyers for a group representing some of the 462 French passengers have served formal notice on the Costa Cruise company threatening legal action if their demand is not accepted by 5pm Monday.

Costa Cruise has offered 1,100 euros to victims who escaped unhurt and are to make a separate offer to those who were injured, according to victims’ lawyer Bertrand Courtois.

But, he says, it is not enough, especially as no assessment of damages has been made, and it is subject to a deadline of 14 February that Courtois judges prejudicial to the victims.

A Paris court on Thursday opened an inquiry into the sinking. It instructed maritime police to “determine the circumstances of the shipwreck and the conditions of evacuation of the ship and the rescue effort”, while also assessing the personal suffering and psychological effects caused by the disaster.

Four French passengers died and two are still missing.

French prosecutors have been instructed to create a dossier of all the victims’ legal complaints filed in France. Their number is not yet known.

 

SNCF hands WWII dossiers to holocaust museums

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Jews being loaded into rail wagons at Drancy, near Paris, to be sent to death camps in 1942

AFP

By RFI

France’s state-run railway, the SNCF, has handed over digital copies of its archives for the World War II period to three Holocaust museums. Nearly 100,000 Jews were deported by rail to Nazi death camps while France was under German occupation.

The documents, which cover the period 1939 to 1945, have been handed over to the Shoah Memorial in Paris, the Yad Vashem in Jerusalem and the Holocaust Museum in Washington over the last two months, said an SNCF statement.

The SNCF provided space at the station in Bobigny, north of Paris, from where  20,000 Jews were sent to perish in death camps between 1943 and 1944. Goods trains carried 76,000 Jews to death camps and destinations in France between 1942 and 1945.

The aim is to help researchers and develop the company’s policy of transparency, it added.

SNCF president Guillaume Pépy admitted a year ago that the company had been "a cog in the Nazi extermination machine" during the occupation of France.

The company previously fought attempts to force it to accept responsibility for the deportations, including successfully appealing against the 2006 judgement in a case brought by the family of Green Euro-MP Alain Lipietz, some of whose members were deported.

But in 2010 Pépy expressed the company’s “regret for the consequences of its acts” at a meeting in Florida after acampaign in the US to prevent it winning contracts there.

The SNCF has also defended its conduct during the war on a website in English.

The company was “subject to the laws dictated by the occupying forces” under the conditions of the armistice between Germany and the collaborationist government of Marshal Philippe Pétain, the site says, pointing out that 800 railway employees were executed by the Germans and 1,200 deported for their role in the resistance to Nazi occupation.

In 1995 then-president Jacques Chirac acknowledged that the French state under Pétain had "seconded" the Holocaust.

Europe 'at risk of early grave' warns Kevin Rudd

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Europe is so preoccupied with its own financial problems it is missing out on the debate about Asia's rise, Australia's foreign minister says.

Kevin Rudd warned that Europe "runs the risk of talking itself into an early economic and therefore globally political grave".

Mr Rudd was speaking on the issue of "America, Europe and the rise of Asia" at the Munich Security Conference.

His comments were dismissed by the EU's internal market commissioner.

Michel Barnier said Europe would "emerge stronger and better organised from this crisis".

'Fundamental strengths'

Mr Rudd told the annual meeting of world leaders that Europe had become sidelined from the debate about the growing economic and political influence of China and Asia, the AFP news agency reports.

"Here in Europe, this continent has largely been missing in this debate, this should no longer be the case," Mr Rudd said.

"The danger that I see is Europe progressively becoming so introspective and so preoccupied with its internal problems on the economy and on the eurozone in particular that Europe runs the risk of talking itself into an early economic and therefore globally political grave".

"We don't want that. We actually think Europe has fundamental strengths to deliver to the rest of the world but we are not seeing a whole lot of that right now," he said.

French press review

By Vladimir Smekhov

Optimistic US job creation figures, French troops' early withdrawal from Afghanistan, Russian opposition rally, Queen Elizabeth’s diamond jubilee and the most expensive painting ever sold…. These are the stories dominating Saturday’s editions of the French dailies

We begin with Le Figaro’s front page editorial. It examines the early withdrawal of French troops from Afghanistan. The French decision, triggered by the cold-blooded killing of four soldiers by an Afghan recruit was “a shock” to the Nato coalition, writes the paper. “What’s the point of playing extra time when we know that we will leave in any case?” concludes the article.

President Barack Obama’s economy turnaround plan might just be succeeding. The better than expected job gains feature prominently on the front page of the daily. In January the American economy created 243,000 jobs and the unemployment figures are at their lowest since 2009.

The burst of job growth gives Obama a fresh opportunity to revise the grim economic narrative of his presidency, ahead of the presidential elections, says the paper.

“China does not want to buy Europe,” assured Chinese Prime Minister Wen Jiabao during a meeting with Angela Merkel. Le Figaro’s business section covers the German chancellor’s visit to China.

According to the article, it looks as if China may help Europe out of its economic crisis. It cannot afford the collapse of its first export market.

Ahead of Saturday’s massive protests in Moscow against Vladimir Putin, left-leaning Libérationpublishes a powerful profile of Boris Akunin.

The popular Russian writer became one of the unifying forces of the new Russian opposition after the rigged legislative elections last December.

“The time has come to put aside our personal differences and restore democracy in Russia”, he says. “I am going to protest because I do not want to spend the rest of my life in regret and shame.”

It’s freezing COOLD! exclaims Aujourd’hui en France on its front page, featuring a photo of the northern town of Lille under snow.

Did you know that freezing cold has immense benefits? Here’s the list compiled by the daily:

• Cold and sunny weather is like light therapy improving your morale;
• It eliminates the microbes and makes our immune system stronger;
• We burn more calories and lose weight, since to keep the body temperature at 37°C we draw on our fat reserves;
• And it helps the economy by saving the January sales and boosting the commerce of winter-related items!

On its business pages, Aujourd’hui en France looks into a new trend in business and leisure travel. Instead of staying in a hotel, why not rent a privately owned flat or a house via a specialised website?

The idea seems to be a hit. It provides quality budget accommodation to travellers and an income supplement to flat-owners.

Le Figaro gives two full pages to British Queen Elizabeth’s diamond jubilee. The most glamorous of French royal editors describes the day Elizabeth became queen.

“Strange as it may sound, Elizabeth was the last to learn that she became the queen of the most glorious nation on Earth.” When her father king George VI died, the future queen was taking pictures of wild animals in Kenya. The author concludes, “Never in 60 years has the Queen failed in her duty as a figurehead.”

And, finally, the most expensive painting ever sold! Le Figaro et Vous supplement reveals that in 2011 royal Qatari family bought Paul Cézanne’s Joueurs de Cartes (Card players) from a Greek ship owners family for a staggering 190 million euros.

“The acquisition shows the extent of the Emirate’s ambitions”, claims the daily. The painting will have pride of place at the newly built Qatar National Museum, which will open in 2013.

The Royal family hopes that its art collection will rival Paris's  Musée d’Orsay or New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art. As you can see, Qatar's ambitions do not stop with hosting the 2022 World Cup!

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French YouTube prankster  - the HUMAN speed camera  

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By ROB COOPER – Daily Mail

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They're the bane of every motorist's life. 

One notorious French YouTube prankster dressed up as a speed camera - and 'caught' unsuspecting motorists breaking the limit. 

In the hilarious video, Remi Gaillard flashes a tractor, a high-speed train, an aeroplane and a police car. 

 

Flash: Standing in a field, Remi 'gets' a tractor pulling a plough

Fine idea: This light aircraft gets caught speeding as it takes off

Bemused motorists slow down and stop after being caught by the giant human camera - but Mr Gaillard continues to flash away before they drive off.

The comic ended up being arrested by police after flashing their car as it passed him at the roadside.

As the police car is 'caught breaking the limit' by the human speed camera, the driver puts his vehicle into reverse and backs up as the trickster as he tries to flee. 

Trackside camera: A high speed train is zapped as it whizzes through a station

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At the end of the clip, which has been viewed more than nine million times on YouTube, Mr Gaillard is driven off in the patrol car.

The comic's YouTube videos have been viewed hundreds of millions of times. He started making the short funny videos after losing his job in a shoe shop.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2096316/French-YouTube-prankster-dresses-roadside-cam-flashes-motorists.html?ito=feeds-newsxml

4 February French News

Travel update for Montpellier on Monday

AIR FRANCE réduit son programme de vols à l’arrivée et au départ de Montpellier pour la journée du 06 février 2012.   Vols prevus annulés – lundi 06 fevrier  Ce prévisionnel n'exclut pas d'autres annulations de dernière minute ainsi que des retards. A l’Arrivée à Montpellier Paris Orly >>  Montpellier AF 7540 –08h15 Paris Orly >>  Montpellier AF 7552 – 19h35 Paris Roissy >> Montpellier AF 7686 – 19h55 AU DEPART DE MONTPELLIER Montpellier >>  Paris Orly AF 7543 – 09h00 Montpellier >>  Paris Orly AF 7553 – 20h20 Montpellier >> Paris Roissy AF 7685 – 20h45  L’Aéroport Montpellier Méditerranée recommande aux passagers de se rapprocher de leur compagnie aérienne Weather warning – Friday 3rd to Sunday 5th February There is a significant risk of widespread snow, and freezing conditions affecting a number of UK and European airports over the course of the next three days. easyJet are taking proactive measures to protect our operation however would like to warn passengers in advance that there is the potential for disruption. We recommend that customers allow extra time for their journeys to the airport, check the status of your flight before leaving and closely monitor local weather forecasts. French industrial action 5th to 9th February easyJet has been notified that unions in the aviation industry have called for industrial action in France to start at midnight on Sunday 05th February through to Thursday 09th February. easyJet does not expect any major disruptions to its operations from French airports, however we strongly recommend that passengers check the status of their flight before heading to the airport. This strike action is outside of our control, however we would like to apologise for any inconvenience that may be caused to our customers.

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NEWS

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French man dies in cold, snow expected in Paris

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Skiers at Chamonix Les Houches on Thursday

Reuters/Robert Pratta

By Tony Cross

France’s bitter cold temperatures have claimed their first life as forecasters said the thermometer will remain below freezing point longer than expected. Biting winds raked the east and centre Friday and snow is predicted in the Paris region on Sunday.

An 82-year-old man, who suffered from Alzheimer’s disease, was found unconscious in his pyjamas on a country road in the eastern Moselle region Friday. He died shortly after being found by the emergency services.

His wife, who is bedridden, was waiting for her nurse to come to report that he was missing.

Friday’s Angers-Monaco football match was postponed because of the cold.

Although there were clear blue skies and bright winter sunshine in much of the country Friday, the thermometer stayed way down and forecasters said it was going to stay that way.

Thirty-five of France’s 101 departments were placed on the second highest cold-weather alert.

Meteorologists said that temperatures will fall again on Friday night and Saturday in the east of the country, which will bear the brunt of an anticyclone coming from Siberia. Its effects will hit the Rhone valley and the Mediterranean coast later. Clouds coming from Belgium are expected to bring snow in the north and the east side of Paris when they encounter the icy temperatures, sending temperatures down again as the ground freezes. Temperatures are likely to be -10°C with wind chill factor pushing them down another seven to nine degrees.

Demand on the power supply is expected to break 2010’s record on Monday. In Brittany and the Côte d’Azur, where the power grid is least efficient, households have been asked to turn off appliances for at least four hours a day to avoid blackouts.

Only the far west will see a slight rise in temperatures, despite earlier forecasts that a warm front would affect the whole country early next week.

Latest forecasts predict the cold snap will last until next Thursday or Friday.

Emergency accomodation for the homeless will be open 24 hours a day, Housing Minister Benoist Apparu announced Friday, with 19,000 extra places made available and medical teams mobilised to persuade those reluctant to take places to do so.

At least 218 people have died in Europe's big freeze: Czech Republic: 218 people dead from cold in seven days, Lowest temperatures -38.1°C; Ukraine: 101 people dead, 1,699 requesting medical attention for frostbite and hypertension, 2,940 homeless shelters set up across the country, temperatures between -25°C and -30°C at night; Poland: 37 dead, lowest temperatures -35°C; Bulgaria: 16 believed to have died in last week, parts of Danube frozen; Italy: Three people dead, snow in Rome for the first time in 15 years, temperatures in Alps -30°C, car drivers urged to avoid roads in central regions due to heavy snowfall and traffic jams; United Kingdom: Snow expected, lowest temperature -11°C.

‘Extras’ bussed in for Sarkozy publicity stunt

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French President Nicolas Sarkozy made a visit to a social housing building site to highlight his work on this key election issue - but according to builders at the site, many of the ‘workers’ Sarkozy met on the tour had been bussed in.

By Tony Todd 

 

Bemused builders on Friday accused President Nicolas Sarkozy’s aides of bussing in fake ‘workers’ to make the embattled French leader look more popular during a visit to a social housing project, according to Europe 1 radio.

The building site, in the Essone administrative region southwest of Paris, is being developed into 130 affordable homes and illustrates a key issue in the run up to the May’s presidential election: the soaring cost of housing in the capital and surrounding area.

And Sarkozy certainly got plenty of attention.

“They wanted the president to be surrounded by as many people as possible,” said one manager, who added that the president’s aides had asked his bosses to double the number of workers present on the day from the usual 60 to 120.

One builder told Europe 1 he suspected that managers of other building firms from across the region had been cajoled into sending their employees along.

'Look busy'

“I recognised people from other sites,” he said, while a colleague added that suppliers, partners, site managers as well as complete strangers seemed to be milling around.
Everyone was told to “look busy”, they said, despite freezing temperatures that would normally have made it forbidden to work at all.

When pressed by Europe 1, a spokesman for the Elysée Palace did not deny that there had been a supplementary contingent at the site during Thursday’s visit.

However, the spokesman argued that this was to give “everyone who has worked on this site, or might potentially work there in the future, the chance to come along.”

Bizarrely, construction firm 3F said in a statement on Friday that it “categorically denied” that any extras had been drafted in for the presidential visit, insisting that “the regular workforce of 67 was there as well as management staff of other companies involved in the project.”

Sarkozy, who is lagging behind Socialist rival Francois Hollande in the polls, has yet to announce his candidacy for May’s presidential election.

Staying on-message, he told the assembled “workers”, all wearing heavy-duty overalls and hard hats, that “France has no choice but to make housing more affordable for ordinary people.”

But when somebody butted in with the question “so are you going to be a candidate or not?” Sarkozy replied, “Is this on camera or isn't it? I think you get what I mean.”

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French planes forbidden in Turkish airspace

After the French Senate accepted a bill on the  criminalization of Armenian Genocide denial Turkey started sanctions against France .

French planes are now forbidden to enter to Turkish air territory according to the  Turkish website turkiyegazetesi.com.

According to the source two French military planes returning from Afghanistan were forbidden to enter to Turkish territory - they had to bypass it and return to France through other countries.

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French drug regulator searched in Mediator case

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 (Reuters) - Investigators searched the offices of French healthcare regulator Afssaps on Thursday in connection with a case involving the anti-diabetes drug Mediator, which officials blame for at least 500 deaths in France.

Judicial sources said that investigators also searched the homes of several executives of Afssaps, which is under scrutiny for allowing the sale of Mediator long after it had been pulled from the market elsewhere.

Public concern about the agency has been increased by the scandal over breast implants manufactured by the now-bankrupt French company PIP.

"This important operation took place in the presence of the judges in charge of the case, the public prosecutors and 25 investigators," a judicial source told Reuters of Thursday's search.

Jacques Servier, the founder of Servier Laboratories which produced Mediator, is being investigated on suspicion of dishonest practices, deception over the drug's quality, and of falsely obtaining authorization to sell it.

A trial is expected in May.

Mediator - mostly prescribed by doctors as a weight-loss pill - was sold to as many as 5 million people in France between 1976 and November 2009, when it was withdrawn, years after being pulled in Spain and Italy. State health inspectors have said the drug should have been retired in France a decade earlier.

According to the French health ministry, at least 500 people died of heart valve trouble in France because of exposure to Mediator's active ingredient, benfluorex. Other estimates based on extrapolations put the death toll closer to 2,000.

Servier denies having misled authorities and patients. The company recognizes 38 deaths linked to the drug, but says only four of these were caused by it.

The Mediator scandal - which has already prompted the resignation of the head of Afssaps - is France's worst in years.

President Nicolas Sarkozy has promised to shake up the healthcare system and make it more transparent in response to a slew of lawsuits filed by groups of victims' families.

Servier, 89, was awarded France's national merit medal, the Legion d'Honneur, by Sarkozy - who was once his lawyer - less than a year before the drug was pulled.

Eurozone service sector grows after four-month lull

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The Spanish service sector continues to contract

The eurozone's service sector has grown for the first time in four months, although Spain and Italy have continued to post falls in business activity.

The Markit eurozone services purchasing managers' index (PMI) was 50.4 in January, up from 48.8 in December. Any score under 50 represents a contraction.

It follows a manufacturing survey of 48.8, up from 46.9 in December.

Markit said the survey suggested a recession could be kept at bay.

Chris Williamson, chief economist at Markit said: "The final eurozone PMI data indicates that business conditions stabilised following declines seen in the final four months of last year and that the region may avoid a slide back into recession."

The two surveys helped improve the composite index for January, which includes services, construction and manufacturing, increase to 50.4 from 48.3 in December.

'Slower decline'

The survey also found an increasing gap between the stronger eurozone economies, such as Germany, and weaker countries such as Spain.

The survey found growth hit a seven-month high in Germany and a five-month high in France, while ongoing downturns were seen in Italy, Spain and the Irish Republic. However, the rates of decline fell for Spain and Italy.

Mr Williamson added: "Confidence may have risen but remains very low by historical standards of the survey, linked to the fact that inflows of new business continued to fall and that lower prices often had to be offered to win sales, which will dent profit margins.

"The region's debt crisis is also by no means resolved, and any setbacks in current negotiations could easily cause confidence to slump again."

French air transport unions call for strikes

By Cathy Buyck 

Unions for pilots, cabin attendants and ground workers in France have called for strike action from Feb. 6  through Feb. 9 to protest a bill going before the French senate that would obligate each employee planning to strike to give 48 hrs.’ notice.

The new bill was voted by the national assembly Jan. 25 and aims to secure a minimum service by the air transport sector during strikes.

Air France (AF) said it expects to be affected by the strike but could not predict the impact because employees are not currently obligated to inform the company in advance of their intention to strike.

“Air France will do its best to adjust its flight schedule depending on how many of its employees join the strike. However, some last minute delays and cancellations may arise,” AF said in a statement.

According to the French Ministry of Transport, there were 1,131 disputes in the country’s air transport sector over the past three years (392 in 2009, 379 in 2010 and 360 in 2011) with 176 days of industrial action affecting airlines or airports (68 days in 2009, 45 days in 2010 and 63 days in 2011).

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MoDem's Bayrou - zero public spending to reduce debt 

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Francois Bayrou outlines his election programme

AFP PHOTO / LIONEL BONAVENTURE

By RFI

Self-styled centrist candidate François Bayrou, currently running fourth in opinion polls with 11-15 per cent of potential votes, plans to redress France’s balance of payments by making 50 billion euros worth of spending cuts and pulling in revenue of 50 billion euros.

He says this will reduce French debt by 100 billion euros by 2015.

 The balanced budget will be brought about by several measures including the reduction of public spending to zero and increasing VAT by one per cent in 2012 and a further one per cent in 2014 if necessary.

Other proposed measures include:

• Writing the Golden Rule on balancing a country’s budget into the Constitution
• Creating an independent label which will identify how much of a product was made in France.
• Promoting products labeled ‘Made in France’.
• Identifying industrial sectors which need to be developed such as renewable energy and biotechnology.
• Encouraging Europeans to put their savings into long-term investments.
• Organising a summit to promote an alliance between Europe and developing countries to overcome the current economic crisis.

The first round of the French presidential election takes place 22 April on with a run-off vote on 6 May.

China 'considering' eurozone rescue Wen says

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China is "considering" contributing to European rescue funds, Premier Wen Jiabao has told reporters.

But Mr Wen did not make any firm commitment to assist during his news briefing with visiting German Chancellor Angela Merkel.

European leaders view China - with $3.2 trillion (£2tn) in foreign reserves - as a possible sources of funds to bail out struggling eurozone economies.

Mrs Merkel will offer reassurance about the situation in Europe, watchers say.

Iran and Syria are also expected to be on the agenda during her two-day visit.

'Urgent' task

Resolving Europe's debt crisis was "urgent and important", Mr Wen told reporters.

"China is considering greater involvement in resolving Europe's debt crisis by participating in the European Financial Stability Fund and the European Stability Mechanism."

The EFSF is a temporary rescue fund expected to be replaced by the ESM - a 500bn-euro permanent bailout fund - in July.

Europe is China's biggest export market, and Mr Wen reiterated that China supported a stable euro - saying it had a "great impact" on China.

But Mrs Merkel told reporters that Chinese leaders had stressed that European leaders needed to do more to resolve the eurozone crisis themselves before Beijing stepped in, Reuters news agency reported.

Accompanied by a 20-strong trade delegation, Mrs Merkel is scheduled to meet President Hu Jintao in the capital.

On Friday, she will visit Guangdong province with Mr Wen and executives from various industries.

Mutual dependence

This is Mrs Merkel's fifth visit to China. The BBC's Stephen Evans in Berlin says the two countries need each other.

Chinese purchases of German goods have kept the German economy growing much faster than that of other European countries, he adds, and Chinese imports of German technology has allowed the Chinese economy to improve.

Mrs Merkel is also likely to seek support from China for a UN Security Council resolution against Syria, and urge Beijing not to increase its imports of Iranian oil, following EU bans last month.

Also on the agenda is access to what are called "rare earth elements" used in the manufacture of many electronics components.

China mines 97% of the global supply and has been accused of limiting its supply to fetch higher prices.

Negotiations with banks on Greece 'ultra difficult': Juncker

	Jean-Claude Juncker (AP Photo/Virginia Mayo)

LUXEMBOURG : Negotiations to fix a massive write-down with private investors of Greek sovereign debt are at an "ultra difficult" stage, Eurozone chief Jean-Claude Juncker said Thursday.

"These negotiations are ultra difficult," the Luxembourg prime minister told school pupils in a blunt address, referring to the key first condition behind a global agreement on a second financial rescue for Athens.

Juncker, who chairs the Eurogroup that gathers finance ministers from the 17 currency partners, joked in the school that the progress of the negotiations meant "this will be the last happy moment of the day for me".

Meanwhile, the head of the organisation negotiating for the banks warned in Frankfurt on Thursday that the negotiations could take "weeks" to wrap up.

"We are very close and hopefully will reach an agreement within the next weeks or days," said Josef Ackermann, head of Deutsche Bank, Germany's biggest bank.

Ackermann, the head of the Institute of International Finance which is representing the banks in the negotiations, said he was "likely" to travel to Athens this weekend.

Private-sector creditors are being asked to accept a so-called "haircut" or debt writedown of "70 percent or more" on their holdings of Greek debt, he said.

"The question is, whether others contribute as well," Ackermann said, in an apparent reference to EU states and the European Central Bank.

Beyond debt restructuring talks, Greece is also in negotiations with public creditors - the European Union and the International Monetary Fund - to finalise a new series of measures in order to unlock 130 billion euros of loans which were promised by the Eurozone in October.

Speaking in The Hague, meanwhile, the European Union's top economic official and commissioner for the Eurozone, Olli Rehn, kept up pressure on the banks.

He said he expected an agreement on "substantial involvement" of the private sector, the "key condition" for any real breakthrough in avoiding a disorderly default by the Greek government, "by the end of this week".

Brussels discovers new €15bn black hole in Greece's finances

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Greece's presidential guard on duty in heavy snow in Athens Friday

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The discovery of another black hole in the country's finances was one of several items of gloomy economic news from the eurozone. Photograph: Yiorgos Karahalis/Reuters

Pressure on Greece's recession-stricken economy has intensified after international debt inspectors admitted an additional €15bn (£12.5bn) would be needed to fill a newly discovered black hole in the country's finances.

On a day when Ireland's government reduced its growth forecast and Madrid told Spanish banks to raise an extra €50bn to cover toxic assets, Brussels officials said European countries and state-owned banks would be asked for contributions to help Athens out of its fiscal troubles.

The fresh evidence of Greece's desperate financial plight came as it continued to discuss the terms of a deal with private sector creditors aimed at writing down debts by €100bn, and was an admission that the "haircut" being taken by banks, hedge funds and insurance companies would not be enough on its own to remove the risk of a default.

International Monetary Fund officials said that time was running out to finalise the negotiations in time to trigger payment of the next tranche of its €130bn bailout from the European commission, the European Unionand the IMF.

The so-called troika has recognised in the past few days that Greece faces an impossible task in reducing debt when the economy is in such deep recession, and now accepts that the country's sovereign creditors will have to supplement the debt relief being provided by the private sector. Spending cuts, tax increases and the general uncertainty of the crisis have already pushed Greece into a slump, which in turn has eliminated many of the gains from the austerity measures.

Although China's premier, Wen Jiabao, raised hopes after talks with the German chancellor Angela Merkel that the world's fastest-growing emerging economy would consider boosting its contribution to Europe's bailout fund, there were fresh signs of strain in those countries most affected by the sovereign debt crisis.

Spain's finance minister, Luis de Guindos, ushered in a fresh round of consolidation when he told banks they had to make provision for bad loans and write downs in the country's troubled property sector.

With Spain falling into the second part of a double-dip recession and unemployment at 23%, de Guindos's new rules exposed the still dire state of the property market. Officials claimed it was the most ambitious attempt to cleanse banks' balance sheets in Europe. "Spain's banking system will emerge from this process stronger, with fewer but more solid banks," the economy ministry said.

Banks have absorbed large amounts of toxic assets as building developers default on loans in a country with a glut of 500,000 unsold new homes. They have already made provision for a third of the €176bn of "troubled" assets on their books, according to Spain's central bank.

Under the new rules total provisions against building lots, many of which are illiquid, will reach 80%. Those against ongoing building developments will hit 65%, while provisions against completed houses will reach 35%.

The measures show how developers, rather than mortgage-holders, became the biggest danger to Spain's banking system after politically controlled savings banks lent freely to them during a dizzying building boom that halted in 2008.

Many of those banks have already disappeared after a round of mergers that began in 2009. The fresh mergers will reduce the total even further, with all eyes now on Bankia, a troubled group formed from the merger of seven savings banks.

The country's bank restructuring fund will receive a €15bn top-up, though this will not add to the deficit. Banking reform was one of the major planks of a programme promised by conservative People's party prime minister Mariano Rajoy, who won November elections.

Meanwhile, Ireland's central bank slashed its growth forecast for 2012 from 1.8% to just 0.5%, blaming a slowdown in consumer spending and a tougher outlook for exports due to Europe's debt crisis.

Taoiseach Enda Kenny refused to accept the government's more optimistic budget forecasts were out of line with those from the central bank and claimed the real priority was creating jobs. "The government's growth figures are median figures and we are prepared to stand by those," said Kenny.

Market attention on Friday will focus on the US where the latest official unemployment data is expected to show further slight improvement in the job market.

While the unemployment rate for January is likely to stay at 8.5%, the world's largest economy is expected to have added 150,000 jobs. That is slightly below growth of 200,000 in December, however, with economists expecting seasonal layoffs of couriers after Christmas to knock job creation.

Data on Thursday reinforced a growing view the US labour market is slowly improving, with new claims for unemployment benefits falling more than expected last week.

US Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke sought to reassure markets that there had been signs of modest improvement in the labour market, but conceded the pace of recovery was slow. Bernanke told Congress there were signs uncertainty dogging the US economy was letting up, but that the eurozone crisis still threatened the country's recovery.

French press review 

By Vladimir Smekhov

The French presidential elections and more on today's front pages...

Le Figaro’s front page teases with the “shock ideas” the French president is supposedly preparing to announce during his not-yet-announced presidential campaign. The article quotes the visitors to the Elysee palace who tell the stories of combative Sarkozy, who appears ready to attack head-on his socialist rival, François Hollande.

The paper quotes Sarkozy as saying: “Hollande will have to position himself according to my proposals, good luck with that.”

The French president is also planning to give a joint interview with German Chancellor Angela Merkel on both French and Germany public television. Amusingly enough, the article itself does not feature the president’s shock ideas promised on the front page.

The daily’s business section headlines “Despite the crisis, LVMH posts record profits”. In the times of global recession, the French luxury giant reports a 34 per cent rise in profits. The story on the business pages of the conservative daily says that the luxury company's sales on all continents and across all groups of products are booming with 23.7 billion euros turnover.

Libération gives over its front page to a picture of a shouting Egyptian protester. "La revolution en deuil… The revolution in mourning.” It runs the story of the Port Said football match tragedy in which 74 people were killed. The paper fears that one year after the fall of Hosni Mubarak’s regime, the country is about to descend into chaos, says the left-leaning daily. “who benefits from the situation ?” asks the daily.

The Egyptians increasingly blame the Egyptian military council which has been managing the country during the transition period.

Aujourd’hui en France's front page features two pictures of the Mona Lisa painting with a story called “the Mona Lisa has a twin sister”. This surprising story is the revelation by the Prado museum in Madrid of a Mona Lisa copy painted at exactly the same time as the original.

The Prado museum confirms the painting is the work of one of Leonardo da Vinci’s students. Even more fascinating is the fact that, according to the Prado museum’s curator, the painting was completed before Da Vinci’s version.

On its’ front page, Aujourd'hui en France is also asking a question “Is Martine Aubry, the head of the Sociaist Party, on the way to becoming prime minister?…” According to the daily, Martine Aubry, who fought François Hollande in the socialist primaries; publicly denied having any ambition to becoming prime minister if François Hollande wins the election. But, says the daily, she’s only putting on a show.

“Our democracy may not be as lost as I thought it was,” says the leader of the French far- right National Front on the politics pages of Aujourd’hui en France. "Marine Le Pen scores a point in the battle for election signatures," says the daily.  Each presidential candidate has to present 500 public signatures of local mayors in order to be able to participate in the presidential elections.

Marine Le Pen has so far not being able to gather those signatures. Following the party’s request to abolish the requirement for transparency of the signatures, State Council has decided to refer the case to the Supreme Constitutional Council, which should hand down its ruling on 22 Febraury.

La Croix leads with a front page editorial, rallying against the euthanasia legislation featured in the Socialist Party’s program. The Catholic daily makes a passionate appeal against the socialists’ initiative, saying that “deciding in favour of euthanasia is to admit
a defeat”.

And finally, the sports daily L’Equipe leads with the interview of the newly-appointed Paris Saint Germain’s football club manager, Carlo Ancelotty. I am cautious about Marseille…. says the newly-appointed Italian manager of the Parisian club. He admits that Olympique Marseille and its manager Didier Deschamps could be a formidable obstacle on the way to winning the Ligue 1 championship.