France/Civil unrest: new violent night in Fort-de-France

According to a journalist working for the AFP press agency, new clashes erupted on Wednesday evening in Fort-de-France, Martinique. Several roadblocks with trash on fire were set up on several streets and explosions were heard in the neighbourhood.

A car, stolen by youths on motorbikes said a witness, has also been launched against the Hypermarket Carrefour Dillon where the police was deployed to protect the shop. They were still present on the parking shortly after 11:00 pm. (Local time).  Still on the Dillon area, demonstrators have used a tractor to enter the store "Intersport" before police intervened.

France/Terrorism: police arrests suspected ETA member in Millau

A suspected member of Spain’s Basque separatist group Euskadi Ta Askatasuna (ETA), who was driving a stolen car was apprehended by French police near the southern French city of Millau on Wednesday. Reportedly the suspect was arrested after police chase the car and nabbed the man while he was trying to steal another vehicle in Compeyre, a village in the Aveyron region. "He presented himself as a member of ETA, the information is now being verified," police said.

In January, ETA marked its 50th anniversary and vowed to keep fighting of its struggle to form an independent Basque Country out of northern Spain and southwestern France. However, the Spanish government said after capturing many prominent leaders of ETA, the armed group is left with only fewer members.

Iran/Security: EU trio proposes additional tough penalties against Iran

According to the Financial Times published on Thursday, France, Germany and Britain are thinking of laying down new sanctions against Iran because of the continuation of its nuclear programme. The Financial Times and Il Riformista, an Italian newspaper, reported a confidential document that lists 34 Iranian organizations and 10 individuals who are secretly linked to nuclear or biological "weapons" programmes. According to the report, the listed individuals include commander and deputy head of the paramilitary Basij force, who will be facing penalties for the first time.

Iran’s Sharif University of Technology, Iran Insurance Company, Iran Air Cargo, Iran Space Agency and Razi Institute for Serum and Vaccine Production are reported to be included in the list. Six banks and their Tehran headquarters, including Bank Tejarat are also named.

The EU trio, along with the United States, China and Russia, tried to resolve the tensions coming from the much debated Iranian nuclear program. Indeed, Western powers suspected Tehran of trying to acquire a nuclear weapon. The Islamic republic has always denied any military ambition, claiming it nuclear program is for civil purposes only.

France/Civil unrest: violence erupted in Martinique

(Ocean's D'images/Gamma/Eyedea Presse/Photo News)

Demonstrators have burnt down at least three cars and looted several stores during clashes on Tuesday night in Fort-de-France, Martinique. Before midnight, youths started to set fire to tires on vehicles parked on the General de Gaulle Boulevard and also overturned trash cans. Three police squads had to reinforce the district of Fort-de-France and its “prefecture” where explosion were heard, likely caused by the firing of tear gas bomb or cars on fire. In addition, several shops including a jewellery were vandalized during the night. According to police sources, about fifty young people from some neighbourhoods of Fort-de-France are responsible of those troubles.

Violence erupted while Guadeloupe has been hit for 36 days by a general strike. A meeting between trade union and authorities would begin this Wednesday.

one person killed, 17 other injured in Cairo Bomb attack 

A bomb exploded in the central Cairo district of Khan Kalili, this afternoon, kiling at least one person and injuring 17 others.

 The bomb, apparently a small homemade devise exploded outside a café crowded with tourists near the historical Hussein mosque.

The dead person seems to be a French tourist. Other French and German as well as Egyptians were injured in the blast.

France/Civil unrest: security forces shot by protestors

(Ocean's D'images/Gamma/Eyedea Presse/Photo News)

Following the killing of a French union member, protestors in Guadeloupe shot security forces controlling the riots, said media reports on Thursday. According to the island prefecture, the rioters fired five shotgun rounds at the security forces at Gosier, near Pointe-a-Pitre. However, no one was reported injured in the incident, said the official statement, noting the security forces have been removed from the locality.

The statement also said the rioters burned a store and a car in Pointe-a-Pitre, while a store at Sainte-Rose was looted. Four people were arrested later, it said. Additional French police and paramilitary gendarmes have been deployed since the protestors resorted to looting and violence this week. The general strike, called by a union coalition for the high cost of living, was intensified after union representative Jacques Bino was shot dead on Tuesday. Meanwhile, coalition leader Elie Domota, called for a commission of inquiry for the killing.

France/Organised Crime: 21 persons arrested linked to drug trafficking

Twenty-one people involved in the investigation on a drug trafficking network were arrested on Tuesday in the the regions of Marne, Aisne and Meuse (North of France). They are linked to the riots in Vitry-le-François (Marne) that occurred in June 2008. They were remanded in police custody under a warrant from a magistrate in Châlons-en-Champagne, by the gendarmes of the Research Section of Reims.

One hundred and ten policemen, including six dog teams were used to stop the suspects living mainly in Vitry-le-François and Reims (Marne), but also at Bar-le-Duc (Meuse) and Vervins (Aisne). "Searches conducted in connection with these arrests have led to the seizure of substantial amounts of money and significant amounts of cannabis resin," said the gendarmerie.

These arrests are linked to a drug trafficking that had resulted to a murder, on June 14, 2008 in Vitry-le-François. The alleged offender had been imprisoned but the murder had triggered major urban violence.

3 police officers were wounded by shots and a man was killed  in Guadeloupe protest

Protesters in the French-Caribbean island of Guadeloupe fired shots overnight at police and wounded three police officers, officials said on Wednesday. Another man was also  shot and killed after youths holding a barrage opened fire against him in Pointe-à-Pitre. Stephane Grauvogel, a police official said the three officers were injured by gunfire when they were called to an incident at Cite Henri IV in Pointe-a-Pitre also. He added that in retaliation police only used tear gas to disperse the crowd. Strikes over pay and high cost of living has crippled the island for past month and brought it to a standstill.

Violent youths clashed with police, torched a tyre store and ransacked shops, said the officials. Reportedly, the demonstrations, coordinated by an alliance of about 50 unions and associations known as "Liyannaj Kont Pwofitasyon" (LKP), or "Stand Up Against Exploitation" in the local dialect, had started out peacefully. But in the past three days, protesters have set up road blocks in different parts of the island and police have made dozens of arrests. Meanwhile, France, which the island, has urged "calm, responsibility and restraint", with Michele Alliot-Marie, the French interior minister, saying she hoped talks with the protesters, which had broken down, would resume.

France/Organised crime: escaped prisoners captured
 
French police finally arrested on Tuesday two armed gangsters who broke out a high security jail on Sunday and took bystanders hostage. They were captured after a shootout in a suburban Paris highway tunnel, police said. Christophe Khider, 37, one of the fugitive was shot in the torso and seriously wounded during an exchange of fire with police. Interior ministry spokesman Gerard Gachet said the other, 30-year-old Omar Top El Hadj, was stunned when the pair's car crashed during the arrest operation. He was captured unharmed. Three officers were also lightly injured during the operation.

Meanwhile, Interior Minister Michele Alliot-Marie congratulated officers on the arrests, which came two days after the pair produced a gun, took two prison guards hostage and used explosives to blast open a jail security door. The duo has been apprehended by police on Tuesday in a highway tunnel near Fontenay-sous-Bois, southeast of Paris.

France/Terrorism : Agriculture ministery building targeted by a home-made bomb

The Regional Directorate of Agriculture (Direction regionale de l'Agriculture) in Montpellier (France) was targeted by a home-made bomb on Sunday night. The explosion caused damages to the building but no injuries were reported.  Nobody claimed responsibility of the attack. The minister of agriculture Michel Barnier has denounced "these acts of violence" as "terrorist attacks". He has also assured "the Regional Director and the staff of the ministry in the region of his own vigilance and determination". According to Marc Pichon Vendeuil, an Hérault region top official, the explosive device “whose nature remains to be determined”, was placed under a canopy leading to the entrance doors of the building. The windows were partially shattered in the blast.

On the wall, investigators found a message saying "yes to the DPU".  The rights to payment (DPU) is an aid paid by each Member State of the European Union to its farmers under the reform of the Common Agricultural Policy. However, wine producers, arborists and gardeners are excluded from the DPU and the Languedoc viticulture claims its entry into these schemes.

United Kingdom/France/Defence: nuclear submarines collide in Atlantic

The British Royal Navy’s submarine HMS Vanguard and the French Navy’s one Le Triomphant collided underwater in the Atlantic Ocean earlier this month, it emerged
on Sunday. Both submarines are nuclear powered and were armed with ballistic missiles. “The potential consequences are unthinkable. It’s very unlikely there would have been a nuclear explosion. But a radioactive leak was a possibility. Worse, we could have lost the crew and warheads. That would have been a national disaster,” a senior Navy source said.

The collision is believed to have taken place on February 3 or 4, in mid-Atlantic. Both subs were submerged and on separate missions. Naval sources said it was a millions-to-one unlucky chance both subs were in the same patch of sea. Warships have sonar gear which locates submarines by sound waves. But the anti-detection systems are so developped that it has become very difficult to ear if there is a ship in the area. 

The Ministry of Defence (MoD) insisted last night there had been no nuclear security breach. But this is the biggest embarrassment to the Navy since Iran captured 15 sailors in 2007. The naval source said: “crashing a nuclear submarine is as serious as it gets.”

France/Kuwait/Defence: Paris to sell fighter jets, weapons to Kuwait city

(Didier Lebrun/Photo News)

French President Nicolas Sarkozy released a statement on Wednesday, saying France is looking forward to sell combat jets, frigates and an anti-missile defense system to Kuwait. "Defense ministers are in deep discussions," said President Sarkozy, noting the deal would be settled by the end of this year.

The intention is reportedly an effort to raise France’s profile in the Middle East, reported media agencies. President Sarkozy further said, in his current visit, the two nations would ponder renewing their defence pact and secure "a strategic partnership." The president declared Kuwait was looking forward to buy at least 28 Rafale jets, a multi-role combat aircraft manufactured by the Dassault Aviation in France. Much ruined by the Iraqi invasion in 1990, Kuwait is still rebuilding its military.

France/Organised crime: Pierre-Marie Santucci was assassinated

Pierre-Marie Santucci, described as a Corsican figure of the criminal circles, was shot and killed on Tuesday evening in a parking lot in Vescovato, near Bastia. Pierrick Pezzino, the deputy prosecutor in Bastia said that the victim, a member of the gang called the "Brise de Mer" “was hit by a single projectile at his side”. According to preliminary results of the investigation, Pierre-Marie Santucci was leaving a bar at 7:50 pm and going to his car parked in an adjacent parking lot near highway 93 when he was shot. Pierrick Pezzino added that his investigation will “not exclude the possibility” of a sniper.

Pierre-Marie Santucci was sentenced on 2 May 2002 to three years in jail and a fine of 3,000 euros for theft of stolen vehicles and weapons in a case of extortion. He is the fourth person belonging to the gang “Brise de mer” to be killed in one year. Francis Mariani who was also condemned in the same case was found dead on January 12.

Richard Casanova, presented by investigators as the head of the Brise de Mer, was shot dead in April 2008 while he was driving his car in Porto-Vecchio (Corse-du-Sud). He was also considered as the mastermind of the robbery against the Union des Banques Suisses (UBS) in Geneva in 1990. Beginning July 2008, Daniel Vittin, 56 years, continued the business by attacking bullet-proof vans. He was found dead near Venaco (Corse-du-Sud).

Afghanistan/Terrorism : a French officer died in Afghanistan

A French officer of the 35th artillery regiment paratrooper of Tarbes was killed on Wednesday in Afghanistan during clashes with insurgents. The shooting erupted after a mine explosion, said the Defence Ministry. "A chief sergeant belonging to the same unit was seriously wounded and an Afghan interpreter was also killed in this incident," said the ministry in a statement.

All three were participating in a patrol with a section of the Afghan national army that they have been training in the province of Logar, south-east of Kabul.

President Nicolas Sarkozy immediately expressed its "deepest sympathy".

France/Defence: French Navy infected by a worm

According to the daily newspaper Le Figaro, the French Navy staff was targeted in January by hackers who send a new worm named “Conficker”.  The attack forced the navy to stop the connection to its internal network, Intramar, to prevent the worm from spreading. The computer program disrupted web browsing and e-mails by using a flaw in the Windows application. Accordingly, the contamination happened when a soldier working at home plugged a USB drive into another computer linked to the network.

The navy spokesman Jerome Erulin told the Ouest-France newspaper that it “forced to rely on more conventional means of communication such as the telephone, fax or postal system”. He also added to the AFP news agency that “the infection was first detected on Jan. 12, nearly three months after Microsoft issued an emergency Windows patch for the vulnerability that Conficker exploits”. “The operational networks are much more secure,” he underlined referring to a possible contamination to the French navy’s Rafale fighter jets.

According to security experts, the worm has infected more than 10 million computers worldwide and it is reported to have infected middle-level systems within the British military or the French companies as EDF.

France/Iraq/Diplomacy: Nicolas Sarkozy visits Baghdad

(Didier Lebrun/Photo News)

Marking the first visit by a French head of state since the downfall of Saddam Hussein, French President Nicolas Sarkozy pays a surprising and historic visit to Iraq on Tuesday. Sarkozy pledged to support the reconstruction of war-torn Iraq and help improve its economy. "I came to express the solidarity of France," said Sarkozy. "We seek cooperation in the economic field, energy, rebuilding, and to help the police, security and Iraqi military forces, as well as restoring the international position of Iraq," said the president.

The visit is seen as a major step in his efforts to strengthen ties with Iraq and the US, which was strained after Paris opposed the US invasion that ousted Saddam in 2003. According to French and Iraqi officials, Sarkozy will be meeting Iraqi President Jalal Talabani and Prime Minister Nouri al Maliki during his visit. Sarkozy will also visit Bahrain, Kuwait and Oman later on Tuesday as a part of his regional tour.

France/Terrorism : new and last Yvan Colonna’s trial

The appeal Court will start on Monday to retry Yvan Colonna who was sentenced to life in prison in 2007 for the murder of the former Corsican governor Claude Erignac killed in 1998. Yvan Colonna has always said he was innocent but the first judgement on December 13, 2007 ruled the opposite. The Public prosecutor will also challenge the first decision because it wants Colonna to be served in full of 22 years in prison.

Colonna’s lawyers will probably ask a new reconstitution in Ajaccio, where the murder took place.  Claude Erignac was shot dead on February 6, 1998, while he was going to the Theatre in the center of Ajaccio. Six persons have already been condemned in 2003, including Pierre Alessandri and Alain Ferrandi. Colonna was arrested and is judged under the first declaration of several defendants but all of them denied later what they said about him.

France/Tunisia/Justice : Christian Ganczarski condemned to 18 years in jail

The special criminal Court of Paris has condemned on Thursday night Christian Ganczarski to 18 years in jail of “aiding and abetting a murder” because of his involvement in the terror attack against the synagogue in Djerba on April 11, 2002. According to the prosecutor, he was the head of the attack. Indeed, the terrorist call him just before blowing up himself, probabely to get Ganczarski’s bless.

Walid Nawar, the brother of the terrorist was condemned to 12 years in jail. He provided the equipment to commit the suicide attack, including a satellite phone.

Christian Ganczarski is a German-born citizen who was converted to islam in 1986. In went several times in Pakistan and Afghanistan were he personally met Osama Bin Laden and Khalid Cheikh Mohamed, the head of the terror attack against the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001.

France/Germany/Defence: Paris agrees troops deployment    

French Defense Ministry spokesman General Christian Baptiste said on Tuesday that Paris has agreed in principle to a proposal made by Berlin earlier this year to allow a German battalion to be stationed in eastern France. German troops will be stationed in France for the first time since World War II. Around 500 soldiers will be part of the Franco-German brigade to be stationed side-by-side in southwest Germany.

It is likely that the soldiers will be based in Alsace-Lorraine -- a region occupied by Nazi Germany during World War II. However, the precise location of the future base has yet to be determined. "Discussions are continuing on choosing a base for the battalion," Baptiste said.

French President Nicolas Sarkozy and German Chancellor Angela Merkel are expected to announce further details of the plan at a security conference scheduled to be held in Munich on Saturday. Merkel offered to send the brigade after Paris announced plans to pull some of its troops out of Germany as part of wide-ranging defense cuts, the Der Spiegel newspaper has reported.

France/Justice : Jean-Marc Rouillan won’t be released on parole

The Sentence enforcement Court of Paris refused on Wednesday to release on parole Jean-Marc Rouillan, the founder of the French ultra-left armed group “Action Directe” (AD). The Court estimated that the request was illegal because the defendant did not enjoy 1 year of partial freedom as the law says.

The former member of AD was sentenced to life prison in 1989 but on December 2007, he received a partial release during which he worked for Argone, a book publisher in Marseille. He gave a debated interview to the news magazine l’Express in which he explained his involvement in the New anti-capitalist party (Nouveau parti anti-capitaliste – NPA) of former presidential candidate Olivier Besancenot and said that it should remain a “revolutionary” party and “carry the conflict until confrontation”. The partial release was suspended after that interview.