Ivory Coast/France/Security: Yamoussoukro releases French journalist

According to the Reporters Without Borders (RWB) on Thursday, the Ivory Coast authorities have released Jean-Paul Ney, a French investigative reporter, who has been held for 16 months for his alleged involvement in an attempted coup. It has been reported that Ney has been released after much pressure from the French government. He was arrested in possession of a video that showed French merceneries  and ex-Ivorian sergeant Ibrahim Coulibaly planning ann attack.

To his defence, Ney on Wednesday claimed he was investigating the nexus between mercenaries, corrupted businessmen and bribed politicians in France and its earlier provinces. He said he had no involvement in planning any coup, and that the case against him had been falsified.

Ney was sent to prison in January 2008 along eight west African nationals and a Frenchman after being charged for attacking and "plotting against the authority of the state."

Tahiti/Organised Crime: ice seized and 15 drug traffickers arrested

Investigators from the Public Security Directorate (PSD) have dismantled a network of drug traffickers and arrested 15 people. 340g of synthetic amphetamines, or "ice" worth one million euros were seized, said Tahiti police sources on Wednesday evening. Out of the 15 traffickers arrested, seven were detained and eight placed under judicial control.

It is the largest seizure of "ice" in Polynesia. Traffickers used an unknown transport technique called the dilution. The drug is placed in a seemingly innocuous bottle, concealed in a post parcel.

France/Justice: Georges Ibrahim Abdallah remains in custody

The Appeal Court of Paris has rejected this Tuesday an application of release on parole issued by the Lebanese Georges Ibrahim Abdallah who was sentenced to life imprisonment for “murder complicity”. The former head of the Lebanese Revolutionary Armed Fractions was sentenced in 1987 for the murder of two diplomats, the American Charles Robert Day and the Israeli Yacov Barsimantov.

The board of the enforcement of sentences of the court has called Abdallah Ibrahim a "determined and relentless activist" who might take his revolutionary fight even if he was expelled to Lebanon. The request from the Lebanese was rejected because "in its various hearings (...) he has clearly claimed the political nature of his action and his anti-imperialist convictions”, said his lawyer Jacques Vergès quoting the Court.

France/Somalia/Piracy: troops captured 11 suspected Somali pirates

The French Defence Ministry announced that its navy has captured 11 suspected Somali pirates on Sunday as the pirates confused The Nivose with a commercial vessel. "They confused the Nivose with a commercial ship and rushed towards it, to intercept. The Nivose then put its own craft in the water with its commandos and sent out a helicopter and stopped these 11 pirates who were on these three boats,” a Defence Ministry spokesman said on condition of anonymity.

The spokesman said the detained are currently on the Nivose. "For the moment we don't have any indication of what the European Union forces want to do with these pirates." “The suspects were detained after two pirate assault boats were preparing to attack the Nivose, the pirates mistook the ship for a commercial vessel The encounter occurred 620 miles from Mombasa, Kenya,” said French naval Capt. Christophe Prazuck, adding that rocket-propelled grenades and AK-47 rifles has been seized from the pirates. In a separate incident on Saturday, a French naval patrol seized three more pirates in Seychelles' waters and handed them over to the coastguard.

France/Security:  nuclear power plant evacuated in bomb alert

French power supplier EDF announced on Thursday that followed by a phone call warning of a bomb, the nuclear power station at Chinon in central France was evacuated. He also added that  the anonymous phone call was made at 3:55 GMT. It further said search operations are going on and the entire areas of the plant had been secured, however, the nuclear plant was still functioning. "We will know at the start of the afternoon (around 1200 GMT) whether there is a bomb or not," an EDF spokeswoman said in condition of anonymity.  According to local authorities the phone call warning had been made from a phone box in the town of Chinon in the Indre-et-Loire department. "The police force was on the site at 0700 GMT and the bomb-disposal experts with dogs arrived on site at 0900 GMT," a local authority spokeswoman said.

The Chinon plant, which has four 900-megawatt nuclear reactors, supplies electricity to around 6 percent of the French population.

France/Justice: 27 members of the Barbarians on trial

Youssouf Fofana and 26 other members of the gang called “The Barbarians” will be hand over this Wednesday (April 29) to the Criminal court of Paris which will judge the case of the brutal torture and the murder of the French Jew Ilan Halimi in 2006.

Youssouf Fofana, the leader of the group, faces charges of “premeditated murder, demanding ransom, acts of torture and barbarism”. Prosecutors describe Mr. Fofana as a "perverted megalomaniac" bent on kidnapping Jews for ransom "because they are loaded with dough" and "stick together".  If found guilty, he could face life imprisonment. The others members could face imprisonment sentences. Several of them were minors in 2006; it is the reason why the trial, in camera will hand over a juvenile Court.

Police found Ilan Halimi covered with cuts, burns and bruises, tied to a tree near railroad tracks in the Essonne region south of Paris on February 13, 2006. The 23-year-old young man died on the way to the hospital. Ilan Halimi went missing on January 20, 2006 while on a date with a girl he met at the mobile phone store in central Paris where he worked. The girl is suspected to be an accomplice of Youssouf Fofana. It seems that the gang leader plotted to lure the victim in the basement of a building in the suburb of Paris. Fofana demanded 450,000 euros from his family after he had sent photographs showing the hostage blindfolded and gaunt. He had also sent an audio message of the hostage pleading for his life and a videotaped.

France/Corsica/Terrorism: 2 suspects in the Orsoni’s murder attempt arrested

According to the weekly newspaper Le Point, Pascal Porri and one of his suspected accomplices Mathieu Lherbier were arrested during the night from Wednesday to Thursday in the Corsican city of Ajaccio. Both men have been searched since December 2008 for their alleged involvement in an assassination attempt against former Corsican nationalist leader Alain Orsoni.

Porri is the alleged leader of the band called the "Small bar”, a pub in Ajaccio. The two wen were arrested in a hotel on the road called "la route des Sanguinaires"

France/Sri Lanka/Civil unrest: French police arrested scores of Tamil protesters in Paris

Around 210 people were arrested and four others injured in Paris, near the North station, on Monday during an illegal protest by Tamils. Demonstrators were protesting against the situation in Sri Lanka where government forces have surrounded the last remaining Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) rebels. Currently 164 persons are hold in custody. 

Expatriate Tamils have been demonstrating around the world against the Sri Lankan government's conduct of the war against LTTE. In London around 2,000 protesters blocked the traffic circle outside Britain’s parliament building on Monday, urging Britain to press Sri Lanka's government to call off its attack.

Sri Lankan government troops have surrounded Tamil fighters in the northeast of the island on Monday and gave the guerrillas 24 hours to surrender after several thousand civilians managed to flee the war zone.

France/Organised crime: attack in Valence with explosive
Devices

Heavily gunmen attacked this Tuesday morning in Valence (France), the headquarter of the Loomis company which transfer funds. It is not known if the team was able to take the loot.

At 5:00 am about ten men blocked the street with jeeps before entering the building using a ram-raiding. Then they blew up the building where armoured vehicles and a safe were located.  When the police arrived, the robbers opened fire, targeting the wheels of police vehicles. They were able to escape without being arrested.

Before the attack, the authors had burn a car in front of the the parking of the police station and they spread nails on the road to delay the police intervention.

France/Spain/Terrorism: ETA leaders arrested near Perpignan

This Monday, Jurdan Martitegi Lizaso, Alexander Uriarte Cuadrado, and Gorka Aspitarte, three suspected member of the separatist organisation  Euskadi Ta Askatasuna (ETA), will be sent to the headquarter of the antiterrorist department of Levallois-Perret (Sous-direction antiterroriste -  SDAT). All of them were arrested on Saturday with six other persons during a joint Franco-spanish police operation in the city of Montauriol (near Perpignan, eastern Pyrenees region). Jurdan Martitegi Lizaso is suspected to be the military head of the terrorist organisation who replaced Aitzol Irionda, arrested last december. “Martitegi has perpetrated a lot of terrorist attacks, which unfortunately succeeded”, said Alfredo Perez Rubalcaba, the Spanish Home minister.

The French Home minister, Michele Alliot-Marie has observed that “five Etarras have been arrested in France for the last ten days”. Indeed, Ekaitz Sirvent Auzmendi an important counterfeiter of the terrorist organisation had been arrested last April 10 at the Montparnasse Station in Paris. Itxaso Legorburu Madinabeitia, another ETA member, was also arrested in the central French town of Mezieres-en-Brenne on Thursday.

Euskadi Ta Askatasuna was found in 1959 and is fighting for an independent Basque Country. It is considered a terrorist organization by the European Union and the United States which is responsible of more than 825 murders for it has taken arms. Those arrests have been a new reverst for ETA for France has begun to arrest ETA suspects after the group called off a 15-month-old ceasefire in June 2007.

ETA military leader arrested 

French police have arrested on Saturday afternoon Jurdan Martitegi, suspected to be the top military leader of the armed Basque separatist organisation ETA, and 8 other members, in Montauriol, a Pyrenees mountain village near Perpignan, in southern France.

The Spanish interior ministry named one of the other detained suspects as Alexander Uriarte Cuadrado.

Security forces seized three pistols and two cars, including one with a false number plate.

Martitegi, 28, is regarded as one of the most dangerous man in Spain and France. He is the third top ETA leader arrested in the past six months.

Spanish police also arrested 6 other suspected ETA members (five men and a woman) during the night in the cities of Vitoria, Balbao and Renteria in Spain’s Basque country.

ETA, considered a terrorist organisation by the European Union and the United States, is held responsible for the deaths of more than 800 people in its 40-year campaign of shootings and bombings.

France/Terrorism: the town hall of Oletta targeted by an explosion

The French authorities have announced that the town hall of the city of Oletta in High Corsica (Haute Corse) was lightly damaged early this morning by an explosive device. No wounded have been reported. The police said it found a note on the building’s wall against the planning and ecological development of Corsica (plan d'aménagement et de développement durable de la Corse - Padduc) and written in the Corsican language.

According to a statement issued by Ange Santini, the President of the Corsican government, the new version of the Padduc was presented last April 2 at the town hall. He also condemned a "despicable act" committed “a few times before the meeting of the Corsican Assembly, which will examine the project.” “Through this attack, clearly a minority seeks to silence the democratic expression by imposing its choice by violence” he added. The President of the Assembly of Corsica and UMP lawmaker of South Corsica (Corse-du-sud), Camille de Rocca-Serra, condemned for his part “an intolerable act and vain which undermines an institution of local democracy.”

Somalia/France/United States/Piracy: French navy detains 11 pirates

The French Defence Ministry has announced on Wednesday (April 15) in Paris that its navy had captured 11 Somali pirates trying to seize a Liberian-flagged merchant ship. “The Nivose captured a pirate gang's mother ship, which was carrying two small assault boats, about 560 miles east of the Kenyan port of Mombasa on Tuesday”, the Defence Ministry stated. The Nivose is part of the European Union's "Atalanta operation" to protect shipping in the Gulf of Aden. The warship tracked the pirates after its helicopter thwarted an attack on the Liberian-flagged Safmarine Asia.

Meanwhile, Washington said on Wednesday it would send an envoy to a conference on Somalia next week to boost the anti-piracy fight. "These pirates are criminals. They are armed gangs on the sea, and those plotting attacks must be stopped and those carrying them out must be brought to justice,” US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton told reporters in Washington.

Greece's Merchant Marine Ministry said for his part on Wednesday that the Saint Vincent-flagged cargo ship Titan and its 24 crew were freed by their Somali captors. Speaking on condition of anonymity a ministry official said, "There were three Greeks among the crew,” adding that the ministry had no information whether a ransom had been paid.

France/Corsica/Terrorism: gunmen have targeted the Bonifacio police station

Three gunshots have been fired on Monday night against the intrance of the police station in Bonifacio, South Corsica, said on Thursday the police of Ajaccio (Corsica). Two unidentified gunmen driving on a motorbike have attacked the building at 23h25 (local time). Police sources said that the gunshots targeted the second and the third floor, where police officers and their families were living. No injured have been reported and the attack has not been claimed.

Investigators said that the gun which was used in the attack had already been used last Jully 18, in a similar attack.

France/Somalia/Piracy: authorities locate hijacked French yacht

(Rossi Xavier/Gamma/Photo News)

France Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner confirmed on Tuesday that they have identified the location of the Tanit, a French yacht hijacked by Somali pirates off the Ras Hafun in Northeast Somalia on Saturday. "Yes, we know where they are," said Kouchner. "I can't give you details and even if I had them, I would not give them because this anti-piracy operation initiated by France now involves several countries," he added. Earlier on Monday, a statement released by the Ecoterra International, an organisation monitoring piracy in the region, said "The abducted yacht is currently sailing with eight knots towards the Somali Puntland coast. Local marine observers stated that the attack was reportedly launched from a captured Yemeni fishing vessel."

Last year in September, French authorities launched a rescue operation for the French luxury yacht Le Ponant, which was seized by the pirates in April 2008 along with 30 crewmembers on board. Commandos were specially dispatched to regain a couple on board the Le Ponant.

Sudan/France/Canada/Kidnapping: French foreign ministry confirms the abduction

A statement issued by the French foreign ministry has confirmed the announcement of the Aide Medicale Internationale, the French humanitarian-aid non-governmental organisation, which declared on Sunday that unidentified gunmen in Ed el Fursan (Southern Darfur) had kidnapped on Saturday, two of their workers – a French and a Canadian. According to Sudanese officials, the gunmen also abducted two Sudanese guards along with the workers, but the guards were released later.

"Two staffs have been taken. Both are women. One is Canadian and one French," said Ali Youssef Ahmed, head of protocol at Sudan's Foreign Ministry. "Efforts to release them are going on and we are hoping that will happen very soon," he added. Meanwhile, the official Sudanese Media Centre said a ransom has been asked for the release of the hostages, but Ahmed declined to confirm the report.

On the other hand, the French Foreign Ministry confirmed that its crisis centre in Paris has been asked to look into the matter and the French embassy in Khartoum was in touch with the aid organisation and with local authorities. Officials in the United Nations-African Union Mission in Darfur (UNAMID) declined commenting on the case.

Somalia/France/Piracy: Ecoterra International announces the hijacking of a French-flagged yacht

Ecoterra International, an organisation monitoring piracy in Somalia announced on Monday that Somali pirates had hijacked a French-flagged yacht with 4 crew members in the Indian Ocean. “The attack took place on Saturday, around 640 kilometres (400 miles) off Ras Hafun in Northeast Somalia,” said the statement issued by the organisation. “The abducted yacht is currently sailing with eight knots towards the Somali Puntland coast,” added that statement. Local marine observers stated that the attack was reportedly launched from a captured Yemeni fishing vessel.”

France/Spain/Terrorism: French police found explosive devices in Grenoble

Police found on Sunday dozens of explosives in a building in the center of the south-eastern French city of Grenoble said on Monday the AFP press agency. "Ammonium nitrate and aluminium powder used in the manufacture of ETA explosive devices were found in a garage, in the basement of the building", said a source close to the investigation. The same source added that the tenant was probably registered as a false identity.

Euskadi Ta Askatasuna (ETA), which is considered a terrorist organization by the European Union and the United States, still continues its 40-year arms struggle for an independent Basque homeland. They have staged several violent attacks and have considerably affected the region. They have been blamed for killing more than 825 people in their campaign.

France/Civil unrest: anti-NATO protestors clash with police in Strasbourg

Hundreds of anti-NATO protestors on Friday clashed with riot police in the city of Strasbourg in France, where the protestors were staging a demonstration against the NATO summit. The police were brought down to firing tear gas canisters and rubber bullets to block the car smashing and rock throwing rioters from enter the city center. Reports also came in from Neuhoff, south of Strasbourg near the German border, where an out-numbered 40 riot police confronted with about 200 masked protestors. Several vehicles, bus stops and shop windows were reportedly destroyed, while the rioters erected a barricade on one street.

Meanwhile, law enforcement authorities have beefed up security measures in Strasbourg and across the German border. It has been reported that around 25,000 riot police have been deployed to take care of about 2,000 violent and dangerous demonstrators. An eyewitness, on the condition of anonymity, claimed that riot vans and water cannon vehicles were seen going towards the demonstrator’s camp in Ganzau, south of Strasbourg.

France/Civil unrest: 300 anti-NATO rioters detained

Protests and violence ahead of the NATO summit in the city of Strasbourg in France resulted in the arrests of 300 rioters till now, with more than 100 detained early on Friday. Today’s violence got intense as rioters hurled stones and other missiles, provoking law enforcement authorities to fire teargas shells and rubber bullets. According to the Police, it is very likely that the intensity of the violence might increase over the next two days, both in France and Germany. Meanwhile, demonstrating groups declared they are looking forward to bring complete disorder to the high-level summit, where world leaders will meet to mark the organisation's 60th anniversary.

Reports also came in about rioters attacking police vehicles and a military building using wooden stakes. The authorities have imposed border controls with Germany and the frontier could be closed altogether if there is further unrest.