Tag Archives: France

Cars torched as Paris suburb seethes over alleged police violence

PARIS (Reuters) – Cars and rubbish-bins were set ablaze in a night of violence in a tense Paris suburb following allegations of police brutality in the arrest of a 22-year-old local man.

One policeman has been placed under formal investigation for suspected rape and three others for unnecessary violence on Feb. 2 during the arrest of the man in Aulnay-sous-Bois outside the French capital.

The area is one of several where riots erupted in 2005 after two youths who fled police died electrocuted in a power station where they took cover.

That incident sparked three weeks of rioting in which 10,000 cars and 300 buildings were set on fire, prompting then interior minister Nicolas Sarkozy to declare a state of emergency and drawing worldwide attention to the contrasts between Paris and the bleak suburbs that surround it.

In Aulnay, where the unemployment rate of 19 percent is near double the national average, petrol-bombs were thrown and police used tear gas in the overnight confrontation around, a suburb some 15 kilometers (9.32 miles) north-east of central Paris.

“This violence is incomprehensible,” Aulnay-sous-Bois mayor Bruno Beschizza said of the incidents.

One report on BFM TV spoke of police firing real bullets into the air to escape when surrounded by a group of angry locals at one point in the night of Monday. It spoke of 24 arrests.

Local police said in a statement the man arrested on Feb. 2, who was only identified by his first name, Theo, accused one of the policemen involved of inserting a baton in his anus.

A hospital examination had revealed wounds to his rectum, face and head, it said.

Prime Minister Bernard Cazeneuve said an investigation would see to establish exactly what had happened, adding that: “Police officers must always behave in exemplary manner.”

Interior Minister Bruno Le Roux, questioned in parliament, said the arrested man was now in hospital with serious injuries but called for calm in the area.

The area where the arrest and subsequent violence took place is a spot where thousands of low-cost, low-rent apartments were built at the end of the 1960s to house workers at a nearby Citroen car factory that hired a lot of its workforce from French former colonies in Africa.

The factory closed in 2013.

(Writing By Richard Balmforth; Editing by Brian Love)

French soldier shoots, wounds machete-wielding attacker at Paris Louvre

Carrousel du Louvre in Paris, sight of recent terrorist attack attempt

By Michel Rose and Elizabeth Pineau

PARIS (Reuters) – A French soldier shot and wounded a man armed with a machete and carrying two bags on his back on Friday as he tried to enter the Paris Louvre museum in what the government said appeared to have been a terrorist attack.

The man shouted Allahu Akbar (God is greatest) and rushed at police and soldiers before being shot near the museum’s shopping mall, police said, adding a second person had also been detained after acting suspiciously.

The attacker was alive but seriously wounded, the head of Paris police Michel Cadot told reporters at the scene, adding the bags he had been carrying contained no explosives.

“The soldier fired five bullets,” Cadot said, describing how the man hurried threateningly toward the soldiers at around 10 a.m. (0900 GMT).

“It was an attack by a person … who represented a direct threat and whose actions suggested a terrorist context.”

Prime Minister Bernard Cazeneuve said during a visit to Bayeux in Normandy: “It appears to be an attempted attack of a terrorist nature.”

The soldier who fired the bullets was from one of the patrolling groups that have become a common sight around the capital since a state of emergency was declared across France in November 2015. An anti-terrorism inquiry has been opened, the public prosecutor said in a statement.

Another soldier was slightly wounded in the incident.

The identity and nationality of the attacker remains unknown for now, French Interior Ministry spokesman Pierre-Henry Brandet told reporters. Interior Minister Bruno le Roux abandoned a trip to the Dordogne region to return to Paris.

More than 230 people have died in France in the past two years at the hands of attackers allied to the militant Islamist group Islamic State.

The country is less than three months away from a presidential election in which security and fears of terrorism are among the key issues.

Paris was also planning to submit its official bid to host the 2024 Olympic Games on Friday with a launch show at the Eiffel Tower around 1730 GMT.

The city had in recent months been gradually recovering from a dip in foreign tourism caused by the attacks.

The most recent deadly attack took place in the southern city of Nice in July last year when a man drove a truck into a crowd on the seafront killing 86.

In September, in an attempted attack, a group of women parked a car containing gas canisters near Paris’s Notre Dame Cathedral.

Police cordoned off and evacuated the area around the museum for a time on Friday but began to allow traffic to pass less than two hours after the incident. Louvre officials closed the museum and kept visitors inside for a time before beginning to let them leave.

(Reporting by Emmanuel Jarry, Chine Labbe, Bate Felix; Editing by Andrew Callus, John Irish and Janet Lawrence)

Iran will not use ballistic missiles to attack any country: foreign minister

Minister of foreign affairs for Islamic Republic of Iran

By John Irish

TEHRAN (Reuters) – Iran said on Tuesday it would never use its ballistic missiles to attack another country and defended its missile tests, saying they are neither part of a nuclear accord with world powers nor a U.N. Security Council resolution endorsing the pact.

Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif spelled out Tehran’s stance after a U.S. official said Iran on Sunday test-launched a medium-range ballistic missile that exploded after 630 miles (1,010 km).

In light of this, the United States requested the U.N. Security Council hold “urgent consultations” on Tuesday, after its scheduled session on Syria’s conflict.

French Foreign Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault told reporters in Tehran that had voiced its concerns over the Iranian test, adding that it harmed the international community’s confidence in Tehran and contravened Security Council Resolution 2231.

That resolution ratified a July 2015 accord between Iran and six world powers under which Tehran curbed its nuclear activity to defuse concerns it could be put to making atomic bombs; in return, Iran won relief from crippling economic sanctions.

Zarif neither confirmed nor denied the U.S. report that it tested a ballistic missile on Sunday but added: “The missiles aren’t part of the nuclear accords. Iran will never use missiles produced in Iran to attack any other country.”

“No Iranian missiles have been produced to carry nuclear warheads,” said Zarif, speaking at a joint news conference held with Ayrault in Tehran. The Security Council resolution called on Iran not to carry out activity related to ballistic missiles capable of delivering nuclear weapons.

Senator Bob Corker, chairman of the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee, condemned Iran on Monday and said he would work with other lawmakers and the Trump administration to hold Iran accountable.

“COMMON INTEREST”

Ayrault said at the start of his two-day trip to Tehran on Monday that France would act as a defender of the nuclear deal that new U.S. President Donald Trump has threatened to tear up.

“We hope that that question of Iran’s defensive program will not be used as a pretext for the new U.S. administration … to provoke new tensions,” Zarif said.

Ayrault added it was imperative the Islamic Republic abide strictly by the conditions of the accord. He said it was in the “common interest” that all sides heeded the deal.

Ayrault is looking to reassure Tehran of France and Europe’s support for the nuclear deal, and to increase commercial ties. The deal was engineered two years ago by the United States, Russia, China, Britain, Germany and France.

“This deal has to be rigorously kept to,” Ayrault said. “I want this deal to last and that no badly chosen initiatives are taken that could put the accord in jeopardy.”

During the U.S. election race, Trump branded it “the worst deal ever negotiated”, telling voters he would either rip it up or seek a better agreement.

Paris took one of the hardest lines against Tehran in the talks, but has been quick to restore trade relations since then.

Major French corporations including planemaker Airbus <AIR.PA>, oil major Total <TOTF.PA> and car companies Peugeot <PEUP.PA> and Renault <RENA.PA> have all signed contracts.

Ayrault said trade between the two countries had surged by 200 percent since the July 2015 deal.

He added that a deal between Turboprop maker ATR with IranAir for the sale of at least 20 aircraft was “practically sealed”, and that a contract with construction group Vinci <SGEF.PA> for two regional airports was also making progress.

Ayrault also sought to reassure Zarif over the potential return to Iran of major Western banks, which have hesitated for fear of possible U.S. fines if they do business with Iran.

“Some banks are reticent, but we are working on this,” Ayrault said.

(Editing by Mark Heinrich)

France, worried by Trump, promises to be defender of Iran nuclear deal

France leader saying he will continue Iran Nuclear Deal

By John Irish

TEHRAN (Reuters) – France vowed on Monday to act as defender of Iran’s nuclear deal, which U.S. President Donald Trump has threatened to tear up, but said it was imperative Tehran abide strictly by the conditions of the accord.

Arriving in the Iranian capital for a two-day visit, French Foreign Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault said it was in the “common interest” that the 2015 accord under which Tehran agreed to curb its nuclear program in return for lifted sanctions was obeyed.

During the U.S. election race Trump had branded it “the worst deal ever negotiated”, telling voters he would either rip it up or seek a better agreement.

“I’m coming as the defender of the accord, but to be vigilant and explain that they (the Iranians) must be irreproachable,” Jean-Marc Ayrault told reporters after landing in Tehran.

“We harbor real concerns about the U.S. administration’s attitude towards this agreement,” he said.

The deal was brokered by the United States, Russia, China, Britain, Germany and France. Paris took one of the hardest lines against Tehran in the negotiations, but has been quick to restore trade ties.

Major French corporations including planemaker Airbus, oil major Total and automobile manufacturers Peugeot and Renault have all signed deals.

Ayrault said that while Tehran had “largely” kept to the terms of the deal, it had pushed the spirit of the accord over the past year by carrying out several ballistic missile tests.

“We want this agreement to be respected. It is in the common interest of the international community that it is,” Ayrault said.

The foreign minister is due to meet Iranian President Hassan Rouhani, Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif and the powerful Secretary of Supreme National Security Council, Ali Shamkhani.

The visit, which includes an economic conference where some contracts may be concluded, will provide an opportunity for talks on Syria. Paris is a vociferous opponent of Iran’s backing of Syria’s leader, Bashar al-Assad.

“We will discuss our disagreements, notably on Syria. “We had hoped Iran would be less aggressive in the region,” Ayrault said, referring to the period since the nuclear deal.

On Sunday, Trump spoke by telephone with Saudi Arabia’s King Salman, a close U.S.-ally in the Middle East. A White House statement said the two leaders agreed on the need to address “Iran’s destabilizing regional activities.”

(Editing by Ingrid Melander and Richard Lough)

French central bank chief urges insurers to step up cyber risk coverage

man representing cyber attack

PARIS (Reuters) – France’s central bank governor called on French insurers to enhance cyber risk coverage for their clients, as hack attacks and data privacy laws in Europe spur rising demand.

“With the help of reinsurers, insurers should be able to meet demands of cyber risk coverage, a concern that affects all businesses,” Francois Villeroy de Galhau said during a conference in Paris.

Though growing fast, the European cyber insurance market remains dwarfed by that in the United States, but is likely to expand in the coming years as new EU regulations come into force requiring firms to disclose when they have been the victim of an attack.

Around 28 percent of companies in Europe have been subject to a cyber attack over the past 12 months, but only 13 percent of companies have purchased cyber insurance, Marsh & McLennan Co’s (MMC.N) Marsh broker unit said in a survey, published in October 2016.

The value of global cyber insurance premiums outstanding is estimated by Marsh & McLennan Co’s (MMC.N) Marsh broker unit to be around $3.5 billion with 3 billion coming from the United States, and around $300 million coming from Europe.

“Insurance companies should learn from their own experience … in order to create a more mature market in France and Europe for insurance against cyber risks,” Villeroy added.

(Reporting by Maya Nikolaeva and Myriam Rivet; Editing by Leigh Thomas)

Israel, Palestinians warned against solo steps harmful to peace

World leaders meet in Paris for Israel-Palestine Peace

By John Irish, Lesley Wroughton and Marine Pennetier

PARIS (Reuters) – Some 70 countries reaffirmed on Sunday that only a two-state solution could resolve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and warned against any unilateral steps by either side that could prejudge negotiations.

The final communique of a one-day international Middle East peace conference in Paris shied away from explicitly criticizing plans by U.S. President-elect Donald Trump to move the U.S Embassy to Jerusalem, although diplomats said the wording sent a “subliminal” message.

Trump has pledged to pursue more pro-Israeli policies and to move the U.S. Embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, all but enshrining the city as Israel’s capital despite international objections.

Countries including key European and Arab states as well as the permanent members of the U.N. Security Council were in Paris for the conference, which Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu rejected as “futile”.

Neither the Israelis nor the Palestinians were represented.

However, just five days before Trump is sworn in, the meeting was seen as a platform for countries to send a strong signal to the incoming American president that a two-state solution to the conflict could not be compromised on and that unilateral decisions could exacerbate tensions on the ground.

The participants “call on each side … to refrain from unilateral steps that prejudge the outcome of negotiations on final-status issues, including, inter alia, on Jerusalem, borders, security, refugees and which they will not recognize,” the final communique said.

A French diplomatic source said there had been tough negotiations on that paragraph.

“It’s a tortuous and complicated paragraph to pass a subliminal message to the Trump administration,” the diplomat said.

REAFFIRMING RESOLUTION 2334

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry told reporters it would have been inappropriate to include the issue of moving the U.S. embassy, it being publicly debated in the United States.

Relations between the United States and Israel have soured during President Barack Obama’s administration, reaching a low point late last month when Washington declined to veto U.N. resolution 2334 demanding an end to Israeli settlements in occupied territory.

Paris has said the meeting did not aim to impose anything on Israel or the Palestinians and that only direct negotiations could resolve the conflict.

The final draft did not go into any details other than reaffirming U.N. Security Council resolutions, including 2334. Diplomats said that had been a source of friction in talks.

“When some are questioning this, it’s vital for us to recall the framework of negotiations. That framework is the 1967 borders and the main resolutions of the United Nations,” French Foreign Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault told reporters.

Kerry, who abandoned his efforts to broker peace talks in April 2014, told reporters that the meeting had “moved the ball forward.”

“It underscores this is not just one administration’s point of view, this is shared by the international community broadly,” he said.

France, home to Europe’s largest Muslim and Jewish communities, has tried to breathe new life into the peace process over the past year and argued that it should not play second fiddle to the war in Syria and the fight against Islamic State militants.

FOLLOW-UP MEETING?

The final statement said interested parties would meet again before year-end.

But Netanyahu told a cabinet meeting on Sunday that “this conference is among the last twitches of the world of yesterday … Tomorrow will look different and that tomorrow is very close.”

Britain added its criticism on Sunday. A Foreign Office statement said the Paris conference risked “hardening positions” given Israel had objected to it and that the U.S. administration is about to change.

Prime Minister Theresa May delivered a sharp rebuke on Israel last month to its U.S. ally when she scolded Secretary of State John Kerry for describing the Israeli government as the most right-wing in Israeli history. The criticism aligned her more closely with Trump.

Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, who said on Saturday that moving the U.S. Embassy to Jerusalem would kill off the peace process, said the Paris meeting would help at stopping “settlement activities and destroying the two-state solution through dictations and the use of force.”

(Additional reporting Lesley Wroughton in Paris and Jeffrey Heller in Jerusalem; Editing by Tom Heneghan)

New U.N. chief urges Security Council to do more to prevent war

United Nations Secretary General

By Michelle Nichols

UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) – New United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres urged the Security Council on Tuesday to take more action to prevent conflicts instead of just responding to them as he pledged to strengthen the world body’s mediation capacity.

“The United Nations was established to prevent war by binding us in a rules-based international order. Today, that order is under grave threat,” Guterres said in his first address to the 15-member council since taking office on Jan. 1.

Guterres, a former prime minister of Portugal and former U.N. refugee chief, said too many opportunities to prevent conflicts had been lost due to mistrust among states and concerns over national sovereignty.

“Such concerns are understandable, in a world where power is unequal and principles have sometimes been applied selectively. Indeed, prevention should never be used to serve other political goals,” he told the council.

“On the contrary, prevention is best served by strong sovereign states, acting for the good of their people,” he said.

The council has been largely deadlocked on the six-year war in Syria, with Russia and China pitted against the United States, Britain and France. The body has also been split on its approach to other conflicts and crises such as South Sudan and Burundi, with some members citing sovereignty concerns.

“Russia has suggested … that failure to respect state sovereignty is the main driver of conflict,” U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations, Samantha Power, said.

“Even as Russia has used its veto to insulate itself from consequences in this council for trampling on Ukraine’s sovereignty,” she said, referring to Russia’s 2014 annexation of Crimea.

Russian U.N. Ambassador Vitaly Churkin shot back at Power.

“It is a violation of sovereignty by the United States that led to the very dire situation in a number regions of the world, which we now have to tackle,” he said, citing countries including Iraq and Libya.

Guterres asked the council to make greater use of Chapter 6 of the U.N. Charter, which allows the body to investigate and recommend procedures to resolve disputes that could eventually endanger international peace and security.

He outlined steps he was taking to bolster the United Nations’ prevention capabilities, which he described as “fragmented.” He has created an executive committee to integrate all U.N. arms and appointed a senior official merge U.N. prevention capacities for better action.

“We will launch an initiative to enhance our mediation capacity,” he said. “We spend far more time and resources responding to crises rather than preventing them … We need a whole new approach.”

(Reporting by Michelle Nichols; Editing by Tom Brown)

French Middle East peace conference to be postponed: Palestinian official

Benjamin Netanyahu shakes hands with Palestine President

RAMALLAH/PARIS (Reuters) – France will postpone a proposed Middle East peace conference in Paris to January next year, Voice of Palestine radio reported on Wednesday, with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu refusing to participate and U.S. attendance in doubt.

France has been trying to persuade Netanyahu, who has repeatedly rejected the conference proposal, to meet with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in the French capital to try to revive moribund peace talks between the two sides.

Voice of Palestine radio quoted Palestinian Ambassador to France Salman El Herfi as saying that Paris had informed the Palestinians of its delay to the peace conference until January “to make better preparations”.

It said Herfi would meet French officials on Wednesday to discuss the issue and that he had said that if Israel refused to come in January, the international conference would still go ahead, but without the main protagonists.

Asked to comment on the situation, a spokesman for the French foreign ministry replied: “As of now, France has never officially confirmed any date for this conference. We will do so once we have had the results of our talks with all the parties concerned.”

France has repeatedly tried to breathe new life into the peace process this year, holding a preliminary conference in June where the United Nations, European Union, United States and major Arab countries gathered to discuss proposals without the Israelis or Palestinians present.

The plan was to hold a follow-up conference before Christmas with the Israelis and Palestinians involved to see whether the two sides could be brought back to negotiations.

The conference of foreign ministers was aimed at agreeing on a joint statement that would reaffirm the two-state solution on the basis of pre-1967 borders and according to Security Council resolutions, diplomats said.

The Palestinian mission in Paris was not immediately available for comment.

(Reporting by Ali Sawafta and John Irish; Editing by Sudip Kar-Gupta and Ralph Boulton)

France says it has foiled another attack, arresting seven

A French soldier stands guard near Strasbourg's cathedral in Strasbourg, France,

PARIS (Reuters) – France said on Monday it had foiled a terrorist plot and arrested seven people, a year after a state of emergency was imposed to counter a wave of Islamist attacks.

Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve said the seven people of French, Moroccan and Afghan origin, aged 29 to 37, were detained on Sunday. One of the detentions followed a tip-off from a foreign government, he said.

Two were arrested in the Mediterranean port city of Marseille and four in Strasbourg in the northeast. Cazeneuve did not say where the seventh was arrested.

“Yesterday, a terrorist act on our soil that was being prepared for a long time was foiled thanks to the work of the DGSI,” Cazeneuve said in a statement, referring to the internal intelligence service.

“The scale of the terrorist threat is enormous and it is not possible to ensure zero risk despite everything we are doing.”

French soldiers patrol past wooden barracks shops during the installation of the traditional Christkindelsmaerik (Christ Child market) near Strasbourg's cathedral in Strasbourg, France,

French soldiers patrol past wooden barracks shops during the installation of the traditional Christkindelsmaerik (Christ Child market) near Strasbourg’s cathedral in Strasbourg, France, November 21, 2016. REUTERS/Vincent Kessler

The minister gave no information on the target of the planned attack. The mayor of Strasbourg said it appeared the plot had not concerned his city but rather “the Paris region”.

A source close to the inquiry told Reuters that some of those detained had spent time in the Syria-Iraq region.

Security is a major theme in campaigning ahead of France’s presidential election next spring.

More than 230 people have been killed in attacks on French soil since January, 2015, when Islamist militants killed 17 people in Paris in an attack on the satirical newspaper Charlie Hebdo.

Gunmen and suicide bombers killed 130 people in coordinated strikes in Paris last November 13.

Islamic State, whose strongholds in Syria and Iraq are being bombed by warplanes from an international coalition including France, has urged followers to continue attacking the country.

Le Parisien newspaper cited a source as having told it the suspects arrested were awaiting a consignment of weapons.

(Reporting by Brian Love, Matthias Blamont and Chine Labbe; Editing by Richard Lough and Andrew Roche)

French foie gras makers worry as bird flu spreads in Europe

Employee holds a duck liver in at a poultry farm in Doazit, Southwestern France,

By Sybille de La Hamaide

PARIS (Reuters) – New outbreaks in Europe of a severe strain of bird flu pose a fresh worry for French foie gras producers, already reeling from lost sales last year when the virus emerged in southwestern France.

The run-up to Christmas coincides with peak demand for the delicacy, France’s favorite festive treat, made from duck or goose liver.

Marie-Pierre Pe from foie gras makers group CIFOG, said on Monday that prices could be 10 percent higher this Christmas after the French government’s decision last year to cull all ducks and geese, and halt output for four months, in a bid to contain the virus.

Farmers hope that stricter measures in place at French farms to spare birds from contamination after last year’s crisis will better protect their industry should the current outbreak of the H5N8 strain, already seen in neighboring Germany and Switzerland and other European countries, hit France.

“When I heard about new bird flu cases in Europe, I thought: It can’t be true, the nightmare is not going to start all over again,” Pe told Reuters.

“We did all that is needed to prepare farmers since the start of the year but we are never immune from birds contaminating a farm,” she said.

Producers estimate the freezing of output had cost the industry around 500 million euros ($539 million), including a 270 million euros loss in sales and additional costs for new biosecurity material.

The 25 percent drop in output and higher costs will lead to the rise in prices of foie gras products this year, Pe said.

Sold whole or as a pate, foie gras is considered a gourmet food in Western and Asian cuisine, but the practice of force-feeding has often been criticized as cruel by animal activists.

CIFOG held regular meetings with farmers this year to explain biosecurity measures put in place after the crisis, such as better protecting food and water from wild birds, Pe said. Farmers in southwestern France, the top foie gras producing region, also face stricter rules to avoid contamination between farms, notably through equipment disinfection.

As well as Germany and Switzerland, Austria, Hungary, Poland, the Netherlands, Denmark and Croatia, have also reported outbreaks of the highly contagious H5N8 bird flu in recent weeks.

No case of bird flu has been found in France so far this time but the country raised surveillance measures on Thursday to keep wild migrating birds from transmitting the virus to farm poultry.

Denmark ordered farmers to keep their poultry indoors on Monday due to the bird flu threat and Germany said it was considering ordering farmers to keep their flocks inside.

(Reporting by Sybille de La Hamaide; Editing by Susan Fenton)