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(Reuters) - France has ordered special forces to protect uranium sites run by state-owned Areva in Niger as the threat of attacks on its interests rises after its intervention against rebels in Mali, a military source said on Thursday. ... Seven workers, including five French nationals, were kidnapped in Arlit by al Qaeda's north African arm AQIM in September 2010. It later released three of the hostages but four French citizens are still being held. ... According to a parliamentary committee enquiring into France's supplies of uranium, about 18 percent of the raw material used to power France's 58 nuclear...

A banner showing al Qaeda leader Ayman al Zawahiri and former emir Osama bin Laden is placed outside the French Embassy in Cairo, Egypt during a protest organized by Mohammed al Zawahiri. Image from Euronews. Within the past few days, Mohammed al Zawahiri, the younger brother of al Qaeda emir Ayman al Zawahiri, has threatened France and the West while condemning the intervention in Mali. The younger Zawahiri promised that if France and its allies continue to fight in Mali, then Westerners will be the "first to burn." During an interview broadcast by Euronews on Jan. 22, Mohammed al...

French Interior Minister Manuel Valls has said that Paris is set to deport a string of radical religious imams as part of a fight against "global jihadism". "Several radical foreign preachers will be expelled in the coming days," Valls told a Brussels conference called to tackle extremism in Europe on Tuesday, without identifying any of the individuals concerned. "I don't confuse this radical Islam with the Islam of France but there is a religious environment, there are Salafist groupings, who are involved in a political process, whose aim is to monopolise cultural associations, the schooling system," he added. "We will...

memory hole reminder The first documentary evidence that Vietnamese communists were directly steering John Kerry’s group Vietnam Veterans Against the War has been discovered in a U.S. archive, according to a researcher who spoke with WorldNetDaily. Read more at http://www.wnd.com/2004/10/27207/#615wufvA5oZXKuWK.99

DIABALY, Mali (Reuters) - Residents of Diabaly feared for their lives when French air strikes pounded their small town in central Mali, shaking their homes and turning the pick-up trucks of Islamist fighters into burning, twisted metal. Despite that, they are grateful to France. Children in bare feet and tattered T-shirts now play among the trucks' charred wreckage -- a visible reminder that the town was the focus of the French-led war against al Qaeda-linked rebels bent on carving an Islamist state out of the Sahara. "I've told the children not to play with the trucks but I can't stop...

Fleeing Islamist insurgents burnt two buildings containing priceless books as French-led troops approached al-Qaida-allied fighters on Saturday torched two buildings that held the manuscripts, some of which dated back to the 13th century. They also burned down the town hall, the governor's office and an MP's residence, and shot dead a man who was celebrating the arrival of the French military. French troops and the Malian army reached the gates of Timbuktu on Saturday and secured the town's airport. But they appear to have got there too late to rescue the leather-bound manuscripts that were a unique record of sub-Saharan...

Michel Sapin made the gaffe in a radio interview, which left French President Francois Hollande battling to undo the potential reputational damage. “There is a state but it is a totally bankrupt state,” Mr Sapin said. “That is why we had to put a deficit reduction plan in place, and nothing should make us turn away from that objective.” The comments came as President Hollande attempts to improve the image of the French economy after pledging to reduce the country’s deficit by cutting spending by €60bn (£51.5bn) over the next five years and increasing taxes by €20bn.

Islamist insurgents retreating from the ancient Saharan city of Timbuktu have set fire to a library containing thousands of priceless ancient manuscripts, some dating back to the 13th century, in what the town's mayor described as a "devastating blow" to world heritage. ... The manuscripts survived for centuries in Timbuktu on the edge of the Sahara hidden in wooden trunks, boxes beneath the sand and caves. The majority are written in Arabic, with some in African languages, and one in Hebrew, and cover a diverse range of topics including astronomy, poetry, music, medicine and women's rights. The oldest dated from...

French-led troops surrounded Mali's fabled desert city of Timbuktu on Monday after seizing its airport in a lightning advance against Islamists who have been driven from key northern strongholds. French paratroopers swooped in to block any fleeing Islamists while ground troops coming from the south seized the airport in the ancient city which has been one of the bastions of the extremists who have controlled the north for 10 months. "We control the airport at Timbuktu," a senior officer with the Malian army told AFP. "We did not encounter any resistance." French army spokesman Colonel Thierry Burkhard told AFP the...

The image was taken innocently enough: A landing helicopter kicked up a dust storm as French soldiers moved toward Niono, in northern Mali, an area held by al-Qaida-linked militant groups. The soldiers pulled on their goggles to protect their eyes from the dust. One soldier pulled up a black bandana -- with a white skeleton face printed on it -- over his nose. Behind him, light beamed through tree branches, creating an otherworldly image -- the soldier looked like a skeleton in French military fatigues. Photographer Issouf Sanogo of the Agence France-Presse news agency and Yann Foreix of Le Parisien...

KONNA, Mali—French special forces edged up to the largest city in Mali's north, entering the airport outside Gao and setting the stage for a battle for a city al Qaeda-backed militants have fortified since April. French and Malian troops on Saturday took control of the airport, as well as the bridge over the Niger River that leads into town, France's Defense Ministry said. A small number of the French forces, said one French spokesman, is leading an attempt to reclaim the 800-year-old city of 90,000, seized last year by al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb and the insurgency's local allies.

French Warship for Russia 'Won't Work in Cold' - Minister MOSCOW, January 26 (RIA Novosti) - Two amphibious assault ships bought for the Russian Navy from France in a 1.2 billion euro deal will not be able to operate in temperatures below seven degrees centigrade, Russia's Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin admitted on Saturday, in critical comments about the contract. "It's very odd that ships for offloading a landing force, floating in our latitudes won't work in temperatures below seven degrees," said Rogozin, who has special responsibilities for the defense industry, in a meeting of the Academy of Military Science...

DIABALY, Mali — When France entered the world’s newest war against terrorism, French officials boldly declared that the ragtag radical Islamists they planned to oust from northern Mali would scatter in the face of a modern fighting force. But two weeks later, reality has sunk in. Even as they bombard Islamist targets, the French troops are facing a military landscape that is far more complicated than it appeared at the outset, raising questions about France’s long-term goals. With no clear exit strategy, the French are encountering a host of problems: Mali’s interim government is weak, its military is disorganized, and...

"Paraguay: Alleged Hezbollah financier detained Wassim el Abd Fadel, a Lebanese with Paraguayan citizenship, faces human trafficking and narco-terrorism charges."  SNIPPET: "ASUNCIÓN, Paraguay – Wassim el Abd Fadel is behind bars inside Tacumbú prison in Asunción, Paraguay, as he awaits trial on human trafficking, money laundering and narco-trafficking charges. But Paraguayan authorities suspect the Lebanese with Paraguayan citizenship’s involvement in crime is much greater, which is why he’s being investigated for financing the terrorist organization Hezbollah. Fadel, 31, was arrested on Dec. 21 in Ciudad del Este, which is on the border shared by Paraguay, Brazil and Argentina, about...

Suddenly a handshake from David Cameron probably seems an awful lot more inviting. Former president Nicolas Sarkozy could become the next wealthy Frenchman to flee to Britain over his country’s looming tax hikes on the rich. Mr Sarkozy – who famously snubbed the Prime Minister’s attempt to shake his hand after Mr Cameron vetoed changes to the EU treaty in 2011 – is reportedly planning to move to London to set up a £800million investment fund. The 57-year-old, who was ousted from office last June, has amassed a fortune from £150,000-an-hour public speaking engagements and is now said to be...

As the world begins to lend international support to a French-led military intervention against Islamic terrorists in Mali, Israel’s ambassador to the United Nations on Wednesday brought the issue home, comparing the situation in northern Africa to Israel’s fight against terrorism in Gaza. “France’s foreign minister said this month that his country was fighting to prevent the creation of an Islamist terrorist enclave ‘at the doorstep of France and Europe.’ If Mali is on France’s doorstep, Gaza is in Israel’s living room,” Ron Prosor said. Speaking at the UN Security Council’s monthly open debate on the Middle East, the Israeli...

•Peugeot Citroen invents technology for air car ready for the market by 2016 •'Hybrid Air' engine system runs on petrol and air, instead of electricity •Company predicts 'Hybrid Air' to achieve 117 miles per gallon by 2020 French car giant PSA Peugeot Citroen believes it can put an air- powered vehicle on the road by 2016. Its scientists say it will knock 45 per cent off fuel bills for an average motorist. And when driving in towns and cities costs could be slashed by as much as 80 per cent because the car will be running on air for four-fifths...

Photographs of a French soldier apparently mimicking a character from the popular and violent video game Call of Duty are causing a stir around the world. In the photos, the unidentified soldier can be seen wearing a skeleton mask and a bandana, making him look eerily similar to the popular character Ghost from Call of Duty.

A French judge will decide this week if Twitter must hand over the identities of users sending anti-Semitic tweets. The case, brought against Twitter by a Jewish student organization, pits America's free speech guarantees against Europe's laws banning hate speech.The controversy began in October, when the French Union of Jewish Students threatened to sue Twitter to get the names of people posting anti-Semitic tweets with the hashtag #unbonjuif, or "a good Jew.""If I type 'un bon Juif' ... I can see it was full of tweets against Jews," says Eli Petit, vice president of the Jewish student organization. "It was...

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The effort by François Hollande to get the wealthy to fund his Socialist agenda isn't off to a propitious start, needless to say. The announcement of Hollande's 75% tax rate for high-income earners has panicked the business and investment communities in France that Hollande needs to generate economic growth. It drove France's greatest living actor (and perhaps overall artist) to abandon his native country for the greener pastures of Belgium … or perhaps Russia: Gerard Depardieu, the French actor awarded Russian citizenship this month, is shopping for land near a provincial capital where he plans to settle down after a...

SEGOU, Mali (AP) — American planes transported French troops and equipment to Mali, a U.S. military spokesman said Tuesday, as Malian and French forces pushed into the Islamist-held north. Douentza had been held by Islamist rebels for four months, located 190 kilometers (120 miles) northeast of Mopti, the previous line-of-control held by the Malian military in Mali's narrow central belt. The Islamist fighters have controlled the vast desert stretches of northern Mali, with the weak government clinging to the south, since a military coup in the capital in March last year unleashed chaos. French and Malian troops arrived in Douentza...

Nicolas Sarkozy is preparing to move to London to set up a billion pounds plus investment fund, it was claimed today. If the move goes ahead, the controversial Frenchman will become the latest to escape a potential top tax rate of 75 per cent in his home country. He and his former supermodel third wife Carla Bruni-Sarkozy would be likely to settle in an affluent district like South Kensington – so becoming the most high profile Gallic celebrity couple in the city.

'Dirty Dozen' hero from Oklahoma has died. James “Jake” McNiece led a World War II group hours before the June 6, 1944, invasion to destroy bridges to prevent German reinforcements from moving into Normandy. By Michael McNutt | Published: January 21, 2013 James “Jake” McNiece, the leader of a World War II group that came to be known as the “Dirty Dozen,” died Monday, family members said. He was 93. McNiece, a retired Ponca City postal worker, commanded a group of rough men nicknamed “The Filthy 13,” who served as the inspiration for the movie “The Dirty Dozen.” Hours before...

Canadian passports found on badly burned bodies of two insurgents. One Frenchman among the terrorists... Some of the gunmen 'given short-term contracts by the oil and gas giant'. Attackers 'arrived in cars painted in colours of Algerian state energy firm'. Two of the dead Islamists from Canada were found in the smouldering remains of a compound at the BP gas plant. One security source today confirmed that the Canadians are suspected of having travelled to Libya, where they joined extremists waging Jihad against the west. The men's badly charred corpses were found close to their victims, many of whom had...

Al-Qaida in Algeria The Republic of Mali is a landlocked nation in Northwestern Saharan Africa. Mali is divided into eight regions and has a population of 15 million. The main sources of income for the nation are fishing and agriculture though it is one of the largest producers of gold on the African continent. Since 1992 the country was stable until a coup d’état in March 2012 removed the government and suspended the constitution, claiming that the nation’s President did little to quell a rebellion by a separatist group which was sidelined by al Qaeda trained Islamic terrorist Ansar Dine...

Germany to shift 54,000 gold bars home ___ High quality global journalism requires investment. Please share this article with others using the link below, do not cut & paste the article. See our Ts&Cs and Copyright Policy for more detail. Email ftsales.support@ft.com to buy additional rights. Germany’s central bank is planning to shift 54,000 gold bars worth €27bn from Paris and New York to its base in Frankfurt, one of the biggest publicly announced shipments of the precious metal on record. Not to make it too easy for anyone planning a series of heists, the Bundesbank declined to say exactly...

Algeria's special forces stormed a natural gas complex in the middle of the Sahara desert on Saturday in a "final assault" aimed at ending a four-day-old hostage crisis, the state news agency reported. It said 11 militants and seven hostages were killed. The report, quoting a security source, didn't say whether any hostages or militants remained alive, and it didn't give the nationalities of the dead. It said the army was forced to intervene after a fire broke out in the plant.

Nigeria has revealed the presence in the country of terrorists trained in Mali, the northern part of which is in the hands of armed Islamist groups who seized it last year. The influx of the terrorists may have heightened the activities of the Nigerian Islamic sect Boko Haram, which has been more active lately. The sect has killed over 3,000 people in gun and bomb attacks in northern Nigeria since 2009. Nigeria has started the deployment of over a battalion of troops to Mali to participate in the African-led International Support Mission for Mali (AFISMA), which is battling alongside Malian...

It feels strange visiting a country like Morocco and listening to people extol the virtues of a political system my country waged a revolution against. Morocco has a king, and he’s a real one too, not some kind of a figurehead. But I went there, I listened, and after almost ten years of visiting Middle Eastern countries wracked by tyranny, terrorism, botched revolutions, and wars, I was perhaps a bit more willing to hear what they had to say than I might have been a decade ago. A monarchy is a tough sell for Americans. The founders of our country...

Perhaps as many as a million people marched in Paris last Sunday and at French embassies around the world against proposed legislation that would legalize same-sex marriage in France. One of the surprises in the French campaign for traditional marriage is that homosexuals have joined pro-family leaders and activists in the effort. “The rights of children trump the right to children,” was the catchphrase of protesters like Jean-Marc, a French mayor -- who is also homosexual. Even though France is known for its laissez faire attitude toward sex, pro-family leaders were quick to organize huge numbers. When President Hollande announced...

Officials in Mali say French-backed government forces have re-taken a second town that had been seized by Islamist militants. Local officials say militants have been driven out of Diabaly, located about 400 kilometers northeast of the the capital, Bamako. On Thursday, heavy fighting between French soldiers and militants had been reported in Diabaly, which was seized by rebels on Monday. There was no immediate confirmation of the re-capture from Mali's military or French forces. Earlier, the Malian army and French officials said Malian forces have re-taken Konna, a town east of Diabaly. The army said it has gained "total control"...

The Malian army, supported by French forces, has retaken control of the central town of Konna which fell to rebel fighters advancing from the north earlier this month and sparked France's military intervention. "We have wrested total control of Konna after inflicting heavy losses on the enemy," an army statement said on Friday. A spokesperson from the al-Qaeda-linked Ansar al-Dine rebel group confirmed to Al Jazeera’s Mohammed Adow that its fighters pulled out of the town. "They withdrew from the town after [incurring] huge casualties in the fighting in the town. They say they will continue their fighting in other...

"For every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction" is Newton's third law of physics. Its counterpart in geopolitics is "blowback," when military action in one sphere produces an unintended and undesirable consequence in another. September 11, 2001, was blowback. George H.W. Bush had sent an army of half a million to hurl Saddam Hussein out of Kuwait, a triumph. He proceeded to impose severe sanctions on the Iraqis and to build U.S. bases in Saudi Arabia. "Infidel" soldiers on sacred Islamic soil and the suffering of the Iraqi people under American sanctions were two of the causes Osama...

(Reuters) - Thirty hostages and at least 11 Islamist militants were killed on Thursday when Algerian forces stormed a desert gas plant in a bid to free many dozens of Western and local captives, an Algerian security source said. Two Japanese, two Britons and a French national were among at least seven foreigners killed, the source told Reuters. Eight of the dead hostages were Algerian. The nationalities of the rest, as well as of perhaps dozens more who escaped, were unclear. Americans, Norwegians, Romanians and an Austrian have also been mentioned by their governments as having been captured. Underlining the...

French troops have been fighting Mali's Islamist rebels in street battles in the town of Diabaly, Malian and French sources say. In the first major ground operation in the conflict, French special forces were fighting alongside Malian troops. Diabaly, 350km (220 miles) north of the capital Bamako, was captured by the rebels on Monday. France intervened in Mali last Friday to try to halt the Islamists' push southwards towards the capital. In a separate development, the chief prosecutor for the International Criminal Court opened a war crimes investigation, focusing on acts committed since January 2012 in some northern regions of...

A week after French aircraft rushed to the aid of a defeated and demoralised Malian army, French ground forces have begun fighting alongside the Malian army in Diabaly, a town 350 km north of capital Bamako. Since last year, northern Mali has been overrun by Islamist rebels organised under the banners of the Ansar Dine, the Movement for Jihad in West Africa (MUJAO) and al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM). Last Friday, France sent in jets, helicopter gunships, and special forces to Central Mali as Islamist rebels advanced till 50 km from a major military base in Sevare, and captured...

Clichés and stereotypes are flourishing along the French-German border, with the French associating their eastern neighbours with beer and efficiency, and the Germans looking west for bucolic joie de vivre. Marking this month's 50th anniversary of the Èlysée Treaty of reconciliation between the European heavyweights, the German Embassy in Paris commissioned a survey from the ifop Institute to see what the two nations thought of each other. The results suggested that although the animosity generated during two world wars had gone, the stereotypes of the hard-working German and life-loving French had survived well into the 21st century. When asked for...

In Amenas is operated by the Algerian company Sonatrach with BP and Statoil Islamist militants have attacked and occupied a gas facility in Algeria, killing a Briton and an Algerian and taking foreign workers hostage.Algerian Interior Minister Daho Ould Kabila said troops had surrounded the living quarters at In Amenas, where some 20 people were being held.Norwegian, French, British, US and Japanese citizens are among them.Mr Ould Kabila said the militants wanted to leave Algeria with the hostages, which he would not allow.Earlier, the AFP news agency quoted one worker as saying the militants had demanded the release of 100...

(Reuters) - Islamist fighters seized dozens of Western and Algerian hostages in a dawn raid on a natural gas facility deep in the Sahara on Wednesday and demanded France halt a new offensive against rebels in neighboring Mali. Three people, among them one British and one French, were reported killed, but details were sketchy and numbers of those held at Tigantourine ranged from 41 foreigners - including perhaps seven Americans as well as Japanese and Europeans - to over 100 local staff, held separately and less closely watched.   What is clear is that with a dramatic counterpunch to this...

Islamist militants attacked a gas field in Algeria on Wednesday, claiming to have kidnapped up to 41 foreigners including seven Americans in a dawn raid in retaliation for France's intervention in Mali, according to regional media reports. The raiders were also reported to have killed three people, including a Briton and a French national. An al Qaeda affiliated group said the raid had been carried out because of Algeria's decision to allow France to use its air space for attacks against Islamists in Mali, where French forces have been in action against al Qaeda-linked militants since last week. The attack...

French soldiers began direct combat with Mali-based Islamists in the central town of Diabaly on Wednesday, according to security sources, while President François Hollande said the war effort was “necessary and legitimate” in a speech in Paris. French special forces began fighting on the ground with Islamist rebels in central Mali on Wednesday, according to regional security sources, six days after the European power launched an air offensive in the country. “The special forces are currently in Diabaly, engaged in fighting with the Islamists. The Malian army is also on site,” the AFP news agency quoted a Malian security source...

France’s ailing industrial sector took another blow on Tuesday when Renault said it planned to cut 7,500 domestic jobs by 2016, or about 17 percent of its French labor force, as it adjusts production capacity to the crushing downturn in the European car market. The plan, which the company said in a statement would save 400 million euros, or $540 million, in annual fixed costs, is needed to lower its break-even point — the amount of revenue needed to cover all outlays — and to “clear the way for the new hiring needed for the future.” The company said that...

TIBERGE at Galliawatch reports that close to one million people marched in protest against homosexual marriage rights in Paris yesterday. The numbers are not certain, but there is good reason to believe this estimate. The streets were clogged with people bearing signs and wearing shirts with symbols of the traditional family. Here we have an unprecedented declaration of mass resistance to homosexual rights. This means not only that there is a very good chance homosexual “marriage” and adoption rights will never become a reality in France, but that the principle of equality that governs so much of political discourse and...

Nobody would like to know the answer to that more than the French. But they must keep the Afghanistan example in mind Those days are over,” said France’s President Francois Hollande last month, when asked if French forces would intervene in the war between Islamist insurgents who have seized the northern half of Mali and the Government in Bamako. But the days in question weren't over for very long. Last Friday France sent a squadron of fighter-bombers to the West African country to stop the Islamist fighters from taking over the capital. “We are making air raids the whole time”,...

Napoleon, who was a brilliant strategist, often told subordinates that they should treat the pope as if he had 200,000 men at arms. In other words, the answer to Stalin’s cynical remark—“How many divisions does the pope have?”—was about ten, give or take, and they were extremely loyal and prepared to die. This didn’t stop Napoleon from kidnapping Pius VI in 1799 when he refused to give up temporal authority (Pius died in France a few weeks later partly because of his imprisonment). His successor, Pius VII, believed in democracy and signed a Concordat with the “First Consul,” soon to...

La Manif Pour Tous, Protest for All. A march for marriage and familiy in Paris on Jan.13, 2013. Credit: Estefania Aguirre/CNA. Paris, France, Jan 14, 2013 / 10:52 am (CNA/EWTN News).- Over one million people reportedly took to the streets in France on Jan. 13 in opposition to President Francois Hollande's “marriage for all� proposal. Figures show between 1.3 and 1.5 million protested against their president's plans to pass same-sex marriage, according Bruno Dary, the former military governor of the city of Paris. Numbers from other media outlets range from an estimated 340,000 to 800,000 attendees. Set to go...

President Francois Hollande says more French troops are to be deployed in Mali to support the 750 in the country countering an Islamist insurgency. Mr Hollande said new air strikes overnight had "achieved their goal". One target was the town of Diabaly, which rebels entered on Monday. West African military chiefs are meeting in Mali to discuss how an alliance with the French will work. France began its intervention on Friday to halt the Islamists' advance south. Late on Monday, the UN Security Council unanimously backed the intervention. Mr Hollande, on a visit to the French regional military base known...

Islamist rebels chased Mali's army from a garrison town deep in its own territory on Monday, striking back at the weakest link in a nascent coalition after French fighter jets hit militant bases deep in the Sahara. The surprise move by what witnesses called a well-armed rebel force highlights the risk that the French campaign in Mali could widen as al Qaeda militants spread across the heart of the world's largest desert. The advancing fighters took control of the small barracks town of Diabaly after attacking and defeating the Malian army there, French Defense Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian said. The...

“When it was my turn, they took me blindfolded,” the thief said. “Suddenly I felt a pain in my right hand that was out of this world. My hand had just been chopped off.” This is Gao, once the seat of an empire, and then a glorified village, and now a city the size of Scranton under the boot of its Islamist conquerors. Gao has become a place where thieves have their hands cut off, where women are forced to wear the stifling Hijab in 113 degree heat or be lashed and where unmarried couples are stoned to death. Borders...