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Lesson of the day, even if you have diplomatic immunity it would probably be best if you paid your hotel bill before trying to skip out in the middle of the night, especially when that bill is $7.5 million and you can’t exactly “sneak” away with a 60 person entourage. That was exactly what happened in December at a luxury hotel in Paris when Saudi Princess Maha al-Sudani (ex to Crown Prince Nayef ben Abdel Aziz) tried to leave the Shangri-La without paying her massively huge bill. The Saudi princess racked up her bill after taking over a 41-room floor...

Algerian radical spills beans on bin Laden "terror network" An Algerian Islamic radical arrested in France has proved a goldmine for investigators probing Osama bin Laden's militant network in Europe in the wake of the September 11 attacks, magistrates told AFP. French investigators now believe that after key testimonies from a handful of well placed members of bin Laden's al-Qaeda network the exiled Saudi extremist's secret organisation in Europe is unravelling fast. Since his arrest in Paris last Monday 27-year-old Yacine Aknouche has revealed his links with several al-Qaeda suspects including "shoe-bomber" Richard Reid and Zacarias Moussaoui, the alleged "20th...

A US Airways jet traveling from Paris to North Carolina was diverted to Maine on Tuesday after a "French" passenger handed a note to a flight attendant mentioning that she had a surgically implanted device, raising fears of a terror scenario that security officials had warned about. What is disturbing is the lack of coverage and relevant reporting on this act of terror in the skies. The would-be terrorist is described as a "French" woman. What's her name? Read the tea leaves. The Cameroon-born woman was traveling alone with no checked baggage and visiting the United States for 10 days...

BANGOR, Maine – A US Airways jet flying from Paris to Charlotte, North Carolina, has been diverted to Maine because of what an airline spokesman calls a "security issue." A North American Aerospace Defense Command spokesman says two F-15 fighters were scrambled to escort the plane. A person briefed on the incident said a passenger announced she had a surgically implanted device. The source spoke on condition of anonymity because it involved sensitive law enforcement information. US Airways spokesman Andrew Christie says the jet with 179 passengers was diverted around noon Tuesday to Bangor International Airport. He says there was...

Explanation: Did you see that full Moon Saturday night? Dubbed a supermoon, the latest fully illuminated moon appeared slightly larger than usual because it occurred unusually near the closest point in its orbit to Earth. Pictured above, the supermoon was captured Saturday night rising behind the top of the Eiffel Tower in Paris, France. Of course, the angular extent of the moon in comparison to foreground objects can be adjusted just by changing the observer's distance to the foreground object. When compared to nearby objects the moon may appear tiny, but when compared to distant objects -- the moon may...

A record-breaking 5,000 people from throughout France have thus far visited an aliyah fair taking place in the heart of Paris today, the same day as the French run-off election. The fair, organized and run by the Jewish Agency, is being attended by Jewish Agency Chairman of the Executive Natan Sharansky, as well as by representatives of various Israeli local authorities and government bodies, who are meeting with participants and presenting them with various opportunities for settling in Israel. Jewish Agency Chairman Sharansky noted emotionally that thousands of members of the French Jewish community had visited the fair. “I cannot...

Four people were shot dead in the space of five months in the Essonne area south of Paris, all with the same type of semi-automatic weapon by a gunman who fled on a motorbike, recalling the attacks of a scooter-driving Islamist extremist killed by police in southern France last month after murdering seven people. Unlike the Mohamed Merah Toulouse killings, there is no suggestion of any political or religious motives in the shootings. The latest victim, Nadjia Boudjemia-Lahcenea, 47, of Algerian descent, was shot dead in the entrance hall to her block of flats in the Grande-Borne district of Grigny,...

Explanation: Do you recognize the city lights of Paris in this picture? Taken on March 25 from the top of the 210 meter tall Montparnasse skyscraper, many will spot the looming Eiffel Tower, or the large domed structure of Les Invalides (right), or the colorfully lit elevated Metro train line gently curving toward picture center. You can even pick out the Arc de Triomphe close to the horizon on the right. But regardless of your location, the celestial lights near the western horizon should look very familiar. The lovely triple conjuntion of brilliant Venus (top), Jupiter, and a young crescent...

Mohammed Merah belonged to extreme Salafi group that works to topple French democracy • Group’s website shut down with homepage reading: “Due to great pressures brought upon us, we have dismantled the Forsane al-Izza movement.” Mohammed Merah, the confessed murderer of three children and a rabbi at a Toulouse Jewish school this week, was not a lone wolf, and on Wednesday the testimonies poured in about his involvement with a Salafi (extreme strand of Sunni Islam) group named Forsane al-Izza (FA). The “Knights of Pride”- as the group’s name means in English - was founded in France about a year...

A 12-year-old boy was beaten outside his Jewish school in Paris by youths reciting anti-Semitic slogans, school officials said, amid high security and tensions in France following killings of Jewish children and a rabbi last week... Both the school shooting and this week's beating involved the Ozar Hatorah network of Jewish schools. Emotions have been raw in France, especially within the half-million-strong Jewish community, since a gunman shot a rabbi and his two sons, 3 and 5 years old, and the 8-year-old daughter of the principal of the Ozar Hatorah School in the southern city of Toulouse on March 19....

The evolution toward smaller, more autonomous and decentralized organizational structures has been identified as a key trend in jihadi terrorism during the past few years [1]. Confronting amorphous structures and networks, which lack clearly identifiable organizational linkages and command structures and in which self-radicalization and self-recruitment are key elements, is a formidable challenge for security services [2]. The jihadi decentralization trend is clearly a result of counter-terrorism successes. These "defeats" have been scrutinized and digested in the writings of key jihadi theoreticians during the past few years. New roadmaps and operational concepts are being explored as the jihadis search for...

"Two men reported to have links to fundamentalist Catholic groups were arrested at the weekend while attempting to disable the theatre's security system." Catholics protest against 'blasphemous' play in Paris Angelique Chrisafis guardian.co.uk, Thursday 8 December 2011 13.16 EST Article history The Théâtre du Rond-Point's staging of Golgota Picnic is the latest target in a wave of demonstrations across France An earlier French protest against Golgota Picnic in November by fundamentalist Christians in Toulouse. Photograph: Remy Gabalda/AFP One of Paris's most prestigious theatres was being protected by riot police and guard-dog patrols on Thursday after it became the latest target...

Catholic fundamentalists have been gathering outside a Parisian theatre, at one point barging in, to protest against a play featuring the face of Christ allegedly covered with fake excrement. Anti-Semitism and Islamophobia have been hot topics in French society over the years, but these days, it’s anti-Christian sentiment that’s making front-page news. For the past week, throngs of Catholic fundamentalists have been brandishing crosses, chanting in Latin, and dropping to their knees in prayer outside a popular Parisian theatre to protest against a play featuring the face of Christ allegedly covered with fake excrement. The work in question, Italian Romeo...

The offices of the French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo have been destroyed by a petrol bomb, French police say. It comes a day after the publication named the Prophet Muhammad as its "editor-in-chief" for its next issue.

The city of Paris is filing legal complaints against a group of fundamentalist Christians who have been protesting a play currently showing at the municipal theater, claiming it is blasphemous, the mayor said Friday. Riot police have been called in to chase off demonstrators bearing crosses loudly protesting in front of, and sometimes inside, the Theatre de la Ville since the Oct. 20 opening of the play. "Sur le Concept du Visage du fils de Dieu" ("On the Concept of the Son of God's Face"), by Italian Romeo Castellucci is a provocative story centering on a young man caring for...

There is nothing better than Paris in the fall, except of course, Paris in the spring. Unfortunately, the G20 can’t afford to wait until spring, so this weekend they will convene in France for a very important summit meeting. The world’s financial leaders will gather amongst the twinkling lights, fine wine, and wonderfully rich French cuisine, and hopefully won’t immerse themselves too much in one of the world’s most romantic, charming, and fairytale cities. The non-European countries, while struggling with their own economic problems, will most likely publicly encourage (while privately cajoling) Germany to shoulder more responsibility and will also...

<p>AP - The Paris prosecutor’s office has dropped an investigation into a French writer’s claim that Dominique Strauss-Kahn tried to rape her for lack of sufficient proof.</p> <p>The prosecutor’s office said Thursday that Strauss-Kahn admitted to sexual aggression against writer Tristane Banon but that it is too late to prosecute for that charge, because the incident in question happened in 2003.</p>

Muslims pray in the street during Friday prayers near the al-Quds mosque in Marseille Muslim groups have criticized a French Interior Ministry ban on praying in the streets of Paris as authorities hastily started the implementation of the ban before this week's Friday prayer.Interior Minister Claude Gueant earlier said his ministry has provided another place of worship for Muslims and that Muslim associations were on board. However, the Muslim community was not informed that the ban would be put into effect immediately. Speaking to French daily Le Figaro on Wednesday, Gueant warned that if people do not obey the new...

A replica of the Twin Towers destroyed in the September 11 attacks will be built on a square opposite the Eiffel Tower in Paris to mark the tenth anniversary of the atrocity, organisers said Tuesday. The Eiffel Tower itself will be illuminated by a special light show later the same day, "The French will never forget" group that is hosting a series of events next month said in a statement. US ambassador to Paris Charles Rivkin will inaugurate the replica that will be constructed on Trocadero square, it said, adding that the 25-metre (82-foot) towers will bear the names of...

(NewsCore) - As far as management problems go it's become the stickiest labour issue of the French summer. Executives who would normally be delighted to learn that their employees have foregone lunch breaks or stayed late to work on a project have been dismayed to find their motivations have nothing to do with profit or company advancement. The problem is that office staff have spent hours producing extravagant designs by sticking vast quantities of Post-It notes to their office windows over the past couple of months in a craze that is sweeping the nation. The latest creation, a huge six...