France’s interior minister faulted the Chinese organisers of the Olympic torch relay for its chaotic run through Paris, saying in an interview on Wednesday that French police merely provided technical support. "The Olympic rule is that the organising country is always responsible for preserving the flame," Interior Minister Michele Alliot-Marie said.
The Paris leg of the Beijing Olympic flame relay was cut short on Monday after citywide protests against China’s crackdown in Tibet forced the torchbearers to take refuge on a bus. The torch’s journey by foot ended outside the French Parliament, where protesting deputies hung a Tibetan flag on a railing.
No image available
/ 21 February 2008
At the inquest into the deaths of Princess Diana and Dodi al-Fayed, Britain’s royals were branded the ”Dracula family” and a former spy chief was made to sweat in the witness box, pledging that assassinations were not part of the ethos of Her Majesty’s Secret Service.
No image available
/ 18 February 2008
French police launched raids in a Parisian suburb early on Monday, arresting 33 people they suspected of being involved in violent clashes that broke out in the area in November. About 1 000 police officers were involved in the operation, which began at about 6am in Villiers-le-Bel, to the north of Paris.
No image available
/ 24 January 2008
French bank Société Générale (SocGen) disclosed one of the biggest alleged frauds in financial history on Thursday, adding to a wave of gloom surrounding world markets battered by credit market losses. SocGen, France’s second-biggest listed bank, said it had uncovered an ”exceptional fraud” by one of its traders. It said this would cost the group â,¬4,9-billion.
French police have arrested a former officer in the Rwandan army, Marcel Bivugabagabo, accused of taking part in the 1994 genocide, an association of legal plaintiffs said on Wednesday. Bivugabagabo (53) is on the list of war criminals wanted for trial by the Rwandan government.
No image available
/ 5 November 2007
Olympique Lyon’s Czech forward Milan Baros was caught speeding at 268km/h in his Ferrari, a club source confirmed Friday. Local newspaper Le Progres quoted police as saying the former Liverpool player had broken the record for speeding for that French region, set by a motorcyclist who reached 246km/h.
No image available
/ 19 October 2007
Rwanda called on France on Friday to extradite a Rwandan wanted for his alleged role in the country’s 1994 genocide by the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda. Dominique Ntawukuriryayo, a former sub-prefect during the mass killings, was arrested by French police in Carcassonne, south-west France.
No image available
/ 12 October 2007
French police have arrested 310 people suspected of having downloaded images of child pornography on the internet, police said on Friday. Police said 144 of those detained across France since Monday had admitted they had downloaded pornographic videos of young girls.
Jurors in the British coroner’s inquest into the death of Princess Diana on Monday started retracing her final, ill-fated journey from the Paris Ritz to the underpass where her chauffeur-driven Mercedes crashed. Travelling under heavy police escort, the 11 jurors set off from the Ritz Hotel on Paris’s Place Vendome.