China built and paid for the AU’s computer network – but inserted a backdoor allowing it access to confidential information
The United Nations’s new top adviser on food blamed two decades of wrong-headed policies by world powers for the food crisis sweeping the globe in a stinging interview published on his first day in office. Frenchman Olivier de Schutter told <i>Le Monde</i> newspaper the world needed to prepare for the end of "cheap food".
France needs to improve its tarnished image across Africa where it was once a powerful colonial power but now competes with countries like China for influence, according to a Foreign Ministry report. The ministry asked ambassadors stationed in Africa for their views on France’s image on the continent and summarised them in a report last autumn.
Staff at Le Monde, France’s newspaper of record, went on strike on Monday to protest plans to axe a quarter of its journalists and sell off several magazines. It is only the second time that journalists at the loss-making newspaper, founded in 1944, have walked off the job.
French President Nicolas Sarkozy on Thursday applauded the acres of admiring British media coverage of his wife during the first day of the state visit, saying he felt justice had been done after a week of ”wretched” press in Britain and in France. Some British papers had printed a 15-year-old photograph of Carla Bruni naked in her days as a supermodel.
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/ 9 February 2008
A second trader suspected of involvement in the multibillion-dollar losses at Société Générale bank was taken for questioning by judges on Saturday. The unnamed broker at Société Générale subsidiary Fimat was seen leaving the headquarters of the police financial brigade aboard an unmarked police van escorted by a car.
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/ 7 February 2008
Seven doctors and pharmacists went on trial on Wednesday over the deaths of more than 100 people from Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (CJD) that occurred years after the victims were treated, while still children, with tainted human-growth hormones. Two hundred relatives of the victims packed a Paris courtroom.
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/ 30 January 2008
Fresh write-offs at big European and Japanese banks on Wednesday drove investors’ attention firmly back onto the credit crunch after days gazing at Société Générale’s stunning losses, which it blames on a junior trader. With the Federal Reserve expected to cut interest rates for the second week running, Swiss bank UBS illuminated the depth of the crisis.
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/ 26 January 2008
Jérôme Kerviel, a shy and introverted young city trader, lived on a tree-lined street in Neuilly-sur-Seine, the wealthy Paris suburb dubbed Sarkozyland in honour of its famous political son. Its yuppies live by Nicolas Sarkozy’s mantra ”work more to earn more”.
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/ 21 November 2007
A French judge has placed former president Jacques Chirac under formal investigation for embezzlement of public funds during his time as mayor of Paris, Chirac’s lawyer Jean Veil said on Wednesday. Chirac, who lost his immunity from prosecution after stepping down as president in May, has consistently denied any wrongdoing.
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/ 14 November 2007
Pakistani opposition parties tried to forge a united front on Wednesday against military President Pervez Musharraf who insisted a state of emergency was necessary for fair elections. United States ally Musharraf, who took power in a 1999 coup, declared emergency rule in nuclear-armed Pakistan on November 3.
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/ 18 October 2007
French President Nicolas Sarkozy and his wife Cecilia have divorced by mutual consent after an often tempestuous 11-year marriage, the Presidency announced on Thursday. The Elysee Palace released a statement to confirm the split as weeks of speculation reached fever pitch and newspapers for the first time devoted extensive front-page reports to the collapse of the marriage.
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In 1995, Max Brito, a dashing, 24-year-old dreadlocked winger, arrived at the Rugby World Cup full of hope for himself and his Côte d’Ivoire team. But after just three minutes of the group game against Tonga in Rustenburg in South Africa, he collapsed under a crunching tackle from flanker Inoke Afeaki and was crushed beneath an avalanche of bodies.
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/ 23 September 2007
It is a story of madeleines, macaroons, petit fours and, if the police are right, murder. It is a story of a patisserie chef, a nightclub owner, a body found in a wood, Paris’s finest investigators and one of the city’s most fashionable districts. It is a story that is gripping France.
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/ 19 September 2007
One of Darfur’s most powerful rebel leaders will not take part in peace talks until a lasting ceasefire is put in place and security is restored, he said in an interview published on Wednesday. Abdel Wahed Mohamed el-Nur has refused to join Darfur rebel commanders and groups who agreed a joint position last month.