Two a penny

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This year Labour Day (May 1 for the French) will no doubt have a historic quality. It the first time that the eight main workers’ unions have called their members to march together against the government social policies and response to the financial crisis. Never had all unions united to call for a May 1 march, applauded Bernard Thibault, secretary-general of the left-wing CGT union.

This has never happened before in France. In Paris, the CGT, CFDT, FR, CFTC, CGC, FSU, UNSA and Solidaires unions have called on their members to meet at noon at the Place Denfert-Rochereau, in the south of the capital.

Nearly 300 marches are set to be held throughout France.

Seven out of 10 French citizens approve the protests

Police forces will be mobilised throughout the city for the occasion, especially as Kurdish and Tamil groups have also chosen to hold protests on the same date, alongside the unions. The marchers will then head to the iconic Place de la Bastille.

Labour day has traditionally been a choice date for social protests, but unions this year expect unprecedented levels of mobilisation.

According to a CSA survey published on Thursday in the communist French daily l&rsquoHumanit&eacute, 72% of French people support the march and sympathise with the protesters. This is the third united march organised by unions, after those held on January 29 and March 19. The social climate in France has grown more tense in the last six months, as wave after wave of layoffs were announced across the country. They demand reflationary measures based on higher purchasing power for the people, and strong action against unemployment.

Open on Sundays

Unions believe the government has, so far, not listened to what they have to say.

The government has discussed neither job protection nor purchasing power, nor consumer-based economic revival with us, deplored the G8 of unions in a grouped press release. A new law allowing shops to open on Sundays, which will be examined by lawmakers in July, also incurs the wrath of protesters. The secretary-general of far-left union FO, Jean-Claude Mailly, wants to prolong this day of protest with a 24-hour strike uniting the public and private sectors.

And after May 1?

But will the united stance of the inter-union alliance hold after Labour day? On May 4, union leaders will discuss the next step.

Unions do seem to agree, however, on the necessity of channeling social tensions to avoid radical excesses, like the wave of bossnappings that followed announcements of layoffs in several firms, and the acts of vandalism by workers in a Continental tyre manufacturing plant. But Francois Chereque, secretary general of the CFDT, has voiced his disapproval of a strike that wouldn&rsquot solve any problems.

financial crisis – France – French economy – protests – unions
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AFP – A French court of appeal Thursday upheld a ban on a Paris exhibition on the human anatomy featuring body parts from Chinese corpses because of suspicions over how the bodies were obtained.

The Paris court ruled that the show’s organiser Encore Events has not provided the necessary proof of the legal and non-fraudulent origin of the bodies, or of the existence of authorised consent for their use.

&raquo The anatomy of controversy
&raquo Paris court orders closure of dissected bodies exhibition
Our Body: The Universe Within, was closed down on April 22, after running for two months in Paris, after a judge ruled the display was indecent.

Two human rights groups obtained a court ban on the show, which features preserved body parts from 17 Chinese men and women, after raising concerns the corpses might have come from executed Chinese prisoners.

Encore Events had appealed the decision, arguing that some 20 similar exhibitions on anatomy were being shown all over the world, in the United States and in Europe.

He ordered Encore Events to shut down the exhibit or face a 20,000-euro (25,860-dollar) daily fine, and told authorities to seize the body parts to allow for talks on providing them with a proper burial. .

It says the bodies were provided by a Hong Kong foundation which obtained the consent of the Chinese men and women before they died.

Our Body was shown in Lyon and Marseille before opening in Paris on February 12.

The groups behind the court action, one of which campaigns against the death penalty and the other for human rights in China, argued that respect for the human body does not cease with death. More than 30 million people have seen the travelling exhibition and similar exhibits in the United States, Germany and elsewhere.

art – exhibition – French culture – justice – Paris

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AFP – French lawmakers Wednesday started examining a new version of a contested bill that would cut off illegal downloaders from the Internet, in a tough new precedent for efforts to fight film and music piracy.

Backed by the record and film industries but attacked by consumer groups, the bill was rejected this month in a surprise setback for President Nicolas Sarkozy’s government that was blamed on low turnout among majority lawmakers.

The Internet cannot be above the law, said Culture Minister Christine Albanel, who was booed and whistled by the Socialist opposition as she defended the amended text in front of a packed National Assembly.

Supporters hope the bill — which is to be put to a new vote on Tuesday — will wean web users away from pirated films and music, and towards fledgling legal download sites.

Under a three-strikes system, the law would set up a state agency to send illegal file-sharers an email warning, then a letter, and suspend their Internet account for up to a year if they are caught a third time.

Artists and the creative industries are massively on our side, Albanel told opposition lawmakers, who charge that the bill amounts to state surveillance of the web.

Sarkozy, who championed the legislation, has said he would fight for its adoption, calling it the result of an agreement between artists, producers and telecommunications companies.

More than 10,000 French filmmakers and musicians, from Johnny Hallyday to Catherine Deneuve, have signed a petition backing the bill, some 60 of whom met with Sarkozy and first lady Carla Bruni at the Elysee last week.

Consumer groups have attacked the bill on the grounds that users would be cut off before having a chance to challenge the accusation of piracy.

But technology and telecoms groups warn the plans would be a major headache to implement, without generating any new revenue for artists — and would be easy to circumvent via a new generation of streaming sites.

Similar plans in New Zealand were derailed by protests earlier this year, and several European countries including Britain, Germany and Sweden have decided against cut-off measures.

And two members of Sarkozy’s right-wing majority joined the opposition in voting against earlier this month, in protest at a provision saying banned users must continue to pay their Internet bills. .

In the United States, the record industry has enlisted Internet access providers to help root out piracy, with providers sending out warning letters to illegal downloaders, but reports suggest only a handful have been banned

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REUTERS – A self-proclaimed gang of barbarians accused of kidnapping a young Jewish man in a Paris suburb, torturing him for 24 days and killing him went on trial on Wednesday.

The death of Ilan Halimi, 23, in 2006 horrified France and came to symbolise a rise in anti-Semitic violence in its poor, multi-ethnic suburbs.

The leader of the barbarians, Youssouf Fofana, smirked at Halimi relatives and shouted Allahu akbar! (God is Greatest! in Arabic) at them as he entered the courtroom.

The 28-year-old said he was born on Feb.

Bearded and wearing a white tracksuit, Fofana gave his identity during formal questioning by the judge as Arabs African revolt barbarian salafist army.

During his time in detention, Fofana, a young French man of Ivorian origin, has bombarded the magistrates investigating the case with letters full of anti-Semitic insults. 13, 2006, in Sainte-Genevieve-des-Bois, the date and place of Halimi death.

He stands accused of kidnapping, sequestration, torture and murder. Fofana faces life in jail. The charge sheet also includes anti-Semitism, which French law considers an aggravating circumstance requiring the stiffest sentences.

Among the 26 other defendants are the girl who is alleged to have been used as bait to capture Halimi and young men accused of taking part in the abduction and guarding the captive.

Fofana has admitted all the charges against him except the accusation that he stabbed Halimi to death. Evidence will be given behind closed doors at the request of two of the defendants who were minors at the time of the crime.

RANSOM

The trial is scheduled to last 2-1/2 months during which 162 witnesses and 50 experts will testify. .

Halimi was kidnapped on Jan.

They held Halimi in a cellar in another suburb, tortured him until he was close to death, and then dumped him near a train station.

His kidnappers tried unfavourably to extort a ransom of 450,000 euros ($594,000) from his family.

Many in France Jewish community say there has been a rise in anti-Semitism among disaffected youths of Arab and African origin since a Palestinian uprising started in late 2000, because of feelings of solidarity with the Palestinians. He died in hospital shortly after he was found.

Several members of the gang of barbarians testified that Halimi was targeted because he was Jewish, which in their minds meant he had money and his community would pay to get him back.

Those feelings have mingled in the minds of some of these youths with older anti-Semitic stereotypes. From there he made death threats by telephone to Halimi father and girlfriend.

After the murder, Fofana fled to Ivory Coast.

anti-Semitism – France – ILAN HALIMI – murder – trial
. He was extradited to France on March 4, 2006

.A Chinese bidder snapped up an 18th-century Qing Dynasty seal for 1.68 million euros ($3 million) at a Paris auction held despite protests from Beijing.
It was acquired by a Chinese national who refused to give his name, telling reporters he was acting on behalf of an art collector in France.
Beijing says the white jade imperial seal was looted from the Summer Palace in 1860.
Earlier, the authorities that manage Beijing’s Summer Palace – former home to China’s Qing Dynasty (1644-1912) emperors – issued a sharp protest over the sale, saying the seal was looted by British and French forces in 1860.
Sold as part of a collection of Asian art, the seal went for more than five times its estimated price of 300,000 euros.
“We once again express strong indignation at this sort of repeated action that hurts the Chinese people’s feelings, harms their cultural interests and violates relevant international pacts.
“Such relics should all be repatriated to China and returned to their place of origin,” the Beijing palace authority said in a statement.
Mounted with two carved dragons back to back, the seal comes from the personal collection of a descendant of Elie Jean de Vassoigne – a French general who commanded some of the invading troops.”
China’s Government did not immediately comment.
Thierry Portier, auctioneer at Beaussant-Lefevre which organised the sale, said there was no reason not to go ahead.
The 10-centimetre piece bears an inscription reading “peace and tranquility to the nation”.
“We know he was in Takov at the time,” he said, adding that it was not known how the seal came to be in his possession. .
Christie’s decision to sell the looted bronzes sparked a firestorm of criticism in China and further strained Sino-French relations already hurt by a December meeting between President Nicolas Sarkozy and the Dalai Lama.
The auction comes two months after the contested sale of two bronze animal heads, drawn from the collection of late French fashion designer Yves Saint Laurent and his partner Pierre Berge.
A Chinese art collector later said he was the bidder, but refused to pay the 31.
Authorities in Beijing repeatedly called for the sale of the Saint Laurent bronzes to be halted and the relics returned to China.
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.4 million euro sale price for the pair, leaving the auction in limbo

.French President Nicolas Sarkozy has unveiled a 10-year, 35-billion euro ($64 billion) project to transform Paris into a green metropolis.
At the heart of the plan is a 130-kilometre automatic metro line looping around the city, linking a series of new economic and technology centres and more flexible planning laws that would allow as many as 70,000 new housing units a year.
The “Greater Paris” project has been billed as one of the biggest redevelopments of the French capital since the 19th century planning chief Baron Haussmann reshaped the centre into today’s city of broad boulevards. .
“What I’m proposing is certainly ambitious and difficult,” Mr Sarkozy said in a speech.”
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font-size:10. . The French President gathered support from his ruling UMP party on Wednesday by summoning lawmakers to a parliamentary debate on the bill in a bid to overcome Socialist opposition at all costs.

Nicolas Sarkozy is determined not to let that happen again.

The Internet Piracy bill, dubbed the Hadopi law, plans to fine Internet users who illegally download movies or music on the Internet by tracing their internet provider addresses.

The Left wants to play hardball, so we will (&hellip) be present in numbers on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday, UMP party leader Jean-Francois Cope told his troops.

France – French politics – Internet – piracy – UMP

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France will be riveted to an unsettling trial about to unfold in Paris over the gruesome killing of a Jewish man in a bleak council estate in the Parisian suburbs. Barbarians gang leader Youssouf Fofana stands trial on Wednesday for the murder of 23-year-old Ilan Halimi in 2006.

In February 2006, Halimi was kidnapped, held and tortured for three weeks in a cellar in a Paris suburb before he was left to die, handcuffed to a tree close to a railway station. Also on trial are 26 alleged accomplices, including teenagers and a dozen women.

A perverted megalomaniac

Fofana, who is 28 years old, has seen at least 37 lawyers &ndash including Jacques Verg&egraves, who defended Nazi war criminal Klaus Barbie and terrorist Carlos the Jackal &ndash who either refused to defend him or were dismissed by the suspect. Today, Halimi family, who had been in contact with the kidnappers, say more could have been done to save the young man.

The French-born son of Ivorian immigrants is the only defendant facing a life sentence if convicted for the murder.

Prosecutors describe Fofana as a perverted megalomaniac who instructed accomplices to target Jews for ransom kidnappings because they are loaded with dough (money).

Tortured and burnt alive

On January 20, 2006, Halimi, an employee of a Paris mobile phone store, was duped into following an attractive young woman into a Parisian suburb where he was abducted before being locked up in Bagneux, south of Paris. .

Several photographs and video and audio messages of Halimi pleading for his life were released by his captors, showing him blindfolded and gaunt.

The kidnappers then demanded a ransom of 450,000 euros from Halimi family in exchange for the young man release. He died on his way to the hospital.

After failed attempts at concluding a ransom deal, Halimi was found on February 13. Arrested on February 23, he was deported to France a few days later.

When a suspected accomplice turned herself in to the police, the authorities managed to catch the Barbarians ringleader on the run in the Ivory Coast.

She questioned officers&rsquo decision not to make public the Photofit image of the woman who was used as bait because this could endanger Halimi’s life.

Halimi mother slams authorities

Ruth Halimi, the mother of the victim, expressed indignation over the authorities’ handling of the case, saying the police investigation was full of shortcomings.

Ruth Halimi is expected to ask the court to open the hearings to the public on the first day of the trial to provide a full and open account of her son’s death. On the contrary, I think this could have saved him, she wrote in her book about the case, 24 Days.

anti-Semitism – France – murder – trial
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The vow of silence killed him, she said in an interview with French media on Monday, I think debates should be public, so that everyone can see these youths who tortured Ilan

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AFP – Daniel Bouton, president of French bank Societe Generale, told the daily Le Figaro on Wednesday he was resigning to protect the company.

Bouton said: I have handed in my resignation. The board will elect a new president on May 6. I have become the target of incessant attacks that finally damage the company that I am very attached to. I am choosing to go now to protect the bank.

Societe Generale denied Monday a press report that it could face losses of up to 10 billion euros (13 billion dollars) as a result of risky investments at one of its asset management units.

The banker, who admitted I certainly made errors, said he would leave with no golden handshake.

Societe Generale formally denies the claims published by Liberation today, said a statement by the bank, which last year announced losses of 4.

The left-wing daily Liberation said Societe Generale’s SGAM Alternative Investments unit had invested heavily in complex financial products, which had left the bank with 10.9 billion euros in a rogue trading scandal it blames on trader Jerome Kerviel.

The detailed report, splashed over Liberation’s front and four inside pages and headlined The Other Scandal at Societe Generale, described the products as unsellable.4 billion euros in toxic assets at the start of 2008..

It added that even if…

But Societe Generale said that Liberation had confused losses with asset transfers at the division.2 billion euros, the final bill could reach 10 billion.

Societe Generale said net profit for 2008 came to two billion euros compared with 947 million in 2007 when it absorbed the huge loss it attributed to unauthorised actions by Kerviel.

It noted that SGAM’s losses for 2008 were 258 million euros after tax as shown in the bank’s results statement in February, when it reported a net profit for the year despite the financial crisis. .

The bank shocked the financial world in January last year when it announced the losses incurred as it was forced to unwind more than 50 billion euros of unauthorised deals the 31-year-old trader is said to have made.

banking – financial crisis – France – Societe Generale

.Twenty-seven people have gone on trial in France over their involvement in the kidnapping and murder of a young Jewish man three years ago.
The victim, Ilan Halimi, was abducted and tortured by a gang targeting Jews in ransom kidnappings.
The killing shocked France and prompted tens of thousands of people to demonstrate against racism.
He has admitted all the charges against him except the accusation that he was the one who stabbed Mr Halimi to death.
The leader of the self-proclaimed “gang of barbarians” was Youssouf Fofana, a young French man of Ivorian origin. .
Fofana, 28, stands accused of kidnapping, sequestration, torture and assassination.
He faces life in jail.
It will take place behind closed doors at the request of two of the defendants who were minors at the time of the crime.
The trial is scheduled to last almost three months during which 162 witnesses and 50 experts will testify.
His kidnappers tried unfavourably to extort a ransom of 450,000 euros ($830,000) from his family.
Mr Halimi was kidnapped in January 2006 in the Paris suburb of Sceaux, where he had been lured by a girl who acted as a “honey-trap”. He died in hospital shortly after he was found.
They held Mr Halimi in a cellar in another suburb, tortured him until he was close to death, then dumped him close to a train station.
– ABC/