Two a penny

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AFP – French banking giant BNP Paribas announced on Tuesday that it will raise 4.3 billion euros (6.

The bank, which is repaying the support several months earlier than expected, said that it no longer needed the state aid because the landscape for banking and profits had improved, and revealed that the state will earn a significant return on its money.3 billion dollars) of new capital to repay state rescue funding from October.2 billion euros.

For the first half of the year, the bank had reported a net profit of 3.1 billion euros at the height of the banking crisis early this year.

BNP Paribas said that it intended to free itself from October from preference shares provided by the state to inject 5.

This works out at a gross return for the state of about five percent over seven months.

In repaying the help, the bank would also pay the French state a fee of 226 million euros calculated on seven months use of the money, the bank said.1 billion euros of preference shares underwritten on March 31 by the French state and will reward it with 226 million euros calculated over seven months, it said in a statement.

BNP Paribas will repay from October the 5.

The charge for the use of the money was calculated to rise with time to encourage quick repayment, the bank explained.

At the time of the support, the bank had agreed with the state and with European Union competition authorities that the funds would be repayed as soon as possible. This would amount to 750 million euros.

The aid would be repayed with money raised from the capital increase together with the creation of shareholders’ funds established mainly through the payment of dividend in the form of shares.

BNP Paribas said that given the way the environment had changed and a strong performance by the group, the state aid was no longer needed.

In addition, there would be an increase in the capital allocated to employees, amounting to 260 million euros, the bank said.4 billion euros under the so-called Tier One calculation of the highest quality capital. .0 percent, the bank said.

The ratio of this capital to the weighted risk carried by the bank would then be more than 9.1 billion euros preference shares without voting rights.

The French state became the biggest single shareholder in the bank on buying for 5.

banking – BNP Paribas – financial crisis – French economy
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banking – BNP Paribas – financial crisis – French economy

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50-year-old Claudine Louis meant well when she took in Obaidullah Samari, a 16 year old Afghan who was living in France illegally.

However, in deciding to help him, she fell foul of France legal system. She met him on the street in central Paris, and felt sorry for the cold, hungry and isolated young boy. . On trial for unlawful assistance of an illegal immigrant, she faces up to 5 years in jail and a 30, 000 euro fine.

Madame Louis met a young person in an extremely vulnerable situation. All she wanted to do was help, he told reporters. He was sick, he had no family, no passport, no place to go.

Claudine Louis sheltered Obaidullah in her home in the southern town of Saint-Girons for three months.

Prosecutors maintain that if Claudine Louis does not face trial, it opens a legal loophole for smugglers of underage migrants to house their victims. Realising this was close to impossible, she handed him over to local authorities who placed him in a foster home awaiting his extradition. During that time, she made enquiries concerning the possibility of making his situation in France legal.

France – immigration

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AFP – A lone robber armed with a handgun on Saturday got away with jewellery worth around 6.6 million euros (9.3 million dollars) in a hold-up at the exclusive Chopard store in central Paris, police said.

He ordered staff to give him jewels from the window display.

The man, in his 50s, dressed in a suit and wearing a Borsalino-style hat passed himself off as a customer to get in through the security door before drawing his weapon, police spokesman Olivier Lebon told reporters.

A man on his own, well dressed, who could have been a potential client, came into the jewellers, his faced unmasked, at one o’clock, said another source working on the case.

They did as they were told and the man got away on foot, the whole robbery having taken two minutes, said police.

He pulled out a handgun and got staff to give him 12 jewels, said the source. He did not take the whole contents of the shop window. It happened very quickly, said the source.

The theft happened at around 1:00 pm (1100 GMT) at the premises, which are close to the Ritz Hotel.

Staff in close toby stores in the Place Vendome told reporters they had noticed nothing out of the ordinary at the time.

The robbery took place over the Pentecost weekend, when the city centre was packed with shoppers and tourists.

Later Saturday, only a few leather handbags could be seen in the shop’s window. The Place Vendome hosts some of the world’s most prestigious jewellery shops. The Place Vendome hosts some of the world’s most prestigious jewellery shops. . It also manufactures the distinctive Palme d’Or trophy for the Cannes film festival.

On May 13 two Serbian alleged members of the gang of jewel thieves were arrested in Paris on suspicion of carrying out armed smash-and-grab raids on stores in Monaco, Switzerland and Germany.

Suspicion fell on the international gang known as the Pink Panthers.

Dusko Martinovic was also fined 150,000 euros (210,000 dollars) for the robbery in which he and accomplices stole two million euros worth of goods from a jewellers in the chic French Riviera resort.

On Thursday, a Montenegrin former soldier, believed to be a member of the Pink Panther gang was sentenced to 15 years in jail for a Saint-Tropez heist.

French police have described the group’s crimes as lightning fast hold-ups: daring, but carefully planned down to smallest detail.

The network of Balkan robbers is blamed for the theft of goods worth 110 million euros (140 million dollars) in the past decade.

crime – France – Paris

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AFP – French President Nicolas Sarkozy Thursday confirmed press reports that a second state-of-the-art nuclear reactor would be built in Penly in the country’s north.

The Penly nuclear power station is located northeast of Dieppe.

The EPR is a third generation pressurised water reactor design. .

energy – France – nuclear power
. It has been designed and developed mainly by Framatome, now Areva, and EDF in France, and Siemens AG in Germany