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.The French navy has captured 35 suspected pirates off the coast of Somalia in what French officials are hailing as the most successful mission since the European Union began monitoring the seas in 2008.
Four mother ships and six smaller boats have been seized over three days. .
The EU’s mission has focused on the Gulf of Aden – one of the world’s busiest shipping routes.
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Jurisdiction over the suspects remains unclear, and there have been renewed calls for an international tribunal to be set up
.A storm that killed at least 47 people in France on the weekend has been officially declared a national disaster.
French President Nicolas Sarkozy has visited the storm-battered Atlantic coast, where most of the storm’s victims drowned. . Others were killed by falling buildings or trees.
France’s Prime Minister Francois Fillon declared the storm a national disaster and said money would be allocated to help communities rebuild.
The Atlantic storm hit the western coasts of France, Portugal and Spain on Sunday, then swept towards Germany, Belgium and the Netherlands.
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He said the focus would now turn to protecting those left homeless and those threatened by rising waters
.Hurricane-force winds, surging seas and driving rain have lashed western Europe, leaving at least 13 people dead and more than a million households without power.
Dubbed “Xynthia”, the Atlantic storm crashed against the western coasts of France and Spain, bringing with it a band of foul weather stretching from Portugal to the Netherlands.
Britain, already suffering localised flooding from a previous weather system, braced for more weather misery.
“We have confirmed five deaths in the area of La-Faute-sue-Mer and l’Aiguillon-sur-Mer,” Herve Rose, a government spokesperson in the low-lying Vendee region, where flood waters in some coastal towns reached 1.
Gusts of up to 150 kilometres per hour and eight metre waves battered the northern and western coasts of France, flooding inland and sending residents scurrying onto rooftops.
Separately, an 88-year-old woman was found drowned in her home on the island of Oleron in Charentes-Maritime further south, police said.5 metres, said.
Two more bodies, that of a 10-year-old boy and of a pensioner, were found in Charentes-Maritime, a regional official said.
In Spain, regional authorities said that two men aged 51 and 41 died when the car they were travelling in was hit by a falling tree.
French authorities had said on Saturday that a man was killed by a falling tree in the Pyrenees mountains.
Portugal said on Saturday that a 10-year-old boy was killed by a falling branch in the north-west of the country. An 82-year-old woman was killed on Saturday when a wall collapsed in the Galicia region.
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Air France announced that 70 flights out of 700 were cancelled from its hub at Paris Charles de Gaulle, as chaos gripped transport networks across western Europe at the end of French school’s half-term break.
In France, fallen powerlines caused blackouts for around a million homes across a 500 kilometre swathe of the country from the Brittany peninsula to the highlands of the Massif Central.
A major road crossing between France and Spain was closed to heavy goods vehicles, causing a 1,200-vehicle tail back of seven-tonne trucks on the French side of the Pyrenees.
A major road crossing between France and Spain was closed to heavy goods vehicles, causing a 1,200-vehicle tail back of seven-tonne trucks on the French side of the Pyrenees.
The storm developed in the Atlantic off the Portuguese island of Madeira, still reeling from the flash floods sparked by heavy rains that wrecked the centre of the capital Funchal and killed 42 people a week ago.
A hurricane is defined as a storm with winds consistently above 118 kilometres per hour.
The storm swept north-east into north-western Spain late on Saturday afternoon, where wind gusts reached 147 kph and some 27,000 households were without electricity, regional authorities said.
Powerful winds and heavy rain hit Spain’s Canary Islands archipelago late on Friday, with gusts of up to 128 kilometres per hour reported. .
Rail services were cancelled in Galicia as well as in the northern regions of Asturias, Cantabria, the Basque Country and parts of Castilla y Leon, where the storm left some 63,000 households without power.
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“This is a very deep, very intense and very fast-moving storm,” Spanish Interior Minister Alfredo Perez Rubalcaba said, warning people to avoid using their cars and taking mountain or sea walks
.Al Qaeda’s North African wing has released French hostage Pierre Camatte after Mali freed four Islamist prisoners in response to an Al Qaeda threat to kill him.
“We confirm the liberation of Pierre Camatte,” Malian presidency spokesperson Seydou Cissouma told state radio.
Mali freed four Islamist prisoners last week after Al Qaeda threatened to kill Mr Camatte unless they were released.
He said Mr Camatte, kidnapped in Mali in November, was in the hands of Malian authorities.
Algerian media said two of the freed men were Algerian.
Their release prompted Algeria to recall its ambassador to Mali earlier on Tuesday in protest.
He said he had thanked Malian president Amadou Toumani Toure for his handling of the crisis and pledged French support in the struggle against terrorism. .
The group has waged a campaign of suicide bombings and ambushes in Algeria, but in the past few years has shifted a large part of its activities south to the Sahara desert.
Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb has also claimed responsibility for the abduction of three Spaniards and an Italian couple.
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.Mathieu Bastareaud’s rugby redemption has been completed at Murrayfield as Six Nations favourite France kicked off its campaign with an 18-9 win over Scotland.
Bastareaud was the difference between the two sides, his two first-half tries putting the French in control of an open contest and justifying coach Marc Lievremont’s decision to hand the giant centre the opportunity to resurrect a career he had done his best to destroy.
The bizarre episode quickly spiralled out of control with diplomatic relations between France and New Zealand becoming strained and Bastareaud himself, a shy 21-year-old, was hospitalised after an apparent suicide attempt on his return to France.
The 110-kilogram centre was starting his first Test since his ignominious involvement in last year’s tour of New Zealand, during which he falsely claimed to have been beaten up by All Black fans in order to cover up a drunken fall in his hotel bedroom.
Robinson, who cuts a happier figure than during his unsuccessful stint as England coach, said there were positives to be taken out of the match ahead of next week’s clash with 2008 Grand Slam winner Wales, which lost to England yesterday.
Scotland, as so often in recent seasons, was let down by its failure to convert openings and phases of pressure into tries although, in Andy Robinson’s first Six Nations match in charge, it posed the French enough problems to suggest it could yet make an impact on this tournament.
“Also we got behind the French defence several times but the French defence scrambled very well and Imanol Harinordoquy made two or three great tackles.
“We conceded two soft tries, but I thought we were in control defensively,” said Robinson, who was assistant coach when England won the 2003 World Cup final. We have a number of positives to take out of this match and I was especially pleased by the performances of Sean Lamont and Johnnie Beattie. .
“We are of course very happy to win, it was a very tough match out there,” said the 29-year-old, who was winning his 58th cap.”
Harinordoquy, who belied his nickname bestowed on him by some Anglophine commentators of ‘very ordinary’ and was named man of the match, said that he and his team-mates had never been able to let up. In the scrum we had to have a big performance and I believe we won in that area.
“We had to play till the last minute because Scotland play with all their heart.”
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.Two burqa-wearing robbers have held up a French post office using a handgun concealed beneath an Islamic-style full veil, court officials said.
Officials said postal office staff let the pair through the security double doors of the banking branch near Paris, believing them to be veil-wearing Muslim women.
Once inside, the pair flipped back their head coverings and pulled out a gun.
Police have opened an investigation.
They made off with 4,500 euros ($7,100) seized from the staff and customers of the branch in Athis Mons, just south of Paris, according to the online edition of Le Parisien newspaper.
President Nicolas Sarkozy’s right-wing party has already presented a bill to make it illegal for anyone to cover their faces in public on security grounds.
France is seeking to restrict use of the head-to-toe Islamic veil on the grounds it is incompatible with French values, after a parliament report called for a ban in schools, hospitals, government offices and public transport. .
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According to the interior ministry, only around 1,900 women wear the burqa in France, which is home to Europe’s biggest Muslim minority
.The Black Eyed Peas were mistakenly declared best international group at France’s top music awards.
Choreographer Kamel Ouali presented the US band with the prize at the NRJ Awards in Cannes on Saturday. .
Last year Katy Perry was mistakenly given the trophy for best international song when it should have gone to Rihanna.
The prize was then given to the real winners, German band Tokio Hotel.
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.Stade Francais prop David Attoub has appealed against his 70-week ban for gouging in a Heineken Cup match against Ulster the previous month, competition organisers said overnight.
“David Attoub has today lodged an appeal against both the finding of foul play and level of sanction imposed by an independent disciplinary hearing last Tuesday,” said a statement posted on the ERC website.”
The 28-year-old, who played for France in 2006, was suspended for gouging flanker Stephen Ferris’s eyes in an ill-tempered game won 23-13 by Ulster in Belfast.
“The independent appeal committee will be appointed as soon as practicable.
“This is the worst act of contact with the eyes I have had to deal with,” judge Jeff Blackett said in a statement posted on the ERC website at the time. .
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.French climber Alain Robert, known as Spiderman for his death-defying antics, has set his sights on scaling Dubai’s Burj Khalifa tower, a report said.
The Gulf emirate of Dubai opened the glistening 828 metre concrete, glass and steel skyscraper on January 4 this year.
“I’ll have to do it …
“I know the people of Dubai, they are interested [in seeing me climb the skyscraper]. maybe between January and April 2011,” Mr Robert was quoted as saying by Malaysia’s official Bernama news agency.”
The tower, the tallest in the world, was named in honour of the Abu Dhabi leader whose billions of dollars bailed out Dubai from its financial crisis last year.
He has climbed skyscrapers including the Empire State Building, the Sears Tower and Taipei 101, according to his website.
Mr Robert, 47, was in Malaysia to receive an award for his extraordinary feats in scaling tall buildings.
“The problem in Dubai is the hot weather [of] up to 40 degrees Celsius,” he said.
He admitted that climbing the Dubai tower will be a tough mission because of the Middle Eastern heat. For me, climbing is as important as eating and breathing.
“My biggest fear is to waste my time on Earth. Climbing skyscrapers is my lifetime love and passion. .
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