Two a penny

.France is ready to hand back five fragments of ancient Egyptian tomb wall paintings acquired by the Louvre museum between 2000 and 2003.
Egypt’s chief archaeologist and head of antiquities, Zahi Hawass, has accused the Louvre of buying the pieces knowing they were stolen.
The Pharaonic steles are reported to be from a tomb in the Valley of the Kings, near Luxor.
Subject to a decision by France’s national museum scientific committee, Mr Mitterrand said he was ready to order the frescoes be handed back.
Mr Hawass asked France to return the murals after extensive discussions between the two sides, according to French culture minister Frederic Mitterrand. .
Under the UNESCO convention of 1970, member countries agreed measures to prevent the illegal export of national treasures.
Mr Hawass was quoted by the MENA news agency as saying the council had ceased cooperation with the Louvre until the murals were returned.
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.Somali pirates attempted to storm the French navy’s 18,000 tonne Indian Ocean fleet flagship after mistaking it for a cargo vessel, the military have said.
The crew of La Somme, a 160-metre command vessel and fuel tanker, easily saw off the brazen night-time assault by lightly armed fighters on two open-topped motorboats and captured five pirates, a spokesman said.
La Somme is the French command vessel in the Indian Ocean, overseeing French air, sea and land forces fighting Somali pirates and hunting terrorists under the banner of the US-led Operation Enduring Freedom.
“The pirates, who as a result of the darkness took the French ship for a commercial vessel, were on board two vessels and opened fire with Kalashnikovs,” Admiral Christophe Prazuck said.
The pirates tried to flee when they realised their mistake but were pursued by French forces who, after an hour-long chase, caught one of the skiffs, Admiral Prazuck said.
Officers on the ship have directed commando operations to free French hostages in the hands of Somali pirates.
The world’s naval powers have deployed dozens of warships to the lawless waters off Somalia over the past year to curb attacks by pirates in one of the world’s busiest maritime trade routes.
On it they found five men but no weapons, water or food as the pirates had apparently thrown all of the boat’s contents overboard, the spokesman said.
This was not the first time that Somali pirates have mistakenly attacked a French naval vessel.
La Somme was operating 460 kilometres off the Somali coast, on its way to resupply fuel to frigates patrolling shipping lanes as part of the European Union’s Operation Atalanta anti-piracy mission.
Somalia has had no proper government since it plunged into lawlessness after President Mohamed Siad Barre was overthrown in 1991. Several pirates were captured in May when they attempted to board a frigate in the area. .
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AFP – German auto parts maker Continental on Monday announced a breakdown in talks with the Dubai-based MAG group on the possible takeover by MAG of a tyre making plant in France. .

MAG vice president Fawaz Sabri said his group would continue to examine the matter.

The two parties had led intensive discussions but finally agreed that it was not possible to reach common ground for further talks. The German group offered MAG additional time when the MAG response was deemed incomplete on September 30.

Continental had given MAG until September 30 to reach agreement on a letter of intent regarding the factory, located in Clairoix, northern France.

Dubai – France – Germany

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France Telecom announced the replacement of the group deputy head Louis-Pierre Wenes, whom labour unions claim is the man behind stress-inducing management policies blamed for a tense working climate. The French telecom company has come under fire for the alarming suicide rate among staff members, with 24 employees having taken their lives in the last 18 months alone.

French socialist and communist opposition leaders have been calling for the resignation of both Lombard and Wenes, but the group chief executive enjoys the backing of the French government.

Wenes has been replaced by Stephen Richard, a former cabinet director for French Finance Minister Christine Lagarde, who joined France Telecom on September 1 and was being groomed to replace the group CEO, Didier Lombard, in 2011. According to the website of French weekly Le Point , the finance minister mentioned Richard as a possible replacement for Wenes at that meeting. Lagarde reasserted her full and unwavering support for the troubled CEO after the two met last Thursday. Wenes is symbolic: he was responsible for &lsquoterror management&rsquo tactics.

A concession to unions

News of Wenes&rsquo departure was greeted with satisfaction by employees and union members.

CFDT union member Pierre Dubois told them that Wenes&rsquo ousting was the logical consequence of his perceived insensitiveness to employee suicides. He had to leave, CFE-CGC union member Pierre Morville told AFP. . A second sticking point was his refusal to negotiate on the policy of forced transfers, whereby France Telecom managers are required to change postings every three years.

There was never any kind of dialogue with Wenes, Dubois told them.

According to Ivan Le Roy, author of a book on management by stress at France Telecom mobile phone unit Orange, Richard is well perceived by most unions, or at least much better than Wenes, who was despised as a &lsquocost killer&rsquo from day 1. On September 24, Wenes had told French magazine Le Nouvel Observateur that he would consider himself the victim of a monstrous manipulation if he were to take on the responsibility of employee suicides. He never accepted to meet us, not until we published an open letter calling for his resignation on September 25.

Iin a joint press release, leftwing unions Sud and Solidaires said: The nomination of St&eacutephane Richard, a close collaborator of President Nicolas Sarkozy, has raised concern among employees about the future of France Telecom.

Deontological concerns

Although most unions are hopeful that negotiations will start afresh with Richard, some warn against hasty optimism. Dubois was also cautious: Richard remains a big question mark &ndash we don&rsquot know much about him. We hope he will rapidly shed light on his future role.

Deontological concerns surfaced immediately after Richard nomination. We hope the management style will change, and that he will bring a fresh look to the heart of the issue: restructuring France Telecom. However, it is not altogether clear how Richard is expected to do so, given that the state is one of the company main shareholders. As a former member of government, he has been authorised to join France Telecom on condition that he abstain from any contact with the cabinet of the finance until June 30, 2012 .

France – France Telecom – telecommunication

.France’s political elite has rallied to the defence of Roman Polanski, calling on Switzerland to free the 76-year-old filmmaker rather than extradite him to the United States.
Artists and fellow filmmakers are also urging the release of Polanski – who faces charges of having sex with a 13-year-old girl in 1977. .
“I think this is awful and totally unjust,” French Culture Minister Frederic Mitterrand told reporters.
Polanski was due to receive a prize for his life’s work at the Zurich Film Festival on Sunday (local time), but was arrested on a 1978 US arrest warrant after arriving in Switzerland on Saturday.
The Culture Ministry said French President Nicolas Sarkozy was following the case closely and wanted the swift release of Polanski, while Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner said he had expressed his concerns to his Swiss counterpart.
“Just as there is an America which is generous and which we like, so there is an America which is frightening – and that is the America which has just revealed its face,” he said.
Polanski holds French citizenship and is married to French singer and actress Emmanuelle Seigner.
Robert Harris, a British novelist who said he had been working with Polanski for much of the past three years writing two screenplays, expressed outrage over the arrest.
He has spent much of his life there since fleeing the US in 1978, but regularly visits countries where he does not expect extradition woe.
“It is hard not to believe that this heavy-handed action must be in some way politically motivated,” he said.
“I am shocked that any man of 76, whether distinguished or not, should have been treated in such a fashion,” he said in a statement, adding that Polanski had often visited Switzerland and even had a house in the resort of Gstaad.
His mother died in a Nazi concentration camp, but Polanski avoided capture and spent his youth in Poland before moving to the West.
Born in Paris, Polanski moved to Poland with his Jewish family when he was still a toddler shortly before World War II.
His ties with Poland are still strong and Polish Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski said he might appeal directly to the United States over the case.
His ties with Poland are still strong and Polish Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski said he might appeal directly to the United States over the case.
“We do not understand why the Swiss invited Polanski to a film festival, where he was to have received a life’s achievement award, and then arrested him,” said association president Jacek Bromski.
Poland’s filmmakers association has also risen to Polanski’s defence.”
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“We regard that as a scandalous situation and an example of incomprehensible overzealousness

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AFP – French President Nicolas Sarkozy came under fire Thursday for describing ex-prime minister Dominique de Villepin and four others on trial for allegedly slandering him as guilty.

Villepin’s lawyer called the comment scandalous and said the former prime minister would file suit against Sarkozy for violating his right to presumption of innocence.

After a two-year investigation, two independent investigating judges ruled that the guilty parties should be tried before a criminal court, said Sarkozy during an interview Wednesday with French television.

&raquo Special Report on France&#039s trial of the decade
&raquo Who&#039s who in the trial
&raquo How a finance trial turned into a major political scandal
&raquo A glossary of terms in the Clearstream saga
Opposition politicians said Sarkozy’s remarks made on French television were a revealing slip of the tongue that showed he was not impartial in the case involving his long-time rival, Villepin.

Mister Sarkozy has declared in front of all of France that Mr de Villepin is guilty, because he was ordered to stand trial, said Villepin’s lawyer Olivier Metzner.

Several politicians and lawyers said the comment was a blunder given that the justice system in France, like that in other major democracies, consider the accused innocent until proven guilty.

The so-called Clearstream trial opened Monday with Villepin and four others in the dock for allegedly taking part in a plot hatched in 2003-2004 to smear Sarkozy and torpedo his bid for the presidency.

This is a scandalous violation of fundamental principles, said co-defence lawyer Henri Leclerc.

The case centres on a list — later found to have been fabricated — of account holders at the Clearstream financial clearing house in Luxembourg who allegedly took bribes from the sale of French warships to Taiwan.

Villepin and Sarkozy were at the time locked in a fierce struggle for the governing right-wing party’s nomination to succeed president Jacques Chirac.

Bythem A tale of two rivals (21 September)But Villepin’s camp and politicians on the left have called on Sarkozy to pull out of the case, given his status as president.

Sarkozy has registered as a civil plaintiff in the case, saying he wants the trial to reveal the truth about the bogus list and how his name ended up on it.

Sarkozy is a civil plaintiff, that is he has filed a complaint as a victim and also the guarantor of justice, the prosecutors’ top superior in the hierarchy, he said.

Mister Freud would say that this was a revealing slip, revealing of the ambiguity of Nicolas Sarkozy’s position in this affair, said Francois Bayrou, leader of the centrist Democratic Movement (MoDem) party.

This was his subconscious speaking, said opposition Socialist deputy Pierre Moscovici, who called the comment extremely shocking.

This situation is abnormal and shouldn’t be accepted in a republic that has principles, Bayrou told RTL radio.

The 55-year-old Villepin faces up to five years in jail and a 45,000-euro (66,000-dollar) fine if convicted.

Former Socialist leader Francois Hollande said Sarkozy’s choice of words was all the more disturbing because the president is a trained lawyer who understands the importance of using precise language.

Clearstream trial – Dominique de Villepin – France – Nicolas Sarkozy
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.French politicians want to stamp a “health warning” on photographs of models that are altered in order to make them more appealing – part of a campaign against eating disorders.
French parliamentarian Valerie Boyer, a member of President Nicolas Sarkozy’s UMP party, and some 50 other politicians have proposed the law to fight what they see as a warped image of women’s bodies in the media.
Under the proposed law, all enhanced photos would be accompanied by a line saying: “Photograph retouched to modify the physical appearance of a person.
“These images can make people believe in a reality that often does not exist,” Ms Boyer said in a statement, adding that the law should apply to press photographs, political campaigns, art photography and images on packaging as well as advertisements.
Luxury brands and fashion magazines have also been accused of digitally making models look thinner, enhancing their breasts, whitening teeth, lengthening legs and erasing wrinkles.”
Digitally enhanced photographs have been at the centre of a string of scandals in France – most recently Paris Match was caught out after having altered a photo of Mr Sarkozy to remove chubby love handles.
Breaking the law would be punished with a fine of 37,500 euros ($63,700), or up to 50 per cent of the cost of the advertisement.
Ms Boyer says being confronted with unrealistic standards of female beauty could lead to various kinds of psychological problems, in particular eating disorders.

.France’s ex-prime minister Dominique de Villepin assailed President Nicolas Sarkozy as he went on trial for charges of plotting to smear his arch-rival and torpedo his bid for the presidency.
“I am here as a result of one man’s will.
“I will come out of this a free man and exonerated,” Mr de Villepin told reporters before entering the courtroom where in 1793 Marie Antoinette was sentenced to the guillotine. I am here as a result of the dogged determination of one man, Nicolas Sarkozy, who is also President of the French republic,” he said as he arrived at the Paris court with his wife and children.”
The ex-prime minister and foreign minister faces charges of conspiring to defame Mr Sarkozy in 2004 when the pair were in a fierce battle to win their right-wing party’s nomination and succeed President Jacques Chirac. “I know that truth will prevail.
One name on the bogus list was that of Mr Sarkozy, then France’s ambitious finance minister who suspected Mr de Villepin, Mr Chirac’s chosen heir, of planning to use the fake document to wreck his presidential bid.
The case centres on a list – later found to have been fabricated – of account holders at the Clearstream financial clearing house in Luxembourg who allegedly took bribes from the sale of French warships to Taiwan.
The suave career diplomat whose stirring speech against the US invasion of Iraq in 2003 drew applause at the United Nations is accused of complicity in defamation and using forgeries, dealing in stolen property and breach of trust.
The 55-year-old Mr de Villepin, who denies any wrongdoing, faces up to five years in jail and a 45,000-euro fine if convicted.
Mr de Villepin’s lawyers went on the offensive at the outset of the hearings, asking the court to strip Mr Sarkozy of his status as a civil plaintiff to ensure their client gets a fair trial.
Dubbed France’s political trial of the decade, the judicial drama features a who’s who of big names in French politics, industry and intelligence circles, beginning with Mr Sarkozy, who is a civil plaintiff in the case.
Mr Sarkozy registered as a plaintiff in 2006 to gain access to the case files and secure his right to seek damages, as have 39 others including Dominique Strauss-Kahn, the head of the International Monetary Fund.
“We want to be tried through a fair procedure,” said defence lawyer Henri Leclerc.
“We’ll see in light of the testimony and hearings whether or not Nicolas Sarkozy has hijacked this case,” Mr Herzog told reporters.
Representing Mr Sarkozy, who was not present at the trial, lawyer Thierry Herzog argued that the president had a constitutional right to launch legal action and that he had done so openly.
The Clearstream trial has become a new clash between Mr de Villepin and Mr Sarkozy, whose mutual hatred is legendary in French political circles. .
Judges are expected to take several months to reach a verdict after the trial ends on October 23.
Mr de Villepin is scheduled to take the stand next week.
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AFP – Former French prime minister Dominique de Villepin goes on trial Monday for allegedly plotting a smear campaign against President Nicolas Sarkozy in France’s most politically-charged case in years.

Dubbed the trial of the decade, the judicial drama features a cast of powerful players in politics, industry and intelligence circles, beginning with Sarkozy, who is a civil plaintiff in the case.

More on Clearstream

&raquo Special Report on France&#039s trial of the decade
&raquo Who&#039s who in the trial
&raquo How a finance trial turned into a major political scandal
&raquo A glossary of terms in the Clearstream saga

A suave diplomat best remembered for leading the charge against the Iraq war at the United Nations, Villepin is accused of conspiring to slander Sarkozy at a time when the pair were waging a vicious battle to succeed Jacques Chirac as president.

One name on the bogus list was that of Sarkozy, then Chirac’s ambitious finance and interior minister, who suspects the president’s chosen heir Villepin of using the list to try to torpedo his bid for the presidency.

The case dates back to 2004 and centres on a list — later proved to have been fabricated — of account holders at the Clearstream financial clearing house who allegedly received kickbacks from the sale of French frigates to Taiwan.

The trial is shaping up as a showdown between the two men, whose mutual hatred is legendary in French political circles.

Villepin, 55, has repeatedly denied any wrongdoing and maintains that the case would have never gone to trial had it not been for Sarkozy’s meddling in the judicial process.

But it will also cast light on the murky dealings of French intelligence and of one of the world’s top aerospace companies, EADS.

Also on trial are management consultant Florian Bourges, accused of stealing Clearstream documents, and journalist Denis Robert, who broke the story.

A former EADS vice president and Villepin ally, Jean-Louis Gergorin is also on trial as is the former head of an EADS research center, Imad Lahoud, who has reportedly confessed to falsifying the list.

In the weeks leading up to the trial, Villepin has waged a media offensive, accusing Sarkozy of being a bit twisted for insisting that the Clearstream affair was a plot to sabotage his bid for the presidency.

Villepin faces up to five years in jail and a 45,000-euro (66,000-dollar) fine if convicted of complicity in slander, complicity in the use of forgeries, dealing in stolen property and breach of trust.

Some day, he will have to explain his relentlessness, Villepin said last week.

Sarkozy reportedly vowed to hang up whoever did this on a butcher’s hook. This is not without consequences for the office of president, on the human and political level. This is not without consequences for the office of president, on the human and political level. .

General Philippe Rondot, a former intelligence official whose notes — seized by investigators — detail secret meetings that appear to incriminate Villepin, is to testify in early October.

This is the trial of an era, said Robert, the investigative journalist among the five defendants.

Villepin himself is expected to take the stand next week, defending himself in the exact Paris courtroom where Marie Antoinette was sentenced to the guillotine in 1793.

We see that inside domestic intelligence circles there was a rift between those who were loyal to Villepin and those who were close to Sarkozy, he told AFP.

It is the trial of a kind of French political practice, where spooks and the powers that be use the legal system as a political tool.

The hearings at the Paris criminal court are scheduled to run until October 23.

Villepin’s trial comes five years after another prime minister, Alain Juppe, was convicted of corruption in an illegal party financing scheme and given a 14-month suspended sentence and a one-year ban on holding public office.

Clearstream trial – Dominique de Villepin – France – Nicolas Sarkozy

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AFP – A French court on Tuesday blocked a decision to allow a Qatari prince to modernise a pristine 17th-century mansion, one of the gems of historic Paris, a lawyer for a residents’ group said.

Locals went to court to block the work by Prince Abdullah Bin Abdullah Al-Thani, brother of Qatar’s emir, who bought the Hotel Lambert on the Ile Saint Louis, an island on the River Seine and a UNESCO heritage site, in 2007.

Built in the 1640s at the eastern tip of the island, not far from Notre Dame Cathedral, the Hotel Lambert was designed for a rich financier by the architect Louis Vau, who went on to oversee a major expansion of the Chateau de Versailles for Louis XIV.

The judge agreed to suspend the permit given to the prince in June by the culture ministry to turn the delapidated mansion into a family residence, said Michel Huet, lawyer for the Paris Historique association fighting the plans.

Prince Abdullah acquired the hotel from the Rothschild banking family for some 60 million euros (86 million dollars) in 2007, and with his son Hamad Bin Abdullah Al-Thani commissioned French architects to restore and convert it.

Rich with history, the mansion’s uses over the years ranged from a hideaway for the 18th-century philosopher Voltaire and his lover, to a political headquarters for Polish exiles in the following century.

But even then, critics feared the proposals — which still involved destroying a staircase, putting in new elevators and an underground car park — would wreck one of Paris’ best-preserved mansions.

His plans for the building were watered down after months of talks between the French state, Paris city hall and heritage defence groups before approval was granted in June. .

Tuesday’s ruling does not challenge the restoration part of the prince’s plans, which plans for key rooms to be renovated in keeping with the original, but it blocks the wider 40-million-euro plan to modernise the building.

But it is still considered one of the finest examples of mid-17th-century domestic French architecture, complete with mural paintings by Charles Le Brun and other masters of the day.

France – French culture – justice – UNESCO