"Chirac’s corruption trial quickly suspended" by Associated Press / March 8, 2011
PARIS — Former president Jacques Chirac’s long-awaited corruption trial began yesterday in Paris, decades after he allegedly used Paris city coffers to fund illegal jobs that benefited his conservative party.
In a surprise move, the opening session was quickly suspended over a technical legal issue that may go to France’s highest court for a decision. The courtroom was abuzz with whispers that Chirac may get a last-minute reprieve over two cases that have been merged into one in the first trial of a French former head of state since the World War II era.
The trial centers on Chirac’s time as Paris mayor between 1977 and 1995 — before he was elected president — and accusations that he and his allies misused city funds....
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And others:
"Abducted man tried in teen’s ’82 death" by Associated Press / March 30, 2011
PARIS — A retired German doctor who was kidnapped and left in front of a French courthouse on the orders of a grieving father went on trial in Paris yesterday over the killing of a teenage girl 29 years ago.
The unusual trial is the culmination of a decades-long battle between two men, in two countries. But it also raises larger questions — about cross-border justice in the borderless European Union, and whether the father was right to try to take justice into his own hands....
Where else you going to find it? The authorities?
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"EXPRESSION OF ANGER -- Lawyers wearing masks reading "Forbidden of Expression" demonstrated yesterday alongside judges in front of the Justice Palace in Nice, France, during a national protest against President Nicolas Sarkozy's criticism of the legal system. Protesting magistrates have shut down almost all the country's courthouses (Boston Globe February 11 2011)."
"Compromise deal reached at G-20
PARIS — The world’s dominant economies yesterday took a small step toward smoothing out the trade and currency imbalances at the root of the global financial crisis, overcoming Chinese objections and setting the stage for even tougher negotiations in the months ahead. Finance ministers and central bankers from the United States, Britain, China, and other large developed and developing economies struck a compromise deal after talks on how such imbalances should be measured (AP)."
"Hackers infiltrate French government" by Associated Press / March 8, 2011
PARIS — Hackers infiltrated French government computers in search of information about France’s leadership of the Group of 20 leading economies, the country’s budget minister said yesterday.
The head of France’s network security agency said it was the biggest-ever hacker attack against the government.
France holds the rotating leadership of the G-20 this year and is hosting a series of meetings aimed at improving relations among the world’s top economies, including the United States and China.
Other attempts to hack computers at the presidential palace, the Foreign Ministry, and other ministries with information about the G-20 failed, according to the National Security Agency for Information Systems.
Those behind the attacks were after information about French financial and economic policies, said Budget Minister Francois Baroin.
Baroin said it’s too early to say who was behind the attacks on Finance Ministry e-mail accounts and servers, but the authorities think they came “probably from outside’’ France.
It is to the point where I always suspect Israel these days.
“It was the information about the G-20 that interested the hackers,’’ Baroin said in an interview on radio station Europe-1.
PARIS — The world’s dominant economies yesterday took a small step toward smoothing out the trade and currency imbalances at the root of the global financial crisis, overcoming Chinese objections and setting the stage for even tougher negotiations in the months ahead. Finance ministers and central bankers from the United States, Britain, China, and other large developed and developing economies struck a compromise deal after talks on how such imbalances should be measured (AP)."
"Hackers infiltrate French government" by Associated Press / March 8, 2011
PARIS — Hackers infiltrated French government computers in search of information about France’s leadership of the Group of 20 leading economies, the country’s budget minister said yesterday.
The head of France’s network security agency said it was the biggest-ever hacker attack against the government.
France holds the rotating leadership of the G-20 this year and is hosting a series of meetings aimed at improving relations among the world’s top economies, including the United States and China.
Other attempts to hack computers at the presidential palace, the Foreign Ministry, and other ministries with information about the G-20 failed, according to the National Security Agency for Information Systems.
Those behind the attacks were after information about French financial and economic policies, said Budget Minister Francois Baroin.
Baroin said it’s too early to say who was behind the attacks on Finance Ministry e-mail accounts and servers, but the authorities think they came “probably from outside’’ France.
It is to the point where I always suspect Israel these days.
“It was the information about the G-20 that interested the hackers,’’ Baroin said in an interview on radio station Europe-1.
Network security agency chief Patrick Pailloux said “sensitive’’ information had been obtained in the attacks which probably began in November-December, carried out by “a number of professional, determined, and persistent hackers.’’
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Also see: Airbus faces charges in ’09 Air France crash
Ah, the strange odyssey of Flight 447.
Also see: Airbus faces charges in ’09 Air France crash
Ah, the strange odyssey of Flight 447.
