Wanderlust

Tag: Paris

  • Rédoine Faïd: Jailbreak gangster narrowly evades police

    A picture taken on July 25, 2018 in the northern Paris suburb of Sarcelles shows the parking where the car abandoned by French robber Redoine Faid was found. Image copyright AFP/Getty Image caption Faïd abandoned a car with explosives in an underground parking north of Paris

    A French armed robber narrowly avoided capture more than three weeks after escaping from prison, police say.

    Convicted gangster Rédoine Faïd was once spotted through patrol officials near Paris on Tuesday, police resources advised AFP news agency.

    He fled the scene and abandoned a car with explosives and faux number plates in a shopping centre car park.

    On 1 July Faid, FORTY SIX, broke out of a prison with the help of armed accomplices who hijacked a helicopter.

    The Jailbird King, as he’s dubbed by French media, was once serving a 25-12 months sentence for a 2010 failed robbery during which a police officer was once killed.

    Image copyright IBO/SIPA/REX/Shutterstock Image caption This Is the second jail holiday pulled off by Redoine Faid (pictured in 2010)

    Whilst police discovered the deserted vehicle with plastic explosives in an underground car park, government sealed off the buying groceries centre and bomb disposal mavens have been called in.

    “We do not yet recognise the place the explosives were being taken,” a senior prosecutor advised AFP.

    This Is the primary sighting of the escaped convict because 1 July, after which a few 2,900 law enforcement officials have joined a national manhunt.

    Media playback is unsupported to your software

    Media captionA local man describes listening to explosions all the way through first jailbreak

    (more…)

  • In photos: France marks Bastille Day with spectacular parade

    View of the parade on Champs-Elysées Symbol copyright AFP

    The Once A Year Bastille Day parade – marking the storming of the Bastille jail in 1789, an event that helped spark the French Revolution – has been going down in Paris.

    Here are a few of essentially the most striking images from the celebrations.

    Alpha Jets overflying the capital with plumes of smoke in the colours of the French flag Image copyright AFP

    The day’s events noticed France’s Alpha Jets fly prior the Arc de Triomphe…

    Alpha Jets fly over the Louvre Symbol copyright EPA

    … and over the Louvre artwork museum. however the fabulous view was fairly marred by an obvious mix-up of colours representing the French flag.

    President Emmanuel Macron and his wife Brigitte were there. Image copyright EPA

    President Emmanuel Macron and his wife Brigitte were there.

    President Macron rides with the French army chief of staff Image copyright Reuters

    Mr Macron rode in a jeep alongside the French military chief of staff Gen François Lecointre and the French Republican Shield at the French capital’s well-known Champs-Elysées avenue.

    Earlier this 12 months, Mr Macron presented a plan to deliver back national service for all 16-12 months-olds as a way of marketing a way of civic responsibility and nationwide unity amongst French youth.

    France brings again national service Singaporean troops parading in the boulevard Image copyright AFP

    Singaporean troops, observed here, and Eastern infantrymen were also invited to take part within the parade.

    Last 12 months US troops participated, marking ONE HUNDRED years considering the fact that US forces entered World Warfare One, and President Donald Trump was the visitor of honour.

    Trump applauds troops at 2017 Bastille Day parade Five times Macron ripped into Trumpism Gendarmes, firefighters and other units march Image copyright AFP

    Gendarmes, firefighters and other devices joined this year’s parade.

    The Chasseurs Alpins (Alpine Hunters) march Symbol copyright AFP

    there were many different vibrant uniforms on show – the Alpine Hunters marched in white.

    Gendarmes pick up their bikes after colliding Image copyright Reuters

    But now not everything went exactly as planned – these gendarmes on motorbikes collided as they traced patterns around the Position de la Concorde.

    Mr Macron and the group applauded as they righted their bikes.

    French republican guard motorcyclist doing a stunt Image copyright AFP

    However issues went a bit of more easily for the stunt bikers of the Republican Protect.

    All pictures copyright

  • The Latest: Aid group refuses migrants from US Navy ship

    The Latest on the flow of migrants into Europe (all times local):

    CATANIA, Sicily (AP) – The Latest on the flow of migrants into Europe (all times local):

    10:05 p.m.

    A German humanitarian group says it is declining to take aboard 41 migrants rescued by a U.S. Navy ship because Italy has refused to assign the group’s ship a port where it can dock.

    Sea Watch, whose rescue vessel is operating off Libya’s northern coast, said the migrants were picked up by the Navy after their rubber dinghy sank and at least 12 people died. The group said Wednesday the survivors need immediate care on land.

    The group cited Italy’s recent refusal to let another group’s rescue ship dock as the reason it was not taking on the passengers the U.S. Navy ship Trenton rescued Tuesday.

    Sea Watch confirmed it had space on board its ship and food for 41 passengers, “but that without an assigned place of safety, Sea-Watch 3 isn’t in a position to carry out a transfer” of migrants from the Trenton.

    The U.S. Sixth Fleet says it is coordinating with its partners on where the migrants will go.

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    6:10 p.m.

    German Chancellor Angela Merkel is heading for a showdown with her conservative allies in a dispute over whether to turn back some refugees at the border.

    Horst Seehofer, who heads the Bavaria-only sister party to Merkel’s center-right Christian Democratic Union, made the proposal as part of a 63-point plan to crack down on illegal migration.

    As interior minister, Seehofer oversees border control and migration, and his party is under pressure to take a hard line ahead of state elections in Bavaria this fall.

    Seehofer told reporters Wednesday that he wants an agreement this week, and backed the idea of an Italian-Austrian-German “axis” to tackle illegal migration.

    Speaking at a separate event, Merkel said she wants a “solution for all of Europe” rather than one that works only for some countries.

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    3:10 p.m.

    Italy’s finance minister has canceled a planned meeting in Paris with his French counterpart after the two countries clashed over Italy’s decision to refuse entry to a migrant rescue ship.

    The office of Finance Minister Giovanni Tria confirmed Wednesday’s meeting with Bruno Le Maire had been scrapped. Le Maire’s office confirmed the cancellation. No reason was given by either office.

    But earlier, Italy’s foreign ministry warned that relations had been compromised by France’s public criticism that Italy’s decision to refuse entry to the migrant ship Aquarius had been “cynical” and irresponsible.

    Italy summoned the French ambassador to protest and demanded an official apology.

    Italy has defended its decision to refuse the Aquarius and its 600 passengers entry. Spain has offered to take it in and the ship is currently on the days long voyage to Valencia.

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    2:15 p.m.

    The U.N. refugee agency chief says a bitter dispute over which European country should take in a rescue boat carrying hundreds of migrants in the Mediterranean is “profoundly shameful” for the European Union.

    Filippo Grandi railed against the dispute involving France, Italy, Malta and Spain over the Aquarius, which is carrying some 629 migrants who left from Libya.

    Speaking to reporters in Geneva, Grandi said the EU can expect more such incidents in coming weeks as long as it remains divided on its policies toward migrants and refugees.

    Spain offered to take in the Aquarius after Italy and Malta refused to do so. French President Emmanuel Macron criticized the Italian government’s refusal.

    Grandi said closing ports wrongly threatens “rescue at sea” – a requirement under international law – but said Italy’s reasoning was “something that we need to listen to.”

    ___

    2 p.m.

    France’s foreign ministry spokeswoman says France is fully aware of the burden weighing on Italy amid the migrant crisis, and of the efforts made by the country.

    Agnes von der Muhll says “none of the comments by French authorities have questioned this, nor the need for a close coordination between Europeans”, in a written statement Wednesday.

    She wouldn’t comment any further on the decision of Italian Foreign Minister Enzo Moavero Milanesi to summon the French ambassador on Wednesday following comments by the French president on Italy’s refusal to allow a ship carrying rescued migrants to dock.

    French President Emmanuel Macron is to meet with new Italian Premier Giuseppe Conte on Friday in Paris.

    Migrant-related issues will be at the heart of the discussions and France hopes to maintain a “close dialogue” with its neighbor, the statement says.

    ___

    1:35 p.m.

    The leader of Austria and Germany’s conservative interior minister say their countries will cooperate with Italy to tackle the problem of illegal migration.

    Austrian Chancellor Sebastian Kurz said an “axis of the willing” between Rome, Vienna and Berlin makes sense because the countries form one of the main travel routes into Europe for migrants who have crossed the Mediterranean.

    Kurz told reporters in Berlin that a growing number of European governments agree on the need to curb uncontrolled migration and crack down on people trafficking.

    Horst Seehofer, Germany’s interior minister, said he spoke Tuesday to his Italian counterpart, adding that the three countries would press ahead on the issue.

    Seehofer has taken a tough line on immigration that’s put him at odds with German Chancellor Angela Merkel.

    ___

    1:15 p.m.

    Italy’s foreign ministry says French criticism of its handling of the migrant ship Aquarius is “unacceptable,” and is compromising their diplomatic relations.

    The ministry issued a statement after Foreign Minister Enzo Moavero Milanesi summoned the French ambassador to complain on Wednesday. The French charge d’affairs, Claire Anne Raulin, represented France as the ambassador was out of Rome.

    In the statement, Italy said France could have made its views privately, and considered the public complaints by President Emmanuel Macron “unacceptable” and “unjustified.” Macron had said Italy had been cynical and irresponsible for having denied entry to the Aquarius, a rescue vessel with more than 600 migrants onboard.

    The ministry said: “Such declarations are compromising relations between Italy and France.” It added that Italy was waiting for French to take action to “heal the situation that has been created.”

    ___

    11:40 a.m.

    Italy is challenging France to take in the migrants it promised to under an EU agreement, and has accused France of turning back some 10,000 migrants at Italy’s northern border.

    Interior Minister Matteo Salvini blasted the French critique of its handling of the Aquarius migrant ship standoff during a speech to Parliament on Wednesday. Salvini demanded an apology after French President Emmanuel Macron accused Italy of cynical, irresponsible behavior by refusing to let the Aquarius dock in an Italian port.

    Salvini said France had committed to accepting 9,816 migrants under a 2015 EU redistribution scheme to relieve front-line countries of the pressure of asylum-seekers. The scheme has never gotten off the ground.

    Salvini said in three years, France has accepted only 640 people. “So I ask President Macron to pass from words to action and tomorrow morning welcome the 9,816 France promised to welcome as a sign of concrete generosity and not just words.”

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    10:45 a.m.

    The co-founder of the SOS Mediterranee charity says three ships carrying 629 migrants are expected to arrive around Saturday night at the Spanish port of Valencia, depending on weather conditions.

    Sophie Beau said Wednesday in a news conference in Marseille, France, “it’s a relief for everyone, our teams and of course above all for the survivors to know that they are finally allowed to head to a safe port in Europe.”

    Beau said while the rescue ship the association operates, the Aquarius, is travelling the 1,500 kilometers (930 miles) to Spain, new victims “are dying under our eyes.”

    She called on European countries to set up a fleet to save human lives in the Mediterranean Sea.

    Spain offered to welcome migrants aboard the Aquarius rescue ship after Italy and Malta refused to take them in.

    Italy sent two ships operated by the Italian navy and coast guard to take on some of the migrant passengers and escort the ship on the voyage.

    ___

    10:40 a.m.

    Italy’s coast guard says its ship Diciotti has brought 932 migrants to shore in Catania, Sicily, as a diplomatic standoff continues over Italy’s refusal to let another rescue ship dock.

    The Diciotti was also carrying the corpses of two people who died during their voyage, a woman and a teenage boy.

    Thirteen of the passengers disembarking in Catania are pregnant and 208 are minors. The passengers hailed from Eritrea, Sudan, Mali, Ivory Coast and Guinea.

    During the voyage to Sicily, four pregnant women and a man suffering from fever were evacuated urgently and taken to hospitals.

    The Aquarius migrant ship operated by SOS Mediterranee has been refused entry to Italian ports. It is now heading to Spain.

    ___

    9:25 a.m.

    Italy has summoned the French ambassador for consultations after French President Emmanuel Macron criticized what he called Italy’s cynicism and irresponsibility in turning away a migrant rescue ship with more than 600 people aboard.

    A statement from the foreign ministry said the ambassador had been summoned Wednesday morning “following the statements given in Paris yesterday about the Aquarius.”

    Macron’s office said Tuesday that France doesn’t want to “start a precedent” that would allow some European countries to breach international laws and rely on other EU member states to take in migrants.

    Spain has agreed to accept the Aquarius in its port in Valencia.

    ___

    9:15 a.m.

    An Italian coast guard vessel has docked in Sicily with more than 900 migrants aboard, evidence that Italy’s new anti-migrant government is still taking in some asylum-seekers but is forcing the rest of Europe to accept others.

    Crew aboard the Diciotti began disembarking passengers in Catania’s port early Wednesday. At the same time, the Aquarius vessel of the aid group SOS Mediterranee continued its days long westward voyage to Spain, where it was rerouted after Italy and Malta refused it entry.

    The fates of the two ships are evidence of the policy shift by Italy’s new populist government: refuse entry to rescue ships of European-flagged aid groups, but allow Italian maritime vessels in its ports.

    The shift has heightened tensions in Europe, with France accusing Italy of “cynical” and irresponsible behavior.

  • Emmanuel Macron, French president, in U.S. to visit Donald Trump

    Behind the pomp and circumstance of French President Emmanuel Macron’s visit to Washington starting Monday — including President Trump’s first state dinner for a fellow world leader since taking offi

    Behind the pomp and circumstance of French President Emmanuel Macron’s visit to Washington starting Monday — including President Trump’s first state dinner for a fellow world leader since taking office — lies a calculated and hard-nosed campaign to position Paris as the White House’s best friend in Europe.

    Much is riding on the visit by Mr. Macron, the banker and political neophyte who captured the French presidency last year, topped by the fate of the Iran nuclear deal that Mr. Trump is poised to kill next month and that Mr. Macron desperately hopes to save.

    The three-day visit will be a high-profile test of Mr. Macron’s studied charm offensive with the unpredictable American president, weighing whether the young leader can parlay his personal rapport with Mr. Trump into White House moderation on issues such as the Iran deal and Washington’s new skepticism over such internationalist causes as climate change and free trade.

    With German Chancellor Angela Merkel coming to Washington at the end of the week, European leaders will get their last best chance to persuade Mr. Trump to change his mind, or at least hold his fire as EU capitals try to devise new penalties for Tehran that could keep Washington in the deal.

    Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif, on a visit to New York, increased the pressure on Mr. Macron Sunday by saying Washington’s withdrawal from the pact would only further diminish the U.S. standing among its allies and adversaries alike.

    Iran is ready to restart its nuclear program if the Trump administration leaves the 2015 nuclear agreement and reinstates sanctions, Mr. Zarif said.

    “We have put a number of options for ourselves, and those options are ready, including options that would involve resuming at a much greater speed our nuclear activities,” he added.

    Mr. Macron has unexpectedly emerged as one of the more moderate and accepting voices within the European Union concerning some of Mr. Trump’s unorthodox foreign policy stances.

    The 40-year-old French president has repeatedly defended Mr. Trump’s credibility on the world stage from criticism on several fronts, including his immigration ban from several Muslim countries, claims that Washington is abandoning its role as defender of the postwar liberal order, and views that he is creating a vacuum that China and Russia are filling.

    Other Western European leaders have struggled to get a read on Mr. Trump or even establish a personal working rapport, but the young English-speaking Mr. Macron has proved more deft.

    “I am not going to judge what should be your president, or to consider that because of these controversies or because of these investigations your president is less credible,” Mr. Macron told The Associated Press, dismissing any attempt to be drawn into the fierce U.S. controversy over Russian meddling in the 2016 presidential election.

    But Mr. Macron will be under intense scrutiny back home to prove that his personal bonhomie with Mr. Trump translates into policy successes, starting with the May 12 deadline under which Mr. Trump must decide whether to stay in the multilateral Iran nuclear deal.

    Policy payoffs

    Although the visit will undoubtedly include all the trappings of a high-level diplomatic visit between two longtime allies, political observers in the U.S. and Europe will be keeping a keen eye on how the leaders interact over several issues on which they have found themselves at odds.

    The two leaders are certain to discuss the impacts of Mr. Trump’s decision to withdraw from the Paris climate accord, which France has championed but the Trump administration argues unnecessarily regulates American industries and international companies. Mr. Macron is also a champion of free trade, while Mr. Trump has questioned the North American Free Trade Agreement, killed an Asian trade deal and put in deep freeze a proposed free trade accord with the European Union.

    But no topic will likely loom as large between the two leaders as Washington’s reported desire to withdraw from the 2015 nuclear deal with Iran that the Obama administration strongly supported.

    Mr. Trump and his national security team, led by newly installed National Security Adviser John R. Bolton, have repeatedly called for the dissolution of the nuclear deal despite the continuing support of other world powers, including Britain, France, Germany, Russia and China.

    If Mr. Trump effectively withdraws from the deal, the U.S. will reimpose sanctions that Iran says negate the main purpose of the accord.

    Proponents of the pact, including Mr. Macron and Ms. Merkel, say there is no tangible proof that Tehran has failed to comply with the nonproliferation elements of the Iran deal, even if Iran continues to test other military systems and remains a destabilizing force for American allies across the Middle East.

    More pointedly, Mr. Macron is expected to argue that the U.S. and its Western allies will have no good option to restrain Iran’s nuclear programs if Mr. Trump takes Washington out of the deal.

    French officials warn there is “no plan B” if the Iran deal collapses. Mr. Macron himself asked on Fox News, “What do you have as an alternative?”

    Iran’s Mr. Zarif said Sunday that the Bolton appointment showed Mr. Trump would rather overthrow the government in Tehran that negotiate with it.

    The U.S. “never abandoned the idea of regime change in Iran,” he said, adding that some are just “more explicit about stating it.”

    France, Germany, the United Kingdom and other key European allies say the deal is the best chance the West has to keep Iran from becoming a nuclear power, potentially threatening the U.S. and Israel with an atomic attack. A furious negotiation is underway to see if the Europeans can formulate a new set of sanctions and penalties for Tehran outside of the nuclear deal to persuade Washington to stay in it.

    Mr. Macron, who treated Mr. Trump to an envy-inducing military parade and a dinner in the Eiffel Tower during his trip to Paris last year, has shown a talent for gestures that impress the billionaire former real estate developer.

    The French president plans to present Mr. Trump with an oak tree sapling from the site of one of the first World War I battles involving American troops, the Battle of Belleau Wood, The Associated Press reported Sunday.

    It’s a sign of appreciation for the sacrifices America has made for France — and a subtle nod to Mr. Macron’s environmental agenda.

    He wants it planted in the White House gardens.

    • This article is based in part on wire service reports.

  • French hero officer who swapped himself for hostage dies

    A French police officer who offered himself up to an Islamic extremist gunman in exchange for a hostage has died, raising the death toll in the attack in southern France to four. He was honored Saturd

    TREBES, France (AP) — A French police officer who offered himself up to an Islamic extremist gunman in exchange for a hostage has died, raising the death toll in the attack in southern France to four. He was honored Saturday as a national hero of “exceptional courage and selflessness.”

    Lt. Col. Arnaud Beltrame, 44, was among the first officers to respond to the attack Friday on the supermarket in the southern French town of Trebes.

    Beltrame, who joined the elite police special forces in 2003 and served in Iraq in 2005, had organized a training session in the Aude region in December for just such a hostage situation. At the time, he armed his officers with paintball guns, according to the Depeche du Midi newspaper.

    “We want to be as close to real conditions as possible,” he said then.

    But when he went inside the supermarket, he gave up his own weapon and volunteered himself in exchange for a female hostage.

    Unbeknownst to the Morocco-born hostage-taker, he left his cellphone on so police outside could hear what was happening in the store. They stormed the building when they heard gunshots, officials said. Beltrame was fatally wounded.

    In addition to the four people killed by the gunman in his rampage Friday, the attacker was killed by police. Fifteen others were injured.

    “Arnaud Beltrame died in the service of the nation to which he had already given so much,” President Emmanuel Macron said. “In giving his life to end the deadly plan of a jihadi terrorist, he fell as a hero.”

    French police and soldiers have been a prime target of attacks by extremists, with 10 killed in recent years, including Beltrame. Other victims include three soldiers killed near Toulouse in 2012, three police officers shot to death in 2015, a police couple killed in their home in 2016 and a police officer killed on Paris‘ Champs-Elysees in 2017. Dozens of others have been wounded.

    According to Macron’s statement, Beltrame also served as a member of the presidential guard and in 2012 earned one of France’s highest honors, the Order of Merit. He was married with no children.

    Cedric Beltrame told RTL radio Saturday that his brother died “a hero.”

    “He was well aware he had almost no chance. He was very aware of what he was doing,” Cedric Beltrame said.

    Beltrame’s mother told RTL radio that, for her son, “to defend the homeland” was “his reason to live.”

    “He would have said to me, ‘I’m doing my job, Mom, nothing more,’” she said.

    People were placing flowers in front of the Gendarmerie headquarters in the French medieval city of Carcassone to pay tribute to Lt. Col. Beltrame. Flags at all gendarmeries were ordered to fly at half-staff.

    Macron says investigators will focus on establishing how the gunman, identified by prosecutors as Morocco-born Redouane Lakdim, 25, got his weapon and how he became radicalized.

    On Friday night, authorities searched a car and the apartment complex in central Carcassonne where Lakdim was believed to live. Two people were detained over alleged links with a terrorist enterprise, one woman close to Lakdim and a friend of his, a 17-year-old male, Paris prosecutor’s office said.

    Lakdim was known to police for petty crime and drug dealing. But he was also under surveillance and since 2014 was on the so-called Fiche S list, a government register of individuals suspected of being radicalized but who have yet to perform acts of terrorism.

    Despite this, Paris prosecutor Francois Molins said there was “no warning sign” that Lakdim would carry out an attack.

    The four-hour drama began at 10:13 a.m. when Lakdim hijacked a car near Carcassonne, killing one person in the car and wounding the other, the prosecutor said.

    Lakdim then fired six shots at police officers on their way back from jogging near Carcassonne, hitting one in the shoulder, said Yves Lefebvre of the SGP Police-FO police union.

    Lakdim then went to a Super U supermarket in nearby Trebes, 60 miles (100 kilometers) southeast of Toulouse, shooting and killing two people in the market and taking hostages. He shouted “Allahu akbar!” — the Arabic phrase for God is great — and said he was a “soldier of the Islamic State” as he entered the Super U, where about 50 people were inside, Molins said.

    Special police units converged on the scene while authorities blocked roads.

    “We heard an explosion — well, several explosions,” shopper Christian Guibbert told reporters. “I saw a man lying on the floor and another person, very agitated, who had a gun in one hand and a knife in the other.”

    Guibbert said he put his wife, sister-in-law and other shoppers in the meat locker for safety.

    The manager of the supermarket, who would identify herself only by her first name, Samia, was in her office when she heard the shots.

    “Call the gendarmes,” she told her employees. “There’s a terrorist in the store.”

    She said she helped evacuate as many people as possible.

    “It was terrifying,” Samia said.

    During the standoff, Lakdim requested the release of Salah Abdeslam, the sole surviving assailant of the Nov. 13, 2015, attacks in Paris that left 130 people dead. The interior minister suggested, however, that Abdeslam’s release wasn’t a key motive for the attack.

    The IS-linked Aamaq news agency said the attacker was responding to the group’s calls to target countries in the U.S.-led coalition carrying out airstrikes against IS militants in Syria and Iraq since 2014. France has been repeatedly targeted because of its participation.

    France has been on high alert since a series of extremist attacks in 2015 and 2016 that killed more than 200 people.

    ___

    Associated Press journalists Elaine Ganley. Thomas Adamson, Samuel Petrequin, Sylvie Corbet, Angela Charlton and Jerome Pugmire contributed to this report from Paris.

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    This story has been corrected to show dead policeman’s rank was Lt. Col., not Col. An earlier version of this story incorrectly stated that the Islamic State group claimed responsibility for the attack. The IS-linked Aamaq news agency said the attacker was responding to the group’s calls to target countries in the U.S.-led coalition carrying out airstrikes against IS militants.