Someone claiming to be the Toulouse shooter called and spoke to FRANCE 24 editor Ebba Kalondo.
Puppet Masters
The U.N. Security Council, including Russia, agreed on Wednesday to a statement endorsing efforts by Kofi Annan to end the Syrian uprising, providing a rare moment of global unity in the face of the year-long crisis.
The statement, which threatens Syria with unspecified "further steps" if it fails to comply with a six-point peace plan drawn up by Annan, will be formally adopted in New York later in the day, diplomats said.
U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on Wednesday praised the move as a "positive step".
"To President Assad and his regime we say, along with the rest of the international community: take this path, commit to it, or face increasing pressure and isolation," Clinton told reporters after a meeting with Afghanistan's foreign minister.
The statement, which threatens Syria with unspecified "further steps" if it fails to comply with a six-point peace plan drawn up by Annan, will be formally adopted in New York later in the day, diplomats said.
U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on Wednesday praised the move as a "positive step".
"To President Assad and his regime we say, along with the rest of the international community: take this path, commit to it, or face increasing pressure and isolation," Clinton told reporters after a meeting with Afghanistan's foreign minister.
Comment: Another Libya in the making?
Syria's Bloody CIA Revolution - A Distraction?
CIA or Mossad Snipers Caught in Syria?
Wake Up and Smell the Hypocrisy, Mrs Clinton
A few words from someone who is there in Syria.
Abdelkader Merah, brother of French motorcycle mayhem suspect Mohamed Merah, was arrested during a raid by officers of the Police Judiciaire. They later 'found' explosives in his car.
Police said earlier they had detained the mother and brother of the suspect, self-declared Islamist Mohamed Merah, along with the brother's girlfriend.
Police did not provide any details of the explosives found in the car.
They said they had carried out searches of the homes of the mother and brother.
Speaking to reporters, Interior Minister Claude Gueant said they had been placed under "precautionary detention."
A source close to the investigation said Merah's brother was a sympathiser with radical Islamists.
Source: Agence France-Presse
A bomb blast shattered the windows of the Indonesian embassy in Paris this morning
No-one injured in blast that shattered windows and damaged cars
A bomb blast shattered the windows of the Indonesian embassy in Paris this morning.
The gas cylinder package had originally been inside the elegant Rue Cortambert building but was removed by an observant member of staff.
No-one was injured in the explosion in the French capital that also damaged several cars.
Chief Political and Security Minister Djoko Suyanto said: 'Indonesia's embassy in Paris has reported an explosion in one intersection near the embassy at 5.20am local (Paris) time.
'It is not certain what the target of the bomb was. The Indonesian ambassador is in the location but couldn't go near. Windows at the embassy are broken.
© Eric Cabanis/AFP/Getty Images
Nicolas Sarkozy, flanked by his yes-men and women, speaks in front of the Jewish school where four people were killed in Toulouse.
Nicolas Sarkozy, flanked by his yes-men and women, speaks in front of the Jewish school where four people were killed in Toulouse.
Having vowed to find the shooter who killed three children and a rabbi outside a Jewish school and three soldiers of Arab descent, Sarkozy's role as France's leader in a national emergency may bolster him just a month before the first round of the presidential election, especially if security jumps up the list of voter concerns, analysts and pollsters say.
The case is enabling "the re-presidentialization of Sarkozy's image," said Eric Bonnet, a pollster at BVA Institute in Paris. "It can help him be seen as more of a unifier than he normally would be."
No normal French citizen could be happy with appalling images of the following kind, which reoccur sadly every New Year's Eve, when certain individuals get a kick out of burning automobiles, forcing firemen to risk their lives extinguishing these absurd blazes:
This year, some 1,147 went up in flames in this crazy fashion. It's easy for mindless vandals to get away with such acts, since an automobile can be torched almost as easily and rapidly as lighting a cigarette. The victims of this madness are the innocent owners of destroyed vehicles, who might even be prevented from earning their living as a result of the loss of their automobile.
While everybody is surely reassured to discover that no less a man than Nicolas Sarkozy himself is disgusted with this plague, and determined to eradicate it, the means suggested by the president are somewhat bizarre. What he suggests is a weird kind of indirect punishment for young vandals who burn automobiles. A condemned youth would be prohibited from passing his test, in the hope of obtaining a driver's license, for as long as he hasn't reimbursed the cost of the automobile(s) he happened to burn.
While everybody is surely reassured to discover that no less a man than Nicolas Sarkozy himself is disgusted with this plague, and determined to eradicate it, the means suggested by the president are somewhat bizarre. What he suggests is a weird kind of indirect punishment for young vandals who burn automobiles. A condemned youth would be prohibited from passing his test, in the hope of obtaining a driver's license, for as long as he hasn't reimbursed the cost of the automobile(s) he happened to burn.
Police hunting a gunman suspected of killing seven people in southern France have surrounded a flat in Toulouse.
The 24-year-old Frenchman from Toulouse has said he belongs to al-Qaeda and acted to "avenge Palestinian children".
Police are now negotiating with the man, who is still said to be heavily armed but has indicated he may give himself up in the afternoon.
Two police officers were injured in exchanges of fire during the raid and there are reports of a fresh blast.
The suspect's brother is under arrest.
The suspect's mother, who is Algerian, has been brought to the scene, but Interior Minister Claude Gueant, who is in attendance, said she had refused to become involved as "she had little influence on him".
The minister said the suspect had made several visits to Afghanistan and Pakistan.
Comment: So that's a wrap then: the killer is an 'Islamist', he threw the gun used in all three shootings out the window of his flat and his motive was revenge against Israel.
And now France is in a state of high alert 6 weeks before Presidential elections...
© Unknown
On March 6, 2012, the US Congressional Research Service released a report to the US Congress concerning Restrictions on the use of American weapons by recipient countries.
For those who have followed the subject there was not a whole lot new in the CRS study, yet it is instructive in identifying Israel once again as far and away the most egregious violator of virtually every provision of every US law which purports to regulate how American weapons are used.
In accordance with U.S. law, the U.S. Government is mandated to enforce strict conditions on the use against civilians, of weapons it transfers to foreign recipients.
Violations of these conditions can lead to the suspension of deliveries or termination of contracts for such defense items, and even the cutting off of all aid to the violating country.
Section 3(a) of the 1976 US Arms Export Control Act (AECA) sets the standards for countries to be eligible to receive American arms and it also sets express conditions on the uses to which these arms may be put.
© AFP Photo/Eric Cabanis
French activists rip open bags of MON 810, a variety of Monsanto's genetically modified corn after entering a Monsanto storehouse.
French activists rip open bags of MON 810, a variety of Monsanto's genetically modified corn after entering a Monsanto storehouse.
"Due to the proximity of the planting season," said Agriculture Minister Bruno Le Maire along with Francois Fillon, Minister for Ecology and Sustainable Development, in a press release on Friday, authorities "decided to take a precautionary measure to temporarily prohibit the cultivation of maize MON810 on the national territory to protect the environment."
All prior plantings of MON810, trade name YieldGard, become illegal on March 20.
Headquartered in St. Louis, Missouri, Monsanto announced in January that it would not sell genetically modified corn in France due to public opposition.
Comment: Sarkozy's Backers To Use Toulouse Attacks To Steal French Election