AFP- Former French Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin confronted the star witness in his smear trial on Wednesday and angrily rejected charges that he plotted to damage Nicolas Sarkozy's bid for the presidency in 2007.

Special Report on France's trial of the decade Reporter's notebook from the court Who's who in the trial How a finance trial turned into a major political scandal A glossary of terms in the Clearstream saga From Ben Barka to Elf, justice turns a blind eye to political elites

Villepin denies any wrongdoing but evidence offered on Monday by General Philippe Rondot, a former senior intelligence official, suggested that he was more involved in the case than he had previously admitted.

The silver-haired Villepin, a bitter rival of Sarkozy when the two served in government together under former President Jacques Chirac, dismissed suggestions that he had been motivated by their mutual enmity.

"The whole history of my relations with Nicolas Sarkozy shows that not only did I never try to get revenge but that I overlooked blows that were struck against me," he said.

"I don't mind people accusing me of a lot of things but rivalries, underhand blows, no. History shows it."

The trial is based around a falsified set of lists that first surfaced in 2004, purportedly detailing accounts held at the Luxembourg-based securities clearing house Clearstream by dozens of prominent individuals, including Sarkozy.

They were brought to Villepin's attention by Jean-Louis Gergorin, a former executive of aerospace group EADS who had close links to intelligence services and who suggested that they might be linked to corruption and organised crime.

The lists were later shown to be faked but Villepin, who was foreign and then interior minister at the time, is accused of having them passed anonymously to a magistrate investigating kickbacks on an arms sale even though he knew them to be bogus.

Villepin, who risks five years in prison if found guilty of conspiring to use falsified documents to defame his rival, has said he was not initially aware that Sarkozy's name was on the lists and did not at first realise they were faked.

He says he asked Rondot to investigate the lists in January 2004 but that there was no suggestion that they might drag Sarkozy into any investigation.

However Rondot's evidence on Monday suggested that, contrary to Villepin's assertions, he was aware Sarkozy's name was in the documents well before they were passed to the magistrate.

Rondot also said that Villepin had asked him to have Imad Lahoud, a former EADS computer specialist who is accused of falsifying the documents, freed from custody where he was being held over a separate fraud case.

Rondot's evidence was especially damaging because, unlike other evidence from prosecution witnesses, it was backed up by copious notes of his meeting with Villepin in January 2004.

On Wednesday, Villepin disputed Rondot's evidence and again denied any involvement in plot against Sarkozy.

"You don't plot, you don't get involved in defamation when you are a politician on the basis of a request for an investigation to General Rondot," he said.

"I did not ask General Rondot to come that day with his notebooks and his little pencil to a meeting of conspirators. That is not my conception of the Republic."

AFP - Egypt announced on Wednesday that it has cut all cooperation with France's Louvre Museum until it secures the return of "stolen" Pharaonic relics in the latest row involving the exhibits of a major European institution.
   
"We made the decision to end any cooperation with the Louvre until they return" the works, antiquities chief Zahi Hawass told AFP.
   
He alleged that the renowned Paris museum bought the antiquities in 1980 even though its curators knew they were stolen.
   
"The purchase of stolen steles is a sign that some museums are prepared to encourage the destruction and theft of Egyptian antiquities," he said.
   
French sources said that the antiquities Egypt was demanding are decorative fragments from a tomb in the Valley of the Kings near Luxor.
   
French Culture Minister Frederic Mitterrand pledged that France is ready to return the relics to Egypt if the Pharaonic antiquities at the Louvre Museum are indeed stolen.
   
Mitterrand said he has convened a meeting for Friday of a special commission that is empowered to rule on restitution, according to a culture ministry statement on Wednesday.
   
"The minister is ready, if the commission were to issue a favourable ruling, to implement provisions of the UNESCO convention and restitute the relics to the Egyptian authorities without delay," the statement said.
   
A member of the Louvre's executive said it is open to the idea of returning the works, which are on display in its galleries, but that the decision is not the museum's alone.
   
"In order to return the works, we would need the agreement of the National Scientific Commission for the Museum Collections of France," he told AFP on condition of anonymity.
   
Egypt's decision to suspend cooperation will affect conferences organised with the museum, as well as work carried out by the Louvre on the Pharaonic necropolis of Saqqara, south of the capital Cairo.
   
Hawass said it had been taken two months ago, implying that it had nothing to do with Egyptian unhappiness over the defeat of Culture Minister Faruq Hosni in the race to become the new director of the UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) last month.
   
A French source said the atmosphere created by Hosni's defeat "doesn't help," but insisted that "there is no real obstacle and a solution should be found soon."
   
A number of the world's most famous museums have collections of Egyptian antiquities, many of them acquired during British colonial rule.
   
But in recent years the Egyptian authorities have been increasingly vociferous in campaigning for the return of important works.
   
In 2007, French authorities returned to Egypt an ancient pharaoh's hairs that were nearly sold on the Internet by a French postal worker whose father had acquired them during the scientific examination of the royal mummy 30 years previously.
   
The case prompted Egyptian authorities to bar foreign scientists from examining royal mummies.
   
Egypt has also long demanded the return from Berlin of a bust of the legendary Queen Nefertiti that was discovered on the banks of the Nile by German archaeologist Ludwig Borchardt in December 1912.
   
The case mirrors that of the so-called Elgin Marbles, the decorative frieze that used to adorn the Parthenon in Athens whose return by the British Museum in London Greece has long demanded.

AFP - President Abdullah Gul flew into France on Wednesday to bring Turkey's campaign for membership of the European Union to the country that is leading the drive to exclude it.

Gul was greeted at the airport by France's Minister for European Affairs Pierre Lellouche, according to French officials, and began a three-day programme of meetings and speeches.

Before setting off, he insisted his mainly-Muslim state was making good progress on reforms required by the 27-nation bloc.

He is nevertheless expected to meet firm opposition from his French counterpart Nicolas Sarkozy.

"Our priority is to put into practice what we learned from the European Union. We are focused on this aim since we came to power," Gul told AFP, defending the record of his Islamist-rooted government.

Gul was to meet foreign policy experts later Wednesday and Prime Minister Francois Fillon on Thursday, taking time to persuade French opinion of his case before meeting Sarkozy, who is staunchly opposed to Turkey's bid, on Friday.

Turkey began membership negotiations in 2005, but has so far opened talks in only 11 of the 35 policy areas that candidates must complete, while France, Germany and other EU members have sought to slow or halt the process.

Sarkozy says Turkey -- of which only a small portion west of the Bosphorus is geographically in Europe and whose large population would be the first in the bloc to be mainly Muslim -- should settle for a partnership agreement.

In June, hopes that France might soften its stance were raised when Sarkozy appointed a new minister for Europe, Pierre Lellouche, known to favour Turkish membership. The minister, however, now publicly backs his president.

"We want Turkey to be a bridge between East and West," Sarkozy declared in June during an appearance with President Barack Obama at which he disagreed with the US leader's support for Turkish EU membership.

"I told President Obama that it's very important for Europe to have borders. For me, Europe is a force stability in the world and I cannot allow that force for stabilisation to be destroyed," Sarkozy declared.

This position, which is popular with a French electorate nervous of allowing 76 million new citizens to compete on the European job market, is unlikely to change this week.

And, despite window dressing such as a Turkish cultural season to be held in France from this week, relations between the two countries are tense.

"In the past five years you can see a real degradation in ties. Bridges have been burned. Polite talk won't change anything," said Didier Billion, of the Institute of International and Strategic Relations in Paris.

Billion said France had a "schizophrenic attitude" with Turkey, on the one hand reaching out with gestures like a cultural season, on the other thwarting its diplomatic initiatives.

Lellouche has suggested that Turkey could arrange privileged trading ties with Europe -- "like we have with Brazil" -- but Gul has argues his country could have special value as Europe's Muslim partner.

"When the EU began to have links with Turkey, this country was already a Muslim country, there is nothing new in this. Besides, the EU never defined itself as a religious union," Gul said.

"Its common values are democracy, human rights and the supremacy of the rule of law. It is on this basis that we have built our relations with Europe.

"Not only does Turkey adopt the criteria of Europe, but it also plays a role in spreading these values in the region," he said, suggesting Turkish membership could improve ties with the Middle East.

France appreciates Turkey's engagement in the diplomatic problems posed by Iran, Syria and the Middle East conflict, and hails Ankara's renewal of ties with Armenia and efforts to improve the fate of its own Kurdish minority.

But Paris has been disappointed by Turkey's failure to resolve its longstanding sovereignty dispute with Cyprus or halt the stream of illegal immigrants flowing through its territory towards the Union.

France was also shocked when Turkey opposed Anders Fogh Rasmussen's appointment as NATO secretary general because of his Danish government's support for free expression in the row over cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed.

French economic ties with Turkey have been hit by the tension, according to Billion, with several companies including Gaz de France finding themselves excluded from major deals such as the Nabucco gas pipeline project.

France Telecom announced the replacement of the group’s 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.

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’s CEO, Didier Lombard, in 2011.

French socialist and communist opposition leaders have been calling for the resignation of both Lombard and Wenes, but the group’s chief executive enjoys the backing of the French government. Lagarde reasserted her “full and unwavering support” for the troubled CEO after the two met last Thursday. According to the website of French weekly Le Point, the finance minister mentioned Richard as a possible replacement for Wenes at that meeting.

A concession to unions

News of Wenes’ departure was greeted with satisfaction by employees and union members. “Wenes is symbolic: he was responsible for ‘terror management’ tactics. He had to leave”, CFE-CGC union member Pierre Morville told AFP.
 
CFDT union member Pierre Dubois told FRANCE 24 that Wenes’ ousting was the logical consequence of his perceived insensitiveness to employee suicides. 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.

France Telecom, which had suspended forced transfers until October 31, announced on Monday that the halt was prolonged until December 31.

According to Ivan Le Roy, author of a book on “management by stress” at France Telecom’s mobile phone unit Orange, Richard is “well perceived by most unions, or at least much better than Wenes, who was despised as a ‘cost killer’ from day 1”.
 
“There was never any kind of dialogue with Wenes”, Dubois told FRANCE 24. “He never accepted to meet us, not until we published an open letter calling for his resignation on September 25”. 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.

Deontological concerns

Although most unions are hopeful that negotiations will start afresh with Richard, some warn against hasty optimism.

Iin a joint press release, leftwing unions Sud and Solidaires said: “The nomination of Stéphane Richard, a close collaborator of President Nicolas Sarkozy, has raised concern among employees about the future of France Telecom. We hope he will rapidly shed light on his future role”. Dubois was also cautious: “Richard remains a big question mark – we don’t know much about him. We hope the management style will change, and that he will bring a fresh look to the heart of the issue: restructuring France Telecom”.

Deontological concerns surfaced immediately after Richard’s nomination. 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”. However, it is not altogether clear how Richard is expected to do so, given that the state is one of the company’s main shareholders. 

AFP - France served notice Sunday that it no longer supported Guinea leader Moussa Dadis Camara after scores of people were killed in an opposition rally in the capital Conakry last week.

"Something terrible and savage happened. We cannot accept it," Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner said in an interview to RTL radio.

"It seems to me that we can no longer work with Dadis Camara and that there has to be an international intervention," he said, adding that France was pressing West African leaders from regional bloc ECOWAS to engage.

Dadis Camara said Sunday he bears "no responsibility" for the September 28 massacre in which the United Nations said more than 150 people were killed.

We can no longer work with Dadis Camara, international intervention is needed... French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner

The junta says 56 civilians were killed, but the Guinean Human Rights Organisation has claimed that at least 157 people were killed and 1,253 wounded in the crackdown. The United Nations has put the toll at more than 150.

Burkina Faso President Blaise Compaore, tasked by the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) to act as a "facilitator" to ease tensions in Guinea, is to arrive in Conakry on Monday, his foreign minister Alain Bedouma Yoda told AFP.

Kouchner said France was pressing for a role in Guinea for ECOWAS, whose current chairman is Nigerian President Umaru Yar'Adua. "Nigeria has to agree and we are working on that," Kouchner said.
 

The French capital stayed up until the wee hours of Sunday as Parisians marked “Nuit Blanche” – literally “sleepless night” – an annual nocturnal celebration of contemporary art.

A giant screen outside the magnificently illuminated City Hall building drew crowds.Marie-Sophie Joubert Music, dancing, art and a touch of romance at a Nuit Blanche gathering. Marie-Sophie Joubert At a metro station: art in transitionMarie-Sophie Joubert Cutting-edge art at the new '104' contemporary art and culture centre in eastern ParisMarie-Sophie Joubert Hamming it up or simply interacting with the artMarie-Sophie Joubert An artist working on a giant meringue screen takes a break at the landmark Pompidou Centre.Marie-Sophie Joubert A heartbeat away from the heart of the cityMarie-Sophie Joubert Inside the historic Notre Dame cathedralMarie-Sophie Joubert Blending the old with the avant-gardeMarie-Sophie Joubert A giant screen in a church displays images of an airport arrivals terminalMarie-Sophie Joubert Edible chocolate mannequinsMarie-Sophie Joubert It's all in the detail: up close with a chocolate mannequin Marie-Sophie Joubert The art party continued into the wee hours of SundayMarie-Sophie Joubert

“If the current trend continues, we should have slightly more people this year than the previous year,” Girard told the AFP news service shortly before midnight.

While public viewings of art installations across the city began Saturday around 7pm, most visitors on this special night opt to view the installations toward midnight.

Giant green laser beam

Shortly after sundown on Saturday, queues of visitors were snaking at the entrance of the Luxembourg gardens in the historic Latin Quarter as well as the Parc des Buttes-Chaumont in eastern Paris.

The Latin Quarter and the central Chatelet-Marais areas have traditionally showcased contemporary art installations on this special night. This year’s Nuit Blanche also featured a number of showings in the north-eastern 19th arondissement, which houses a number of contemporary art studios.

The highlight of the eighth annual Nuit Blanche was a giant green laser beam launched by composer Jean Michel Jarre from the 14th arondissement in southern Paris, which was visible for around 5.5 kilometres right up to the heights of the Montmartre area in northern Paris.

Every year, the all-night art party winds down at around 7am on Sunday.
 

A man claiming he was a soldier in Ivory Coast’s army said Wednesday that the Franco-Canadian journalist Guy-Andre Kieffer, who went missing from the West African country in 2004, was killed by members of the first lady’s entourage in a botched interrogation.

But in apparent response to the new testimony, Ivorian state prosecutor Raymond Tchimou told the news agency AFP that the journalist had been taken out of the country and is still alive. Tchimou offered no other explanations or details on the journalists purported whereabouts.

In a press conference on Thursday, Alexis Gublin, lawyer of the missing journalist's brother called the Tchimou’s statements "unacceptable" and demanded evidence that would support the prosecutor's statement.

Guy-Andre Kieffer was last seen alive in April 2004, in the Ivorian capital, Abidjan. At the time, the journalist was investigating corruption in the cocoa industry. When he went missing, two French judges took on the case.

The judges have long suspected, based on the accounts of key witnesses, that people close to the president could be implicated in Kieffer's disappearance, a theory now strengthened by the latest testimony to be admitted into the docket.

Based on the former soldier’s testimony to the French judges, Kieffer was seized and held within the presidential compound in 2004, and then killed by accident.

“By word of mouth we learnt that [Kieffer] had been shot by accident,” the man stated. He said that the crime was perpetrated by the guards of first lady Simone Gbagbo, but that she herself had no knowledge of the incident.

Simone Gbagbo has always maintained she never saw Guy André Kieffer, a story she stuck to when she herself was questioned in the affair.

Special Report on France's trial of the decade Reporter's notebook from the court Who's who in the trial How a finance trial turned into a major political scandal A glossary of terms in the Clearstream saga From Ben Barka to Elf, justice turns a blind eye to political elites

He told the judge, “I have been steadfast in difficult moments. I have never been in possession of the Clearstream lists, and I was never informed of the fraudulent nature of the Clearstream lists.”

January 9, 2004

According to de Villepin’s testimony, the January 9 meeting was when former EADS president Jean-Louis Gergorin informed Villepin of the existence of the lists.

General Philippe Rondot, who was working at the ministry of defence at the time, was also present at this meeting, which de Villepin described to the court as a “non work-oriented meeting.” De Villepin said he did not see the files at the meeting.

De Villepin said he later instructed Rondot to investigate the Clearstream client list, saying that he was acting on the “general instructions of the President of the Republic” (Jacques Chirac, at the time) to “raise the moral standards of international business.”

But, he said firmly, “Chirac never gave specific presidential instructions.”

By FRANCE 24 Top Story aired on 30 September 2009

The notes Rondot took at the meeting became material evidence in the case. They are widely thought to be damning and include the brief note “Political stakes, Sarkozy.”

Jean-Louis Gergorin, former executive VP of French corporation EADS, gave a different version of events from that of his former associate de Villepin. Gergorin is thought to have shown the list by his EADS accountant trainee, Imad Lahoud, and then to Villepin. Gergorin has already admitted to leaking the false Clearstream list.

Gergorin testified that, contrary to de Villepin’s claim of innocence, the two in fact had a number of clandestine meetings in 2004.

The court read aloud from May 2004 entries in Rondot’s notebook, wherein Rondot wrote that Gergorin had informed him of these meetings.

Lahoud also took to the stand, confirming his previous statements that Gergorin told him that he had received orders from de Villepin to “throw Sarkozy to a judge.”

He may already be finished

The crux of de Villepin’s innocence or guilt depends on whether he knew about the forgery, and whether he in fact gave the order to commit the forgery. During a brief interrogation in the court Tuesday he repeated that he “never had any idea of,” nor “held in [his] hands,” any falsified lists. If found guilty, he faces up to 5 years in prison and a ban from holding political office.

According to FRANCE 24’s Catherine Norris-Trent, who is covering the trial, “No one believes de Villepin will be sentenced to prison. He will most likely get a ban on holding office, which would be a major blow since he still had political ambitions.”

But even if the court did not sentence him at all, says Norris-Trent, the maximum damage has already been done to de Villepin. “Even more important than the verdict, if it can be proved he is lying, then his reputation will be ruined. People are saying that is what the prosecution is going for,” she said.