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Purported Al-Qaida Tapes Criticize Bush, France

Portions of separate audiotapes attributed to Ayman al-Zawahri, the No. 2 figure in al-Qaida behing bin Laden, were aired a few hours apart on Al-Arabiya and Al-Jazeera, which both are based in the Persian Gulf.

In the broadcast on Al-Arabiya, the speaker, purported to be al-Zawahri, called France’s move toward banning “conspicuous” religious items in schools, most notably Muslim headscarves, more of the West’s campaign against Islam. The speaker compared a headscarf ban to “killing children in Iraq.”

If found to be authentic, the tape had to have been made recently. France’s lower house of Parliament passed the measure to ban religious symbols in public schools Feb. 10.

France's far-right leader Le Pen eyeing another run for president

Le Pen has decided to remain in politics though he was disqualified for France’s regional elections on grounds he doesn’t live in the southern area where he wanted to be a candidate.

“It is not at all his funeral,” said Alain Vizier, referring to the court ruling Sunday that rendered Le Pen ineligible for the March regional elections.

Asked if Le Pen, now 75, will run for president in 2007, Vizier replied: “In theory, if everything goes well, yes.”

Le Pen’s platform calls for deporting illegal immigrants, withdrawing from the European Union, bringing back the death penalty and abolishing abortion.

Orange launches 3G services in France

We are officially launching 3G in France,” said a flamboyant Thierry Breton, chairman of Orange and CEO at parent company France Telecom. “The financials are not what’s at stake here; they are mine to manage and not my customers’ problem,” he continued, hinting that 3G licence costs would not be passed on in service pricing.

“Now is the right time [to launch 3G] because customers are more aware, networks are ready and terminals that we like are finally here,” he said.

OPERATOR YET TO SELECT TERMINALS

Quake jolts eastern France, southwestern Germany

An earthquake measuring 5.1 on the Richter scale jolted parts of eastern France, southwestern Germany and western Switzerland, seismologists said.

The tremor plunged part of the French town of Besancon into darkness for more than one hour after it cut electricity supplies, but fire and police services reported no immediate casualties or major damage.
France’s earth sciences observatory in Strasbourg said the epicenter of the quake, which struck at 6:31 pm (1731 GMT), was in Baume-les-Dames, a town of 6,000 people around 20 kilometres (12 miles) from Besancon.

France’s electricity utility EDF said the power cut affected some 25,000 people in several areas of Besancon, including the town centre.

French comic busks in street after anti-Semitism row

Surrounded by hundreds of police, French comedian Dieudonne took his act out onto the streets of Paris on Friday after his show at a top theatre was cancelled due to an anti-Semitism row.

Dieudonne M’Bala M’Bala appeared in a television sketch in December dressed as an Orthodox rabbi and gave a Nazi salute. The Olympia theatre cancelled Friday’s planned show due to security fears after protests marred previous performances.

“Tonight is a battle for freedom of expression,” Dieudonne told an audience of around 300, flanked by as many police officers, gathered outside the Olympia in central Paris.

“Don’t gag me — I am one of the few black performers on the French stage,” added Dieudonne, whose father is Senegalese.

Barbarian Invasions' Wins French Award

Director Denys Arcand’s “The Barbarian Invasions,” the story of a professor whose friends rally around him as he dies of cancer, won best picture award at France’s version of the Oscars on Saturday.

Arcand, a Canadian, also took the honors for best director and best screenplay at the 2004 Cesar Awards.

The movie has also been nominated for an Oscar for best foreign picture, and it had critics laughing and crying at the Cannes Film Festival this spring.

Meanwhile, Clint Eastwood won the best foreign film award for “Mystic River,” a dark drama about friends haunted by a tragedy from their childhoods. Omar Sharif captured the best actor prize for his performance in “Mr. Ibrahim and the Flowers of the Quran.” He played Parisian grocer who befriends a young French boy.