Police arrested 10 suspected Islamist militants in dawn raids across France on Wednesday after a shooting spree by an al Qaeda-inspired gunman prompted President Nicolas Sarkozy to order a security clampdown, just ahead of an April 22 election.

The DCRI domestic intelligence service, supported by elite police commandos, carried out arrests in the southern cities of Marseille and Valence, two smaller towns in the southwest, and in the northeastern town of Roubaix, a police source said.

Interior Minister Claude Gueant pledged there would be no respite in France's pursuit of militants.

"The pressure on radical Islam and the threats it represents will not stop," he said.

The raids, which followed Friday's arrest of 19 suspects, came 13 days after police snipers shot dead 23-year-old gunman Mohamed Merah, who had killed three Jewish school children, a rabbi and three soldiers in a spate of attacks around Toulouse.

"Those arrested have a similar profile to Mohamed Merah," a local police source said. "They are isolated individuals who are self-radicalized."

He said the suspects were tracked on Islamist forums expressing extreme views and were preparing to travel to areas including Afghanistan, Pakistan and the Sahel belt of West Africa to wage jihad (holy war). Some of those arrested had already visited these areas, the source said.

Read more: reuters.com

Other links:Nicolas Sarkozy ,Syndicats français , Cécile Duflot , Parti Radical (France) , Laurent Hénart , Jean Leonetti , Jeannette Bougrab , Parti de gauche , Laurent Wauquiez , Luc Chatel , Nathalie Arthaud , Christine Lagarde , Eva Joly , Claud Guéant , Principaux partis politiques français , La Gauche Moderne , Nouveau Parti Anticapitaliste , Jean-Marie Bockel , Bertrand Delanoë , Bruno Gollnisch , Marine Le Pen , Jean-François Copé , Alain Juppé , Dominique de Villepin , Michèle Alliot-Marie

France and Britain are most vulnerable within Europe to a rating review following the U.S. downgrade, with anaemic growth and hefty borrowing placing them among the shakiest of the world's triple-A rated lenders.

Both countries have stable rating outlooks, making a sudden downgrade unlikely and markets have been so impressed by Britain's debt-cutting strategy that they have pushed its bond yields to record lows.

But a surge in the cost of insuring French debt against default on Monday highlighted alarm sparked by Friday's U.S. rating cut as banks and brokerages warned that rating agencies could now have top-rated European lenders in their sights.

"France has slipped into borderline AA+/Aa1/AA+ (one notch below AAA) territory, so risks to its AAA are rising as stresses spread," financial services firm BBH said in a note to clients.

Alain Juppé , François Fillon , Les partis politiques français , Mouvement National Républicain , Nicolas Sarkozy , Jean-Marie Le Pen , Union pour un Mouvement Populaire , Bruno Mégret , Bruno Gollnisch , Marine Le Pen , Patrick Devedjian , Jean-Pierre Raffarin , Joseph Daul , Bernard Accoyer , Jacques Barrot , Laurent Fabius , Xavier Bertrand , Jean-François Copé , Jacques Chirac , François Hollande , Jean-Louis Borloo , Michèle Alliot-Marie , Front national (France) , Dominique Strauss-Kahn , Union pour la Démocratie Française , Philippe De Villiers , Mouvement pour la France , Jean-Marie Bockel , Alternative Libérale , Jean-Claude Trichet , Mouvement républicain et citoyen , Martine Aubry , Chasse, pêche, nature et traditions , La Gauche Moderne , Gérard Schivardi , François Bayrou , François Mitterrand , Dominique Voynet , Arlette Laguiller , José Bové , Frédéric Nihous , Robert Barcia , Philippe Massoni , Daniel Cohn-Bendit , Dominique de Villepin , Charles De Gaulle , Napoléon Ier , Jean-Luc Mélenchon , Mouvement écologiste indépendant , Union Démocratique Bretonne , Marie-George Buffet , Le Nouveau Centre , Les Verts , Génération écologie , Lutte ouvrière , Hervé Morin , Mouvement Démocrate In another indication of mounting concern over France, spreads between French and German 10-year bond yields hit all-time highs last week and remained wide on Monday.

The most likely trigger for France to be put on negative watch would be a failure by the government to get parliamentary backing for a constitutional limit on future public deficits, with opposition left-wing lawmakers vowing to reject it.

Euro zone outsider Britain looks less vulnerable, having its own currency which could slide in value and its own interest rate, but it could also come under review given its weaker economic fundamentals.

"There are ... lots of countries in Europe that should be downgraded just as the U.S. has been downgraded," U.S. investor Jim Rogers, co-founder of the Quantum Fund, told Reuters Insider as world leaders battled to calm a market rout driven by concern about U.S. and European debt levels.

After making history by stripping America of its AAA-rating, Standard and Poor's reaffirmed France's top-notch status and stable outlook at the weekend. Moody's and Fitch declined to comment, but neither has given any indication they could change their outlooks on the United States, France or Britain.

Providing further comfort, fund managers poured into French and British bonds in early trading as Friday's U.S. downgrade forced them to shift funds out of U.S. treasuries.

More information on reuters.com

 

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France and Britain are most vulnerable within Europe to a rating review following the U.S. downgrade, with anaemic growth and hefty borrowing placing them among the shakiest of the world's triple-A rated lenders.

Both countries have stable rating outlooks, making a sudden downgrade unlikely and markets have been so impressed by Britain's debt-cutting strategy that they have pushed its bond yields to record lows.

But a surge in the cost of insuring French debt against default on Monday highlighted alarm sparked by Friday's U.S. rating cut as banks and brokerages warned that rating agencies could now have top-rated European lenders in their sights.

"France has slipped into borderline AA+/Aa1/AA+ (one notch below AAA) territory, so risks to its AAA are rising as stresses spread," financial services firm BBH said in a note to clients.

Alain Juppé , François Fillon , Les partis politiques français , Mouvement National Républicain , Nicolas Sarkozy , Jean-Marie Le Pen , Union pour un Mouvement Populaire , Bruno Mégret , Bruno Gollnisch , Marine Le Pen , Patrick Devedjian , Jean-Pierre Raffarin , Joseph Daul , Bernard Accoyer , Jacques Barrot , Laurent Fabius , Xavier Bertrand , Jean-François Copé , Jacques Chirac , François Hollande , Jean-Louis Borloo , Michèle Alliot-Marie , Front national (France) , Dominique Strauss-Kahn , Union pour la Démocratie Française , Philippe De Villiers , Mouvement pour la France , Jean-Marie Bockel , Alternative Libérale , Jean-Claude Trichet , Mouvement républicain et citoyen , Martine Aubry , Chasse, pêche, nature et traditions , La Gauche Moderne , Gérard Schivardi , François Bayrou , François Mitterrand , Dominique Voynet , Arlette Laguiller , José Bové , Frédéric Nihous , Robert Barcia , Philippe Massoni , Daniel Cohn-Bendit , Dominique de Villepin , Charles De Gaulle , Napoléon Ier , Jean-Luc Mélenchon , Mouvement écologiste indépendant , Union Démocratique Bretonne , Marie-George Buffet , Le Nouveau Centre , Les Verts , Génération écologie , Lutte ouvrière , Hervé Morin , Mouvement Démocrate In another indication of mounting concern over France, spreads between French and German 10-year bond yields hit all-time highs last week and remained wide on Monday.

The most likely trigger for France to be put on negative watch would be a failure by the government to get parliamentary backing for a constitutional limit on future public deficits, with opposition left-wing lawmakers vowing to reject it.

Euro zone outsider Britain looks less vulnerable, having its own currency which could slide in value and its own interest rate, but it could also come under review given its weaker economic fundamentals.

"There are ... lots of countries in Europe that should be downgraded just as the U.S. has been downgraded," U.S. investor Jim Rogers, co-founder of the Quantum Fund, told Reuters Insider as world leaders battled to calm a market rout driven by concern about U.S. and European debt levels.

After making history by stripping America of its AAA-rating, Standard and Poor's reaffirmed France's top-notch status and stable outlook at the weekend. Moody's and Fitch declined to comment, but neither has given any indication they could change their outlooks on the United States, France or Britain.

Providing further comfort, fund managers poured into French and British bonds in early trading as Friday's U.S. downgrade forced them to shift funds out of U.S. treasuries.

More information on reuters.com

 

Other links:

 

French authorities estimated nearly 1 million protesters filled the streets Thursday to try to force President Nicolas Sarkozy to drop his plan to raise the retirement age two years to 62, while strikes also disrupted airports, train stations and schools for the second time this month.

The protest movement has been a big test for Sarkozy, who, like other European leaders, has struggled to convince his country of the need for cost-cutting and scaling back generous social benefits after the Greek debt crisis scared markets and sapped confidence in the entire 16-nation euro currency.

France's powerful unions consider retirement at 60 to be a near-sacred right, and more than 230 demonstrations stretched from the southern port city of Marseille to Lille in the north. Some protesters carried signs demanding early retirement for Sarkozy, whose dismal approval ratings hover in the mid-30s.

With stakes high, the government and unions disagreed about the size of the turnout — even more so than usual.

The Interior Ministry said the protest movement had lost steam since the last day of protests Sept. 7, with 997,000 protesters in the streets, a drop of about 11 percent. But unions said the movement grew to nearly 3 million protesters, up from what they said was about 2.5 million last time.

More informatio on foxnews

Other links:
Nouveau Parti Anticapitaliste , Union pour un Mouvement Populaire , Mouvement National Républicain , Union pour la Démocratie Française , Le Nouveau Centre , Mouvement pour la France , Front national (France) , La Gauche Moderne , Mouvement républicain et citoyen , Alternative Libérale , Chasse, pêche, nature et traditions , Parti radical de gauche , Union Démocratique Bretonne , Mouvement écologiste indépendant , Les Verts , Lutte ouvrière , Parti communiste Français , Mouvement Démocrate , Génération écologie , Parti Socialiste (France)

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