Violence vs Words : Muslims confirm which they prefer

In a post in The View from Fes, 'El Gloui' reports on the latest development following from the speech that the pope made in Germany. This post generate some discussion, but the contributors' posts are disappointingly the same as protestors all over the world.

Here is the post and below is the extract from the speech
that has the world in flames - once again. I would be interested to see if we can start a little more profound and serious discussion on the subject here!

Morocco protests Pope's insulting comments.
Morocco has recalled its ambassador to the Vatican after the comments made on Tuesday by Pope Benedict XVI on Islam and Prophet Mohammad (PBUH).HM King Mohammed VI has also sent a written message to Pope Benedict XVI in protest of the latter's offending statements about Islam.On September 12 in the university of Regensburg, Germany, Pope Benedict XVI quoted a 14th-century Byzantine Emperor who called Islam "evil and inhuman," and accused Prophet Muhammad of spreading the faith "by the sword," thus sparking wrath among Muslims around the world. According to a press release issued on Saturday by the Moroccan Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Moroccan ambassador Ali Achour has been recalled for consultation, starting from Sept. 17, by order of HM King Mohammed VI.
Ali AchourAchour was appointed as ambassador to the Holy See last January by HM. King Mohammed VI.Mohamed El Yazghi, the leader of the Socialist Union of Popular Forces, the main party in Morocco's governing coalition, welcomed the move."It is a totally normal reaction from Morocco which is putting on record its disapproval of the comments of Benedict XVI, especially given that previous popes and the representatives of Islam had entered into a relationship of debate, reflection and getting to know each other," he said.Abdelilah Benkirane, a leader of the Islamist Justice and Development party (PJD), thanked the king, saying he had made a "wise decision"."We ask God to thank and glorify him", he said, urging the pope to make a public apology.A university researcher specialising in Islam, Mohamed Ayadi, told the media that the king's decision was an attempt to preempt any popular protests.He is "taking the lead to avoid any street protests... In several Muslim countries, it was street that led protests against the publication of caricatures of Prophet Mohammed in Europe," Ayadi said.In other developments, the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) has called for developing dialogue between Muslims and Catholics around the world after the controversy triggered by the insulting comments made by Pope Benedict XVI about Islam and Prophet Mohammad (PBUH)."The proper response to the Pope's inaccurate and divisive remarks is for Muslims and Catholics worldwide to increase dialogue and outreach efforts aimed at building better relations between Christianity and Islam,” the Council said in a press release.The council also said it will seek a meeting with the Vatican representative in Washington D.C to discuss the issue.The CAIR said that this incident can be an opportunity for Christians around the world to know more about Islam, Prophet Mohammad, and the Islamic concept of Jihad."Jihad is a central and broad Islamic concept that includes struggle against evil inclinations within oneself, struggle to improve the quality of life in society, struggle in the battlefield for self-defense (e.g., - having a standing army for national defence), or fighting against tyranny or oppression,” the CAIR explained.The Council also called on Muslims to “maintain good relations with the people of other faiths, and to engage in constructive dialogue.”Strong reactions against the Pope's remarked sparked off when he quoted on Tuesday, during his visit to Germany, a 14th century Byzantine Christian Emperor as saying “Show me just what Muhammad brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached.”Many religious leaders and organisations condemned the comments. Some voices warned that this could lead to more misunderstanding and violence around the world. Reactions to the speech have come from such leaders as Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf, who said efforts to link Islam and terrorism should be clearly opposed.Street protests have been held in Pakistan, India, Turkey and Gaza.In the West Bank city of Nablus, two churches were firebombed on Saturday in attacks claimed by a group which said it was protesting against the Pope's remarks. Earlier today the head of the Roman Catholic Church voiced deep regret at the Islamic world's outraged reaction to a speech he gave in Germany this week but stopped short of retracting his remarks, arguing that they had been misinterpreted. Reading the statement, new Vatican Secretary of State Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone said the Pope's position on Islam was in line with Vatican teaching that the Church "esteems Muslims, who adore the only God"."The Holy Father is very sorry that some passages of his speech may have sounded offensive to the sensibilities of Muslim believers," the statement said.But Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood said the statement did not go far enough and called on the pontiff to apologise in person."The Vatican Secretary of State says that the Pope is sorry because his statements had been badly interpreted, but there is no bad interpretation," said Abdel Moneim Abul Futuh, a senior official from the opposition party. - El Gloaui, The view from Fes


From the Pope's speech in Regensburg
......This profound sense of coherence within the universe of reason was not troubled, even when it was once reported that a colleague had said there was something odd about our university: it had two faculties devoted to something that did not exist: God. That even in the face of such radical scepticism it is still necessary and reasonable to raise the question of God through the use of reason, and to do so in the context of the tradition of the Christian faith: this, within the university as a whole, was accepted without question.I was reminded of all this recently, when I read the edition by Professor Theodore Khoury (Münster) of part of the dialogue carried on - perhaps in 1391 in the winter barracks near Ankara - by the erudite Byzantine emperor Manuel II Paleologus and an educated Persian on the subject of Christianity and Islam, and the truth of both. It was presumably the emperor himself who set down this dialogue, during the siege of Constantinople between 1394 and 1402; and this would explain why his arguments are given in greater detail than those of his Persian interlocutor. The dialogue ranges widely over the structures of faith contained in the Bible and in the Qur'an, and deals especially with the image of God and of man, while necessarily returning repeatedly to the relationship between - as they were called - three "Laws" or "rules of life": the Old Testament, the New Testament and the Qur'an. It is not my intention to discuss this question in the present lecture; here I would like to discuss only one point - itself rather marginal to the dialogue as a whole - which, in the context of the issue of "faith and reason", I found interesting and which can serve as the starting-point for my reflections on this issue.
In the seventh conversation (*4V8,>4H - controversy) edited by Professor Khoury, the emperor touches on the theme of the holy war. The emperor must have known that surah 2, 256 reads: "There is no compulsion in religion". According to the experts, this is one of the suras of the early period, when Mohammed was still powerless and under threat. But naturally the emperor also knew the instructions, developed later and recorded in the Qur'an, concerning holy war. Without descending to details, such as the difference in treatment accorded to those who have the "Book" and the "infidels", he addresses his interlocutor with a startling brusqueness on the central question about the relationship between religion and violence in general, saying: "Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached". The emperor, after having expressed himself so forcefully, goes on to explain in detail the reasons why spreading the faith through violence is something unreasonable. Violence is incompatible with the nature of God and the nature of the soul. "God", he says, "is not pleased by blood - and not acting reasonably (F×< 8`(T) is contrary to God's nature. Faith is born of the soul, not the body. Whoever would lead someone to faith needs the ability to speak well and to reason properly, without violence and threats... To convince a reasonable soul, one does not need a strong arm, or weapons of any kind, or any other means of threatening a person with death...".The decisive statement in this argument against violent conversion is this: not to act in accordance with reason is contrary to God's nature. The editor, Theodore Khoury, observes: For the emperor, as a Byzantine shaped by Greek philosophy, this statement is self-evident. But for Muslim teaching, God is absolutely transcendent. His will is not bound up with any of our categories, even that of rationality. Here Khoury quotes a work of the noted French Islamist R. Arnaldez, who points out that Ibn Hazn went so far as to state that God is not bound even by his own word, and that nothing would oblige him to reveal the truth to us. Were it God's will, we would even have to practise idolatry.
At this point, as far as understanding of God and thus the concrete practice of religion is concerned, we are faced with an unavoidable dilemma. Is the conviction that acting unreasonably contradicts God's nature merely a Greek idea, or is it always and intrinsically true? I believe that here we can see the profound harmony between what is Greek in the best sense of the word and the biblical understanding of faith in God. Modifying the first verse of the Book of Genesis, the first verse of the whole Bible, John began the prologue of his Gospel with the words: "In the beginning was the 8`(@H". This is the very word used by the emperor: God acts, with logos. Logos means both reason and word - a reason which is creative and capable of self-communication, precisely as reason. John thus spoke the final word on the biblical concept of God, and in this word all the often toilsome and tortuous threads of biblical faith find their culmination and synthesis. In the beginning was the logos, and the logos is God, says the Evangelist. The encounter between the Biblical message and Greek thought did not happen by chance. The vision of Saint Paul, who saw the roads to Asia barred and in a dream saw a Macedonian man plead with him: "Come over to Macedonia and help us!" (cf. Acts 16:6-10) - this vision can be interpreted as a "distillation" of the intrinsic necessity of a rapprochement between Biblical faith and Greek inquiry......

Louis XVI's last words before the auctioneer's guillotine

Louis XVI's last wordsA recently rediscovered manuscript sets the king's record straightA letter from the executioner responsible for guillotining Louis XVI has emerged, detailing his last words. It is now up for auction and is expected to fetch €120,000 to €180,000.

The manuscript narrative of the King of France's execution was written by Charles-Henri Sanson, the chief executioner of Paris during the French Revolution, and is believed to have passed though several generations of a private European family before resurfacing.On January 21, 1793, the French Republican Government sent King Louis XVI to the guillotine. Stripped of all his titles and indicted under his family name as citoyen Louis Capet, he was sent to the scaffold to be guillotined by Sanson. After the execution, various stories began circulating about the former sovereign's last moments and exaggerations and manipulations were rife, doubtless biased according to political allegiances.An inaccurate article in the revolutionary journal 'Thermomètre du jour', published shortly afterwards, prompted Sanson to write a full account to the editor on February 20, 1793, in order to clarify the events.

Promising "the exact truth of what occurred", he set out to contradict suggestions that Louis had to be led to the scaffold with a pistol at his temple, that he had let out a terrible cry and that he had been mutilated because the guillotine struck his head rather than his neck. He recounts that, in fact, the king arrived at the place of execution in a horse and carriage, mounted the scaffold where he reluctantly offered his hands to be tied and asked if the drums would continue beating. Louis then turned to the crowd and exclaimed "Peuple je meurs innocent" (People, I die innocent).Sanson's account continues by recording the last words of the former King: ".ensuite se retournant vers nous, il nous dit:

'Messieurs, je suis innocent de tout ce dont on m'inculpe. Je souhaite que mon sang puisse cimenter le bonheur des Français.' Voilà Citoyen ses dernières et ses véritables paroles."

(.then turning towards us, he told us: "Gentlemen, I am innocent of everything of which I am accused. I wish that my blood may be able to cement the happiness of the French." There, Citizen, are his last and true words.)Charles-Henri Sanson (1740-1806) assumed the hereditary role of exécuteur des hautes oeuvres de Paris in 1778. He became an unwilling instrument of the Revolution - his term as public executioner witnessed both the advent of the guillotine and the French Revolution; indeed, it is claimed that he oversaw the execution of 2,918 people before passing the responsibility to his son, Henri, in April 1793.The clearest evidence of his divided sentiments is revealed in the last paragraph of his letter to the 'Thermomètre du jour'.

Here he recalls the final moments before the blade fell on the neck of Louis XVI: ".et pour rendre hommage à la vérité, il a soutenu tout cela avec un sang froid et une fermeté qui nous a tous étonnés. Je reste très convaincu qu'il avait puisé cette fermeté dans les principes de la religion dont personne plus que lui ne paraîssait pénétrée ni persuadé." (.and to pay homage to the truth, he withstood all that with a composure and a steadiness which astonished us all. I remain very convinced that he had drawn this steadiness from the principles of religion, of which none appeared more deeply affected and persuaded than he.)

The manuscript will be auctioned on June 7 by Christie's in London and will be on display there from May 30.

Frog smugglers will now croak in jail

A Frenchman and seven Belgians have been arrested at Orly airport for attempting to smuggle in 32 South American frogs with a container full of tadpoles.

Depending on their rarity, frogs can be sold for several thousand euros. Belgian police say the men are part of an international frog smuggling network.The gendarmerie was tipped off by the Belgian police, who have followed up the arrests by searching the homes of the men looking for other illegal frogs.

Three of the men were charged with "illegal interference with a protected non-domesticated species and face fines of up to ?9,000 and up to six months in prison. The frogs are now in the care of the Muséum national d'histoire naturelle.

Delayed wings for a Resistance heroine.

Pearl Cornioley, aged 92, has been awarded her parachute wings 63 years after jumping into German-occupied France.

Born to English parents in Paris, the then Mademoiselle Witherington escaped from France in 1940 and joined the Special Operations Executive - SOE. She joined the 'Wrestler' Resistance network near Châteauroux in 1943 and eventually led the 1,500-strong force against the Germans. She was cited to receive the Military Cross for her work, but at that time it was not awarded to women.

After the war she married fellow Resistance fighter Henri and has lived in France ever since. Her adventures were published in 1997 under the title 'Pauline' and greatly resemble the fictional adventures of 'Charlotte Gray' by Sebastian Faulkes.

The ceremony took place at her home in the presence of the maire and members of the RAF.

Lucky she was not so late with her missions, or did not say "I cannot do this job, because I am a woman!.........."

Must France go right to progress?

The latest poll shows the extreme right scoring points from the recent political fiasco. Robert Harneis reportsThe CPE fiasco has transformed the political scene. The biggest winners at the moment are the extreme right. A public opinion poll has revealed that 35% of voters now think that far-right views 'enrich the political debate', while 34% think that they are close to the concerns of French people. Elderly Front National champion Jean-Marie Le Pen, with 48% of public approval, is thought to be the politician who most embodies this feeling, way ahead of his rivals Philippe de Villiers (Mouvement pour la France - MPF) who gets 24% and Bruno Mégret (Mouvement National Républicain - MNR) with 4%. The head of the polling organisation IFOP claims that the figures are a direct result of the riots in the suburbs last autumn, the recent student blockade of the universities and the humiliating withdrawal of the Contrat Première Embauche by the Government.

Predictably, 43% thought that the extreme right contributed most in matters concerning immigration and only 5% rated them for their contribution to the political debate on questions relating to social security. Speaking on television, FN leader Jean-Marie Le Pen claimed that his aim was to win the presidential elections next year. He called on fellow leaders of the far right, de Villiers and Mégret, to unite with him. Bruno Mégret, who has failed to make an appreciable electoral impact since his schism from the FN, leapt at the offer. Philippe de Villiers, who is gaining ground, declined, saying that he thought it revealed a certain weakness. However, a divided far right cannot make any real impression: it is more likely to split the anti-left vote as it has often done in past elections. Le Pen and de Villiers have other problems. Le Pen is charismatic - even charming if one can ignore his anti- Semitism. He is a brilliant speaker. For 40 years he has repeated his warning on immigration without faltering, but he is now aging visibly.

De Villiers is in the prime of life but has none of his rival's presence on the political stage. On the other hand, he is a hard worker. He has recently moved from a pure nationalist approach, adopting a raucous new anti-immigration stance and his following is growing. His latest stunt is to publish a book in which he claims that Islamic integrationists are taking over Roissy-Charles-de-Gaulle airport, based on a leaked security services document. The book has worried the third contestant for the antiimmigration, pro-security vote, UMP President and Minister of the Interior Nicolas Sarkozy. Sarkozy and Transport Minister Dominique Perben were quick to visit the airport and point out that of the 83,000 people entitled to enter the airport's security zone only 122 had caused concern.

Police sources said that the document de Villiers' book relies on is a fake. According to de Villiers, his secret document says, "Islamic fundamentalists and youngsters from the cités are working together to place the airport under Sharia law and that certain baggage-handling companies employ members of the Muslim brotherhood." De Villiers preaches the twin message of the impending Islamisation of France and that the Muslim religion is incompatible with Republican values. All of this leaves Sarkozy with little room to manoeuvre. He has to strike a difficult balance between appealing to the Le Pen and de Villiers voters without appearing to be extremist and losing the rest of the right. So far he has succeeded better than anybody would have thought possible but at some cost to his reputation for consistency. He is in a difficult position because he is neither leading the Government nor outside it.

At least he can console himself that, since the withdrawal of the CPE, de Villepin no longer seems a credible rival for the presidency. Even so, no government can fail to carry through its legislation as this one has without damage to all its leaders. The beneficiary here is the Socialist Ségolène Royal. The polls showed her first neck and neck with Sarkozy and now ahead with 53% against his 47%. However, her party is divided too and the polls show that voters do not think they have any more idea than the Government of what to do about unemployment.There is a year to go before the next presidential elections. Thanks to the Prime Minister's CPE fiasco the race is now wide open, not least because he has inadvertently brought the far right back to life.

New musical shows the horrors of a labour camp

It is probably the least cheerful musical since Les Miserables - a three-hour song and dance extravaganza set in one of North Korea's notorious labour camps.
Yoduk Story opens with goose-stepping communist soldiers and rousing revolutionary arias. Before long the action shifts to the hell of Yoduk - a North Korean prison camp that is believed to hold 20,000 political prisoners and their families.
It is the harrowing story of a celebrated state actress, who is sent to the camp with the rest of her family after her father is arrested as a spy - common practice in the North, where families down to the third generation are held accountable for the crimes of relatives.
Watching the play on opening night was a former camp inmate, Kim Yong-soon, who was imprisoned at Yoduk for eight years in the 1970s. Her crime was to gossip about the love life of Kim Jong-il, now the country's supreme ruler.
"Some-one had to tell the world about what's going on in the camps. As a former inmate it was an opportunity to remember the bitterness of the past and I couldn't help crying. I lost my parents and sons and my husband - and I had no way to vent my feelings," she said.
A former dancer in North Korea, Mrs Kim helped to choreograph some of the scenes for the production.
Jeong Song-sanDirector, Yoduk StorySome other refugees were concerned the musical would trivialise the sufferings of North Koreans, and said the storyline of love and forgiveness in the camp was unrealistic.
But the director, Jeong Song-san, says the production is an opportunity to dramatise the plight of North Korean prisoners and attract the attention of an apathetic public in South Korea.
He is a defector from the North himself, who was once briefly imprisoned for listening to South Korean radio.
"Even now unimaginably horrible things are happening in the camps," he says.
"But the South Korean government and the public are doing nothing about it. I hope this production will enlighten people and help stop the atrocities."
As they waited for curtain to go up on the first night, some cast members said they had doubted the production would ever get this far.
The original financial backers dropped out - the producers suspect they were scared off by pressure from the government, which is seeking to promote reconciliation with the North and is uneasy about such explicit criticism of the regime.
Mr Jeong says he received warnings himself from government officials and later received anonymous telephone threats.
"Discussion of the camps has become too politicised between those who sympathise with the North Korean regime and those that oppose it - that's why some people are opposed to what we're doing," said Kim Chung-kyung, who plays a concentration camp guard.
In the end, money was raised from individual backers and there was also support from groups that want to see more focus on human rights abuses in North Korea.
The government has abstained in recent years from UN votes condemning the North's record.
South Korean officials says privately that the North is holding some 200,000 political prisoners - but they argue that engagement rather than direct confrontation is the best way to bring about change.
Almost the entire musical is set at the Yoduk camp - it is portrayed as a nightmare world of public executions, rape and starvation.
The heroine is raped by the camp commander and bears him a child - but later survives to forgive him.
The theme may be too dark for some, especially younger South Koreans, many of whom find it hard to conceive of the horrors taking place just across the border.
"I'd heard of the camps but never took much interest. Seeing it has really shocked me - it's helped me to care more about what's happening," said Park Bang-hee, a student in her 20s, after the curtain went down.
The production can count on the enthusiasm of conservative and Christian groups - and is likely to spur debate on North Korean human rights, which have been overlooked in the rush to reconciliation.

Spring comes to everyone who waits..................

A Shaman drummer welcomes Spring in Kemerovo in the Southern part of Siberia.

The latest from Portuguese designer Lopez.....

I very bad cut, if you ask me....

A follow on my earlier story on the CIA in Europe

It was just before midday on 17 February in 2003 when the quiet of a suburban street in Milan was momentarily disturbed. The bearded man in a tunic was walking down Via Guerzoni when he was approached by two men speaking Italian. One asked for his papers. Once they confirmed his identity, he was bundled into a white van.

This was a so-called extraordinary rendition - a term referring to the abduction of terrorist suspects and their removal to countries other than the US for imprisonment and interrogation.
The man taken was a radical Egyptian cleric Abu Omar. Those thought to be responsible, the CIA.
Abu Omar was believed to have been flown from an American airbase at Aviano in Italy, to Germany and then on to Egypt.
In 2004, he was briefly released, and phoned his relatives and friends back home.
A friend with whom Abu Omar was in contact later gave a statement to the police in which he claims the cleric was subjected to torture. "If Abu Omar was not kidnapped, we could have arrested other people. The first measure was to leave him in a room where incredibly loud and unbearable noise was made. He has experienced damage to his hearing," he said.
"The second torture was to place him in a sauna at tremendous temperatures and straight after to put him in a cold storeroom, occasioning terrible pain to his bones... as if they were cracking.
"The third was to hang him upside down and apply live wires to the sensitive parts of the body including his genitals... and producing electric shocks."

What is remarkable about this case is how public it has become.

Italian prosecutors have opened up a case and issued arrest warrants for 22 alleged CIA operatives involved.
The prosecutors have amassed a wealth of detail, including phone calls from the scene of the kidnapping, car registration details, even their hotel bills for their time working on the operation (one individual managed to run up a $9,150 bill for three weeks at one of Milan's top hotels). One alleged CIA operative amassed a large hotel bill
Armando Spataro, Milan's deputy chief prosecutor and the city's counter-terrorist co-ordinator, says the kidnapping was not only a serious crime against personal liberty and Italian sovereignty, but has also done serious damage to the fight against terrorism.
""We could have discovered other illegal links... This kidnapping was also very dangerous because it pushed [the] Islamic moderate part of the community to become extremists."

So far, prosecutors have found no evidence that the Italian authorities knew of the kidnapping, but not everyone is so sure that they were in the dark.
European governments have protested their ignorance, but retired CIA officer Mike Scheuer thinks this is plain hypocritical, and that the apparent sloppiness of those involved in the Abu Omar case is, in fact, a sign of something else.

"What's been described about hotel reservations and the use of telephones doesn't make sense if you're going to be running an operation unilaterally without the host government knowing.
"Clearly, the Italians were co-operating. But more than that, that operation was aimed at a very mid-level middling Islamist, no-one that we would bother with off our own hook.

"But the more important issue was it occurred on the eve of the war in Iraq. The Italians, along with the British, were about the only Europeans standing with us.
"If you think any American government would have the courage in that situation to conduct a unilateral operation in Italy, then you know nothing about the US government."

Other sources in Washington also indicate that they believe parts of the Italian government would have known about such an operation. However, the Italian government has denied this.
Despite their professions of ignorance and outrage, almost all European governments are now facing questions about how much they have known about CIA operations.
Have they been turning a blind eye? Have they allowed European airspace to be used for rendition?
There is a suspicion in some quarters that they co-operate in secret but back off fast when CIA operations become public.
Others believe that governments simply choose not to ask too many questions about what may be going on, even when it involves their territory.
Whatever the case, the CIA's increasingly toxic reputation in Europe is causing some serious headaches, and may be making vital co-operation in the war against terrorism even harder to maintain.

Villepin won't budge

Mr de Villepin is facing his worst crisis since taking office. The French prime minister has indicated that he will not back down over his controversial youth labour law, despite union threats of a general strike.
In an interview for a French youth magazine, Dominique de Villepin said the law should be given a chance to work, but added it could be improved. Unions have issued an ultimatum and will meet on Monday to plan a response. More than 160 people were arrested on Saturday after clashes following a largely peaceful day of protests.
The trades unions say the law will allow employers to exploit young people and have promised to "harden" their responses if the government does not make concessions.
The next few days will be about opening a constructive and confident dialogue

They are due to meet later today to discuss a response. Bernard Thibault, head of the powerful General Labour Confederation (CGT), said: "If nothing moves, we will propose preparing a day of general work stoppages in the coming days. Conditions are such that it should be a success."
The government says the law will cut youth unemployment by making the labour market more flexible.
Unions said 1.5 million demonstrators took part in more than 150 rallies across the country against the government's First Employment Contract (CPE) on Saturday. The interior ministry put the overall turnout at just over 500,000. Speaking on Monday, President Jacques Chirac said that during the coming days it would be important to open a "constructive and confident dialogue" on the issue.
"I am confident that the sense of responsibility of employers and trade unions and the representatives of young people will lead them to go down this road, which is that of effectiveness and good sense," he told French TV.
Student and union leaders have been calling upon Mr Chirac to not sign the law, as he is required to do for it to take effect as expected in April.
Protesters are bitterly opposed to the new law, which allows employers to end job contracts for under-26s at any time during a two-year trial period without having to offer an explanation or give prior warning.
The government says it will encourage employers to hire young people, but students fear it will erode job stability in a country where more than 20% of 18-to-25-year-olds are unemployed.
The demonstrations came after a series of mass protests by students in dozens of French universities, which have severely disrupted classes.
Twenty-four people, including seven police officers, were injured in Saturday's violence, which lasted about six hours.
Clashes also erupted in other cities, including here in the port of Marseille, where demonstrators tried to set fire to the entrance to the town hall.

A win be default: Is it better than no win?

La Française Amélie Mauresmo found herself in first place in the tennis ranks withoput even playing as the Belgian Kim Clijsters was absent from the tournement in Indian Wells.
La Russe Maria Sharapova, also progressed by one point after beating the Suisse Martine Hingis.

The story of Ilan Halimi

The gang that kidnapped, tortured and killed a young Parisian Jew had also threatened several prominent businessmen, lawyers and a well-known humanitarian activist, a French newspaper reported Saturday.The daily Liberation reported that the group behind the killing, which authorities have linked to anti-Semitism, tried to extort money from a founder of Medecins Sans Frontieres, or Doctors Without Borders.Also targeted were the director of the Arte TV channel, a Paris lawyer and the head of a supermarket chain, the newspaper reported, citing police officials.

Police investigating the killing earlier this month of 23-year-old Ilan Halimi have made several arrests.The brutal killing has revived concerns of anti-Semitism in France.

Yesterday we all marched. Here in Marseilles there were over ten thousand people. Also in Paris, and Lyon and Bordeaux the people marched against racism and anti-semitism. Many public figures, including government ministers, marched alongside the people.

On Thursday, President Jacques Chirac attended a memorial ceremony for Halimi at the Paris synagogue. Halimi, a cell phone salesman, was kidnapped Jan. 21, and his family later received ransom demands - starting with one for around $537,000. The young man was found naked, handcuffed and covered with burn marks on February 13 near railroad tracks south of Paris. He died on his way to a hospital.

Rony Brauman, a founder of the humanitarian group Medecins Sans Frontieres, and who is of Jewish origin, confirmed on LCI television that he had been the object of an extortion attempt in 2004.

However, Brauman said he did not believe anti-Semitism played a role in his case and those of others who were threatened for money in the same period."The question of being Jewish or not had no incidence. ... It was pure extortion," he said on LCI. He said that in April 2004 he received a letter demanding some 350,000 euros or his life.Liberation quoted him as saying that the letter contained a photograph of armed, hooded men in front of Brauman's home, south of Paris. Several months later, two Molotov cocktails exploded in the courtyard of his home and a gunshot was fired at his door.

Arte director Jerome Clement said on France 2 TV that he received a video cassette showing hooded men firing bazookas and machine guns and saying, "Look what will happen to you if you don't pay the ransom."

Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy said Tuesday that Halimi's attackers were primarily motivated by greed. "But they believed, and I quote, 'that Jews have money,'" he said. "That's called anti-Semitism."

He said the gang tried to kidnap six other people since December - four of them Jewish.The suspected gang leader, Youssef Fofana, a French citizen, was arrested Wednesday in Abidjan, Ivory Coast, and France is seeking his extradition. Fourteen people have been placed under investigation - a step short of being charged - in the case, and two more people were detained Friday for questioning.

Novelist's trial delayed in Turkey

A Turkish court put off the trial of a prominent novelist after a brief hearing Friday, giving the government until Feb. 7 to decide whether to go ahead with criminal proceedings against him for mentioning the Armenian genocide by the Turks in 1915 in a magazine interview in which he also said 30,000 Kurds had been killed since the late 1980s.
Angry nationalists booed and jostled the heavy police escort that took the best-selling writer, Orhan Pamuk, into the packed courthouse, where observers from European Union countries Turkey hopes will admit it to the 25-nation group were present.
"I am sorry that I could not testify,"' Pamuk said in a statement issued by his publisher after the court decided that the Justice Ministry in Ankara had to give authorization for the trial to proceed.
"Dragging out cases of thought crimes which shouldn't be begun in the first place and starting new ones are not good for Turkey, for our democracy," he said. He remains free while awaiting trial but could face a jail term of six months to three years if convicted.
Policemen with plastic shields escorted Pamuk, 53, from the courthouse into a minivan under a barrage of eggs and invective by angry protesters, and as shouts of "Traitor Pamuk" echoed in the narrow streets.
Pamuk is accused of "'insulting Turkish identity" by telling Das Magazin, a Swiss publication, in an interview last February that the mass killing of Armenians by the Ottoman empire in 1915 and the deaths of Kurds in Turkish operations against the PKK separatist group in the 1980s were still forbidden subjects in Turkey.
Article 301 of the Turkish penal code, though revised last summer as part of Turkey's efforts to meet the legal and economic standards required to join the European Union, still criminalizes public comments that "denigrate Turkishness" or the government or the army, and nearly 60 intellectuals have been charged under it.
At the end of the hourlong hearing, Joost Lagendijk, a Dutch European Parliament advocate of Turkish membership in the EU, expressed disappointment that the government had not decided to dismiss the trial.
"Now it is up to the government to take the responsibility," he said. "They can say that the penal code was reformed not to restrict the freedom of speech but to allow for more."
The Turkish justice minister, Cemil Cicek, speaking to NTV news television, accused journalists of stirring up emotions and said that the court's decision should not be taken as a surprise.
"A question has been asked, so we should wait for the reply," he said.
Denis McShane, a member of the British Parliament observing the proceedings, said that he had been hit on the face by a nationalist lawyer during the melee.
"I cannot believe these lawyers represent Turkish democracy," McShane said.
The editor of the only Armenian newspaper in Turkey, Hirant Dink, was also showered with insults and had to be escorted from the courthouse by the security force.
On Thursday, the EU Enlargement Commissioner, Olli Rehn, said that it was not Pamuk, whose novels including "Snow," "My Name Is Red" and "The Black Book" have been translated into 34 languages, but Turkey that would be on trial. He called on the government to prove that the changes in the penal code were not simply window dressing to convince Europe that it could start talking with Turkey about EU membership.
Another European Parliament member at the trial, Camiel Eurlings of The Netherlands, said, "If Turkey wants to continue toward the EU, and I hope it will, then really freedom of expression is a fundamental necessity."
Mehmet Altan, a professor at Istanbul University who had been acquitted of a similar charge, predicted that the charges against the novelist would not stick.
"This was a provocative plot by those who are trying to block Turkey's entry into the EU," Altan said. "The case served its purpose, so they've done with it."

More about the "Rendition Flights"

A Boeing 737 BBJ with registrations N313P and N4476S, which may have carried terror suspects, has been seen at UK airports and is seen here at Palma, Majorca.

The ringing phrases in the law lords' judgment denouncing torture are in striking contrast to statements by President Bush and his legal advisers, notwithstanding more robust comments this week by his secretary of state, Condoleezza Rice.
In this respect, at least, yesterday's ruling has a bearing on the running dispute over the CIA practice of "rendition" - transfer of terrorist suspects to camps and interrogation centres where they are more likely than not to be subjected to torture or cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment, banned by international conventions and declarations which were approvingly cited in yesterday's judgments.
The law lords also referred to judgments in American courts. They referred to the UN convention which says torture includes, for example, "any act by which severe suffering, whether physical or mental, is intentionally inflicted" - a lower threshold than that which has been used by the Bush administration.
Yesterday's ruling may serve to put more pressure on the British government to say what it knows about CIA "torture flights" or the practice of "rendering" detainees, and whether it has turned a blind eye to them.