Tunisian Migrants Open Tensions in Europe

MENTON, FRANCE — The train from Ventimiglia in Italy takes only a few minutes to crawl across the frontier into Menton Garavan, the first stop in France along the Côte d’Azur railroad. But it was enough time to dash the dreams of four young migrants.

Awaiting their arrival, a half dozen police officers swiftly took them off the train — part of France’s efforts to make its border impenetrable to the thousands of migrants, mostly Tunisian right now, who have slowly made their way up from the southern Italian island of Lampedusa off Sicily since a wave of rebellion began sweeping across North Africa in January.

President Nicolas Sarkozy early in his term of office championed a vision of a “Union for the Mediterranean,” a grouping of the countries that border the sea. Last month he took a lead in pulling more reluctant Western powers into the military intervention in Libya.

But unpopular at home, and seeking to attract far-right nationalist voters with tough anti-immigrant policies before the presidential election next year, Mr. Sarkozy has set a clear limit to his ideas of Mediterranean solidarity, and has infuriated his southern neighbor, Italy, by keeping the border closed to the migrants fleeing political and economic turmoil in North Africa.

Between Feb. 23 and March 28, 2,800 Tunisian migrants were intercepted in France and 1,700 were expelled, most of them to Italy, Interior Minister Claude Guéant told the French National Assembly, the lower house of Parliament, on Tuesday.

In Ventimiglia, a small town popular for its Friday street market, migrants huddle in groups outside the train station, in the park or on the beach, contemplating their attempt to enter France. Police officers quietly patrol the station, where the waiting rooms and toilets are now left open at night at the request of the local authorities.

A center for migrants has been set up on the outskirts of the town, but with the number arriving each day continuing to swell, space is limited and food is in short supply.

Giuseppe Fama, president of ARCI, an anti-racism association based farther down the coast in Imperia, organized a demonstration outside the station in support of the migrants and against the war in Libya. He said the migrant men were sleeping outdoors most nights, “under cardboard boxes near the station or in the park.”

Imed Seroual is one of them. The 27-year-old Tunisian said he had barely slept in five days. Despite it all, he was upbeat and spoke favorably of the Italians.

Bodies, jet parts spotted at site of 2009 Air France crash in Atlantic

Undersea robots have located bodies, motors and a “large part” of an Air France jet that plunged into the Atlantic Ocean in 2009, but haven't yet found its black box flight recorders, French officials said Monday.

Victims' families cautiously welcomed the surprise announcement that search teams have located pieces of the plane, after nearly two years of fruitless efforts to determine what caused it to crash. Investigators have said without the recorders, the cause may never be determined.

All 228 people aboard the plane were killed when the flight, en route from Rio de Janeiro to Paris, slammed into the ocean June 1, 2009, after running into an intense high-altitude thunderstorm.

The French air accident investigation agency BEA said Sunday night that a team aboard the expedition ship Alucia using underwater robots “has located pieces of an aircraft ... in the past 24 hours.”

French Transport Minister Thierry Mariani said Monday that “bodies have been located.” Speaking on France-Info radio, he wouldn't elaborate, saying further information would be released to the families alone.

Fifty bodies were found during the first phase of the search, along with more than 600 pieces of the plane scattered on the sea. No bodies or debris have been found since.

“This fourth search campaign allowed us to locate motors, landing gear, wing parts, which is a very positive sign because at last we will be able, perhaps, to find out the truth,” Mr. Mariani said.

BEA spokeswoman Martine Del Bono said Monday that the black boxes have not been located. “I hope to be able to announce that (discovery) in the coming weeks,” she told The Associated Press.

The debris was found at remarkable depths, of between 3,800 and 4,000 metres, Ms. Del Bono said. It is far from clear whether the flight recorders, even if they are found, would still be intact after nearly two years under such conditions.

Israeli strike misses target, kills 4 Palestinians

Even as British RAF Typhoons took to the skies from this southern Italian air base, there was mounting tension between allies about who should command the mission to protect civilians and enforce a no-fly zone in Libya.

After heated exchanges between NATO ambassadors in Brussels, the alliance announced Tuesday an operation to enforce the arms embargo against Libya. But it went no further on deciding if or when NATO would take command of the mission already under way, in which several allies are participating.

In a statement, NATO only said that it had plans on the table to enforce the no-fly zone "if needed."

The backdrop was a simmering feud between France and Italy that turned more cynical by the hour. Italy is demanding that NATO take a lead role in the military and political decision-making during the remainder of the Libyan mission.

But resistance within the alliance mounted even as the United States expressed its desire to take a back seat in the operation and hand over any command role to European allies. France seemed most reluctant to submit to NATO command, but Germany and Turkey also voiced objections.

These countries also argue that Arab League nations would be shut out of any decision-making if NATO took control.

German Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle said he continues to believe it was right not to participate in the United Nations-sanctioned mission. He noted that Germany is not alone in its skeptical view of military action, pointing to the fact that other European nations are not taking part either.

Westerwelle also refused to comment on whether NATO should take a leading role in enforcing U.N. resolution 1973.

"That is for the coalition of the willing to debate," Westerwelle said.

French Foreign Minister Alain Juppe told French media that NATO would play a role in the mission in coming days but that France, Britain and a council of other coalition partners would make political decisions. One NATO official described this to CNN as putting the alliance's assets at the disposal of the coalition, but NATO would have no formal political role.

France wants body outside NATO to head Libya fight

France proposed on Tuesday a new political steering committee outside NATO to be responsible for overseeing military operations over Libya.

French Foreign Minister Alain Juppe said the new body will bring together foreign ministers of participating states - such as Britain, France and the United States - as well as the Arab League. It is expected to meet in the coming days, either in Brussels, London or Paris, Juppe said.

Juppe said not all members of the military coalition are members of NATO but the coalition would use the military alliance's planning and intervention capabilities.

"For us, the intervention is firstly an operation wanted by the United Nations. It is run by a coalition of member-states, all of whom are not members of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization," Juppe said. "This is, therefore, not a NATO operation, even if it must be able to rely on military planning and intervention capacities of the Alliance."

Not all NATO members are in favor of the no-fly zone and airstrikes against Libya.

President Nicolas Sarkozy proposed the new body and Britain agreed to it, Juppe said.

France fines Google for Street View privacy breach

France's privacy watchdog has handed down its largest fine ever against Google for improperly gathering and storing potentially sensitive data from Wi-Fi networks for its Street View application.

Monday's euro100,000 ($141,300) fine sanctions Google for collecting personal data - including e-mails, web browsing histories and online banking details - from 2007 to 2010 through its roaming camera-mounted cars and bicycles.

French fighter planes over Benghazi

A French official says Mirage and Rafale fighter jets are flying over the Libyan city of Benghazi and could strike Libyan tanks.

The official says the jets are flying over the opposition stronghold and its surroundings to ensure that Moammar Gadhafi's forces could not take any action there.

The official says the French operation could strike Libyan tanks later Saturday.

The official spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the operation.

He spoke right after top officials from the United States, Europe and the Arab world announced immediate military action to protect civilians as Gadhafi's forces attacked Benghazi.

THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. Check back soon for further information. AP's earlier story is below.

PARIS (AP) - Top officials from the United States, Europe and the Arab world have launched immediate military action to protect civilians as Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi's forces attacked the heart of the country's rebel uprising.

French President Nicolas Sarkozy said after an emergency summit in Paris on Saturday that French warplanes are already targeting Gadhafi's forces.

The 22 participants in Saturday's summit "agreed to put in place all the means necessary, in particular military" to make Gadhafi respect a U.N. Security Council resolution Thursday demanding a cease-fire, Sarkozy said.

"Our planes are blocking the air attacks on the city" of Benghazi, he said, without elaborating. French planes have been readying for an attack in recent days.

Suspect in '96 killing may be extradited to France

It remains one of Ireland's great unsolved murders. But now, 14 years on, France may be about to get to the bottom of it.

Irish authorities on Friday agreed to extradite Ian Bailey, the only suspect ever identified in the murder of French filmmaker Sophie Toscan du Plantier, to France - a legal first for Ireland. Never before has an Irish resident faced extradition abroad to face charges for a crime committed in Ireland.

High Court Justice Micheal Peart gave Bailey's lawyers until Tuesday to decide whether to seek an appeal to the Irish Supreme Court.

Bailey, 53, an English freelance journalist who resettled in rural County Cork in 1991, denies beating to death Toscan du Plantier, 39, outside her Cork holiday home on the night of Dec. 22-23, 1996. He has previously been arrested twice on suspicion of her murder, but never charged.

France opened its own investigation after Ireland's state prosecutors decided that, despite a 2,000-page police file, they lacked sufficient forensic and witness evidence to charge Bailey. France issued an extradition warrant for Bailey in February 2010.

Most legal experts had expected Ireland to reject the warrant, given its unusual nature and Ireland's track record for refusing most extradition requests.

In his 54-page judgment Peart said Bailey faced no risk of an unfair trial in France.

Airbus faces charges over 2009 Rio-Paris crash

A French judge filed preliminary manslaughter charges Thursday against Airbus over the 2009 crash of an Air France jet - opening a rare criminal investigation against a corporate powerhouse.

The order from Judge Sylvie Zimmerman targeting the European planemaker centers on the June 2009 crash into the Atlantic of an Airbus A330 bound for Paris from Rio de Janeiro, killing all 228 people on board.

Airbus chief Thomas Enders, speaking to reporters afterward, said the company disagreed with the judge's "premature" decision - especially in light of the still-unsolved mystery about the crash.

The preliminary charges, which allow for further investigation, came after Airbus lawyers met with the judge on Thursday. Enders said Airbus will continue to cooperate with the probe.

Charges against Airbus, the world's top planemaker by orders in 2010 and a rival of Chicago-based Boeing Co., are unusual but not unprecedented. Airbus employees have been charged in France in previous crashes.

Air France flight 447 went down June 1, 2009, amid an intense, high-altitude thunderstorm. Automatic messages sent by the plane's computers show it was receiving false air speed readings from sensors known as pitot tubes. Investigators have said the crash was likely caused by a series of problems, and not just sensor error.

Hackers target French Finance Ministry, G-20 plans

Hackers have infiltrated French government computers in search of information about France's leadership of the Group of 20 leading economies, the country's budget minister said Monday.

The head of France's network security agency said it was the biggest-ever hacker attack against the government.

Budget Minister Francois Baroin says it's too early to say who was behind the attack in recent weeks and months on Finance Ministry e-mail accounts and servers.

"It was the information about the G-20 that interested the hackers," Baroin said in an interview on radio station Europe-1.

France holds the rotating leadership of the G-20 this year and is hosting a series of meetings aimed at improving relations among the world's top economies, including the U.S. and China.

Officials at the Finance Ministry would not elaborate on Baroin's comments.

Network security agency chief Patrick Pailloux said "sensitive" information had been obtained in the attack, which he said was carried out by "a number of professional, determined and persistent hackers."

France, UK announce Libya airlift operation

France and Britain said Wednesday they will airlift and ferry some of the thousands of Egyptian refugees stranded at the border between Libya and Tunisia.

The French Foreign Ministry says the operation will involve large airliners and a French Navy ship heading to the region. It says the operation will allow the evacuation of at least 5,000 people over the course of a week. It said that the operation is being carried out in coordination with the European Union

British Prime Minister David Cameron announced Wednesday that UK will also be sending aircrafts to pick up the stranded Egyptians, who are fleeing chaos and violence in Libya.

THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. Check back soon for further information. AP's earlier story is below.

Britain's Prime Minister David Cameron says the UK has launched an operation to airlift Egyptian refugees stranded on the Libyan-Tunisian border.