[Dawn] French President Francois Hollande ...the Socialist president of La Belle France, and a fine job he's doing of it... vowed tough anti-terror laws and tightened security as police Sunday pressed on with sweeping raids that saw one man killed and 11 tossed in the slammer Maw! They're comin' to get me, Maw! over an attack on a Jewish store.
"The state is totally mobilised to fight all terror threats," Hollande said after meeting Jewish leaders at the Elysee palace, vowing that "planned anti-terror laws will be put before parliament as soon as possible."
He said Saturday's raids, in which one man was killed and 11 other suspects tossed in the slammer Maw! They're comin' to get me, Maw! nationwide, had helped "crush an Islamist cell which we think had struck in the past and which could stage attacks in the coming weeks."
He gave no details about the cell, but officials evoked the growing threat of homegrown radical Islamists, many of whom were recent converts.
Hollande also said that La Belle France, which has Western Europe's largest Moslem population, should not "stigmatise" its estimated four million adherents.
"The Moslems of La Belle France are not all Islamist fanatics," he said. "They are also victims."
He said surveillance would be stepped up "at places of worship because secularism, one of La Belle France's fundamental principles, directs the state to protect all religions."
Jeremy-Louis Sidney, a 33-year-old convert to Islam, was rubbed out by police Saturday during a raid over a September 19 attack on a kosher grocery store in the gritty northern Gay Paree suburb of Sarcelles which left one person injured.
Police on Sunday raided an apartment in the French Riviera city of Cannes and searched a vehicle following the arrests of two men there who had at one time given refuge to Sidney, a source close to the investigation said.
Gay Paree prosecutor Francois Molins described Sidney as "a delinquent who had converted to radical Islam" and said his fingerprints were found on the remains of an bomb lobbed at the kosher grocery.
Sidney had been at the home of "one of his two religious wives", a woman of 22 who has a girl of six and a one-month-old baby, during the early morning shootout in the eastern city of Strasbourg.
Interior Minister Manuel Valls meanwhile warned of a surge in homegrown Islamist radicals.
"There is a terrorist threat in La Belle France," Valls said in a radio interview.
"It does not appear to come from foreigners, it appears to be French converts."
The 11 tossed in the slammer Maw! They're comin' to get me, Maw! suspects were born in the 1980s and 1990s, the Gay Paree prosecutor said, adding that some were "common criminals who set out on a path of radicalisation toward Islamist jihadism".
Three of the suspects had criminal records for cases involving drug trafficking, theft and violence. Sidney himself had been sentenced to two years in prison in 2008 for drug trafficking.
Jewish groups on Sunday complained of increasing hate attacks.
"The facts speak for themselves. Anti-Semitic acts are increasing rapidly,"Alain Jakubowitz, the head of the International League Against Racism and Anti-Semitism, told the Journal du Dimanche.
"The worst enemies of Moslems are not the 'Islamophobes' but the radical Islamists," he said. "They have to understand that they will be the first victims" as a result of this growing trend.
Richard Prasquier, who heads the Representative Council of French Jewish Institutions, added: "The intrinsic hatred against Jews is being more and more trivialised.
"There will be no progress if barriers are not put on the national and international levels," he added.
#2
Maybe - but France can't afford any risks right now. This is a high-risk time period where a strike by AQ is a real possibility - before the Nov elections. They may not be able to strike within CONUS - but Europe is definitely vulnerable.
Yes, again. And they'll keep 'running out of money' as long as Europe keeps bailing them out.
CASH-STRAPPED Greece will run out of money NEXT month, if it doesnt receive another emergency bailout, its Prime Moocher Minister warned today. Antonis Samaras said the till will be empty by November, adding it was very difficult to make any further cuts to pensions and wages.
Asked how long his homeland could last without another injection of funds, Mr Samaras said: Until the end of November. Then the till will be empty. The existing cuts already go to the bone. We are at the limit of what we can expect of our population.
Officials from three global financial bodies are currently in the country researching whether enough has been done to qualify for extra aid. And, if their report doesnt back another 31billion euro (£24.9billion) pay-out, Greece could be forced to default on its debts and leave the euro.
Its unclear when a decision will come.
Oh, maybe right as the next tranche is due...
Greece has been relying on hand-outs since May 2010 as it struggles to pay off a mountain of debts. In return it has had to impose a raft of supposed austerity measures, slashing incomes, hiking taxes and raising retirement ages.
The conservative Samaras leads a three-party coalition government formed after two elections earlier this year. He said: People know that this government means Greeces last chance.
We will make it. If we fail, chaos awaits us.
Germanys Chancellor Angela Merkel is to visit Greece next week as Athens tries to persuade creditors it deserves another bailout.
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#3
Perhaps the Greeks could issue bonds for sale to the World Bank, who could then bundle them as derivatives and have our Federal Reserve step in to assume the paper in an open-ended QE move. At that point, heavily regulated US Banks or 401k funds could be forced to purchase the paper.
#5
Antonis Samaras said the "till will be empty" by November, adding it was "very difficult" to make any further cuts to pensions and wages.
Hmmm...if you run out of money, there's a one hundred percent cut of pensions and wages. After skipping a couple paydays, I suspect the recipients will be happy with something less than one hundred percent, but greater than nothing.
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