PARIS: A man armed with a meat cleaver wounded two in Paris Friday outside the former offices of satirical weekly Charlie Hebdo before being arrested by police, three weeks into the trial of suspected accomplices in the 2015 massacre of the newspaper's staff.
France's PNAT specialist anti-terror prosecution office said it has opened a probe into charges of "attempted murder related to a terrorist enterprise" as well as "conspiracy with terrorists."
French Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin said the attack was "clearly an act of Islamist terrorism".
"It's the street where Charlie Hebdo used to be, this is the way the Islamist terrorists operate," Darmanin told broadcaster France 2.
"This is a new bloody attack on our country."
Charlie Hebdo has angered many Muslims around the world by publishing cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed over the years, and in a defiant gesture reprinted some of the caricatures ahead of the trial.
Twelve people, including some of France's most celebrated cartoonists, were killed in the attack on Charlie Hebdo by extremist gunmen on January 7, 2015.
Paris police said two people were "critically wounded" in Friday's attack near the paper's former offices in the French capital's 11th district. The magazine's new address is kept secret.
A large meat cleaver found near the scene is believed to have been used by the attacker.
Prime Minister Jean Castex, visiting the scene, said the lives of the two victims "are not in danger, thank God".
The Premieres Lignes news production agency said the wounded were its employees - a man and a woman taking a cigarette break outside.
"They were both very badly wounded," the founder and co-head of Premieres Lignes, Paul Moreira, told AFP.
Another employee, who asked not to be named, said he heard screams.
"I went to the window and saw a colleague, bloodied, being chased by a man with a machete."
The company specialises in investigative reports and produces the prize-winning Cash Investigation programme.
Paris prosecutors said the "main perpetrator" was arrested not far from the scene of the crime.
According to PNAT head Jean-Francois Ricard, the suspect was an 18-year-old man. Initial indications are that he was born in Pakistan.
Darmanin said the suspect had arrived on France three years ago as "an isolated minor".
Child welfare authorities said the suspect had shown "no sign of radicalisation" while under their care after arriving in France in August 2018 and claiming to be a minor.
A second person, aged 33, was arrested later and held for questioning to determine possible links to the "main perpetrator," said Ricard.
Five more people - all men born between 1983 and 1996 who were arrested in the Paris suburb of Pantin during a search of a property linked to the main suspect - were also being held for questioning, a judicial source said late Friday.
Five schools in the area went into lockdown for several hours after the attack, and half a dozen nearby metro stations were closed.
"Around noon we went for a lunch break at the restaurant. As we arrived, the manager started shouting 'Go, go there is an attack...' We ran to lock ourselves in our shop with four customers," Hassani Erwan, a 23-year-old barber, told AFP.
In a Twitter post, Charlie Hebdo expressed its support for "the people affected by this odious attack."
They were victims of "fanaticism" and "intolerance", Charlie Hebdo said, calling the main suspect and his possible accomplice "terrorists".
The stabbing came during the trial of 14 alleged accomplices of brothers Said and Cherif Kouachi, the perpetrators of the 2015 attack on Charlie Hebdo that was claimed by a branch of Al-Qaeda.
A female police officer was killed a day later, followed the next day by the killing of four men in a hostage-taking at a Jewish supermarket by gunman Amedy Coulibaly.
The trial has reopened one of the most painful chapters in France's modern history, with harrowing testimony from survivors and relatives of those who died.
The magazine received fresh threats from Al-Qaeda this month after it republished the controversial cartoons.
More than 100 French news outlets on Wednesday called for continuing support for Charlie Hebdo against what they described as the "enemies of freedom".
Just this week, police relocated the paper's head of human resources, Marika Bret, from her home following death threats.
The trial, which opened on September 2, was suspended on Thursday after accused Nezar Mickael Pastor Alwatik fell ill in the stand.
When it resumed on Friday, an intelligence officer told the court that it was a "huge regret" that his services had been unable to prevent the 2015 attacks.
"Every attack felt like a failure for all of us," the officer said from behind an opaque screen set up to hide his identity.
He acknowledged that the perpetrators had attracted the attention of security forces years before the attacks, but that surveillance was dropped in 2014 after "we didn't detect any willingness on their part to act".
Man held on terror charges after two wounded in Paris cleaver attack
https://arab.news/gwe9x
Man held on terror charges after two wounded in Paris cleaver attack
- Paris police said two people were "critically wounded" in Friday's attack near the paper's former offices in the French capital's 11th district
- According to PNAT head Jean-Francois Ricard, the suspect was an 18-year-old Pakistani man
Bangladesh restores ‘except Israel’ clause in passports after public pressure
- Bangladesh’s previous government dropped the wording in 2021 without public notice
- Immigration says it may take several weeks to finalize procedures to print it again
DHAKA: Bangladesh is reinstating the “except Israel” clause in its passports, the Department of Immigration said on Tuesday, after public pressure to reverse its removal by the previous government.
Bangladeshi passports carried the sentence “This passport is valid for all countries of the world except Israel” until 2021, when authorities rolled out a new travel document and the phrase was removed without any public notice.
While authorities justified it by saying it was meant to “maintain international standard,” many people in the country — which has no diplomatic relations with Israel — questioned the move.
The new interim government, which took charge of Bangladesh in August after the ouster of its long-standing Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, has decided to undo her cabinet’s decision.
“We’ve received the government’s directive to reinstate the ‘except Israel’ clause in Bangladeshi passports. We are currently working to implement it,” Brig. Gen. Mohammed Nurus Salam, passports director at the Department of Immigration, told Arab News.
“For many years, our passports carried the ‘except Israel’ clause. But the previous government suddenly removed it. We were used to seeing ‘except Israel’ written in our passports. I don’t know why they took it out. If you talk to people across the country, you’ll see they want that line back in their passports. There was no need to remove it.”
Pressure to reinstate the clause has been mounting since the beginning of Israel’s ongoing deadly onslaught on Gaza, which began in October 2023.
Over 51,000 people have been killed, 116,000 wounded, and 2 million others face starvation after Israeli forces destroyed most of the region’s infrastructure and buildings while blocking humanitarian aid from entering.
A clear ban on travel to Israel in Bangladeshi passports was one of the key demands raised during a series of Gaza solidarity protests, which have been held regularly in Dhaka since last month after Israeli forces unilaterally broke a ceasefire agreement and resumed bombing hospitals, schools and tents sheltering displaced people.
The biggest such protest took place in Dhaka on Saturday, with about 1 million people taking to the streets to call on the international community to “take effective and collective action to end the genocide,” and especially on Muslim countries to immediately sever all economic, military, and diplomatic relations with Israel and to “impose commercial blockades and sanctions on the Zionist state” and begin active diplomatic efforts to isolate it on the international stage.
“People will definitely welcome this new decision. It reflects the feelings of the people of this country,” Salam said, but he was not able to specify when the new passports will be available.
“There are some technical challenges involved with this change. Currently, we import e-passports from Germany under a government-to-government agreement … It may take another week to finalize the necessary procedures. In the meantime, we are exploring whether there’s any option to modify the existing stock of printed booklets.”
Italy’s Meloni to meet Trump amid US- Europe trade tensions
French government ministers have warned that the nationalist Italian leader might undermine EU unity by going alone to Washington
ROME: Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni is heading to the White House for a meeting on Thursday with President Donald Trump, seeking to ease tensions over US tariffs on European goods and position herself as a bridge between Washington and Brussels.
Meloni is walking a tightrope between her ideological affinity to the president and her ties with European allies, who have criticized Trump’s tariff hikes and his decision to exclude the EU from talks with Russia to end the war in Ukraine.
While Meloni is under pressure at home to protect Italy’s export-driven economy, which last year ran a 40 billion euro ($45.4 billion) trade surplus with the US, she must also be seen to defend the interests of the whole 27-nation EU bloc.
French government ministers have warned that the nationalist Italian leader might undermine EU unity by going alone to Washington, but the European Commission, which has responsibility for negotiating trade accords, has welcomed Meloni’s trip.
Trump’s abrupt decision last week to pause most global tariffs for 90 days has relieved some of the pressure on Meloni, meaning that she won’t feel the need to return with a deal, but rather to create the right environment for an accord.
“She is no longer traveling amid an open clash involving the EU. She is going as a de facto mediator,” said Lorenzo Castellani, a political analyst at Luiss University in Rome.
ROME’S AMBITIONS
Meloni was the only EU leader invited to Trump’s inauguration in January and this week’s meeting will take place the day before she hosts Vice President JD Vance in Rome — back-to-back talks that could be crucial to furthering Italian ambitions to play a pivotal role in transatlantic relations.
“If she facilitates negotiations with Trump without penalizing Europe, she will emerge much stronger,” said Castellani.
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen has so far not been granted an audience with Trump, meaning that she has to rely on others to promote EU interests.
A Commission spokesperson said Meloni and von der Leyen had been in regular contact ahead of the White House meeting.
Both leaders have called for all of Trump’s so-called reciprocal tariffs to be scrapped for the EU, and Meloni is expected to push for a “zero-for-zero” deal on industrial tariffs between the two sides.
French officials fear Trump is seeking to divide and conquer Europe, and worry Meloni could play into his hands.
“We need to be united because Europe is strong if it’s united,” Marc Ferracci, the French minister for industry and energy, told FranceInfo radio. “If we start having bilateral talks, of course it’ll break this momentum.”
CHINA
While Trump has frozen many tariffs, he has maintained a wall of levies on China and some analysts say this might bring China and Europe closer together.
Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez met Chinese President Xi Jinping in Beijing last week, and urged greater engagement with China in order to defend globalization and to oppose “unilateral acts of bullying.”
Rome has distanced itself from his comments.
“The great clash underway is not between the US and Europe, but between the US and China,” Italian Defense Minister Guido Crosetto told Reuters in an interview.
Trump and Meloni may also discuss defense and Castellani said Meloni might promise to hike defense spending in future.
Italy’s defense budget was 1.49 percent of GDP last year even as Trump is pushing NATO allies to lift military spending to 5 percent of GDP.
Ukraine moves to fire Sumy official over strike comments
- The government moved to dismiss Sumy governor Volodymyr Artyukh, an official said
- Artyukh’s dismissal was linked to quotes he gave the Suspilne news outlet
KYIV: Ukraine on Tuesday moved to dismiss the governor of the Sumy region after he made comments implying a deadly Russian strike in his border territory had targeted a military gathering.
Two Russian ballistic missiles killed 35 people and wounded more than 100 others in Sumy city on Sunday in one of the single-worst attacks in Ukraine in months.
The government moved to dismiss Sumy governor Volodymyr Artyukh, an official said on social media, after he was criticized for comments that appeared to confirm a military award ceremony was taking place during the attack in Sumy on Sunday.
A senior Ukrainian official confirmed to AFP that Artyukh’s dismissal was linked to quotes he gave the Suspilne news outlet, in which he said he was “invited” to the awards event but did not organize it.
The Kremlin said Monday its forces targeted a gathering of army commanders and accused Ukraine of using civilians as a “human shield.”
The Ukrainian official, who spoke anonymously to speak candidly about the issue, said it had been “clear” for some time that Artyukh was a “a very mediocre manager.”
“He really screwed up,” the official said, adding: “And this story is actually the last tragic straw.”
Indonesia launches Global Hydrogen Ecosystem Summit for energy transition partnerships
- Hyundai partners with Indonesian oil giant Pertamina to produce hydrogen from organic waste
- Indonesia plans to utilize hydrogen for decarbonization efforts and energy security
JAKARTA: The Global Hydrogen Ecosystem Summit started in Jakarta on Tuesday amid efforts to forge international collaborations in making hydrogen a key pillar of Indonesia’s clean energy transition, with plans to double its gas production rate in the coming years.
The summit is co-organized by the Indonesia Fuel Cell and Hydrogen Energy, the Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources, the Ministry of National Development Planning and Indonesia’s state utility company PLN.
Around 2,500 participants from 10 countries will be involved in the three-day forum and exhibition at the Jakarta Convention Center.
The summit marks a “new chapter” in Indonesia’s implementation of the Paris climate agreement, Energy and Mineral Resources Minister Bahlil Lahadalia said.
“Indonesia is consistent in its commitment to the Paris agreement. To implement it in the context of renewable energy sources and hydrogen, it cannot be done partially, it must be comprehensively,” Lahadalia said.
“In the next 10 years, we will double our gas production and I will push to direct the use of new gas wells to meet the demands of the domestic market and support downstreaming efforts, including producing hydrogen.”
Indonesia is one of the world’s largest producers and consumers of coal, and most of its power needs are met by burning fossil fuels.
In 2024, renewables accounted for around 15 percent of Indonesia’s energy mix. The country of 270 million people has been working to increase its renewable energy sources to meet its pledge of achieving carbon neutrality by 2060.
Under its National Hydrogen Strategy, Indonesia plans to utilize hydrogen for decarbonization efforts, energy security and economic growth.
“Indonesia has an abundance of renewable energy potential … This Global Hydrogen Ecosystem Summit is a meeting and exhibition that connects all stakeholders,” Eniya Listiani Dewi, director general of new and renewable energy sources at the energy ministry, said during the opening ceremony.
“(It is) a platform for global collaboration where we can interact, exchange knowledge, build partnerships and do business matching, while also forging production and development of the hydrogen industry.”
During the summit, South Korea’s automaker Hyundai announced its partnership with Indonesia’s state owned oil and gas company Pertamina to produce hydrogen from organic waste sourced at the Sarimukti landfill near Bandung, the capital of West Java.
The Korean giant will establish an on-site hydrogen refueling station using Pertamina’s existing compressed natural gas infrastructure, with plans to start construction this year.
“The W2H (waste to hydrogen) ecosystem development project in Indonesia is especially meaningful as it marks the first case of expanding the resource-circulating hydrogen production demonstration project, which has been successfully carried out in Korea, to an overseas market,” Hyundai said in a statement.
“We hope to collaborate with the Indonesian government and companies to expand hydrogen production and further accelerate the transition to a hydrogen society.”
Macron to honor craftspeople who rebuilt Notre Dame
- “You have achieved what was thought impossible,” Macron told restoration workers
- On Tuesday, Macron will once again speak of France’s “pride” over the operation’s success
PARIS: French President Emmanuel Macron on Tuesday will bestow awards on around 100 craftspeople and officials who helped restore Notre Dame to its former glory after a fire nearly destroyed the beloved Paris cathedral six years ago.
The ceremony at the Elysee Palace will take place from early Tuesday evening, around the same time the devastating fire broke out at the Gothic masterpiece on April 15, 2019.
Macron will bestow the awards in the presence of Prime Minister Francois Bayrou and government members including Culture Minister Rachida Dati.
Jean-Claude Gallet, who presided over the Paris fire brigade during the disaster, will also be in attendance.
“You have achieved what was thought impossible,” Macron told restoration workers and officials after he toured the cathedral last November, days before the cathedral re-opened to the public on December 7.
On Tuesday, Macron will once again speak of France’s “pride” over the operation’s success, according to his team, which said an average of 30,000 people a day now visit the restored cathedral.
Macron will also honor Philippe Jost, who headed the public organization tasked with restoring the cathedral and was elevated to the rank of “commander” of the Legion of Honour, France’s highest national award.
Jost succeeded Jean-Louis Georgelin, the general who had been put in charge of overseeing the restoration but who died in 2023.
Georgelin was conferred with the Grand Cross of the Legion of Honour, the highest rank of the award established by Napoleon Bonaparte in 1802.
The architects Remi Fromont and Philippe Villeneuve will also be decorated.
Alongside them, nearly 100 civil servants, entrepreneurs and craftspeople will be awarded the Legion of Honour or the National Order of Merit, another top award established by Charles de Gaulle.
They represent around 2,000 people who took part in the restoration of the cathedral.
They come from “all the trades” and include carpenters, ironworkers, scaffolders, rope access workers, organ restorers and stained glass artisans, the French presidency said.
Aymeric Albert, who will be made a knight of the Legion of Honour, combed the forests of France to select oak trees needed to rebuild the spire, the nave and the choir.
The massive restoration project was financed thanks to nearly 850 million euros (around $960 million at today’s rate) in donations from all over the world.
