PARIS: Two inmates in a French prison have been placed under formal investigation days before their expected release from jail on suspicion of plotting attacks, a judicial source said on Tuesday.
More than 240 people have been killed in France in attacks since 2015 by assailants who pledged allegiance to, or were inspired by, Islamic State, and France has a long record of radicalization in its prisons.
The two inmates were taken from their cells in the Fresnes prison, just south of Paris, and questioned over four days before being placed under investigation on charges of criminal association linked with terrorism plans, the source said.
Earlier this month, France’s parliament adopted bill to bolster police surveillance powers against attacks and make it easier to close mosques suspected of preaching hatred. Civil rights groups warned it would lead to personal freedoms being infringed.
The two men, who were due to be released in the coming days after completing sentences for non-terrorist crimes, were known in jail for being radicalized, the source added.
French TV station LCI said the two were plotting attacks against jail wardens and police forces, while a source close to the probe said they also had other targets planned.
The two men were in phone contact with other radicalized inmates in other jails in France, the judicial source said.
Two prison inmates under investigation for plotting attacks in France
Two prison inmates under investigation for plotting attacks in France
Putin and Xi condemn Israel over its Iran strikes in phone call, Kremlin says
- Kremlin: ‘Both men ‘strongly condemn Israel’s actions, which violate the UN Charter and other norms of international law’
Both men “strongly condemn Israel’s actions, which violate the UN Charter and other norms of international law,” Kremlin aide Yuri Ushakov told reporters.
“Both Moscow and Beijing fundamentally believe that there is no military solution to the current situation and issues related to Iran’s nuclear program.
“This solution must be achieved exclusively through political and diplomatic means,” said Ushakov.
Russia has warned of catastrophe should the Israel-Iran conflict, now in its seventh day, escalate further, and has urged the US not to join Israel’s bombardment.
Putin has been in touch with US President Donald Trump, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian in recent days and has repeatedly said
Russia stands ready to mediate between the warring sides.
Thus far, no one has taken up Russia’s offer.
On Thursday, Putin reiterated that proposition in his phone call with Xi, a close ally.
The Chinese leader expressed support for the idea, Ushakov said, “as he believes it could serve to de-escalate the current acute situation.”
The two men agreed to keep in close contact in the coming days.
Putin says he does not want to discuss the possible Israeli-US killing of Iran’s supreme leader
- Israeli leader Benjamin Netanyahu has openly speculated that Israel’s military attacks could result in regime change in Iran
- Donald Trump said US knows Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei is ‘hiding but that Washington is not going to kill him ‘for now’
ST PETERSBURG, Russia: President Vladimir Putin on Thursday refused to discuss the possibility that Israel and the United States would kill Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and said the Iranian people were consolidating around the leadership in Tehran.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has openly speculated that Israel’s military attacks could result in regime change in Iran while US President Donald Trump said on Tuesday that the US knew where Khamenei was “hiding” but that Washington was not going to kill him “for now.”
Asked what his reaction would be if Israel did kill Khamenei with the assistance of the United States, Putin said: “I do not even want to discuss this possibility. I do not want to.”
When pressed, Putin said he had heard the remarks about possibly killing Khamenei but that he did not want to discuss it.
“We see that today in Iran, with all the complexity of the internal political processes taking place there...that there is a consolidation of society around the country’s political leadership,” Putin told senior news agency editors in the northern Russian city of St. Petersburg.
Putin said all sides should look for ways to end hostilities in a way that ensured both Iran’s right to peaceful nuclear power and Israel’s right to the unconditional security of the Jewish state.
Putin was speaking as Trump kept the world guessing whether the US would join Israel’s bombardment of Iranian nuclear and missile sites and as residents of Iran’s capital streamed out of the city on the sixth day of the air assault.
Putin said he had been in touch with Trump and with Netanyahu, and that he had conveyed Moscow’s ideas on resolving the conflict while ensuring Iran’s continued access to civil nuclear energy.
Iranian nuclear facilities
Questioned about possible regime change in Iran, Putin said that before getting into something, one should always look at whether or not the main aim is being achieved before starting something.
He said Iran’s underground uranium enrichment facilities were still intact.
“These underground factories, they exist, nothing has happened to them,” Putin said.
“It seems to me that it would be right for everyone to look for ways to end hostilities and find ways for all parties to this conflict to come to an agreement with each other,” Putin said. “In my opinion, in general, such a solution can be found.”
Asked if Russia was ready to provide Iran with modern weapons to defend itself against Israeli strikes, Putin said a strategic partnership treaty signed with Tehran in January did not envisage military cooperation and that Iran had not made any formal request for assistance.
Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov said on Wednesday that Moscow was telling the United States not to strike Iran because it would radically destabilize the Middle East.
A spokeswoman for the Russian Foreign Ministry also warned that Israeli strikes on Iranian nuclear facilities risked triggering a nuclear catastrophe.
Putin said that Israel had given Moscow assurances that Russian specialists helping to build two more reactors at the Bushehr nuclear power plant in Iran would not be hurt in air strikes.
Putin said that Moscow had “a very good relationship with Iran” and that Russia could ensure Iran’s interests in nuclear energy.
Russia has offered to take enriched uranium from Iran and to supply nuclear fuel to the country’s civil energy program.
“It is possible to ensure Iran’s interests in the field of peaceful nuclear energy. And at the same time, to address Israel’s concerns about its security,” Putin said. “We have outlined them (our ideas) to our partners from the USA, Israel and Iran.”
Thai PM faces growing calls to quit following Cambodia phone row
- Coalition government led by Paetongtarn Shinawatra’s Pheu Thai party appears on the brink of collapse
- The conservative Bhumjaithai party, Pheu Thai’s biggest partner, pulled out on Wednesday
BANGKOK: Thai Prime Minister Paetongtarn Shinawatra faced mounting calls Thursday to resign after a leaked phone call she had with former Cambodian leader Hun Sen provoked widespread anger and prompted a key coalition partner to quit.
The coalition government led by Paetongtarn’s Pheu Thai party appears on the brink of collapse, throwing the kingdom into a fresh round of political instability as it seeks to boost its spluttering economy and avoid US President Donald Trump’s swinging trade tariffs.
The conservative Bhumjaithai party, Pheu Thai’s biggest partner, pulled out on Wednesday saying Paetongtarn’s conduct in the leaked call had wounded the country and the army’s dignity.
Thailand’s foreign ministry said Cambodia’s disclosure of a recording of a private conversation between Prime Minister Paetongtarn Shinawatra and former Prime Minister Hun Sen were unacceptable.
“It is a breach of diplomatic etiquette, a serious violation of trust, and undermines conduct between two neighboring countries,” spokesperson Nikorndej Balankura said on Thursday.
In the call, Paetongtarn is heard discussing an ongoing border dispute with Hun Sen – who stepped down as Cambodian prime minister in 2023 after four decades but still wields considerable influence.
She addresses the veteran leader as “uncle” and refers to the Thai army commander in the country’s northeast as her opponent, a remark that sparked fierce criticism on social media.
Losing Bhumjaithai’s 69 MPs leaves Paetongtarn with barely enough votes to scrape a majority in parliament, and a snap election looks a clear possibility – barely two years after the last one in May 2023.
Two coalition parties, the United Thai Nation and Democrat Party, will hold meetings to discuss the situation later Thursday.
Losing either would likely mean the end of Paetongtarn’s government, and either an election or a bid by other parties to stitch together a new coalition.
Thailand’s military said in a statement that army chief General Pana Claewplodtook “affirms commitment to democratic principles and national sovereignty protection.”
“The Chief of Army emphasized that the paramount imperative is for ‘Thai people to stand united’ in collectively defending national sovereignty,” it added.
Thailand’s armed forces have long played a powerful role in the kingdom’s politics, and politicians are usually careful not to antagonize them.
The kingdom has had a dozen coups since the end of absolute monarchy in 1932, and the current crisis has inevitably triggered rumors that another may be in the offing.
If Paetongtarn is ousted in a coup she would be the third member of her family, after her aunt Yingluck and father Thaksin Shinawatra, to be kicked out of office by the military.
The main opposition People’s Party, which won most seats in 2023 but was blocked by conservative senators from forming a government, called on Paetongtarn to organize an election.
“What happened yesterday was a leadership crisis that destroyed people’s trust,” People’s Party leader Natthaphong Ruengpanyawut said in a statement.
The Palang Pracharath party, which led the government up to 2023 and is headed by General Prawit Wongsuwan – who supported a 2014 coup against Paetongtarn’s aunt Yingluck – said the leaked recording showed she was weak and inexperienced, incapable of managing the country’s security.
Hundreds of anti-government protesters, some of them veterans of the royalist, anti-Thaksin “Yellow Shirt” movement of the late 2000s, demonstrated outside Government House Thursday demanding Paetongtarn quit.
Paetongtarn, 38, came to power in August 2024 at the head of an uneasy coalition between Pheu Thai and a group of conservative, pro-military parties whose members have spent much of the last 20 years battling against her father.
Growing tensions within the coalition erupted into open warfare in the past week as Pheu Thai tried to take the interior minister job away from Bhumjaithai leader Anutin Charnvirakul.
The loss of Bhumjaithai leaves Pheu Thai’s coalition with just a handful more votes than the 248 needed for a majority.
The battle between the conservative pro-royal establishment and Thaksin’s political movement has dominated Thai politics for more than 20 years.
Former Manchester City owner Thaksin, 75, still enjoys huge support from the rural base whose lives he transformed with populist policies in the early 2000s.
But he is despised by Thailand’s powerful elites, who saw his rule as corrupt, authoritarian and socially destabilizing.
The current Pheu Thai-led government has already lost one prime minister, former businessman Srettha Thavisin, who was kicked out by a court order last year that brought Paetongtarn to office.
– with Reuters
Australia mushroom murder suspect fell sick from same meal: defense
- Erin Patterson has steadfastly maintained her innocence during her weeks-long trial
- The prosecution maintains Patterson did not consume the fatal fungi and faked her symptoms
SYDNEY: An Australian woman accused of killing three lunch guests with toxic mushrooms fell sick from the same meal, her defense said Thursday, rejecting claims she faked her symptoms.
Erin Patterson, 50, is charged with murdering her estranged husband’s parents and aunt in July 2023 by spiking their beef Wellington lunch with death cap mushrooms.
She is also accused of attempting to murder a fourth guest – her husband’s uncle – who survived the lunch after a long stay in hospital.
Patterson has steadfastly maintained her innocence during a seven-week-long trial that has made headlines from New York to New Delhi.
As the trial came to its closing stages, defense lawyer Colin Mandy poked holes in the prosecutor’s case, saying his client, too, fell ill after consuming the beef-and-pastry dish.
Patterson’s medical tests at the hospital revealed symptoms “that can’t be faked,” including low potassium and elevated hemoglobin, he said.
“She was not as sick as the other lunch guests, nor did she represent she was,” Mandy said.
The prosecution maintains Patterson did not consume the fatal fungi and faked her symptoms.
Mandy said his client lied in panic in the days after the lunch, trying to “conceal the fact that foraged mushrooms went into the meal.”
“If that was found out, she feared she would be held responsible,” her defense said.
“She panicked when confronted with the terrible possibility, the terrible realization, that her actions had caused the illness of people she liked.”
Mandy said he was not “making an excuse” for Patterson’s behavior after the lunch, but that it did not mean she meant to harm or kill her guests.
Patterson originally invited her estranged husband Simon to join the family lunch at her secluded home in the farming village of Leongatha in Victoria state.
But he turned down the invitation on the eve of the meal, saying he felt uncomfortable going, the court heard earlier.
The pair were long estranged but still legally married.
Simon Patterson’s parents Don and Gail, and his aunt Heather Wilkinson, attended the lunch.
All three were dead within days. Heather Wilkinson’s husband Ian fell gravely ill but eventually recovered.
The trial in Morwell, southeast of Melbourne, is in its final stages.
Myanmar’s Aung San Suu Kyi marks 80th birthday in junta jail
- She was the figurehead of Myanmar’s decade-long democratic thaw, becoming its de facto leader
- But the generals snatched back power in a 2021 coup, and she was locked up various on charges
YANGON: Myanmar’s deposed democratic leader Aung San Suu Kyi marked her 80th birthday in junta detention on Thursday, serving a raft of sentences set to last the rest of her life.
Suu Kyi was the figurehead of Myanmar’s decade-long democratic thaw, becoming de facto leader as it opened up from military rule.
But as the generals snatched back power in a 2021 coup, she was locked up on charges ranging from corruption to breaching COVID-19 pandemic restrictions and is serving a 27-year sentence.
“It will be hard to be celebrating at the moment,” said her 47-year-old son Kim Aris from the UK.
“We’ve learned to endure when it’s been going on so long.”
He is running 80 kilometers (50 miles) over the eight days leading up to her birthday, and has collected over 80,000 well-wishing video messages for his mother.
But Suu Kyi will not see them, sequestered in Myanmar’s sprawling capital Naypyidaw from where the military directs a civil war against guerilla fighters.
Aris said he has heard from his mother only once via letter two years ago since she was imprisoned.
“We have no idea what condition she’s in,” he said, adding that he fears she is suffering from untreated medical problems with her heart, bones and gums.
No formal celebrations are planned in junta-held parts of Myanmar, but a gaggle of followers in military-controlled Mandalay city staged a spontaneous protest ahead of her birthday, local media said.
A few masked protesters showered a street with pamphlets reading “freedom from fear” and “happy birthday” as one member help up a portrait of Suu Kyi in shaky camera footage shared on social media.
“Do you still remember this great person?” asked one of the protesters in the video, which AFP has not been able to independently verify.
While Suu Kyi remains hugely popular in the majority Buddhist country, her status as a democracy icon abroad collapsed before the military takeover after she defended the generals in their crackdown against the Rohingya Muslim minority.
Hundreds of thousands were sent fleeing to neighboring Bangladesh under her rule, though some argued she was powerless against the lingering influence of Myanmar’s military.
Nonetheless institutions and figures that once showered Suu Kyi with awards rapidly distanced themselves, and her second round of imprisonment has received far less international attention.
Suu Kyi, the daughter of Myanmar independence hero Aung San, became a champion of democracy almost by accident.
After spending much of her youth abroad, she returned in 1988 to nurse her sick mother but began leading anti-military protests crushed by a crackdown.
She was locked up for 15 years, most of it in her family’s Yangon lakeside mansion where she still drew crowds for speeches over the boundary wall.
The military offered freedom if she went into exile but her poised refusal thrust her into the spotlight and won her the 1991 Nobel Peace Prize.
Suu Kyi was released in 2010 and led her National League for Democracy party to electoral victory in 2015, never formally in charge as army-drafted rules kept her from the presidency.
If the octogenarian were released from her current incarceration, Aris predicts she would likely step back from a “frontline position” in Myanmar politics.
The military has promised new elections at the end of this year, but they are set to be boycotted by many groups comprised of former followers of Suu Kyi’s non-violent vision who have now taken up arms.
