The assault began around 9 p.m., an Interior Ministry spokesman said, when a car pulled alongside a police patrol and the gunman jumped out wielding an automatic rifle. Police returned fire, killing the gunman, according to authorities.
"Due to the level of the river Seine, the Musée du Louvre will be exceptionally closed to the public on June 3, 2016 to ensure the protection of the works located in flood zones. We apologize for any inconvenience caused," the museum said on its website.
French Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve had earlier announced the removal of the camp in a joint statement with Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo, but the migrants returned with makeshift mattresses two weeks later.. . . . The violence erupted underneath the tracks when a group of men threw objects at the migrants, most of whom are thought to come from Africa and the Middle East.
. . . . Riot police used tear gas to disperse the crowd and arrested a drunk man who is thought to have thrown the first missile which sparked the chaos, Le Parisien reported.
The police are said to have been pelted with bottles and debris when they arrived at the scene of the fight between the homeless migrants and a so called 'anti crime brigade' from Stalingrad, which lies in the 19th arrondissement of Paris.
The Jerusalem Post reports on the incident:
Eagles of Death Metal Frontman: 'Did Your French Gun Control' Stop Anyone From Being Killed at Bataclan in Paris? In a recent interview with French iTélé, Hughes said that French gun laws did nothing to help the victims.
The Islamic State released a video on Sunday apparently showing footage of the men who carried out the November attacks in Paris while they were in Syria and Iraq, where they are pictured carrying out executions, including beheadings.
If the identities of all of the men in the video are confirmed, it would be the first evidence that the group that killed 130 people in coordinated attacks in Paris on Nov. 13 had been sent from the Islamic State’s base in Syria.
The cover for the anniversary issue of Charlie Hebdo has been released. The Guardian reports:
French satirical weekly Charlie Hebdo will mark a year since an attack on its offices with a cover featuring a bearded man representing God with a Kalashnikov slung over his shoulder, accompanied by the text: “One year on: the assassin is still out there.” One million copies of the special edition will be available on newsstands on Wednesday, with tens of thousands more to be sent overseas. It will mark a year since brothers Chérif and Saïd Kouachi burst into Charlie Hebdo’s offices in eastern Paris and killed 12 people, including eight of the magazine’s staff.
"The SMS message told her that her son had died, saying: "He died on November 13 with his brothers"," said Francoise Cotta, lawyer for the mother and her family, who said the woman got the text message 10 days ago. "She was instantly struck by the horrific thought that he might have been one of the Bataclan suicide attackers," said Cotta, adding that she was asked by the dead man's mother to get in touch with investigators. Mohamed-Aggad went to Syria in late 2013 with a gang of others from his neighbourhood in an area outside the eastern French city of Strasbourg. Seven of the group were arrested in May 2014 after returning to France.
Gov. Jerry Brown, at the conclusion of a speech here Tuesday, was heckled by a group of protesters opposed to carbon offset programs they said could hurt indigenous people. Brown, accompanied by several South American governors at a 19th century mansion in Paris, had finished brief remarks urging further efforts to counteract climate change when protesters started yelling, “No REDD.” The acronym is used by The Governors’ Climate and Forest Task Force, of which California is a part, to describe programs to promote reduced emissions from deforestation and land use. California officials have considered ways to link the state’s cap-and-trade program, in which polluters pay to offset carbon emissions, to tropical rainforests in Chiapas, Mexico and Acre, Brazil. Outside the venue, Tom Goldtooth of the Indigenous Environmental Network said that such a system could prevent indigenous people from working on their land.
"The San Bernardino, California, mass shooting is now being investigated as "an act of terrorism," FBI official David Bowdich said Friday. Bowdich said the FBI "uncovered evidence ... of extreme planning."
Miri Michaeli, Europe correspondent for Israel’s Channel 10 news, tweets a troubling report from Paris. The tweet reads, in Hebrew: “Chabad: Paris police order [us] to cancel most of our public [Hanukkah] candlelighting in the city, in light of the terror attack and the fear of additional attacks. Efforts [are underway] to approve a candlelighting at the foot of the Eiffel [Tower].”Later (and after the headline spread internet-wide) the Times of Israel posted an update saying the original report had been retracted:
Public demonstrations are banned in France under the state of emergency that was declared after the Paris terrorist attacks two week ago, in which 130 people were killed. Green groups have described the move as "an abuse of power" but the French Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve said the activists were suspected of planning violent protests.
Ron Coleman