France – Page 43 – Infinite Unknown

Global Economic Crisis Accelerating

January 18, 2009 by Infinite

– Richest apartment block in US becomes a house of horrors (Guardian):
The lavish apartments of 740 Park Avenue are home to 30 of America’s wealthiest and most influential families. At least they were until the historic confluence of financial disasters struck, lopping billions of dollars off their combined net worth. Now the formerly untouchable denizens of this famous apartment building look like they could lose it all.

– French aristocrats the Wendels forced to put North Sea assets on the block (Times Online):
THE Wendel family, one of France’s most prominent industrial dynasties – which once made cannons for Louis XIV – has put its North Sea oil company up for sale in a desperate bid to raise cash after debt-fuelled investments soured, threatening to make it one of the most high-profile casualties of the global financial crisis.

– State employees stunned by request for $250 million in concessions (Cleveland.com):
COLUMBUS — The state has asked workers in its largest labor union to accept a 5 percent across-the-board pay cut, a shorter work week and unpaid holidays to help balance the state’s troubled budget, according to a document obtained by The Plain Dealer. The list of cuts and changes Gov. Ted Strickland’s administration has asked the workers to accept, which also includes mandatory furloughs and paying more for their health insurance, would amount to $250 million in concessions, according to a members-only e-mail from Ohio Civil Service Employees Association president Eddie L. Parks.

– Eastern Europe braced for a violent ‘spring of discontent’ (Guardian):
Riots and street battles are set to spread through Bulgaria, Romania and the Baltic states as inflation, unemployment and racism fuel tension, reports Jason Burke

– Obama team weighs government bank to ease crisis (Reuters):
(Obama team weighs government bank to loot taxpayers’ even more.)

– Obama Bank Rescue May Make New Effort to Resolve Toxic Assets (Bloomberg)

– VeraSun to put 7 plants up for auction (Forbes):
VeraSun Energy Corp., the nation’s second largest ethanol producer, is putting seven of its biorefineries up for auction as part of a bankruptcy court financing agreement.

– Brown’s fury at Royal Bank of Scotland’s £2.5bn loan to Russian oligarch (Daily Mail)

– Recession drills deep into oil and gas (Independent)

– Gulf Shares Fall on Concern That Earnings May Lag Expectations (Bloomberg)

– Oil demand to fall again in 2009 (BBC News):
(Oil demand dropped very little … compared to oil prices. This makes no sense whatsoever, unless what Lindsey Williams said is actually happening right now.)

– Monetary union has left half of Europe trapped in depression (Telegraph)

– Iraq reconstruction’s bottom-line (Asia Times)

– UK is in freefall, warns think-tank (Guardian)

– Florida’s Nadel Missing as FBI, SEC Investigate Funds (Bloomberg)

Police set to step up hacking of home PCs

January 4, 2009 by Infinite

THE Home Office has quietly adopted a new plan to allow police across Britain routinely to hack into people’s personal computers without a warrant.

The move, which follows a decision by the European Union’s council of ministers in Brussels, has angered civil liberties groups and opposition MPs. They described it as a sinister extension of the surveillance state which drives “a coach and horses” through privacy laws.

The hacking is known as “remote searching”. It allows police or MI5 officers who may be hundreds of miles away to examine covertly the hard drive of someone’s PC at his home, office or hotel room.

Material gathered in this way includes the content of all e-mails, web-browsing habits and instant messaging.

Under the Brussels edict, police across the EU have been given the green light to expand the implementation of a rarely used power involving warrantless intrusive surveillance of private property. The strategy will allow French, German and other EU forces to ask British officers to hack into someone’s UK computer and pass over any material gleaned.

France condemns Israel land offensive in Gaza

January 3, 2009 by Infinite

PARIS (Reuters) – France condemned Israel’s move to send ground forces into the Gaza Strip on Saturday as well as continued Hamas rocket attacks and urged both Israel and the Palestinian group to accept cease-fire proposals.

“France condemns the Israeli ground offensive against Gaza as it condemns the continuation of rocket firing,” the Foreign Ministry said in a statement.

France recalls contaminated soymeal delivered to some 127 organic farms

December 9, 2008 by Infinite

France discovers 300 tonnes of contaminated Chinese soymeal

Deliveries from China have been subjected to rigorous tests since the EU issued an alert last October recommending countries tighten controls on produce from China. (AFP)

RENNES – ALMOST 300 tonnes of soymeal from China, used to feed organic poultry in western France, were taken off the market on Friday after testing positive for a toxic chemical, an import company said.

The soymeal contained melanine – the chemical at the heart of a scandal in China over contaminated milk – 50 times over the recommended limit.

‘One of the three imported batches, was carrying 116mg/kg of melamine, while the average should be 2,5 grammes. All foodstuffs made from the same materials were taken off the market at the beginning of November,’ Mr Christophe Carousse from the French farm cooperative told AFP.

Other untested batches where delivered to some 127 organic farms in the Loire region in western France.

‘Tests on meat, pork and egg-laying chickens show there is no danger to public health. Unlike dioxin, melamine does not build up in the body. There is no way of catching it through the food chain,’ veterinary expert Frederic Andre told AFP. (Hmmh.)

Company crashes set to hit record next year

December 8, 2008December 8, 2008 by Infinite

Record numbers of companies will go bankrupt next year with 200,000 insolvencies in Europe alone and “an explosion” of failed businesses in the US, according to the world’s largest credit insurer.

The US will see 62,000 companies go bust next year, compared with 42,000 this year and 28,000 last year, says a report by Euler Hermes, part of German insurer Allianz.

The absolute numbers, however, pale in comparison with the figures from western Europe, where the larger number of small companies mean insolvencies are expected to rise by a third from 149,000 last year to 197,000 next.

“The financial crisis will increase the risk of bankruptcy dramatically, particularly next year,” said Romeo Grill, chief economist at Euler Hermes. “There will be an explosion in the US but also big rises in Europe and especially the UK.”

Mr Grill said he expected most company failures in Europe to be focused around the struggling car, retail and textile sectors as well as logistics.

The country with the highest number of insolvencies expected for next year is France with 63,000. But in Europe, Spain, Ireland and the UK are forecast to see the most dramatic rises.

Nearly four times as many Spanish companies will go bust next year as in 2007 while it will be nearly double in Ireland and the UK with 640 and 38,000 businesses respectively.

China says Sarkozy will pay for meeting Dalai Lama

December 8, 2008 by Infinite

France President Nicolas Sarkozy (L) is greeted by Tibet’s exiled spiritual leader the Dalai Lama in Gdansk December 6, 2008. Sarkozy will pay a “heavy price” for meeting the Dalai Lama, a Chinese state paper said on Monday, keeping up Beijing’s vitriol over Sarkozy’s 30-minute encounter with the exiled Buddhist leader. REUTERS/Eric Feferberg/Pool

BEIJING (Reuters) – French President Nicolas Sarkozy will pay a “heavy price” for meeting the Dalai Lama, a Chinese state paper said on Monday, keeping up Beijing’s vitriol over Sarkozy’s 30-minute encounter with the exiled Buddhist leader.

Beijing brands the Dalai Lama a dangerous “splittist” for demanding self-determination for Tibet and was incensed by Sarkozy’s meeting on Saturday with the 73-year-old Buddhist monk.

Sarkozy told the Dalai Lama at their meeting in Poland that Europe shared his concerns over his homeland, which the Dalai Lama fled after a failed uprising against Chinese rule in 1959.

Chinese Vice Foreign Minister He Yafei on Sunday said it was up to France to “fully understand the damage” done to relations by Sarkozy, who holds the rotating presidency of the European Union until the end of the year.

Now the overseas edition of the People’s Daily has again warned that China will not easily forget the meeting, accusing Sarkozy of opportunism and trampling on China’s interests.

“He ignored China’s repeated entreaties and stubbornly refused to shift, plainly determined to step over China’s red line,” said an editorial in the newspaper, which acts as the voice of the ruling Communist Party.

“This malicious provocation concerns China’s core interest in national unity and inevitably will exact a heavy price.”

Robbers in drag steal €80 million from Paris diamond store in biggest French heist

December 6, 2008 by Infinite

At first sight, the man and three women who entered the Harry Winston store in Paris resembled the sophisticated international clientele who frequent this most exclusive of jewellers. But staff soon realised something was amiss – the women were really men in wigs and dresses and all four were holding guns.

They herded the 15 or so staff and customers into a corner – hitting some over the head – then loaded necklaces, brooches, watches and other valuables into their bags and made off with a haul valued at €85 million (£74 million). The biggest robbery in French history, and the second-biggest jewellery theft in Europe, took only 13 minutes.

French police, who arrived 15 minutes later, said that Harry Winston, the self-proclaimed king of diamonds and supplier to monarchs, aristocrats and film stars, had fallen victim to a highly professional and well informed gang.

The boutique, on the Avenue Montaigne in central Paris, was closed yesterday and three of the five window displays were empty. Members of France’s elite detective squad searched the premises for clues. They studied security camera footage and the alarm mechanism, which is linked to a centre in Switzerland. Witnesses told police that the robbers had spoken only French. Others said that they also spoke a second language but all agreed on the speed, efficiency and brutality of the criminals, who injured some of the staff, though they did not fire a shot.

Vladimir Putin ‘wanted to hang Georgian President Saakashvili by the balls’

November 15, 2008 by Infinite

(Dmitry Astahov/AFP/Getty Images)

Vladimir Putin reportedly wanted to hang President Saakashvili “like the Americans hanged Saddam”

Nicolas Sarkozy saved the President of Georgia from being hanged “by the balls” – a threat made last summer by Vladimir Putin, according to an account that emerged yesterday from the Élysée Palace.

The Russian Prime Minister had revealed his plans for disposing of Mr Saakashvili when Mr Sarkozy was in Moscow in August to broker a ceasefire in Georgia.

Jean-David Levitte, Mr Sarkozy’s chief diplomatic adviser, reported the exchange in a news magazine before an EU-Russia summit today. The meeting will be chaired by the French leader and President Medvedev.

With Russian tanks only 30 miles from Tbilisi on August 12, Mr Sarkozy told Mr Putin that the world would not accept the overthrow of Georgia’s Government. According to Mr Levitte, the Russian seemed unconcerned by international reaction. “I am going to hang Saakashvili by the balls,” Mr Putin declared.

Mr Sarkozy thought he had misheard. “Hang him?” – he asked. “Why not?” Mr Putin replied. “The Americans hanged Saddam Hussein.”

Mr Sarkozy, using the familiar tu, tried to reason with him: “Yes but do you want to end up like [President] Bush?” Mr Putin was briefly lost for words, then said: “Ah – you have scored a point there.”

Mr Saakashvili, who was in Paris to meet Mr Sarkozy yesterday, laughed nervously when a French radio station read him the exchange. “I knew about this scene, but not all the details. It’s funny, all the same,” he said.

France threatens to seize banks, German bail-outs escalate

November 4, 2008 by Infinite

The French state has threatened to seize control of the country’s banks and fire top staff unless they do their part to stabilise the economy by stepping up lending to companies in need.

“The banks have got to open up credit to business: they have the means to do it,” said prime minister Francois Fillon, accusing lenders of hoarding cash. “We don’t think the banks are stepping up to task as necessary. We can withdraw the credit that we have extended to them under the state’s contract with the banks, and that will put them in difficulty. At that moment the question arises whether we should take an equity stake, change their managers, and assume control over their strategy.”

Speaking on French television, he warned: “Broadly speaking, we’ll be able to judge over the next 10 days whether they are playing the game as they should, or not.”

Top world military leaders meet in Lake Placid

October 24, 2008 by Infinite

U.S. Admiral Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and top military commanders from four nations – Britain, France, Germany and Italy – flew into the Adirondack Regional Airport in Lake Clear this weekend aboard the jumbo jet that is used as Air Force 2 when the vice president is aboard. The group of powerful military leaders met in Lake Placid to discuss mutual security issues, including Afghanistan. Photo: Larry Miller

Chairman of Joint Chiefs of Staff and military leaders from several countries discuss Afghanistan and other issues.

LAKE PLACID – Some of the most powerful military commanders in the world met in Lake Placid over the weekend.

Speculation was rife after a C-32, the military equivalent to a Boeing 757 airliner, touched down Friday at the Adirondack Regional Airport in Lake Clear.

The 155-foot-long jumbo jet, which is used as Air Force 2 when the vice president is aboard, was emblazoned with “United States of America” on the side and parked on the eastern edge of the airport.

“I was contacted by the Department of Defense approximately a month ago, and they indicated they had some foreign dignitaries that they wanted to bring in through the airport,” said Ross Dubarry, the airport’s manager.

Following the landing, a motorcade led by State Police rushed Admiral Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and top military commanders from four nations – Britain, France, Germany and Italy – to a resort in Lake Placid.

Paris to quadruple number of CCTV cameras

October 20, 2008 by Infinite

Paris will quadruple the number of closed-circuit police cameras in its streets by the end of next year, after President Nicolas Sarkozy’s promise to emulate London in an attempt to track crime and terrorism threats.

While the Paris metro and rail networks already operate around 9,500 CCTV devices, police have only 330 at their disposal to survey outside public areas. The new plan, dubbed “A Thousand Cameras for Paris”, will raise that number to more than 1,200 – with most installed in high-risk areas and outside railway and underground stations.

The figure is still small compared with London, where each citizen is caught on average several hundred times a day. Britain has about four million closed-circuit security cameras compared with France’s 340,000.

The CCTV drive follows Mr Sarkozy’s pledge last autumn to follow London’s surveillance lead. “I am very impressed by the efficiency of the British police thanks to this network of cameras,” the French president said. “In my mind, there is no contradiction between respecting individual freedoms and the installation of cameras to protect everyone’s security.”

Worst slump since Great Depression

October 20, 2008 by Infinite

Major industrialised economies will suffer the worst slump since the 1930s, according to new research from Deutsche Bank.

Worst slump since Great Depression: Bud Fields and his family in their home during the Great Depression in Alabama, 1935. Photo: Corbis

The warning underlines the fact that policymakers have failed to prevent the financial crisis from turning into a full-blown economic slump. It comes as world leaders agreed to hold a summit in New York billed as the “Bretton Woods meeting for the 21st century”.

In its major assessment of the global economy’s health, Deutsche Bank also warned that Britain is even more vulnerable than the US or the euro area, as it predicted that the powerhouses of India and China would fail to support the wider global economy through the downturn.

The banks’ economists Thomas Mayer and Peter Hooper said: “We now expect a major recession for the world economy over the year ahead, with growth in the industrial countries falling to its lowest level since the Great Depression and global growth falling to 1.2pc, its lowest level since the severe downturn of the early 1980s.”

According to the International Monetary Fund, global growth of anything less than 3pc constitutes a world recession. The warning was echoed by Richard Berner of Morgan Stanley, who said: “A global recession is now under way, and risks are still pointed to the downside for commodity prices and earnings.”

Stalin planned to send a million troops to stop Hitler if Britain and France agreed pact

October 19, 2008 by Infinite

Stalin was ‘prepared to move more than a million Soviet troops to the German border to deter Hitler’s aggression just before the Second World War’

Papers which were kept secret for almost 70 years show that the Soviet Union proposed sending a powerful military force in an effort to entice Britain and France into an anti-Nazi alliance.

Such an agreement could have changed the course of 20th century history, preventing Hitler’s pact with Stalin which gave him free rein to go to war with Germany’s other neighbours.

The offer of a military force to help contain Hitler was made by a senior Soviet military delegation at a Kremlin meeting with senior British and French officers, two weeks before war broke out in 1939.

The new documents, copies of which have been seen by The Sunday Telegraph, show the vast numbers of infantry, artillery and airborne forces which Stalin’s generals said could be dispatched, if Polish objections to the Red Army crossing its territory could first be overcome.

But the British and French side – briefed by their governments to talk, but not authorised to commit to binding deals – did not respond to the Soviet offer, made on August 15, 1939. Instead, Stalin turned to Germany, signing the notorious non-aggression treaty with Hitler barely a week later.

The International Interphone Study Confirms: The Use Of Mobile Phone Is Carcinogenic

October 19, 2008 by Infinite

The official publication of the first intermediate results of the International Interphone Study from the International Research Centre on Cancer (CIRC) dependent on WHO confirms the increased tumors and cancer cases due to the use of mobile phone.

The Use Of Mobile Phone Is Carcinogenic: Here (PDF)

INTERPHONE Results latest update Oct. 08, 2008: Interphone Results Update (PDF)

Financial crisis: Christine Lagarde warned Hank Paulson to bail out Lehman Brothers

October 17, 2008 by Infinite

Christine Lagarde, the French finance minister, warned her US counterpart Hank Paulson that he had to bail out US investment bank Lehman Brothers or face global financial collapse, but her advice went unheeded.

Financial crisis: France's finance minister Christine Lagarde
Christine Lagarde, the French finance minister, warned her US counterpart Hank Paulson that he must bail out US investment bank Lehman Brothers or face global financial collapse, but her advice went unheeded. Photo: Reuters

Sources close to Mrs Lagarde said that she had called the US Treasury Secretary – a close personal friend – well before the ailing bank’s collapse imploring him to act, but he chose not to.

Lehman Brothers’ demise sparked the biggest shake-up on Wall Street in decades and sent shock waves around the world that triggered a massive bailout plan in Britain and Europe.

Mrs Lagarde – attributed with playing a key role in brokering a bailout deal among G7 finance ministers in Washington last weekend – dubbed Mr Paulson’s decision to let the bank go under “horrendous” as it triggered panic in markets and banks to the brink of a 1929-style financial meltdown.

In an interview with the Daily Telegraph, she warned that the world’s hedge funds could be the next institutions to be hit by the financial turmoil.

Mrs Lagarde, a perfect English speaker, said that governments must be “vigilant” over the health of hedge funds. “Initially everybody thought the hedge fund sector would be the first one to actually cause the collapse. They are vastly unregulated, they have been operating at the fringes, at the margin, and we need to be careful that there is no contamination effect,” she said.

Her warning will send a shiver through the $2 trillion (£1.15billion) hedge fund industry, which has doubled in size in the last three years and proved to be one of the most powerful forces in the global financial system.

Europe stuns with €1.5 trillion bank rescue, as France plays role of saviour

October 14, 2008 by Infinite

Germany, France, Italy, Spain, Holland and Austria have joined forces to launch the greatest bank bail-out in history, offering over €1.5 trillion in guarantees and fresh capital in a “shock and awe” blitz to halt the credit panic.

French President Nicolas Sarkozy Photo: PHILIPPE WOJAZER

The move – unveiled simultaneously in the six states to maximise the show of unity – throws the full weight of the eurozone behind global efforts to stem the crisis.

The move gave a tremendous boost to bourses across Europe, lifting the Euro Stoxx index by 9.53pc in the biggest one-day rally ever.

The pan-European plan – totalling over $2 trillion, or £1.17 trillion – completes the third leg of a dramatic restructuring of finance across the Western world. Sovereign states have now absorbed the brunt of the credit risk in half the global economy.

Europe to US: You messed up the rescue, too

October 13, 2008 by Infinite

The plans for a massive bank bailout by European governments differ strikingly from the U.S. approach.

PARIS (Fortune) — First you mess up the world’s financial system. Then you blow the rescue of it. Now let’s show you how to do it properly.

That, in a nutshell, is the less-than-flattering message European governments are sending to the U.S. as they mount their own gigantic bank bailout. The plans, announced Monday after two weeks of dithering, involve Britain, Germany, France and some others recapitalizing national banks that require help, and providing state guarantees and other measures to kick-start the stalled credit market. The details are strikingly different from the U.S. approach adopted by U.S. Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson and the Federal Reserve Board. And there’s a big reason for that: The Europeans think Paulson got it badly wrong, and have watched aghast as he failed to restore confidence in the world’s financial system.

EU Nations Commit 1.3 Trillion Euros to Bank Bailouts

October 13, 2008 by Infinite

Oct. 13 (Bloomberg) — France, Germany, Spain, the Netherlands and Austria committed 1.3 trillion euros ($1.8 trillion) to guarantee bank loans and take stakes in lenders, racing to prevent the collapse of the financial system.

The announcements came as Britain took majority stakes today in Royal Bank of Scotland Group Plc and HBOS Plc. The coordinated steps followed a pledge yesterday by European leaders to bolster market confidence as the global economy slides toward recession.

“What it should do is stabilize the banking system,” said Peter Hahn, a fellow at London’s Cass Business School and former managing director at Citigroup Inc. “Will it stop us from having a recession? No, nothing is going to stop us from having a recession.”

Only state intervention can save us now, says Merkel

October 12, 2008 by Infinite

BERLIN: Only the state can restore trust to financial markets now, German Chancellor Angela Merkel was quoted as saying on Sunday amid reports that Berlin was about to unveil a huge rescue package for its banks.

“Only action by the state is capable of restoring the necessary trust,” Merkel was quoted as saying by the Bild am Sonntag weekly following talks on Saturday in France with President Nicolas Sarkozy.

“In this it is important that countries do not act unilaterally but that we coordinate at European and international level and then implement the measures within our national responsibilities,” Merkel said.

Glenn Beck: There is a global meltdown coming. It is a global depression.

October 11, 2008 by Infinite

CNN’s Glenn Beck warns of the New World Order

“There is a global meltdown coming. It is a global depression. And one world currency and one world financial system is the endgame… China said last week they want one global currency. France said yesterday they want one world order – a ‘New World Order’ at the end of this event.”

Added: Oct. 09, 2008

Source: YouTube

France’s former elite go on trial over arms trade

October 7, 2008 by Infinite

The son of a former French president, an Israeli-Russian billionaire and a tycoon with ties to Arizona’s jet set were among the headliners yesterday as 42 defendants went on trial in Paris, accused in a worldwide web of trafficked arms to Angola, money laundering and kickbacks.

Defense lawyers and Angola’s government are trying to stop the show, however, arguing the trial has no right to go on.

Prosecutors allege that between 1993 and 1998, two key suspects – French magnate Pierre Falcone, a longtime resident of Scottsdale, Arizona, and Arkady Gaydamak, an Israeli businessman based in France at the time – organized a total of $791 million in Russian arms sales to Angola, a breach of French government rules.

Most of the other suspects are accused of receiving money or gifts, undeclared to tax authorities, from a company run by Falcone in exchange for political or commercial favors. Investigators say the corruption grew into a tangle of laundered money and parallel diplomacy that left a stain on France’s relations with Africa.

Among the defendants who filed into a Paris courthouse Monday were icons of France’s political elite – including late President Francois Mitterrand’s eldest son, Jean-Christophe, and an economic adviser to current President Nicolas Sarkozy, Jacques Attali.

BNP Paribas to take control of Fortis

October 6, 2008 by Infinite

FRENCH bank BNP Paribas has confirmed it has taken control of ailing finance group Fortis’s arms in Belgium and Luxembourg to create the “leading European bank in terms of deposits.”

The deal, thrashed out over a weekend of intense talks, leaves the Belgian and Luxembourg governments with reduced holdings in Fortis, which they partly nationaised a week earlier.

Under the deal, announced by Belgian and BNP officials in Brussels and official sources in Luxembourg, France’s biggest bank will take up to 75 per cent of Fortis’s Belgian operation leaving the other 25 per cent, a blocking minority, in the hands of the Belgian Government.

On the Luxembourg side, BNP Paribas will take 66 per cent of the shares leaving the Grand Duchy with 33 per cent, the source said.

Europe fights financial storm as bank deal collapses

October 5, 2008 by Infinite

Nicolas Sarkozy (C) flanked by Angela Merkel (L) and Gordon Brown

PARIS (AFP) – The leaders of Europe’s four main economic powers vowed to protect fragile banks in their fight against the global credit crisis as the biggest rescue in German financial history collapsed.

France, Germany, Britain and Italy put on a united front, promising a more coordinated approach to the credit crunch, although Germany’s Chancellor Angela Merkel insisted states would mainly act individually.

World economic crisis: France moves into recession

October 4, 2008 by Infinite

The French premier, Francois Fillon, today warned that the world was “on the edge of the abyss” as his country moved into an official recession.

Fillon’s comments, blaming an “irresponsible” financial system, came as the Dutch government seized control of bancassurer Fortis’s Netherlands operations in a €16.8bn (£13.06bn) deal greed with the Belgian and Luxembourg authorities.

The effective nationalisation, forced upon the governments by the scale of the financial meltdown, includes Fortis’s interests in Dutch bank ABN Amro.

The shock decision came just days after the three governments injected €11.2bn into Fortis, Belgium’s biggest bank, to keep it afloat.

Medvedev: Georgia attack is ‘Russia’s 9/11’

September 12, 2008 by Infinite

Mr Medvedev said he hoped lessons would be learned from August’s events

Russian President Dmitry Medvedev has described Georgia’s assault on South Ossetia as Russia’s 9/11.

He said the world had learnt lessons from the attacks in the US on 11 September 2001 and hoped the same would happen after events in the Caucasus.

Reports say Russian troops are showing signs of preparing to pull back from inside Georgia.