Word: corsica
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...SOUTHERN EUROPE Winter Hits with a Vengeance Winter came suddenly to southern Europe. Snowstorms swept Mediterranean coasts, cutting off villages in Corsica and bringing temperatures of -10?C to Turin and Madrid. Greece was badly affected, with more than 300 northern villages snowed in, all northern airports closed and 2 m drifts halting a train for 17 hours near the northern village of Petrades. In Turkey a man froze to death in Istanbul as snow cut off access to thousands of villages. Heavy rain caused floods that claimed seven lives...
...nationalist violence and organized crime that have plagued the island for over two decades, one consequence - limited decentralization - goes against some of the most sacred tenets of French political ideology: concentration of power in Paris and insistence on the uniformity of French identity. The proposal would give Corsica's local assembly greater autonomy by allowing it to adapt certain national laws to the "specificities of the island." It would also permit the assembly more flexibility in managing Corsica's economy and grant its 250,000 residents tax exemptions to favor investment and growth. The bill also encourages instruction...
...bill's backers hope that giving nationalists a greater stake in the system will induce them to end their struggle against "French colonialism." Opponents counter it rewards the thuggery, violence and widespread corruption that nationalists and criminals used to make Corsica an unmanageable headache for French governments since 1975. Conservative detractors like Nicole Ameline, spokeswoman for the centrist Liberal Democracy Party, argued the bill legitimizes "violence as a means of gaining political recognition." Other rightists condemned it as "preparing independence." The loudest protests came from Jospin's own leftist majority. Former Interior Minister Jean-Pierre Chevènement - who resigned...
...vote for the bill, while 30 others aided it by abstaining. That conservative support reflected beliefs that French political and economic modernization lies in extending previous transfers of decision-making power to regional authorities. Earlier French devolution programs were productive. But in tailoring decentralization to regional particularities, the Corsica bill challenges constitutional tenets of national indivisibility and equality...
...Anything short of a clean start for Corsica could prove disastrous. It would be a travesty of the bill's intent if nationalists ended up sharing power on the island while still supporting more radical underground groups accused of perpetrating violence and crime. That would likely provoke a get-tough reversal of Corsican policy by Paris - and derail projects to speed devolution to other regions...