Word: french
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...read: "The extent and gravity of the charges has grown... The payments based on the old and the new evidence are therefore more than three times greater than those based on the old evidence alone." The charges concern allegations that Zuma was involved in the payments of bribes by French arms company Thint during a 2000 deal; in 2005, one of Zuma's former aides was convicted of soliciting a bribe from the same firm. Zuma has long claimed the charges are the result of a conspiracy against him, and has said he would only step down from his position...
...Sarkozy's welcome of Gaddafi concerns a bigger ticket issue than human rights - arms deals worth potentially about $5.86 billion and thousands of French jobs. Gaddafi has agreed to negotiate exclusively with France for six months to buy 14 Rafale fighter jets, made by Dassault Aviation, and 35 combat and transport helicopters. For France, the deal is crucial in reviving its faltering arms industry against the United States and Russia. Six years after the first Rafale jet was built, France has yet to sell a single new fighter abroad...
...political backing - France has few natural allies to whom to sell weapons. Two months ago Morocco - France's former colony and close neighbor - rejected the Rafale and instead bought Lockheed Martin's F-16 fighter jet, which has seen years of combat, including in Afghanistan and Iraq. "Even the French Air Force hasn't bought all the Rafale jets it promised," says Andrew Brookes, military analyst for the International Institute for Strategic Studies in London. "It's like buying a car that no one has bought from a showroom." For the same reason, France has been squeezed...
...Gaddafi has emerged has the bright hope for French weapons. The defense minister Morin told reporters on Thursday that the government has learned bitter lessons, like France's failure to coordinate negotiations at a top level, or to streamline its cumbersome bureaucracy. "We have to make sure we are in tune, speak the same language, and are quick enough not to be overtaken by someone else," Morin said. Libya's negotiations will be run out of the Elysee Palace, rather the Defense Ministry...
...said. Yet other doubts could also emerge, including the real danger of selling lethal weaponry to an uncertain ally, who has only just emerged from a very long isolation. Says Brookes: "If Libyan Rafales were to end up with a third party who used them against Western forces, the French government could be seriously embarrassed." More embarrassing, perhaps, would be losing the deal altogether...