Word: frenchness
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...Officially, that closes the book on the matter, which arose from a brief relationship that Strauss-Kahn initiated in January with the IMF's then-head of its Africa department, Hungarian economist Piroska Nagy. Now the question is whether the former French Finance Minister and Socialist Party presidential hopeful can move past the considerable distraction the scandal has caused, and turn to the rising chorus of voices calling to make the IMF central to the world's effort to face the surging financial and economic crisis...
...After obtaining assurances from the local officials in Somalia that they'd be put on trial and that their human rights would be respected, we delivered them to the custody of local authorities," said French Defense Ministry spokesman General Christian Baptiste. "This operation is sending a message to pirates in the region that continuing their activity will be getting more dangerous and expensive for them...
...France has made battling the Somali pirates a major priority of its forces in the region. (France maintains a permanent military base in nearby Djibouti.) The French and NATO vessels will patrol the waters off Somalia under a U.N. mandate to escort commercial ships and those carrying humanitarian supplies to drought-stricken areas, and to scour the area for pirates before they strike. Last April, French forces had stormed the luxury cruiser Le Ponant to rescue 30 vacationers and crew members taken hostage by Somali pirates. Six of those pirates, plus six others captured after another French hostage intervention...
...difference between the captives taken for trial in Paris and those handed over in Puntland, says Baptiste, is that French law allow those who have attacked French citizens to be tried, whereas its jurisdiction would not easily stretch to pirates waiting to strike in far-off international waters. And while Baptiste does not say as much, there's reason to believe that the French may have learned enough in the course of interrogating the nine to make it politically dangerous for their warlord masters to set them free. "We know who the pirates are, where they come from, what clan...
...French are hoping that if the nine are tried and jailed by the Somali authorities, the piracy industry could begin to unravel. Right now, though, the pirates of Puntland don't seem to be feeling any need to panic...