French President Nicolas Sarkozy broke from his vacation in this leafy lakeside town to deflect criticism about his allegedly lavish US summer break and a controversial arms deal with Libya.
After avoiding a platoon of French reporters for days, a tanned and smiling Sarkozy emerged in front of Wolfeboro's town hall to fend off accusations of a link between a major arms deal struck by European aerospace giant EADS with Libya, and an affair involving foreign medics jailed there.
The recent release by Libya of the six medics, who were imprisoned on charges of infecting hundreds of children with the AIDS virus, was partly brokered by Sarkozy's wife Cecilia.
French Defense Minister Herve Morin confirmed the US$405 million arms deal on Friday and the opposition Socialist Party quickly demanded a parliamentary enquiry to decide if France offered the contracts to Libya to obtain the medics' freedom.
"It was totally transparent," Sarkozy said of the contracts. "EADS has been discussing them, with full authorizations, for 18 months."
"What do they criticize me for? Getting contracts? Creating jobs for French workers?" he said.
Refusing to answer questions in English -- "My English is so bad," he told one non French-speaking reporter -- Sarkozy would not confirm he might meet US President George W. Bush at the Bush vacation home in Maine.
He rebuffed criticism of his stay at an allegedly US$20,000-a-week vacation mansion on the shore of Lake Winnipesaukee.
"I have friends who have vacationed here for years. They rented a house and they invited us," he said. "I came on a regular flight. My family came on a regular flight."
"Nine-hundred thousand French go to the United States every year, and I am just one of them," he said.
CONFRONTATION: The water cannon attack was the second this month on the Philippine supply boat ‘Unaizah May 4,’ after an incident on March 5 The China Coast Guard yesterday morning blocked a Philippine supply vessel and damaged it with water cannons near a reef off the Southeast Asian country, the Philippines said. The Philippine military released video of what it said was a nearly hour-long attack off the Second Thomas Shoal (Renai Shoal, 仁愛暗沙) in the contested South China Sea, where Chinese ships have unleashed water cannons and collided with Philippine vessels in similar standoffs in the past few months. The China Coast Guard and other vessels “once again harassed, blocked, deployed water cannons, and executed dangerous maneuvers” against a routine rotation and resupply mission to
GLOBAL COMBAT AIR PROGRAM: The potential purchasers would be limited to the 15 nations with which Tokyo has signed defense partnership and equipment transfer deals Japan’s Cabinet yesterday approved a plan to sell future next-generation fighter jets that it is developing with the UK and Italy to other nations, in the latest move away from the country’s post-World War II pacifist principles. The contentious decision to allow international arms sales is expected to help secure Japan’s role in the joint fighter jet project, and is part of a move to build up the Japanese arms industry and bolster its role in global security. The Cabinet also endorsed a revision to Japan’s arms equipment and technology transfer guidelines to allow coproduced lethal weapons to be sold to nations
Thousands of devotees, some in a state of trance, gathered at a Buddhist temple on the outskirts of Bangkok renowned for sacred tattoos known as Sak Yant, paying their respects to a revered monk who mastered the practice and seeking purification. The gathering at Wat Bang Phra Buddhist temple is part of a Thai Wai Khru ritual in which devotees pay homage to Luang Phor Pern, the temple’s formal abbot, who died in 2002. He had a reputation for refining and popularizing the temple’s Sak Yant tattoo style. The idea that tattoos confer magical powers has existed in many parts of Asia
ON ALERT: A Russian cruise missile crossed into Polish airspace for about 40 seconds, the Polish military said, adding that it is constantly monitoring the war to protect its airspace Ukraine’s capital, Kyiv, and the western region of Lviv early yesterday came under a “massive” Russian air attack, officials said, while a Russian cruise missile breached Polish airspace, the Polish military said. Russia and Ukraine have been engaged in a series of deadly aerial attacks, with yesterday’s strikes coming a day after the Russian military said it had seized the Ukrainian village of Ivanivske, west of Bakhmut. A militant attack on a Moscow concert hall on Friday that killed at least 133 people also became a new flash point between the two archrivals. “Explosions in the capital. Air defense is working. Do not