PARIS (Reuters) – The French government has found an industrialist willing to invest 400 million euros ($516.4 million) to renovate ArcelorMittal’s (ISPA.AS: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) Florange steelworks in northeast France, a minister said.

Raising pressure on the group to agree to a sale, Industry Minister Arnaud Montebourg told lawmakers the interested party was a private investor from the steel industry who wanted to inject money into the site with the financial backing of the French state.

PARIS, Nov 28 (Reuters) – The French government has found an
industrialist willing to invest 400 million euros ($516.4
million) to renovate ArcelorMittal’s Florange
steelworks in northeast France, a minister said.

Raising pressure on the group to agree to a sale, Industry
Minister Arnaud Montebourg told lawmakers the interested party
was a private investor from the steel industry who wanted to
inject money into the site with the financial backing of the
French state.

PARIS (Reuters) – Former French president Jacques Chirac and his prime minister Dominique de Villepin have denied accusations by a one-time aide that they took millions of dollars in illicit cash handouts from African leaders.

In explosive — if hard to verify — testimony seven months ahead of a presidential election, lawyer Robert Bourgi told a radio station on Monday that he had handed them some $20 million from heads of state of former French colonies. The secret campaign donations were sometimes concealed in African drums or crammed into suitcases. Both Chirac and Villepin plan to sue.

PARIS (Reuters) – A French court handed out a 6,000 euro ($8,421) suspended fine to John Galliano on Thursday after finding him guilty of anti-Semitic behavior , marking the end in a fall from grace for the former head designer of fashion house Dior.

For Galliano, whose worth is estimated in the millions of dollars, the penalty — suspended for several years — avoids any financial burden and is unlikely to constrain his liberty.

PARIS (Reuters) – A French court handed out a 6,000 euro ($8,421) suspended fine to John Galliano on Thursday after finding him guilty of anti-Semitic behavior, marking the end in a fall from grace for the former head designer of fashion house Dior.

For Galliano, whose worth is estimated in the millions of dollars, the penalty — suspended for several years — avoids any financial burden and is unlikely to constrain his liberty.

PARIS (Reuters) – France’s top anti-terrorism judge says Syria could lash out at the West in response to growing pressure for an end to Bashar al-Assad’s rule.

“Syria is scary,” Marc Trevidic told Reuters in an interview as the world marks ten years since the 9/11 attacks on New York’s World Trade Center and the Pentagon.

PARIS (Reuters) – France and Germany unveiled far-reaching plans on Tuesday for closer euro zone integration and said joint euro bonds may be a longer-term option, leaving the currency area vulnerable to more attacks from traders.

Under heavy pressure to restore confidence in the euro zone following a dramatic market slump, President Nicolas Sarkozy and Chancellor Angela Merkel stopped short of increasing the bloc’s rescue fund but vowed to stand side-by-side in defending the euro and laid the groundwork for future fiscal union.

PARIS (Reuters) – France and Germany unveiled far-reaching plans on Tuesday for closer euro zone integration and said joint euro bonds may be a longer-term option, leaving the currency area vulnerable to more attacks from traders.

Under heavy pressure to restore confidence in the euro zone following a dramatic market slump, President Nicolas Sarkozy and Chancellor Angela Merkel stopped short of increasing the bloc’s rescue fund but vowed to stand side-by-side in defending the euro and laid the groundwork for future fiscal union.

PARIS (Reuters) – The chairman of the European Securities and Markets Authority said while there was no plan to extend a ban on short-selling financial stocks to other countries, such a move could not be ruled out.

ESMA Chairman Steven Maijoor told Reuters TV the curbs, brought in to rein in wild fluctuations in European stock values amid a flurry of rumours, would be in place for a while and would not be permanent.

PARIS (Reuters) – General David Petraeus, Washington’s new intelligence chief, said on Wednesday he trusted Pakistan as an ally in the fight against al Qaeda and gave a cautiously upbeat overview of the war in Afghanistan which he led for the past year.

Petraeus, who handed over command of foreign troops in Afghanistan on Monday, spoke in support of Pakistan’s military leadership in the midst of heightened tensions between the United States and its at-times reluctant regional ally.