Up To Date france

A French Naval frigate has taken the lead role in an operation that saw the capture of 28 pirates in seas off Somalia.

The Nivose headed up an EU Naval Force operation in the vital shipping lane that has been plagued by piracy in recent months.

The suspects seized are believed to have been behind a number of failed attacks on vessels in the Indian Ocean in recent weeks.

The 35 prisoners were taken over the course of for missions in the area.

The first took place in waters between the Seychelles and Mombasa, Kenya and and 11 suspect were seized after being tracked by one of the Nivose’s helicopters.

On boarding the vessel a French naval team found what was described as “pirate paraphernalia” as well as a rocket launcher and grappling hooks,

The second seizure came after pirates attempted to halt a fishing boat in the waters, the attack was unsuccessful after the target vessel collided with the pirate boat and sank it – leaving six pirates to be plucked from the waters by the navy personnel.

A second attack on a fishing boat caused air and sea units to be scrambled to the scene and a further eleven suspects seized.

EU Naval Force spokesman commander John Harbour told reporters that attacks in the region were on the up as the monsoon season came to an end making more favourable sea conditions for the opportunists.

The French president’s popularity has hit an all time low, according to polls released this weekend. A survey conducted by CSA and published in Le Parisien put the president’s current approval rating at just 36 per cent, the lowest it has fallen since he gained office in 2007.

And political pundits are predicting heavy losses for his party in the upcoming local elections due to be held later this month.

The drop is likely to be due to the continuing problems with the French economy, which is suffering from massive public debts and high unemployment.

Economists last month warned that France could lose its top level public borrowing credit rating unless debt levels were reigned in after the governments multi-billion euro injections into the flagging economy – which were funded by public borrowing.

And figures released in the last few days showed that French unemployment is at its highest level in ten years, with a quarter of male school leavers currently out of work.

Opposition spokesman Benoit Hamon said that the timing of the upcoming elections would allow the voting public to send a clear message to Sarkozy’s government and added: “The government’s strategy has led to more poverty and more unemployment so the regional elections have come at the right moment.”

While political analyst Stephane Rozes commented: “A positive trend is opening up for all those who see themselves as alternatives to Nicolas Sarkozy, both on the left and the right.”

The unemployment level in France rose to 10 per cent in the fourth quarter, bringing it to its highest level in a decade.

According to figures released by the country’s national statistics office, the French unemployment rate rose by 0.5 per cent in the least quarter, up from 9.5 per cent at the last calculation.

The number of people without jobs in France has not been as high as it is currently since 1999.

The unemployment figure in France has been climbing steadily for the past seven quarters, figures from Insee confirm, a development that will come as a knock to Nicolas Sarkozy’s government, after the president promised panel members and viewers  on a live television show in January that unemployment would begin to fall in the near future.

The broken promise has not gone unnoticed by the opposition who released a statement yesterday saying: “”Where is the drop in unemployment promised by Nicolas Sarkozy?”

The jump in unemployment is doubly disappointing for the French government who have deepened public debt in order to finance a €35 billion injection into the French economy in order to boost recovery from the recent credit crunch.

However finance minister Christine Largarde told reporters that despite the rise in joblessness, France continued to perform better than many other countries affected by the global financial turmoil.