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France revealed Tuesday that it had convinced former Thai prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra to cancel a speech in Paris regarding the political crisis in Thailand. However, the organisers of the event insisted that it would not abandon the event.

“Thaksin Shinawatra assured us he would do what was asked”, said French Foreign Ministry Spokesman Bernard Valero to reporters. He was referring to demands made by French authorities last week about not speaking in Paris on 31 May.

Valero mentioned that the address to journalists, which was set up by an unpopular think-tank called the Centre of Political and Foreign Affairs, “was no longer planned”, and that Thaksin “told us he would not come back” to France.

However, Fabien Baussart–the leader of the group that organised the speech, told AFP: “This event is still scheduled and it will take place whether the foreign ministry wants it to or not”.

“It is an invitation to a private place which the foreign ministry is not in charge of”, he continued. “The ministry is going after him and I’d really like to know why”.

France said Thursday it had advised the deposed Thai prime minister to refrain from making public speeches during his private travel to France in consideration of the political situation in Thailand.

A court in Thailand issued on Tuesday a warrant of arrest for Thaksin. The former Thai minister faces terrorism charges, which is punishable by death. Thaksin allegedly bankrolled the protests and incited unrest in Thailand.

Valero mentioned that France wasn’t bound by the warrant as of the present. After the statements on Thursday, the organisers behind the event said Thaksin temporarily went to London.

French President Nicolas Sarkozy will seek to reduce France’s retirement age, according to aides, as workers set up a protest day against the proposal which is part of his unannounced austerity programme.

Facing the woes of sovereign debt crisis, several of France’s neighbours in Europe have declared massive cuts on spending in an attempt to lessen their piling deficits as well as restore the region’s stability.

Sarkozy has exercised more caution, insisting that the three-year freeze on spending isn’t an austerity measure. However, any threat to France’s traditional 60-year retirement age will have to overcome tough opposition.

The reduction of the minimum age to receive full-state pension from 65 years to 60 was among the key reforms made by Socialist president Francois Mitterrand’s government in 1984.

“This time, it’s war”, said the financial daily La Tribune after a series of leaks verified the long-suspected plan of Sarkozy to make later retirement among the key goals of his term’s second half.

Labour unions as well as left-wing opposition are gearing up with their response. France will be able to gauge their strength on Thursday, as they are set to hold large-scale rallies in the streets nationwide.

The right-wing governments’ attempts in the past decade to revamp state finance and lessen entitlements have been derailed most of the time by large-scale protests. However, Sarkozy’s backers insist that changes in pension are necessary.

Poland has sent Russia an invite to join a “group of friends” of the EU’s Eastern Partnership with the ex-soviet nations, said Polish Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski Monday.

“Poland has proposed to create a group of friends for the Eastern Partnership, bringing together countries like Russia that want to participate in programmes related to the Partnership and be informed about them”, Sikorski said to reporters right after an EU ministerial summit Monday regarding the Eastern Partnership in Sopot, the Polish Baltic Sea port.

Unveiled by the 27-nation European Union in Prague in May 2009, the Eastern Partnership includes six former Soviet nations: Ukraine, Moldova, Belarus, Armenia, Azerbaijan and Georgia.

The partnership aims to facilitate multi-lateral summits, the establishment of a free-trade zone, the developmental liberalisation of EU visa regimes, and use of EU budgets for different projects within the region

The partnership is “everything except a ‘cordon sanitaire’ against Russia”, said French European Affairs Minister Pierre Lellouche to AFP after the talks.

“For us Russia is a friend and partner of Europe and of France and we absolutely believe that Ukraine should and must have good relations with all of its neighbours be they in the east or west”, he added.

“Naturally we are keen to see democratic life in Ukraine (…) continue”. We also would like to ensure “transparency” within the natural gas industry “as the European economy is linked to the stability of the transit of natural gas (from Russia) via Ukraine”.

A Mauritanian prosecutor asked Monday the Nouakchott criminal court to give the three young males suspected of killing four French nationals in 2007 a death sentence.

Defendants Sidi Ould Sidna (22), Maarouf Ould Haiba (28), and Mohamed Ould Chabarnou (29), are the primary suspects in the shooting of five French nationals in Aleg. Four of the five victims died on 24 December 2007.

During the trial’s opening last Sunday, the three suspects claimed to be “soldiers of Al-Qaeda” and admitted receiving training in the organisation’s camps. However, they deny shooting the French tourists.

“I am a soldier of Al-Qaeda, I say it with pride. I have been trained in their camps”, said Ould Sidna, one of the three suspects, during the trial at the capital of Mauritania.

The three suspects are charged with criminal association, belonging to an armed gang that performed terrorist attacks against foreign nationals and murders.

The court is doing the trial of 12 Mauritanian men connected to the murders. Two are tried despite remaining at large.

Since the French tourists’ murders, the usually peaceful Mauritania has been the subject of several attacks, kidnappings, and murders acknowledged by Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM).

Ould Chabarnou and Ould Sidna were both taken into custody in January 2008. They were captured in Guinea-Bissau, a west African nation, through the assistance of French intelligence.

Ould Haiba was captured later in Nouakchott, the capital of Mauritania. Early on Sunday, the same court also sentenced a male suspect to 10 years in jail for links to the north African wing of Al-Qaeda.

Minister Bernard Kouchner, the foreign minister of France, welcomed on Sunday an ease of tension between Israel and its surrounding Arab neighbours during his visit to Damascus and Beirut. The French foreign minister urged the nations involved to respect the 2006 ceasefire in Lebanon.

“Nobody is speaking of tension any more, and so this tension has eased”, he said during a news conference held in Beirut after meetings with Syrian and Lebanese leaders. The French diplomat said he was “rather reassured”.

Kouchner has the US-meditated indirect talks between the Palestinians and Israelis to thank for. He also gave credit to the “clarification” of the controversial nuclear programme of Iran.

“We cannot be resigned to a constant state of tension, even if it is decreasing”, he said to journalists while on his plane bound to Beirut after talks in Damascus early on Sunday with President Bashar al-Assad of Syria.

Kouchner held talks in Beirut with Prime Minister Saad Hariri and President Michel Sleiman before heading to Cairo to talk with his Spanish and Egyptian counterparts, Miguel Angel Moratinos and Ahmed Abul Gheit.

“Minister Kouchner informed the president that his regional tour aims to ease recent tension, which began to decline over the past few days especially as concerns Israel’s threats”, explained Sleiman’s office at the end of the meeting.

The French foreign minister, who informs reporters with him during his travel, renewed a call for all parties to respect UN Security Council Resolution 1701. The resolution ended a 2006 month-long war between Israel and Lebanon’s Hezbollah.

The foreign ministers of France, Egypt, and Spain stated Sunday that a Mediterranean Union summit was cancelled later in 2010 to make sure that it won’t be affected by the turmoil in the Middle East.

According to Miguel Angel Moratinos of Spain, the decision to move the summit of the Union for the Mediterranean (UPM) from June to November was intended to “guarantee the full success of the UPM summit”.

The Spanish diplomat, who mentioned in the past week that the cancellation was aimed to allocate sufficient time for development in the indirect talks between the Palestinians and Israelis, further mentioned that the setback wasn’t an indication that the Union was “working to reduce ambitions”.

Meanwhile, Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Abul Gheit spoke to reporters and said that the summit’s cancellation would “allow the three parties to get enhanced support”.

Visiting French minister Bernard Kouchner stated that “no crisis” exists and that “we are working for success in November”.

France and Egypt are co-chairs of the Mediterranean Union. Spain, meanwhile, is hosting the headquarters of the group. It is also the holder of the European Union presidency at the present.

The ministry of Moratinos said on Thursday that the three nations have all agreed to cancel the summit. They also decided that Barcelona would now be hosting it later on November.

On Sunday, Moratinos said: “We’ve been through some difficulties” since the launch of the group. He added: “There is a very difficult situation in the Middle East”.

French President Nicolas Sarkozy and newly elected British Prime Minister David Cameron started their so-called new partnership on Thursday, as both heads of state vowed to cooperated to implement a new international banking regulation.

Europe had some concerns regarding Cameron’s initial trip as prime minster due to the Conservative leader’s eurosceptic reputation. However, Sarkozy was smiling as he received the British prime minister at the Elysee.

After a brief working dinner, the two leaders attend a press conference to put emphasis on the several ways they could cooperate amidst the financial crisis currently affecting Europe.

“One of the areas in which the president and me have very much a shared agenda is making sure that at the forthcoming G8 and G20 we really look at reform of our banking system”, Cameron said to reporters.

Britain and France will be attending the G20 summit at Toronto together with the most powerful economies in the world in June. The French president wants to utilise his group presidency in 2011 to reform the global financial system.

Cameron stated that his country and France would support “banking levy” to get back funds given to banks that have already made profit after the bail-outs.

He also added that both he and Sarkozy supported American President Barack Obama’s view that high street retail banks must not be involved with very risky trades, which he refers to as “casino banking”.

On Thursday, French President Nicolas Sarkozy denied his country is having a rift with Germany about the European debt crisis, as divisions in the eurozone shook world markets and protestors reject Spain and Greece’s austerity measures.

Sarkozy insisted that no “disagreements” exist between him and German Chancellor Angela Merkel regarding the overhauling of the eurozone due to the recent woes of the financial market regarding the unity of the EU during times of crisis.

Sarkozy mentioned he supported Merkel’s urge for tougher punishment against countries that exceed the allowable levels of budget deficit, including the withdrawal of voting rights and EU funds.

“In terms of our relations with Angela Merkel, we’re doing everything to ensure that they are in harmony, that they are complementary, that they are full and that they show a common ambition”, Sarkozy explained.

“We have no disagreements together. That’s why we talk together”, he said to reporters.

Despite the efforts made by the two biggest economies in Europe to stop the crisis, global stock markets endured a new sell-off because of the surprising rise in jobless claims in the US.

The head of Germany also moved earlier to impose tax on financial markets to help limit excesses, which are blamed for the economic slump worldwide.

“We have now stated that we will campaign for a tax on the financial markets and we will campaign for that at our (G20) summit in Canada”, Chancellor Angela Merkel said during a financial regulation summit.

On Wednesday, French First Lady Carla Bruni-Sarkozy headed a global campaign to prevent children from being born with HIV by the year 2015.

The Global Fund, which utilises government donations to combat TB, HIV, and malaria, encourages people to allow world leaders to know through a petition online that they are backing the pledging of public money for the cause.

With enough financial support, the fund believes it can eliminate cases of newborns infected with HIV.

“Life is beautiful, don’t allow AIDS to destroy it before it has even started”, stated President Nicolas Sarkozy’s wife in a campaign ad.

“It’s a battle of hope… with your help we can give every mother and every child in the world the right to hope”, Bruni-Sarkozy further added. The first lady of France also serves as an ambassador of the Fund.

In 2009, more than 430,000 babies got the HIV infection from their mothers.

If not treated, an HIV-infected child only has an average lifespan of around two years.

Around 45% of females get treatment but still, “we must do better”, said Michel Kazatchkine, the director of Global Fund.

Unveiled in Paris, the campaign is featuring an animated series which can be seen at www.youtube.com/bornhivfree.

Sir Paul McCartney will also be having a fundraising concert in New York by the end of June. Gathering of online signatures will be done until 5 October at www.bornhivfree.org.

A hearing for the extradition case of Diab, a Lebanese-Canadian citizen arrested for his purported part in bombing in Paris back in 1980 that claimed the lives of four individuals has been stalled, said his lawyer to the AFP on Wednesday.

The hearing was supposed to start in the middle of June. However, the defense asked for the bail conditions to be lessened. They also asked for a chance to challenge the recent evidence to be used by French authorities.

Arguments that could last for several days would be heard in the Ontario Supreme Court beginning 21 June, said defense lawyer Donald Bayne to AFP.

This week, France pulled out evidence from a pair of handwriting experts who were discredited by witnesses of the defense. Now, prosecutors are asking for the presentation of opinions by a new expert on handwriting.

The arrest occurred in November 2008 in a suburb located at Canada’s capital based on the request of the French government. French authorities want Diab to be extradited to France so that he could face charges of wilful destruction of property, attempted murder, and murder.

The suspect remains free under strict conditions for bail, like wearing a monitoring anklet that costs him $2,500 per month.

Back in October 1980, a bomb was fitted in a motorcycle saddlebag just outside the Copernic Street synagogue in the tony 16th arrondissement. Three French nationals as well as a young Israeli female died in the explosion.

Despite the setback, a new date has yet to be chosen.