Salut!

Cuba beckons. No meetings with Fidel planned, none with Hemingway's inspiration possible

Salut! is off on holiday.

Cuba is the destination, on a tour promoted by the operator as Revolutionary Road. It takes in Havana, of course, and that is a city I adore on the strength on one brief visit, and also the provincial capital that bears the name of Guantanamo.

Charlie Hebdo and the Kouachis: the path to mass murder

The wave of emotion that followed the Charlie Hebdo massacre and related killings has subsided. It was not universal, as we have seen from violent anti-French demonstrations in Pakistan and Niger, a series of triumphant tweets from apologists for extremism and the refusal of some Muslim children in France to observe a minute's silence for victims. With the help of a colleague, Erin Conroy, who is based in Paris, and a variety of published, broadcast and official sources, I have tried to piece together* the story of how Said and Cherif Kouachi became cold-blooded killers in the name of religion ...

Moving on from Charlie Hebdo, the far right is far from out of sight

From the Playbac group of daily newspapers for children and teenagers

This*, once again, pretty much speaks for itself. Have your say ...

This, arguably, was France at its finest.

A show of emotion and solidarity unseen since the end of the Second World War took an estimated four million people on to the streets of Paris and provincial cities.

French terror attacks, the lure of jihad and flawed draconian responses

http://www.thenational.ae/world/europe/global-talk-radicalisation-in-europe-and-charlie-hebdo---ep-16

Charlie Hebdo plans a three million print run, the search for Hayat Boumedienne, common-law wife - now widow - of one of the three dead terrorists leads to Syria and recriminations start over what the French authorities knew and failed to act upon.

Like many others, I was moved by the massive turnout in Paris, other French cities and around the world for the rallies of unity on Sunday. Four million on the streets of France alone.

How Charlie Hebdo, and the aftermath, illustrate a broadening terror threat

This was my analysis, after three days of successive terrorist attacks in France, for The National ...

During recent days of high drama and dispiriting tragedy, the temptation to present France as a country at war has been strong.

It is a notion that appeals more to headline writers and politicians than to common-sense analysis. But the events of Paris and its surrounding area have encouraged even cooler heads to identify lessons for the future of terrorism on western soil.

Charlie Hebdo rises again as France charts an uncertain future

Here is a piece I wrote today for The National, Abu Dhabi, reproduced as usual with the editor's consent ...

The motivation and magnitude of the attack on the satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo will only add to France’s struggle to accommodate its Muslim population and the legacy of a dark colonial era.

As wave upon wave of demonstrators gathered in French cities, and elsewhere, to express dignified solidarity with the principle of freedom of expression, and with the slain of Wednesday, banners read “Nous sommes tous Charlie” (We’re all Charlie) or, in English, “Not Afraid”.

Jordan's Prince Ali, Fifa and the importance of not being Sepp Blatter

Image: Jordan Football Association

My latest profile in the Newsmaker series of The National's Weekend section*, was - I hope - prepared with the usual care even though I was preoccupied by reports from Paris even as I researched and wrote. Who, then, is the Jordanian prince who would unseat Sepp Blatter at Fifa? ...

In any fair-minded debate >on who should occupy world football’s highest office, Prince Ali bin Al Hussein’s credentials would be seen, at face value, as compelling.

The third son of the late King Hussein of Jordan has announced that he will challenge Sepp Blatter for the presidency of Fifa (the International Federation of Association Football). He’s a man steeped in what is known, with variable accuracy, as the beautiful game.

Nous sommes tous Charlie Hebdo

Up to speed: supplied by my friend Francois Dufour, co-founder of Playbac, which publishes daily newspapers for children

Waste not words of reproach, as so many international statesmen have done, about the assault on democracy, the affront to decency, the barbarity of low-life criminal assassins for whom displeasing words or images are reason enough to commit mass murder.

Waste not your tears. I shed some of my own watching the TV5Monde news coverage and ensuing round-table debate from London tonight.

Resolving with French friends to make no more New Year resolutions

People I meet for the first time since December 31 or earlier are still wishing me Happy New Year and I am still reciprocating. So it is still a timely moment to share what I wrote for The Connexion, an English-language newspaper for English speakers throughout France, about les bonnes resolutions de nouvel an. One or two regular readers may recognise themselves ...

Le Mans, la belle et la bête

Christmas, dare I say already forgotten, led to my city-in-law.

Le Mans is a pleasant enough city, known to all motor racing fans because of the 24 Heures or motorbike equivalent, plus the film about the former featuring Steve McQueen, and has a handsome old town, Vieux Mans, also known as the Cité Plantagenêt.

Twice in the past decade, in 2003 and then - after a quick relegation - n 2005 in the years between 2002 and 2004, the local football club of which my late father-in-law was a keen fan and one-time supporters' association official, reached the French top-flight, Ligue 1.

The second spell ended in 2010, wretched bad timing since this immediately preceded just a move from the little Léon-Bollée my father-in-law knew to to the new 25,000-seater MMArena. It has been a downward spiral since, with a gathering financial crisis sending the club into liquidation and the team into the sixth division of French football.

At least the city still has two of the world's biggest motor races, its delicious rillettes and a magnificent cathedral, Saint-Julien du Mans, named after the bishop who brought Christianity to the area in the fourth century. It was virtually deserted, between services, when we looked round on Christmas Day.

The cathedral, construction dating from the 6th to 14th centuries, dominates the Place des Jacobins, where the pesage, technical verification of vehicles competing in the 24 Heures, formerly took place. But on the other side of the square from this beautiful example of cathedral design stands l’Espace Culturel, an arts complex opened last year and for which the old theatre was demolished.

Make up your own mind. In my eyes, it is no worse than most modern architecture of the functional kind, but a monstrosity in terms of its proximity to such a splendid cathedral.

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