Daimler agrees to pay $185m after admitting bribery

Daimler is best known for its Mercedes-Benz brand

German carmaker Daimler has pleaded guilty to corruption in the US and will pay $185m (£121m) to settle the case.

The charges relate to US Justice Department and Securities and Exchange Commission investigations into the company's global sales practices.

Daimler, the owner of Mercedes-Benz, admitted to paying tens of millions of dollars of bribes to foreign government officials in at least 22 countries.

The company said it had now reformed the way it did business.

Offshore accounts

The offences were committed between 1998 and 2008 by Daimler's German-based exports subsidiary Export and Trade Finance, and its Russian business Mercedes-Benz Russia.

Today, we are a better and stronger company, and we will continue to do everything we can to maintain the highest compliance standards Daimler chairman Dieter Zetsche

They were said to have given money and lavish gifts to help win contracts in countries including China, Russia, Thailand, Greece, and Iraq.

The Justice Department said that by "using offshore bank accounts, third-party agents and deceptive pricing practices, these companies saw foreign bribery as a way of doing business".

Daimler has since fired 45 employees implicated in the bribery.

The company's chairman Dieter Zetsche said the firm had "learned a lot from past experience".

"Today, we are a better and stronger company, and we will continue to do everything we can to maintain the highest compliance standards," he added.

'Deserves credit'

The case was heard in a federal court in Washington, where the presiding judge, Judge Richard Leon called the financial settlement a "just resolution".

Prosecutor John Darden added that Daimler had "showed excellent cooperation".

"The company has undertaken an effort to clean its own house," he added.

"That reflects a serious change of mind on part of Daimler. This deserves credit."

Daimler's agreement to pay $185m is broken down into $93.6m to end the US Justice Department investigation, and a payment of $91.4m to settle the civil case from the Securities and Exchange Commission, the US financial watchdog.

The company made a 2.6bn euros ($3.5bn; £2.3bn) loss last year.

Back in 2008, German industrial group Siemens paid $800m to settle a US investigation into bribes paid to government officials in Argentina, Bangladesh, Iraq and Venezuela.

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Serbian MPs offer apology for Srebrenica massacre

The vote was broadcast on live television and ending after midnight

Serbia's parliament has passed a landmark resolution apologising for the 1995 Srebrenica massacre - Europe's worst atrocity since World War II.

The motion, approved by a narrow majority, says Serbia should have done more to prevent the tragedy.

It stopped short of calling the Bosnian war killings a genocide.

The murder of nearly 8,000 Bosniaks (Bosnian Muslims) was carried out by Bosnian Serb forces - allies of then-Serbian President Slobodan Milosevic.

The massacre, in what was supposed to have been a UN safe haven, became a symbol for the atrocities of the Balkan wars.

Meanwhile, a Dutch court has rejected an attempt to hold the United Nations responsible for the killings.

Burden 'lifted'

The resolution - which the Serbian government sees as a crucial step in its attempts to join the European Union - was approved after almost 13 hours of heated negotiations in the Belgrade parliament.

AT THE SCENE Mark Lowen, BBC News, Belgrade It was passed with a majority of just two - highlighting how divisive the Srebrenica massacre remains in Serbia almost 15 years on. The governing Democratic Party believes this resolution will go some way towards rebuilding Serbia's image as it strives for EU membership. But for nationalists, the text reiterates what they see as an unfair demonisation of Serbs. Survivors of Srebrenica say that real reconciliation can only be achieved if the fugitive general Ratko Mladic is finally apprehended. Timeline: Siege of Srebrenica

The pro-Western governing coalition managed to pass the motion with a slim majority - 127 MPs voted in favour, out of a total of 250. Only 173 were present for the vote.

"The parliament of Serbia strongly condemns the crime committed against the Bosnian Muslim population of Srebrenica in July 1995," says the text.

It formally extends "condolences and an apology to the families of the victims because not everything was done to prevent the tragedy".

The head of the governing coalition's parliamentary group said during the debate that approval would help close a tragic chapter in Balkan history.

"Condemning the crime against the Bosniaks of Srebrenica, while paying respect to the innocent victims and offering condolences to their families, will lift the burden off future generations," Nada Kolundzija was quoted as saying by Serbia's B92 website.

But opposition deputies criticised the text, describing it as "shameful" for Serbia. Some nationalist politicians voted against, while others abstained in protest.

Velimir Ilic, an opposition MP, said: "Why do you want to put a mark on the future generations that they will never wash away?"

Serbian nationalists had argued that any resolution must also denounce crimes committed by Bosniaks and Croats during the 1992-95 war.

Several mass graves have been discovered near Srebrenica

The BBC's Mark Lowen in Belgrade says the resolution comes after years of denial in Serbia that the Srebrenica massacre even took place.

The resolution has been criticised by Bosniaks and Muslims in Serbia because it does not describe the Srebrenica massacre as an act of genocide.

It has been recognised as such by the UN war crimes tribunal in The Hague.

Several Bosnian Serbs have been convicted over their role in the massacre, when Bosniak men and boys were taken from their families and shot dead. The town had been designated a UN "safe haven" under the protection of Dutch UN troops.

The Bosnian Serbs' wartime leader, Radovan Karadzic, is currently on trial in The Hague. The general accused of masterminding the killings, Ratko Mladic, is still on the run.

Lawyers for the victims' relatives have tried to hold the Dutch government and the UN accountable for failing to stop the massacre.

But on Tuesday, The Hague Appeals Court upheld a 2008 lower court ruling affirming UN immunity from prosecution, which it said was essential for it to be able to carry out its duties around the world.

6 – 10 July 1995: The Bosnian Serb Army attacks Srebrenica – within a UN safe area previously held by the Army of the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina. Civilians taking refuge there are under the protection of Dutch forces. 11 July: Thousands of refugees and Srebrenica residents - mostly women, children and the infirm - flee to the Dutch UN peacekeeping base in Potocari. Bosnian Serb commanders demand Muslims hand over their weapons. 12 July: Bosnian Muslim men of military age begin to move north after gathering in Susnjari. They are shelled as they flee through the mountains. Some are also gunned down en route, while others are killed after surrendering. 12 July: Male and female refugees are separated by the Bosnian Serb Army. Thousands of women, children and the elderly are deported by bus to Muslim territory. The men are held in trucks and warehouses. 13 - 17 July: Up to 8,000 Bosniak men and boys are killed at a number of execution sites around Srebrenica. Reports of the atrocities begin to surface on 16 July. Source: UN, ICTY.

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Ed Brayton Discusses Hutaree Militia on The Rachel Maddow Show

Commentary

Are these christian extremists? No of course not. We shouldn't say that.

They aren't even christian terrorists. They are just crazy people.

As I've said before, religion means nothing because there are extremists and crazy members of every religion. It's only Islamic people, who decide to go crazy and kill innocent people, that get labaled "Islamists" or "Islamic Terrorists".

I just hope one day we'll live in the world where one religion is not bashed because of the few people that are harmful within it.

That rule applies to bad jews and bad christians, but apparently not to bad muslims.

Amnesty urges China to disclose execution figures

China says it executes fewer prisoners than it has done in the past

Rights group Amnesty International has urged China to disclose the number of prisoners it executes.

In its annual report on the use of the death penalty, Amnesty said some 714 people were known to have been executed in 18 countries in 2009.

But the group said the true global figure could be much higher, as thousands of executions were thought to have been carried out in China alone.

At least 366 people were executed in Iran, 120 in Iraq and 52 in the US.

Amnesty praised Burundi and Togo for abolishing the death penalty in 2009 and said that for the first time in modern history, no-one had been executed in Europe or the former Soviet Union over the year.

'Torture'

Beijing says it executes fewer people now than it has in the past, but has always maintained that details of its executions are a state secret.

However, Amnesty said that "evidence from previous years and a number of current sources indicates that the figure remains in the thousands".

WORLD EXECUTIONS 2009 China: thousands suspected executed by injection and shooting Iran: more than 366 executions, by hanging or stoning Iraq: more than 120 executions by hanging Saudi Arabia: at least 69 executions by beheading or crucifixion US: 52 executions by lethal injection or electrocution

It said the death penalty could be applied to 68 offences in the country, including non-violent crimes, with executions carried out by lethal injection or firing squad.

Many people were sentenced based on confessions extracted under torture and having had limited access to legal counsel, it said.

"The Chinese authorities claim that fewer executions are taking place," said Amnesty's Interim Secretary General Claudio Cordone.

"If this is true, why won't they tell the world how many people the state put to death?"

Since 2007, all death sentences passed in China have been subject to a mandatory review by a higher court, a process China says has reduced the number of killings carried out.

"However, as long as statistics on the use of the death penalty in China remain a state secret, it will be impossible to verify this claim and to analyse actual trends," said Amnesty.

Of particular concern to Amnesty were cases of those executed after political unrest in Tibet and Xinjiang, people sentenced to death for financial fraud and a British man, Akmal Shaikh, executed for drug smuggling despite his lawyer's claims he was mentally ill.

"The time is long overdue for China to fall into line with international law and standards on the death penalty and be open and transparent regarding its use of capital punishment," it said.

Abolitionist trend

Amnesty said that by the end of 2009, there were 17,118 people on death row around the world, with 2,001 people sentenced that year.

But while 58 countries still had a death penalty in 2009, only 18 countries were known to have carried out executions.

It also said "commutations and pardons of death sentences appear to be more frequent" in countries which still pass death sentences, including more than 4,000 in Kenya in a mass commutation in August.

The group noted a sharp rise in executions in Iran in the eight weeks after political unrest following President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's election victory in June 2009.

Iran was also criticised, along with Saudi Arabia, for carrying out executions of people convicted of crimes they committed while under the age of 18.

Saudi Arabia was reported to have carried out executions "at an alarming rate", with at least 69 people publicly beheaded in 2009.

The report also highlighted an increasing abolitionist trend around the world in recent years.

Both Burundi and Togo outlawed the death penalty in 2009, becoming the 94th and 95th countries to do so.

"The world is in reach of 100 countries declaring their refusal to put people to death," said Amnesty.

The group repeated its assertion that the death penalty is cruel, an "affront to human dignity" and often used disproportionately against the poor and marginalised.

It said the secrecy surrounding state executions in many countries was "indefensible".

"If capital punishment is a legitimate act of government as these nations claim, there is no reason for its use to be hidden from the public and international scrutiny," it said.

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Minor delays in collider's quest

The CMS is one of four giant detectors at the Large Hadron Collider

The Large Hadron Collider is set to start the work that could lead to the discovery of fundamental new physics.

Scientists working on the European machine will attempt to smash beams of proton particles together at unprecedented energies.

On Tuesday morning, an abnormal electrical signal caused the inbuilt protection system to shut down the LHC.

Engineers are investigating the cause of this signal and hope to achieve the first collisions after 1230 BST.

The seven-trillion-electronvolt (TeV) collisions will initiate 18-24 months of intensive investigations at the LHC.

Scientists hope the study will bring novel insights into the nature of the cosmos and how it came into being.

But they caution that the data gathered from the sub-atomic impacts will take time to evaluate, and the public should not expect immediate results.

"Major discoveries will happen only when we are able to collect billions of events and identify among them the very rare events that could present a new state of matter or new particles," said Guido Tonelli, a spokesman for the CMS detector at the LHC.

"This is not going to happen tomorrow. It will require months and years of patient work," he told BBC News.

The LHC is one of the biggest scientific endeavours ever undertaken.

WHAT IS AN ELECTRON VOLT? Charged particles tend to speed up in an electric field, defined as an electric potential - or voltage - spread over a distance One electron volt (eV) is the energy gained by a single electron as it accelerates through a potential of one volt It is a convenient unit of measure for particle accelerators, which speed particles up through much higher electric potentials The first accelerators only created bunches of particles with an energy of about a million eV (MeV) The LHC can reach beam energies a million times higher: up to several teraelectronvolts (TeV) This is still only the energy in the motion of a flying mosquito But that energy is packed into a comparatively few particles, travelling at more than 99.99% of the speed of light

Housed in a 27km-long tunnel under the Franco-Swiss border near Geneva, the LHC will collide particles travelling at close to the speed of light.

The expectation is that previously unseen phenomena will reveal themselves in the debris. A key objective is to find the much talked-about Higgs boson particle.

This is thought to have a profound role in the structure of the Universe, and would enable scientists to explain why matter has mass - something which, at a fundamental level, they have difficulty doing at present.

The LHC broke down shortly after its opening in 2008 but, since coming back online late last year, has gradually been ramping up operations.

Two proton particle beams have been circling in opposite directions in the magnet-lined tunnels at 3.5 TeV since 19 March.

Having established their stability, these beams will now be allowed to cross paths and collide on Tuesday. This 7 TeV event will be the highest energy yet achieved in a particle accelerator.

In the coming months, the LHC's four major experiments - its giant detectors Alice, Atlas, CMS and LHCb - will probe the collisions.

"This is new territory," said Professor Tonelli.

"If you want to discover new particles, you have to produce them; and these new particles are massive. To produce them, you need higher energies. For the first time [on Tuesday], we will be producing particles that have energy 3.5 times higher than the maximum energy achieved so far.

"This is why we can start the long journey to make major discoveries in identifying a new massive state of matter."

At the end of the 7 TeV (3.5 TeV per beam) experimental period, the LHC will be shut down for maintenance for up to a year. When it re-opens, it will attempt to create 14 TeV events.

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French PM advised against total Islamic veil ban

The wearing of full veils has been the subject of a fierce debate in France

France's top administrative body has advised the government that any total ban on face-covering Islamic veils could be unconstitutional.

The State Council also said a ban could be justified in some public places.

Prime Minster Francois Fillon had asked the council for a legal opinion before drawing up a law on the subject.

However, an MP from President Nicolas Sarkozy's party was quoted as saying that those drafting the legislation might ignore Tuesday's ruling.

In the ruling, the council said any law could be in violation of the French constitution as well as the European Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms.

"It appears to the State Council that a general and absolute ban on the full veil as such can have no incontestable judicial basis," it said.

'Clear message needed'

But it added that rules requiring faces to be uncovered in public places such as schools, hospitals and law courts could be justified for security reasons, to combat fraud and to meet the needs of some public services.

The State Council is required to give an opinion before any major piece of legislation is drafted in France.

Find out about different styles of Muslim headscarf In graphics

However, Jean Leonetti, the deputy parliamentary leader of Mr Sarkozy's UMP party, said a ban "needs to be complete or else it is misunderstood".

"We still are of the view that a message needs to be sent that is clear and does not waver in terms of its implementation," he said.

President Sarkozy has said more than once that the face-covering veil is not welcome in France, and that he wants a law restricting it.

In January, a French parliamentary committee recommended a partial ban on Islamic face veils that could be imposed in hospitals, schools, government offices and on public transport.

There are several types of headscarves and veils for Muslim women - those that cover the face being the niqab and the burka. In France, the niqab is the version most commonly worn.

The interior ministry says only 1,900 women wear full veils in France, home to Europe's biggest Muslim minority.

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Hyena laughs and giggles decoded

Hyena laughs and giggles decoded

By Matt Walker Editor, Earth News

Hyenas scream for a share

The giggling sounds of a hyena contain important information about the animal's status, say scientists.

In the first study to decipher the hyena's so-called "laugh", they have shown that the pitch of the giggle reveals a hyena's age.

What is more, variations in the frequency of notes used when a hyena makes a noise convey information about the animal's social rank.

Details of the US-based research are published in the journal BMC Ecology.

Professor Frederic Theunissen from the University of California at Berkeley, US, and Professor Nicolas Mathevon from the Universite Jean Monnet in St Etienne, France, worked with a team of researchers to study 26 captive spotted hyenas held at a field station at Berkeley.

There they recorded the animals' calls in various social interactions, such as when the hyenas bickered over food, and established which elements of each call corresponded to other factors.

Last year, the researchers published some provisional results from the study.

Now they have confirmed that the pitch of the giggle reveals a hyena's age, while variations in the frequency of notes can encode information about dominant and subordinate status.

"The hyena's laugh gives receivers cues to assess the social rank of the emitting individual," says Professor Theunissen.

"This may allow hyenas to establish feeding rights and organise their food-gathering activities."

Spotted hyenas (Crocuta crocuta) are mainly nocturnal, living in clans of between 10 and 90 individuals.

Spotted hyenas make up to 10 different types of vocalisation "Whoops", with long inter-whoop intervals, are primarily used to signal that two individuals have become separated "Grunts" or "soft growls" are emitted when hyenas of the same clan come into close contact

Often they hunt cooperatively, but this can generate intense competition as clan mates converge on a kill, fighting over its carcass.

However, among spotted hyenas, females dominate, holding a higher rank than all other males, whatever their age.

Profs Theunissen and Mathevon's research suggests that the animals convey this status via their laugh or giggle, which they usually make while fighting over food.

Previously their sounds had been considered a simple gesture of submission, but the new study has allowed researchers to identify exactly which individual hyena makes each giggle, and the circumstances in which they do so.

The information contained within the giggles could be especially important for males new to a clan, as they go immediately to the bottom of the hierarchy when they arrive.

Getting to know quickly who is who may give these individuals a better chance of improving their own status.

Giggles could also allow hyenas to recruit allies, for instance when one or two hyenas are outnumbered by lions fighting over the same kill.

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No easy answers in Okinawa US base debate

By Alastair Leithead BBC News, Okinawa

Okinawa's peace park commemorates those who died in the bloody fighting

The names of 200,000 Japanese troops and civilians are engraved in granite at Okinawa's memorial park, remembering the last major battle of World War II.

Alongside them are the 12,500 Americans who also perished in the brutal, inch-by-inch fight for the small, tropical island of coral 1,000 miles south of Tokyo.

The United States has been here ever since, but a peace deal signed 50 years ago was not an equal one, agreed in the aftermath of war, surrender, then occupation.

There are now 24,000 US troops on Okinawa, most of them marines, and their bases, airfields, housing and training facilities cover a fifth of the island.

The people of Okinawa felt their lives were sacrificed in the war for the sake of the country, and they now believe they are shouldering more of their share of the burden of hosting US forces - with three quarters of American facilities in Japan on their small island.

"We provide the Japanese government with a credible deterrence force - a highly effective, highly trained and very mobile force that is very strategically located," said Lieutenant General Terry Robling, commander of US marine bases in Japan.

"We think the stability of the region has been caused by our presence here. Over 50 years now there's been relative peace in the Asia region."

But it comes at a cost.

Local tensions

Japan pays $4bn (£2.6bn) a year to host the 50,000 US troops stationed across the country, and the noise, safety fears and disturbance of having so many troops in built-up areas is creating tension.

Futenma air base is surrounded by densely-packed residential areas

The 1995 gang rape of a young girl by US troops in Okinawa shook the relationship, a helicopter crash near Futenma air base in 2004 shocked people in Ginowan City which has grown to surround it, and crime by US personnel is also something local people complain about.

"We have not had an accident aboard Futenma since 2004 - there were no accidents at all that I know of prior to that or since then," said Colonel Dale Smith, who commands Marine Corps Air Station Futenma.

"As far as safety goes we do a number of things. Helicopters come in at more steep angles and climb out at more steep rates, which gives more distance between us and the urban terrain and decreases the noise levels."

But at Futenma Elementary School, which has a playground backing on to the end of the runway, the deputy head teacher Muneo Nakamura says he fears for the children's safety every day.

'More equal'

After years of discussions the Japanese and American governments agreed a deal to restructure US forces on Okinawa.

We think the stability of the region has been caused by our presence here General Robling

It involved closing Futenma air base, building a new runway on reclaimed land and relocating troops at a base in the less populated north of the island. Japan would pick up $6bn of the $10bn cost.

As part of the deal, 8,000 US marines would also move to Guam, where President Obama is due next week.

But last year Yukio Hatoyama was elected prime minister, after 50 years of almost unbroken rule by the Liberal Democratic Party.

He made a campaign promise to move US troops off Okinawa as part of a creating a "more equal" partnership with America.

The original deal was put on hold and he is now torn between a threat from ruling coalition partners to withdraw support if he breaks his promise, and pressure from the US. He has promised to announce a new plan by the end of May this year.

Mr Hatoyama's stance has strained the alliance, but America has to tread carefully as it also relies on Japan as the centre of its strategic operations in Asia.

"I think the US presence is an incredibly stabilising factor. Asia is going through a period of historic strategic change in the balance of power," said Raymond Greene, the US consul general in Okinawa.

"We have the nuclear missile programmes in North Korea; obviously the rise of China is something we welcome, but as it rises economically there are many questions about military modernisation programme and its transparency, or lack thereof."

Security hub

The razor wire on the beach surrounding the northern base where troops could be moved to is covered in ribbons and protest banners.

Crime and noise pollution have led to a rise in anti-base sentiment

Small but vocal demonstrations are held periodically - there is a growing feeling that Japan should go its own way and reduce its reliance on America.

But generations of Okinawans have made a living out of the US military.

Shinichiro Isa used to work on a base but is now retired. His son, Hiroyuki, currently works at Futenma air base and they accept the large American presence in exchange for the money it brings.

"It's not just because I worked on the base that I am in favour of the Americans being here," Mr Isa said.

"It's important not just for the security of Okinawa or Japan but for the whole of the region from South Korea to the Philippines."

But he does not know if there'll be the chance for his two year-old grandson, Shunpei, to follow the family tradition.

The future of US forces here depends on the military alliance continuing, and the direction in which Japan's new government wants to take the country.

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Eurosceptic French town rejects euro

The European single currency is under unprecedented pressure. But even in the most staunchly pro-European countries, some people have never been enamoured of the euro, as David Chazan discovers in rural France.

Sylvie Auteau says her customers prefer paying in francs

Shopkeeper Sylvie Auteau counts out a pile of French franc notes on the counter of her clothes shop.

"Most people prefer francs," says Ms Auteau. "They are French, after all."

Eight years after the euro was introduced, the franc is still in use in Le Blanc - a small market town of 7,000 people in the agricultural heartland of central France.

'Prices went up'

Ms Auteau says the decision by shopkeepers to accept payment in francs is not a protest against the euro - and not all retailers accept them. The main aim was to give business a boost.

But many people here harbour increasing anti-European feelings as unemployment rises and farm subsidies fall.

"They feel cheated by the euro and they think prices went up when it came in, even if that's not really true," Ms Auteau says.

"And with the expansion of the EU to the east, we feel we're being over-taxed, that we're feeding the others."

There is nostalgia for the old French currency

The French have until 2012 to exchange franc notes for euros at the bank.

Ms Auteau's shop is among some 30 businesses here which still accept francs as well as euros.

She says many people had found francs at the bottom of a drawer after their parents or grandparents died.

There is little industry in this area, so almost everyone in Le Blanc depends on farming, directly or indirectly.

Farmers' incomes declined by 30% last year, and 20% the year before.

That has had a huge impact. In Le Blanc, it is easy to understand why President Nicolas Sarkozy has vowed to fight to preserve European Union aid to French farmers.

That was one of the main points he made on Wednesday in his first public comments since his party suffered a resounding defeat in regional elections.

Making ends meet

French farmers used to reap generous EU subsidies but these have been scaled down.

Last year Brussels ruled that some of the aid farmers have been receiving from the French government in recent years was illegal. Many have been told they will have to pay it back.

Local farmers' incomes have been dropping rapidly

"We're facing a very big reduction in the aid we get because of the current reform of the Common Agricultural Policy at a time when market prices are low," says Robert Chaze, who owns a farm 10km (six miles) outside Le Blanc, and is chairman of the local chamber of agriculture.

Mr Chaze says that farmers in this region are facing a further fall in their income this year of 10-20%.

Until recently, the French tended to be passionate supporters of the EU, but Mr Chaze says farmers now feel "crushed" by what they see as an oppressive European bureaucracy.

No-one is suggesting that France should leave the EU. But another local farmer, Philippe Demiot, who runs a farm just outside Le Blanc, says it is getting ever harder to make ends meet. He believes Brussels does not seem to have a coherent plan for the future of French or European agriculture.

"Today the plans of Europe aren't very good for us," he says. "It's hard for us to understand where the European bureaucrats want to take us. What do they want to do with us?"

Many people in this area feel that with the enlargement of the EU, France lost a lot of influence in Brussels.

Unemployment in France is the highest it has been in a decade - more than 10% - and there is growing anxiety about the future.

'Francs felt good'

Walking around Le Blanc, the proportion of old people seems remarkably high. Residents say many of the younger generation have left because they could not find jobs.

People can still "pay here in Francs"

It is hardly surprising that there is nostalgia for the old days - and for the old currency.

In the past three years, shops and restaurants in Le Blanc have collected well over 1m francs - more than 150,000 euros (£135,100).

That is hardly a fortune, but it is a significant amount for a small town in these troubled times - and francs are also still being used in a few other towns and villages.

"I had a few francs left in a drawer," says Christiane Brunet, who is out doing her shopping.

"I was keeping them to show my grandchildren, but I haven't got any left now, only a few coins."

Ms Brunet says she prefers francs. "I felt good with francs but not with euros. I think we were all cheated because prices doubled. Everything's so expensive now."

She thinks the EU is a good thing, but adds: "It's not easy. All [the members] should have the same standards but that's not the case."

The Greek crisis has raised fears about the future of the euro - perhaps another reason why so many people in Le Blanc take comfort from dusting off their old francs and retreating into the past.

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Afghan offensive in Kandahar due in June, officials say

US forces hope to hand over security to the Afghan army and police by 2011

The Nato-led coalition in Afghanistan will launch a long-planned offensive in the southern city of Kandahar in June, military officials have said.

A US military source was quoted as saying the goal was to rid the city of Taliban forces before the Muslim holy month of Ramadan begins in August.

US troops are already leading a massive operation in Marjah, in the neighbouring province of Helmand.

Extra troops ordered by US President Barack Obama have begun arriving.

Some 6,000 of the 30,000 additional forces assigned to Afghanistan in December have already arrived, with the rest expected in the coming months.

New operation

US officials had previously disclosed plans for a Nato-led offensive in Kandahar - the birthplace of the Taliban - but had not said when it might happen.

The officials - who spoke on condition of anonymity - said some 10,000 troops would be involved in the main thrust of the operation.

They told Reuters news agency it would include a militant "clearing" phase from June to August, followed by a smaller "secure and deliver government" phase that is expected to last at least until mid-October.

They said US troops were already working on securing transit routes and persuading leaders of districts surrounding Kandahar to co-operate with coalition forces.

Mr Obama, who made his first visit to Afghanistan as US president on Sunday, told US forces that they were there to help Afghans to forge a "hard-won peace".

He met Afghan President Hamid Karzai and stressed the need to tackle corruption and fight against drug-trafficking.

US officials are due to conduct a review of the Obama administration's war strategy later this year, with a view to a gradual withdrawal beginning in July 2011.

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