Magic Statistics

There may be hope for France yet.  Sabine Herold, a 25-year-old Frenchwoman, is planning to run for Parliament next year on a pro-economic growth, anti-trade union platform.  She first came to public attention three years ago when she led protests against multiple public-sector strikes that paralysed France.

The French media nicknamed her Mademoiselle Thatcher, after the most successful female politician of the 20th century.  Ms Herold regards the nickname as a compliment.

“I like what Margaret Thatcher did in Britain,” she acknowledged, noting that France’s unions still enjoy the disruptive power that has not been seen in Britain for more than two decades. “The unions in this country should be made more accountable. They are not even obliged to reveal the source of their funding.”

Last March she co-founded Liberal Alternative, a new political party based on free-market policies.  Her aim, she says, to revitalise the French economy and rebuild the people’s confidence in their country.

"Our concept of liberalism doesn't translate easily into English, but essentially means giving individuals the freedom and responsibility to make their own decisions in all areas of life."

Ms Herold will stand for election next June in a district of Paris.

London Telegraph Africa correspondent David Blair has just embarked on a trip to see the devastation of Darfur first-hand.  He boards a helicopter bound for Gereida, in an area under the control of the Sudan Liberation Army (SLA) faction of the Zaghawa tribe.

From an altitude of 1,000 ft, the scale of Darfur’s tragedy becomes obvious. Village after village lies wrecked, burned and abandoned. The huts are roofless shells, ringed by tell-tale black smears on the ground. These are the scars left by countless fires.

For mile after mile, there are no people. The eerie emptiness of much of Darfur – a land forcibly cleared of its inhabitants, strewn with ruined villages – is the most vivid sign of the catastrophe that has taken place here.

We land in Gereida and are welcomed by a motley collection of SLA rebels and soldiers from the African Union. Gereida now has the largest concentration of IDPs (internally displaced persons) found anywhere in Darfur. Some 120,000 are crammed into three camps.

This number has trebled since January.

The photo shows burned-out villages in Darfur.

Mr Blair encounters a group of 21 SLA militia members.  They are poorly equipped and outfitted, and some are only 14 years old.  Their commander defends recruitment of child soldiers, saying their parents have been killed and the SLA is now taking care of the children.

The helicopter then takes off for the Jebel Marra mountains of western Darfur.  This region is controlled by the SLA faction made up of Fur tribe people, the only rebel group that refused to sign the peace accord negotiated last month.  It is obvious why.

I can see immediately that the Fur rejectionists are in a far stronger position [than the Zaghawa]. Not only do they have the numbers on their side, but here in the Jebel Marra mountains they have an impregnable stronghold with a population of about 300,000.

The Fur SLA members are convinced they can hold out until more favourable terms are offered.  Until then, there will be no effective peace agreement in Darfur.

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This morning's Times of London carries a terse report that four more UK residents have been arrested as part of a "major investigation into alleged international terrorism".  They were picked up on the streets of London.

Three men, one aged 29 and the other two aged 21, were arrested separately on the streets of Hackney, East London at 10pm last night and another, aged 28, was arrested today at 3pm in south-east London.

The Metropolitan Police officers, working with colleagues from West Yorkshire police, arrested the men on suspicion of the commission, preparation and instigation of acts of terrorism under the Terrorism Act 2000.

The four are in custody at a Central London police station.

These arrests are said to be connected to the arrest at Manchester airport on 6 June of a 21-year-old Bradford resident as he got off a flight from Canada.  That would be Aabid Hussain Khan, who is believed to have communicated with some of the 17 Canadians arrested on terrorism charges earlier this month.

A leading British newspaper omits important details from a story on an international terrorism investigation involving UK law enforcement agencies.  Hmmmm. Where have we seen this before recently?

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• Arrested UK man linked to alleged Canadian terrorists
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