He was hosting a summit of African leaders at the COP22 climate change summit in Marrakesh that was also attended by UN Secretary General Ban Ki Moon and French President Francois Hollande.

Disruptions caused by climate change are hampering African development and greatly affecting the rights of millions on the continent, says King Mohammed VI of Morocco.

UN chief Ban Ki-moon tells the 20 African leaders present that 36 of the 50 countries most affected by global warming are African.

Senegal’s President Macky Sall says African countries have to wait until 2020 for promised aid from developed countries to fight global warming.

French President Francois Holland says COP22 will lay the foundations for this help laid out in the Paris Climate Change agreement at COP21 last year.

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The driver of the truck that ploughed into the crowd was shot dead in what might be the deadliest lone wolf attack the world has seen.

ends intro

US President Barak Obama and leaders in Europe and Asia have condemned the attack on the Promenade des Anglais.

French President Francois Hollande says its not clear if the attacker had accomplices.

No organization has claimed responsibility.

(take in Francois clip here)

He has extended by three months the state of emergency following two terror attacks in Paris last year.

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He was assured by his French counterpart Francois Hollande that Britain’s quitting the European Union would not hurt South Africa’s ties with the world’s largest trading bloc.

ends intro

France and South Africa have  signed a bilateral agreement on surveillance in the Indian Ocean.

With Prince Edward and Marion Islands, South Africa is France neighbor in antarctic territories.

In Paris, the President oversaw official ink accords in higher education, cultural cooperation and development  cooperation.

Business France and Investment South Africa signed an agreement to prioritize increased trade…

….and the French Development Agency and South Africa’s Industrial Development Corporation agree to collaborate on climate friendly and clean energy projects.

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There are 15 French nationals among the 56 passengers and 10 crew aboard

ends into

French President Francois Hollande has spoken to his Egyptian counterpart Abdulfatah El Sisi about the disappearance of the Egyptair Airbus A320.

They’ve pledged full cooperation in establishing what happened to flight MH840. They’re not discounting any possibility for its disappearance.

Egyptian civil aviation officials are saying the plane has crashed into the Mediterranean.

It was in Egyptian airspace when a distress call was was intercepted by Egyptian military ten minutes before the plane went off radar at  2:45 this morning.

30 of those on board were Egyptian

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Leaders from Benin, Cameroon, Chad and Niger were among the delegates, alongside French President Francois Hollande, British Foreign Secretary Phillip Hammond and high-ranking diplomats from the US  and Europe.

ends intro

The leaders are signing new agreements on further defense, says officials close to  Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari.

Nigeria is seeking closer military cooperation to bring to an end nearly seven years of violence in the northeast, which has left at least 20 000 dead and forced more than 2,6 million people from their homes.

The UN Security Council calls for the talks to help develop a comprehensive strategy to address the governance, security, development, socio-economic and humanitarian dimensions of the crisis.

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In addition to the 120 million euros the EU will be spending on sea rescue efforts, the grouping will also be destroying the vessels used by the people smugglers.
French President Francois Hollande’s undertaken to get the necessary mandate from the United Nations.
The emergency summit follows the deaths last weekend of as many as 800 Europe-bound migrants in one boat that sunk off Libya.
Amnesty International says it fears deaths on this scale will continue.
The human rights watchdog calls the EU’s latest response woefully inadequate and shameful.

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This follows yesterday’s strike on IS bases in Libya following the beheading of 21 Egyptians.

Egyptian President Abdel Fatah El Sisi had talks yesterday with his French counterpart Francois Hollande and Italian premier Mattheo Renzi.

He’s trying to drum up an international military campaign against Islamic State in Libya that abducted and publicly executed 21 Coptic Christians and posted their killings online.

After Egyptian jets struck IS bases in eastern Libya – with the approval of local authorities – officials in Rome said they were considering joining military action.

Italian Prime Minister Mattheo Renzi appeared to put the brakes on this, however, saying political actions is the best way of following the air strikes

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In the capital, 44 world leaders were among the 1,6 million who linking arms to show their rejection of violence and solidarity with the freedom this threatens.

The French government says there were more people at yesterday’s demonstations than came out to celebrate the country’s liberation from Nazi occupation.

They wanted to show unity after the attacks on satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo, police officers and a Jewish grocery story.

French President Francois Hollande declared that on the day of protest Paris was the capital of the world.

Other rallies took place in capitals around the world.

French ambassador Elizabeth Barbier led a silent protest from the Alliance Francaise in Johannesburg.

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The pen is mightier than the sword. Unless, as we saw in France last week, you happen to be holding the sword.

If this, or anything I write in this piece, offends you, good.

It means I am doing my job.

Je suis Charlie.

And good for you if you are reading on.

We might have linked arms in Paris yesterday. Christian, Jew, Muslim, Buddist in a gathering larger than the 1945 liberation from Nazi occupation.

The very basis of the democracy we are so fond of saying we fought and died for is the obligation to defend to the death the other person’s right to say that with which you profoundly disagree.

That amounts to defending another’s right to be offensive.

If Charlie Hebdo – the French satirical magazine subjected to a decimating jihadi attack – stands for anything then that is the right to be offensive.

In fact, insulting. Throughly objectionable.

The magazine has done that in the face of banning and firebombing.

It began life as Hari Kiri and was banned in 1970 for mocking the death of former President Charles de Gaulle.

Most of the staff simply migrated to Charlie Hebdo named for the Charles Schulz cartoon character with hebdo being the shortened form of a weekly publication.

The Catholic Church has more often been its religious target and the Jewish faith has tasted the full force of its vituperation.

Interestingly both have condemned Wednesday’s attack.

The politicians who have taken up the cudgels for Charlie Hebdo have, to a man or woman, been viciously stabbed by the pens and pencils they now protect.

Those of usproud of our French heritage speak fondly of baguettes, croissants, Beaujoulais nouveau and tricolores.

Last week we had to examine the more serious side of that link: freedom of speech.

It is the very root of democracy. The real meaning of liberte, fraternite, egalite.

It is extremely difficult and dangerous. It is much easier to be politically correct, keep quiet and avoid offending.

But then you don’t get a society that is the envy of the world.

President Francois Hollande, who’s deportment since the Charlie Hebdo outrage would have done his record-low popularity rating no harm, explained that his compatriots were paying for decisions taken in the Elyssee Palace and Quay d’Orsay.

You could, of course, avoid getting involved in driving Al Qaeda out of northern Mali.

You could turn your face against joining the war on terror.

There would a moral price for this and, with any luck, no physical toll.

But then you would not be France.

(This piece first appeared on JJ Cornish.com)

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