Avignon, France
Blast at nuclear site: French authorities sought to reassure the public this week after an explosion at a nuclear-waste treatment site. One person was killed when a furnace that was melting mildly radioactive metal objects exploded. The foundry has no nuclear reactors, and the level of radiation in the metal it processes is low. “This was an industrial accident,” said the French power utility Électricité de France, “not a nuclear one.” Still, authorities said they are conducting an examination of every one of the country’s 58 nuclear power plants. France relies on nuclear energy for nearly 80 percent of its electricity.
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Wads of cash: A French lawyer says that former President Jacques Chirac received “suitcases of cash” from African leaders while he was in office. Robert Bourgi, a former Chirac aide and current aide to President Nicolas Sarkozy, says he personally delivered millions of dollars from the leaders of Senegal, Burkina Faso, Ivory Coast, Gabon, and Republic of the Congo for Chirac to use as a secret slush fund for his 2002 presidential campaign. Bourgi also says that Dominique de Villepin, a former prime minister and Chirac’s former chief of staff, often accepted the money on Chirac’s behalf. Both men said they would file defamation suits and questioned the timing of Bourgi’s accusation, which comes just as Villepin is mulling a run against Sarkozy. “I have no proof,” Bourgi said. “In such matters, there is never any proof.”
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