Soccer mad Germans declare sympathy for France before Euro clash

BERLIN - Germans appear to be tempering characteristic ambition to win the day in a Euro 2016 clash against France with higher sympathies for a core European partner hit by economic travails and militant attacks.

Thursday's soccer match decides who will qualify for next weekend's final at the Paris Stade de France, one of the targets of Nov. 13 attacks that shook Europe.

In an editorial on Tuesday entitled "Allez, allez", the Sueddeutsche Zeitung wrote how France needed to beat Germany.

"Of course there is more at stake than football. France is feeling its economic weakness and it must look on enviously as the whole of Europe becomes more German," it wrote.

"A victory over Germany would be far more than a game won. It would be an act of liberation... A strengthened France helps Europe and the Germans."

The match, in Marseille, is all the more poignant because of the Nov. 13 attacks when the two teams played out their friendly match at the Stade de France despite audible bomb blasts nearby.

Bombers and gunmen murdered 130 people in Paris and shaken German players who spent the night holed up at the Stade de France have since spoken of feeling close to the France team.

Top-selling Bild daily combined headlines about how Germany would win the match with a comment from Franz Josef Wagner saying he had two hearts in his chest. One beat for Germany while the other embraced croissants and Brigitte Bardot.

"One heart says France has suffered enough, so many dead from terrorism, the economy is in decline, 10 percent unemployment. France needs some solace," he said.

Berlin's Tagesspiegel said the two teams symbolized the core EU values of solidarity and peace in the face of Britain's vote to leave the European Union.

source: www.abs-cbnnews.com

Suspected explosive belt found south of Paris

PARIS - An object believed to be an explosive belt was found on Monday in a town south of Paris, near where a phone used by suspected assailant Salah Abdeslam was detected on the night of the attacks, a source close to the investigation said.

Abdeslam, whose brother blew himself up in the Paris attacks, has been on the run since the assault that killed 130 people in the French capital on Nov. 13 and is the focus of a massive manhunt.

French investigators initially believed Abdeslam had been in a black Seat Leon car that was used in the shootings at restaurants and cafes in the 10th and 11th districts of the capital.

A source close to the investigation said, however, that Abdeslam's mobile phone was detected after the attacks in the northern 18th district of Paris, near an abandoned Renault Clio car that Abdeslam had rented.

The source said there was now a "strong suspicion" he had been driving the Clio rather than being in the Seat.

Furthermore, when Islamic State claimed responsibility for the attacks, it said it had targeted the Stade de France soccer stadium, the Bataclan concert hall, the 10th and 11th districts - as well as the 18th district.

Since there were no explosions or shootings in the 18th, investigators are now wondering whether there was a failed, or aborted, attack, the source said.

Abdeslam's phone was detected later on Nov. 13 by a mobile phone mast in Chatillon in the south of Paris, near Montrouge where the suspected explosive belt was dumped.

But the source said it was too soon to say whether the object had been in contact with Abdeslam.

"The thesis that he abandoned (the attack) is just coming from people who brought him back (to Belgium). But we don't know why. Maybe he had a technical problem with his explosive belt, for example," said a police source.

(Reporting by Chine Labbé and Gerard Bon; writing by David Clarke; editing by Giles Elgood)

source: www.abs-cbnnews.com

Fingerprints from Paris bomber match man registered in Greece - prosecutor

PARIS - Fingerprints from one of the suicide bombers behind the attacks at the Stade de France in Paris matched the prints of a man registered in Greece in October, a French prosecutor said on Monday.

"At this stage, while the authenticity of a passport in the name of Ahmad al Mohammad, born Sept. 10 1990 in Idlib, Syria needs to be verified, there are similarities between the fingerprints of the suicide bomber and those taken during a control in Greece in October," the Paris prosecutor said in a statement.

The prosecutor also said a second bomber at the Bataclan concert hall had now been identified. The prosecutor named him as 28-year old Samy Ammour from Drancy, north of Paris and said he was known to counter-terrorism units after being placed under investigation and judicial control for attempting to go to Yemen.

He disappeared in the autumn of 2013 and an international arrest warrant was issued for him.

"Five of the terrorists killed have now been identified," prosecutor added.

source: www.abs-cbnnews.com