French press review 19 January 2013

Making news in France : the hostage crisis at a gas plant in Algeria; the continuing military intervention in Mali; and snow.

We begin with Aujourd'hui en France which has two hot topics: One is the snow that's covering France at the moment. They say that Paris looks like Courchevel, a big ski resort in the Alps. Twenty-nine departments of France are graded orange, meaning they have been heavily affected by the snow.

That was obviously the nice front page story.The other and more prominent one is entitled "The new Bin Laden" and shows the portrait of 5 Islamist war chiefs in the Sahara. It says "they mix terrorism, drug trafficking, a gangster lifestyle and religion".

Aujourd'hui en France features an interview with Niger's President Mahamadou Issoufou who says he hopes things will not turn out like they did in Afghanistan, although he notes that, unlike Afghanistan, terrorists in the Sahel are not embeded socially among the people.

He also says Islamist groups want to implement charia law across the world and that they use religion as an excuse to carry out their main activities, which include hostage taking, drugs and arms trafficking. Niger's president adds that, through their actions, they compromise the fragile balence between the states in the region.

He welcomes France's involvement in the Malian conflict saying that had it not done so, the whole of the Malian state as a whole could have been jeopoardised. President Issoufou also spoke about the arrival of African forces. He's hopeful they will rid the Sahara of terrorism and organised crime.

Aujourd'hui en France also features stories about how French air strikes have affected the local population. It tells the story of a little boy whose leg was injured by a French bomb while he went to fetch water. A staunch reminder that, unfortunately, it is not only the terrorists and arms traffickers who can be hit.

The conservative Le Figaro has Algeria on its front page with an article entitled "The Mystery of a bloody hostage taking". It's concerned by the number of hostages still present on the gas site and notes it is still unclear what exactly happened. The paper features a photo of a hostage who was injured as he fled the In Amenas site.

The very same picture is also on the front page of Libération. The Left leaning paper is leading with "Murdurous Assault, Algiers choice ". It says the raid has been criticised outside of Algeria. The newspaper has witness accounts of a hostage from In Amenas who described hiding under his bed for 40 hours.

Over to Mali, Another article in Libération suggested the Tuaregs from the Mouvement for the Liberation of Azawad (MNLA), who joined forces with the islamists in the hope of breaking off from the rest of Mali, are the ones Bamako feels the most vindictive about beating in this war.

To wrap up this press review on a more postive note we head to La Croix, whose front page is dedicated to France and Germany's golden anniversary. It writes that François Hollande and Angela Merkel will celebrate 50 years of reconciliation on Tuesday. The catholic daily talks to French and German people who live alongside or together. Happy cohabitation where cultures are shared.