He has led a charmed life in the Jospin government, escaping without censure despite overtly supporting the Serbs during the Kosovo war and, more recently, saying that Germany has yet to “recover from the derailment” of Nazism.Although the Citizens’ Movement commands no more than 5 per cent of the vote nationwide, Mr Chevÿnement’s mixture of authoritarian and old-style socialist views is an important, chemical component in the Jospin coalition and appeals to French people across the political spectrum.After the loss in the past 12 months of his finance minister Dominique Strauss-Kahn (facing a fraud investigation) and education minister Claude Allÿgre (forced out by teachers’ unions), Mr Jospin is beginning to look rather isolated within his own government.. A British photographer who was assaulted while taking pictures of east Germany’s neo-Nazi scene was seizedby police, a witness claimed yesterday. A British photographer who was assaulted while taking pictures of east Germany’s neo-Nazi scene was seizedby police, a witness claimed yesterday.
Justin Jin, a freelance photographer of Asian descent, was punched in the face by a skinhead on Friday in Rathenow, a town notorious for its racist climate, near Berlin. What happened after that is disputed, but a witness told The Independent that police let the assailant go but man-handled the victim and snatched his mobile phone when he tried to call a lawyer.Mr Jin and four African asylum-seekers were walking from a billiard hall after 10pm when their way was barred by a skinhead who verbally abused them. While some of the Africans answered back, Mr Jin took out his camera and the skinhead punched him in the face.Two policewomen were on the scene within five minutes, followed by two other youths.

Thinking the police were arresting the Africans, they stood behind the officer questioning the skinhead and chanted racist slogans.But then Mr Jin tried to take their picture and, Christopher Nsoh, a Cameroonian in Mr Jin’s party, said: “The two policewomen pounced on him, twisted his arm behind his back and pushed him into the van.” Mr Jin’s camera and mobile phone were taken away, and the photographer was taken to the police station for questioning. The skinhead, aged 21, is due to appear in court today charged with assault.. Only a week after hope was abandoned of saving the crew of the Kursk submarine, Russians suffered another blow as they watched the Ostankino television tower, one of the symbols of their capital, go up in flames. Only a week after hope was abandoned of saving the crew of the Kursk submarine, Russians suffered another blow as they watched the Ostankino television tower, one of the symbols of their capital, go up in flames.
“Our country seems to be cursed.

It is just a giant disaster zone,” Marina, an office worker, said as she listened to a radio bulletin on the fire,which began on Sunday. The 1,771-foot Ostankino tower is the world’s second-tallest freestanding structure.Firefighters put out the blaze yesterday after more than a day battling smoke and heat hundreds of feet above ground. The bodies of a firefighter and a lift operator were found in an elevator shaft, a spokesman for the Moscow Emergency Situations Ministry said. They were two of the three people believed to have been trapped when a lift got stuck high up in the tower in the fire’s early phase. There was no immediate word on the other person.Officials said that automatic firefighting systems in the tower appeared to have failed or had run out of fire-suppressing foam.All the main television channels went off the air when the fire began and Russians had to rely for news on pop radio stations.