NEWS,21.03.2012.

Gunman boasted he brought France to its knees

A besieged gunman suspected of shooting dead seven people in the name of al Qaeda boasted to police on Wednesday he had brought France to its knees. He said his only regret was not having been able to carry out his plans for more killings. In an unfolding drama that has riveted France, about 300 police, cordoned off a five-storey building in a suburb of Toulouse where the 24-year-old Muslim shooter is holed up. The shooter is identified as Mohamed Merah.Authorities said the gunman, a French citizen of Algerian origin, had been to Pakistan and Afghanistan, where he claimed to have received training from al Qaeda.

Merah told police negotiators he had killed three French soldiers last week and four people at a Jewish school in Toulouse on Monday to avenge the deaths of Palestinian children.” He has no regrets, except not having more time to kill more people and he boasts that he has brought France to its knees," Paris Prosecutor Francois Molins, part of the anti-terrorist unit leading the investigation, told a news conference. The gunman, who filmed his killings with a small camera, had already identified another soldier and two police officers he wished to kill, Molins said. The gunman had repeated promises to surrender this evening to members of the elite RAID unit surrounding the house, which had been evacuated of its other residents.” He has explained that he is not suicidal, that he does not have the soul of a martyr and that he prefers to kill but to stay alive himself," Molins said.Sarkozy, who is running for re-election in five weeks time, paid tribute at a ceremony in an army barracks in Montauban, near Toulouse, to the three soldiers of North African origin killed last week. A fourth soldier of Caribbean origin is in a coma.” Our soldiers have not died in the way for which they had prepared themselves. This was not a death on the battlefield but a terrorist execution," Sarkozy said, standing before three coffins draped in the French flag after paying his respects to bereaved relatives.” We must remain united. We should in no way yield to discrimination or vengeance," he said in his eulogy.” France can only be great in unity. We owe it to the memory of these men; we owe it to the three murdered children, to all the victims."Sarkozy's appeal for national unity came after far-right leader Marine Le Pen, a rival presidential candidate, said France should wage war on Islamic fundamentalism.

 Interior Minister Claude Gueant said Merah was a member of an ideological Islamic group in France but this organisation was not involved in plotting any violence. He said Merah had thrown a Colt 45 pistol of the kind used in all the shootings out of a window of the block of flats, where he has been living, in exchange for a mobile phone, but was still armed. Two police officers were injured in a firelight with the gunman after police swooped at 3 am local time (0200 GMT).Police sources said they had conducted a controlled explosion of the suspect's car at around 9 am (0800 GMT) after discovering it was loaded with weapons. Officials said police had also arrested Merah's girlfriend and his brother, who is also known to authorities as a radical Islamist.Gueant said Merah had contacted the first soldier he attacked on the pretext of wanting to buy his motorcycle. Investigators identified the IP address he used - that of his mother - because he was already under surveillance for radical Islamist beliefs.” We knew, and that is why he was under surveillance, that he had travelled to Afghanistan and Pakistan," the minister said.Merah's telephone was tapped from Monday and with the help of other information the police decided to raid his house.Merah has a criminal record in France, Gueant said, but nothing indicating such an attack was possible. A police source told  that investigators had also received a tipoff from a scooter repair shop in Toulouse where the gunman asked to change the colour of the Yamaha scooter used to flee the shootings and to remove a GPS tracker device.A group of young men from Merah's neighbourhood described him as a polite man of slight build who liked football and motorbikes and did not seem particularly religious."He isn't the big bearded guy that you can imagine, you know the cliche," said Kamal, who declined to give his family name."When you know a person well you just can't believe they could have done something like this."Sarkozy had been informed of the standoff early in the morning, officials said. The president's handling of the crisis could be a decisive factor in determining how the French people vote in the two-round presidential elections in April and May.The Jewish victims from the Ozar Hatorah school were buried in Jerusalem on Wednesday. Parliament speaker Reuben Rivlin said in his eulogy at the hill-top cemetery that the attack was inspired by "wild animals with hatred in their hearts".Authorities said on Tuesday that the gunman had apparently filmed his rampage through the school with a camera strapped to his body.He wounded Rabbi Jonathan Sandler as he entered the building, then shot an 8-year-old girl in the head, before returning to kill Sandler and his two children, who had rushed to his side, at point blank range.Immigrants and Islam have been major themes of the campaign after Sarkozy tried to win over the voters of Le Pen, who accused the government on Wednesday of underestimating the threat from fundamentalism."We must now wage this war against these fundamentalist political and religious groups that are killing our children, that are killing our Christian children, our Christian young men, young Muslim men and Jewish children," she told the i-Tele news channel, questioning the decision to deploy in Afghanistan.But leaders of the Jewish and Muslim communities said the gunman was a lone extremist.France's military presence in Afghanistan has divided the two main candidates in the election.Socialist frontrunner Francois Hollande has said he will pull them out by the end of this year while Sarkozy aims for the end of 2013.

NEWS,20.03.2012.

Fears French gunman could strike again

French police stepped up the search today for a gunman who filmed his carnage as he shot dead three children and a rabbi at a Jewish school, fearing the killer could strike again.Officials believe the scooter-riding gunman is a trained marksman with "extremist" views who may also be responsible for last week's shootings of three soldiers of North African origin.

France's President Nicolas Sarkozy has said racism appeared to be the motivation for yesterday's school attack, which came just five weeks before the first round of the presidential election.Racist and anti-Semitic attacks are not uncommon in France.Immigrants and Islam have been major themes of the campaign as Sarkozy tries to win over the voters of far-right leader Marine Le Pen. Analysts say the shootings could transform the election debate and possibly tone down populist rhetoric."We will track down this monster," Foreign Minister Alain Juppe said of the killer on France 2 television. "We will find him, bring him to justice and punish him."France is home to the largest Jewish and Muslim communities in Europe and has a history of attacks on both groups, but yesterday's shooting was the most deadly anti-Semitic attack on French soil in nearly 30 years.The police tightened security at religious sites, raised the terror alert in the southern town to the highest possible level and talked to gun clubs in an effort to track down the killer."It would be surprising if he stops now," one police officer involved in the investigation said.Surveillance tapes at the school showed the gunman recorded his shooting spree with a small video camera around his neck.He is also the prime suspect in the killing of three paratroopers in two separate shootings last week in Toulouse and the nearby town of Montauban."This shows a profile of the murderer as someone who is very cold, very determined, with precise gestures, and therefore very cruel," Interior Minister Claude Gueant said.In each attack, the gunman arrived on a stolen Yamaha scooter and used a Colt 45 handgun. His face was hidden by a motorcycle helmet during the attacks.The three dead soldiers included two members of the 17th parachute regiment. 

Police have interviewed three former soldiers expelled from the regiment for neo-Nazi activity in 2008, but a police source said they had been ruled out of the investigation.At the entrance of the Ozar Hatorah Jewish school in Toulouse, a five-floor brick building in a leafy residential neighbourhood, residents and parents left floral tributes and candles in memory of the victims.A child who survived the attack spoke of his sheer terror as the shots rang out through the school."We were getting ready for prayers when the principal stormed in and screamed that there was a shooting. I panicked and fled to the old canteen and heard the shots, but saw nothing," an 11-year old boy told France Info radio."I thought he was going to come in any minute and finish us all. Then I waited and waited and then my daddy came to get me."Schools all over France observed a minute of silence."This has happened in Toulouse, in a religious school with children from Jewish families, but it could have happened here. The same killer could have come here, these children are exactly like you," Sarkozy said, attending the silent vigil in a Paris secondary school.The bodies of the four victims, who hold dual French-Israeli nationality, will be repatriated to Israel on Tuesday night, Joel Mergui,the head of a Jewish religious organisation, said.The Israeli embassy identified the victims as Jonathan Sandler, 30, his children Gabriel and Arieh, aged four and five, and Myriam Monsonego, seven.

NEWS,19.03.2012.

Gunman kills three children, teacher outside school

A teacher and his two sons are among four dead after a gunman opened fire outside a school in France. The 30-year-old Jewish teacher and his 3-year-old and six-year-old sons were killed outside a Jewish school in the city of Toulouse just before school started. Another child between 8-10 years old was also killed. Toulouse prosecutor Michel Valet said a 17-year-old was wounded. The gunman escaped on a motorbike.” The attacker was shooting people outside the school, and then pursued children into the school, before fleeing on a heavy motorbike," Valet told reporters. The attack's being linked with two similar shootings by a motorcycle gunman in the region last week, in which three French paratroopers of Arab extraction was killed in the same area of southwest France.” I saw two people dead in front of the school, an adult and a child ... Inside, it was a vision of horror, the bodies of two small children," one father, searching for his son at the Ozar Hatorah school among crowds of distraught parents and children, told RTL radio. The soldiers, one of Caribbean and two of Muslim origin, also been killed in drive-by shootings and prosecutors opened an anti-terrorism investigation into all three attacks although it was not clear whether the motive was political or purely racist. The prosecutor confirmed that the same calibre firearm was used in the attack as in the killing of the three soldiers in two separate attacks by a man who escaped on a scooter. He could not say if it was exactly the same weapon. President Nicolas Sarkozy and Francois Hollande, the Socialist opposing him in his uphill bid for re-election in May, both rushed to the scene.Sarkozy said he was struck by the similarities between the three attacks.” We don't know who this killer is and what is the exact link is to the drama that has hit the military community," Sarkozy said after arriving in Toulouse. "Everything must be done so that the killer is stopped and has to pay for his crimes.” Our schools must keep functioning, our compatriots that want to worship at synagogues, mosques and churches must be able to continue to do so. We should not give ground to terror.” Police cordoned off the school and a spokesman for the interior ministry said security was being tightened at all other Jewish schools in the country. France's 600,000-strong Jewish community is Europe's largest. There was mayhem around the small school in a leafy upscale neighbourhood of Toulouse, a booming industrial town. "All the children at this school were my children," one tearful mother told LCI television. The father looking for his son expressed disbelief: "How can they attack something as sacred as a school, attack children only 60 centimetres (two feet) tall?" he told RTL radio. As messages of condolence poured in from across Europe, representatives of France's Jewish community voiced their solidarity.” The whole Jewish community is in mourning," said Rabbi Moshe Lewin, a spokesman for France's great rabbi. "In the face of such a drama, such a horror, one cannot but go there.” Public prosecutor Valet said investigators were studying video evidence from the school shooting and the attack on Thursday in the nearby town of Montauban that killed two soldiers and left a third seriously injured. The three men, aged between 24 and 28, were shot while in uniform as they tried to withdraw money from a cash machine close to the barracks of the 17th parachute regiment. A third soldier, aged 30, was killed the previous weekend in Toulouse. Investigators said the same weapon had been used in both incidents. The shootings could thrust security back to the top of the agenda in a bitter electoral campaign that has been dominated by issues of taxation and immigration. Political analyst Stefane Rozes, head of CAP political consultancy, said the shooting was unlikely to have a decisive impact on France's election campaign as all candidates were strongly condemning the violence.

NEWS,18.03.2012.

US: North Korean satellite launch would be "deal-breaker"

North Korea's announcement Friday of plans to launch an observation satellite in April brought condemnation from the United States, South Korea, Japan and the United Nations due to concerns that the launch could be used to test ballistic missile technology. US State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said Washington now had 'grave concerns' about the February 29 agreement in which North Korea agreed to a moratorium on its nuclear and long-range missile programmes and international nuclear inspections, in exchange for 240,000 metric tons of food aid from the United States. 'We made clear unequivocally that we considered that any satellite launch would be a deal-breaker,' she said Friday. The Kwangmyongsong-3, borne by the Unha-3 carrier rocket, was to be launched between April 12-16 to mark the centenary of the birth of North Korea's founder, Kim Il Sung, who was born on April 15. Nuland said that a launch would be 'highly provocative' and in violation of United Nations Security Council resolutions 1718 and 1874, which banned launches using ballistic missile technology. The February 29 agreement had raised hopes that the six-party talks on Pyongyang's nuclear and ballistic missile programmes - including North and South Korea, the United States, Japan, China and Russia - could be resumed. Nuland said that US officials consulted Friday with other participants, and all were 'caught by some surprise' by North Korea's satellite announcement. 'Now, the question is for all of the six-party members to make clear that this is not the way to go forward if (the North Koreans) want to work with us,' she said. Nuland said that a North Korean launch would create 'tensions,' making 'implementation of any kind of a nutritional agreement quite difficult.' The South Korean Foreign Ministry expressed 'grave concern' over the planned launch, which it said would be a 'clear violation' of United Nations Security Council Resolution 1874, which bans 'any launch using ballistic missile technology.' Seoul said it would 'closely cooperate' with the other members of the six-party talks 'so that North Korea ceases such a provocative action.' In Tokyo, chief cabinet secretary Osamu Fujimura said: 'Japan will strongly urge North Korea not to go ahead with the launch.' The possible satellite launch 'undermines the efforts to settle various issues, which have been made through talks' with North Korea, Fujimura said. A spokesman for the North Korean Committee for Space Technology was quoted by Pyongyang's official news agency KCNA as saying the move would 'offer an important occasion of putting the country's technology of space use for peaceful purposes on a higher stage.' The 'polar-orbiting, Earth-observation satellite will be blasted off southward' from the Sohae Satellite Launching Station in the eastern province of North Pyongan, which lies on the Chinese border and Yellow Sea, the spokesman said. Pyongyang denied any military aspect to the launch. 'The DPRK will strictly abide by relevant international regulations and usage concerning the launch of scientific and technological satellites for peaceful purposes,' the spokesman said. Previous launches of multi-stage rockets by North Korea in 1998 and 2009, which Pyongyang said aimed to put satellites into orbit, were condemned by the US, South Korea and Japan as potential tests of military ballistic technology. The deal, under which Pyongyang was also to stop the enrichment of uranium at a major nuclear facility and permit visits by nuclear inspectors, had raised hopes of a possible resumption of six-nation talks on North Korea's nuclear weapons programme, which have been stalled since late 2008. The talks reached an agreement in 2005 in which North Korea was to dismantle its nuclear programme, but the reclusive communist state has since carried out two nuclear tests in addition to the long-range missile launches. The UN Security Council passed Resolution 1874 in June 2009 in response to the tests. UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon urged Pyongyang 'to reconsider its decision in line with its recent undertaking to refrain from long-range missile launches.' He sai a launch would be a violation of the UN resolutions.

NEWS,17.03.2012.

North Korean rocket plan draws condemnation

North Korea says it will launch a long-range rocket carrying a "working" satellite to mark the centenary of founder Kim Il-sung's birth next month. The move has drawn international condemnation and could scuttle US plans to resume food aid. The United States warned North Korea that such a launch could violate Pyongyang's February agreement to stop nuclear tests, uranium enrichment and long-range missile launches and to allow checks by nuclear inspectors. UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, a former South Korean foreign minister, urged North Korea to comply with UN Security Council resolutions banning launches using ballistic missile technology. Russia, South Korea, Japan, Britain, France and others also expressed concern. Russia's Foreign Ministry called for "maximum restraint from all sides," suggesting aggressive responses by North Korea's neighbours also would be ill-advised. Experts said the launch was clearly another long-range missile test, and could be seen as an act of brinkmanship to pressure Washington into more talks in return for aid. Analysts said the launch also was aimed at boosting the communist country's new leadership. US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said the announcement was highly provocative and called on North Korea to honour its obligations including the UN Security Council resolutions banning ballistic missile launches.” Such a missile launch would pose a threat to regional security and would also be inconsistent with North Korea's recent undertaking to refrain from long-range missile launches," she said in a statement. The State Department said a launch could force the United States to halt plans for food aid that were announced alongside the nuclear deal and seen as a step to ease tensions following the December death of North Korean leader Kim Jong-il and the ascent of his young and untested heir, Kim Jong-un.South Korea, still technically at war with the North after signing only an armistice to end the 1950-53 Korean War, and Japan said the ballistic launch threatened regional security. North Korea pledged that next month's launch would not impact neighbouring countries. Pyongyang has provided few details on the new satellite, but has said it will be a "working" satellite developed using indigenous technology. The launch will take place between April 12-16, North Korea's official KCNA said. It is due to occur at around the time South Korea holds a parliamentary election, and just over three weeks after a global nuclear security summit in Seoul. Any launch by North Korea, whether for a satellite or not, that uses ballistic missile technology violates Security Council resolutions, the Japanese government said.” We urge North Korea to exercise restraint and refrain from the launch," said the top government spokesman, Chief Cabinet Secretary Osamu Fujimura.China, the reclusive state's only main ally, was more restrained in its response, but stressed the need to maintain peace on the divided peninsula.” Protecting the peace and stability of the Korean Peninsula and North East Asia suits the joint interests of all parties and is the consistent expectation of the international community. This requires that all relevant parties take a constructive role," Foreign Ministry spokesman Liu Weimin told reporters at a regular news briefing. In April 2009, North Korea conducted a similar ballistic rocket launch that resulted in a new round of toughened UN sanctions, squeezing the secretive state's already troubled economy and deepening its isolation. That launch, dismissed as a failure after the first stage fell into the Sea of Japan without placing a satellite in orbit, provoked outrage in Tokyo, which had threatened to shoot down any debris or rocket that threatened its territory. Another test failed in similar circumstances in 1998.Russia urged North Korea not to set up obstacles to the revival of six-nation talks over its nuclear program."We call on Pyongyang not to put itself in opposition to the international community, to refrain from actions that increase tension in the region and create additional complications for the relaunch of six-sided negotiations about the nuclear issue on the Korean peninsula," the Foreign Ministry said. Britain’s UN Ambassador Mark Lyall Grant told reporters that such a rocket launch would likely be a violation of U.N. Security Council resolutions. French Foreign ministry spokesman Bernard Valero added, "North Korea must give up this project, which goes against UN Security Council resolutions.” Washington says the North's long-range ballistic missile program is moving ahead quickly and former Defense Secretary Robert Gates said last year that the American mainland could come under threat within five years.” The DPRK is to launch a working satellite, Kwangmyongsong-3, manufactured by itself with indigenous technology to mark the 100th birth anniversary of President Kim Il-sung," the North's official KCNA said, quoting a spokesman for the Korean Committee for Space Technology.KCNA said the launch would be conducted from a base near its border with China, indicating it would take place at a newly constructed missile testing site believed to be larger and more advanced than the site used to launch previous rockets. The launch will be made southwards and debris generated from the flight will not impact neighbouring countries, it said. Pyongyang has been planning massive celebrations for years to mark Kim Il-sung's birthday on April 15, and has boasted the occasion would also mark its emergence on the international stage as a "strong and prosperous" nation. The state's new young leader Kim Jong-un, who became the third member of the Kim family to lead the state after his father's death in December, has presented a militaristic image to his countrymen since taking power. He has visited several military sites and been seen mixing with top brass in what analysts say is a move designed to win the all-powerful army's backing for the succession process. The United States had planned to deliver 240,000 tons of food aid over the next year to the impoverished country, which suffered a crippling famine in the 1990s that killed an estimated one million people.

NEWS,16.03.2012.

Greece receives second multibillion-dollar bailout

The euro zone's temporary bailout fund, the European Financial Stability Facility, will contribute 109.1 billion euros to the second Greek bailout after covering the costs of the Greek debt swap. The IMF will contribute 28 billion euros on top of the 109.1 billion, which the Fund will pay to Greece over four years, rather than the three years envisaged in the euro zone financing plan. The 109.1 billion figure includes 48 billion euros that the EFSF will provide, in the form of its own bonds, to recapitalise Greek banks, over the next few weeks, Regling told several international news agencies.” That means 61 billion euros is left for normal programme financing," he said in comments for release on Friday. The EFSF figure does not include the 30 billion euros that the euro zone has provided as a sweetener for investors in the privately held debt restructuring, or the 5.5 billion euros of repayment of accrued interest. Regling said the EFSF has provided 26.6 billion euros of the sweetener for investors holding debt governed by Greek law.” Once the debt exchange offer has been completed on Greek sovereign bonds issued under international law and Greek corporate and municipal bonds, guaranteed by the Greek state, the amount of the PSI (private sector involvement) contribution could increase to a total of 30 billion euros," Regling said. Investors holding Greek bonds issued under international law have until March 23 to accept or reject a debt swap offer already widely accepted by those holding Greek-law bonds. The EFSF, which has a total lending capacity of 440 billion euros thanks to guarantees from euro zone governments, has issued 6-month bills worth 4.6 billion euros to repay accrued interest on Greek debt out of the 5.5-billion-euro total. If holders of Greek debt under international law decide to accept the debt swap too, they will get the remaining 900 million euros. The second bailout for Greece, financed by the EFSF, comes on top of the fund's commitments to Ireland and Portugal, the two other euro zone countries that have been cut off from the markets and need euro zone loans to avoid bankruptcy.” Overall the EFSF has committed 192 billion euros for the three programmes of Ireland, Portugal and Greece. This leaves 248 billion euros of uncommitted resources," Regling said. Under a preliminary funding plan, which is subject to market conditions, the EFSF expects to raise a total of 8.1 billion euros for Ireland in 2012 and 2 billion euros in 2013.For Portugal, the EFSF wants to raise 13.9 billion euros in 2012, 3.6 billion euros in 2013 and 1.7 billion euros in 2014.To service the Greek programme, the EFSF's preliminary funding plan envisages 32.2 billion euros in 2012, 32.3 billion euros in 2013 and 32.1 billion euros in 2014.Next week, the fund may issue its longest bond so far of between 20 and 30 years in maturity in an auction of 1-to-1.5 billion euros, depending on market conditions. The EFSF also plans to sell 2 billion euros' worth of 6-month bills on March 20 and is considering the sale of a benchmark 5-year bond on March 22.

'Dummy' journalist annoys Sarkozy

French President Nicolas Sarkozy was caught on camera calling a journalist a "dummy", in an outburst his Socialist election rival Francois Hollande condemned as vulgar and undignified. Sarkozy has earned a reputation for blunt speaking during his five-year presidency. In the run-up to April's first round presidential vote, he appears to have been at pains to shed that image. But during a visit to Chalons-sur-Marne, east of Paris, he appeared to lose patience with a young journalist when questioned about clashes between police and striking steel workers in the capital on Thursday.” Do you think I give a damn about what you say? What do you expect me to say?" he says, adding: "What a dummy!” He then turned back smiling to the journalist and slapped him on the shoulder, apologizing for the comment and saying: "He's nice really. He's young.” Socialist candidate Francois Hollande blasted Sarkozy in the wake of the incident accusing him of slipping back into the "excesses" and "vulgarity" that had marked his five-year term."Do you think that's the best way to conduct a dignified public debate?" he said on France 2 television. Some 150 workers from the Arcelor Mittal steel mill at Floranges in eastern France gathered outside Sarkozy's campaign headquarters in Paris earlier in the day to protest at the threatened closure of the plant and push for a solution. The protest turned violent as workers tried to break through a police line, prompting riot police to fire tear gas to put an end to the demonstration. Sarkozy's comments came only hours after he had himself criticized his rival Hollande for losing his temper, referring to the Socialist candidate's heated campaign speech in Marseilles a day earlier.” There’s no need to get angry, tense up, to be nasty or aggressive," he told journalists on the side lines of an earlier visit to a metal factory.Sarkozy has been dogged by a reputation for inflammatory language since he captured the headlines during his 2007 presidential campaign with a call to rid the Paris suburbs of young "scum”. In 2008 he was caught on camera telling a man at an agricultural fair to "get lost, jerk", a phrase that would haunt him throughout his presidency. That, combined with his whirlwind romance with model-turned-singer Carla Bruni and his friendships with wealthy businessmen, alienated many voters.Sarkozy has consistently trailed Hollande in polls of voting intentions, but overtook his arch-rival in the first-round vote in an IFOP poll this week. Second-round polls still show Hollande as the outright winner. The latest daily rolling poll of voting intentions by IFOP for magazine Paris Match, showed Sarkozy taking 28% of the vote in the first round on April 22, against 26.5%  for Hollande.Hollande would still win in a second-round runoff, with 53.5% of votes.

NEWS,15.3.2012

China removes top leadership contender Bo from post

 

 

Ambitious Chinese Communist Party leadership contender Bo Xilai has been toppled from his post as head of the inland city of Chongqing, in a move risking a backlash from backers of his controversial vision of socialist growth. His abrupt downfall, announced on Thursday by the official Xinhua news agency, exposes ideological divisions as a new generation prepares to take power in China later this year, and may stir tensions between supporters of his more traditional, state-dominated version of socialism, and liberal critics, who saw him as a dangerous opportunist. Bo was removed as party boss of Chongqing, a sprawling region in the southwest that he turned into a bastion of Communist revolutionary-inspired "red" culture and egalitarian growth, a day after being rebuked by Premier Wen Jiabao in a news conference broadcast live across the country. The telegenic Bo had been a contender for top leadership, but his prospects suffered a blow after Vice Mayor Wang Lijun, previously his long time police chief, went to ground in February in the U.S. consulate in nearby Chengdu until he was coaxed out and placed under investigation.Xinhua said Vice Premier Zhang Dejiang will replace Bo, but gave no further details. It also said Wang had been removed from his vice mayor post. When announcing Bo's dismissing, the head of the party's powerful organisational department, Li Yuanchao, said the move was made "in light of the serious political repercussions of the Wang Lijun incident," according to Chinese news reports that cited a Chongqing television report. Vice Mayor Wang had earlier been a key figure in a drive against organised crime that garnered Bo nationwide attention. While Bo might be kept on in some role until the Communist Party leadership succession this autumn, his hopes for promotion to a top job were finished, said Chen Ziming, an independent scholar in Beijing who follows party politics.” Now it looks like Wen Jiabao's comments yesterday represented the leadership's collective view that Bo needed to go," said Chen, referring to the premier's pointed rebuke of Bo."This will affect the leadership politics for the 18th Congress, because this opens up new uncertainties about who is in contention," said Chen.The 18th Party Congress late this year will see China's biggest leadership transition in nearly a decade, with Party Chief Hu Jintao and other elders due to retire and hand power to a younger generation headed by Vice President Xi Jinping.Unlike Bo, Xi has shied away from the limelight. Both are "princelings", the term for children of current, retired or late revolutionary leaders."The fact that the Xinhua announcement did not stress that Bo will be placed in another post means that he's probably going to be put under investigation, and there won't be any conclusion on his future until the end of that," said one source, a journalist with extensive contacts among central and Chongqing officials. He spoke on condition of anonymity to protect himself and his contacts.Bo's fall from a confident defence of his policies at a news conference last week to dismissal this week has come while central authorities push forward with an investigation into Wang's flight to the U.S. mission.Bo has plenty of fans, attracted to the idea of a "Chongqing model" of development that promises greater equality. Some were riled by his sudden departure."The removal of Bo Xilai is a real shock to me. We don't know whether it's because of his personal errors or is an attack on the Chongqing model," said Sima Nan, a leftist writer and broadcaster in Beijing who has praised Bo."If this amounts to a negation of the Chongqing model, then I can't agree with this decision."Wen added to the cloud hanging over Bo on Wednesday by scolding Chongqing for the scandal and obliquely warning against nostalgia for the Mao Zedong era."Well, the good news, I guess, is that the risks of leftism and extremism in Chinese politics have just taken a nose dive," said David Zweig, a scholar of Chinese politics at the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology."I guess nobody really knew what he believed in, except self-promotion, and now the self-promotion has done him in, which is good," said Zweig.Bo's removal quickly became one of the most talked about topics on China's Twitter-like microblogging site Weibo, with the normal censorship of discussion on top leaders strangely absent. Many people expressed support for Bo."With the anti-mafia heroes Bo and Wang both gone, what are we going to do now?" wrote Jin Zhiheng.The man who takes in Chongqing, Vice Premier Zhang, studied economics in North Korea and is a former party boss in the export-dependent southern province of Guangdong. Unusually, he retains his vice premiership despite his new position.Xinhua did not mention whether Bo could lose his seat in the Politburo, a central decision-making body that sits under the more powerful Standing Committee. The Politburo itself would have to make that decision.The mayor of Chongqing, Huang Qifan, widely seen as the brains behind the city's elaborate growth plans, appeared to survive the fall of Bo, at least for now.Huang said he would "resolutely support the handling of the Wang Lijun incident, and the adjustment of the municipal leadership," the news reports said, citing the Chongqing television broadcast.