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SALAH ABDESLAM, A surviving member of the group that carried out the Paris attacks in November that killed 130 people, will be questioned by French investigators for the first time on Friday.
For months, Abdeslam was the most wanted fugitive in Europe until he was tracked down and arrested on 18 March in the Brussels neighbourhood of Molenbeek where he grew up.
He has no arrived at a court in Paris to face questioning from anti-terror judges.
Transferred to France under high security on 27 April, he has been held at Fleury-Merogis prison, southeast of Paris.
A childhood friend of suspected ringleader Abdelhamid Abaaoud, Abdeslam is thought to have played a key role both on the night of the attacks on 13 November, and in their preparation.
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Two others have been arrested in France in connection with the attacks carried out by the Islamic State group but they are considered secondary participants.
Abdeslam, 26, is known to have dropped off the three suicide bombers who blew themselves up outside the Stade de France national stadium in northern Paris.
He is said to have backed out of the suicide bombing himself. An abandoned explosives vest was found in a southern Paris district close to where Abdeslam was placed by mobile phone data on the night of the attacks.
CCTV pictures from filling stations showed him fleeing back to Belgium after two friends came to pick him up.
In the build-up to the attacks, he is known to have rented the cars and hideouts used by the gang.
He also transported several other jihadists around Europe in the preceding months, including Najim Laachraoui, the suspected bombmaker for the November attacks who was himself killed in a suicide bombing in Brussels on 22 March.
The coordinated attacks in Brussels that day also struck a metro station, killing 32 people overall.
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Interesting. With the exception of the strikes, the Luas has been very reliable and usually runs to schedule, compared to Irish rail and Dublin Bus. Its going to be harder to keep buses to a tight schedule due traffic, and people clogging up bus lanes.
Examining what happened after Britain privatised the rail this isnt a good idea, just leads to huge ticket increases and lesser used/night services being scrapped. Organisng the Luas and Dublin Bus and Dart into a Transport for London style system would be more benificial where any profits are put back into infrastructure and there arent any private interests or shareholders anywhere, just quality public transport where busy routes subsidise free transport for school children or the elderly. That system works well in London where the tube drivers even end up being paid more than our train drivers. Privatisation and Transdev and the decentralisation and fragmentation of our Public transport is a bad thing for commuters pockets and for the night time economy.
Luas runs to Schedule due to the fact its on a track nothing in its way no real mechanical parts and has traffic light priority. Of course it would run on schedule.
It’s not really privatisation any more than the Luas is, it’s a similar model to Luas. Privatisation would be selling off the network and buses British Rail style. This is competing to MANAGE the routes not own them, and surely the drivers will be protected by the TUPE law. It seems to work well in London , rail competition or privatisation would never work here but this might. CIE is a bloated inefficient monster.
I doubt the drivers are transferring. Are these new routes? If not surely DB drivers would be redeployed somewhere else. You’re right it’s not privatisation so much as outsourcing, or even a concession. A lot of people get mixed up with it though, think everything is privatisation.
Yeah well privatisation sounds better on the news for the ‘everything for free brigade’ than outsourcing or concession routes and gets bums off seats while they get siptu to parade up and down about it.
Given the way we do things here – the workers will likely transfer – with ALL their old entitlements and work practices/habilts which will no doubt cripple any new offering in the same way the LUAS is being attacked now.
Any new bus operator managing a route would be well advised to hire only people with no prior CIE group experience.
Ryan just a few facts for you…
“It seems to work well in London”?? That’s because of a subvention level of £675 million per year. That budget is being cut this year so let’s see how well it works.
There is 83 different pay rates among London bus drivers. Most at the lower end of the scale.
Workers are forced to move every time a contract moves ( 5 years), meaning huge disturbance and more frozen pension entitlement.
TUPE offers no protection: if the transport network is broken up the multinational vultures will descend and the taxpayers will be paying multiples of the current subvention for a worse service.
It does certainly seem SIPTU had the bigger picture in mind and used the all-too-willing luas drivers as pawns. I guess if they embarrassed transdev then SIPTU could say they’re not fit to run the buses and they could keep their gravy train flowing. Maybe I’ve been watching too much Game of Trones and am giving them too much credit.
Not sure how this will pan out but the transit system in Dublin at present is awful for a European capital. Perhaps brining in an experienced expert from another jurisdiction might help Dublin move forward from the impasse of Luas strikes, lack of airport railway. .lack of night busses and from the undignified scrum called the last bus at 11.30 each night?
If transdev win the bid to run these, i hope they recruit a better class of employee. Have a look at the picture on rte website with siptu rep, its hilarious. They really dont hire them for their looks. If you can look unintelligent, well this is a picture of it.
Eehhh No. They dont look to bright at all and im guessing thats why they are driving their greedy agenda. A brighter employee may be more appreciative of their terms and conditions
The treatment off unions by the corporate bossed causing the chaos off luas our voted represented political people allow the rest off our transport infrastructure to foreign corporate thieves whose existence is profit based not service based any right thinking person will e mail local political rep’s for these people never be allowed hold our services held to ransom for the greed off these outside entity now is time for the famous irish fighting spirit that brought about the end off the British empire wake up Ireland please
Veolia/Transderv have a reputation of causing chaos in industrial relations all over the world. The trample all over workers rights, pay and conditions.
They already have a grip on our water, and a foot in the public transport door with the Luas. Now they want to muscle in on bus transport.
Is everything to be privatised in the country? Water, Health,Education, Social Welfare, Public Transport.
It sure looks like we are really being made TTIP friendly.
So Dublin can expect a lot of strikes if Transdev do buy the routes seemingly as the las is on strike every day now it seems with no end in sight to this dispute….
Typical they can’t run the luas so they’ll probably have first choice on the bus routes. They should be thrown out of the country and let the transport authority take over and run the trains darts luas and the bus services. Get these leeches out of the country
Surely a London type system would be much better? ‘Transport for Dublin’ where all profits go straight back into the infrastructure and makes the ticket price cheaper? Privatisation leads to much higher prices (Britain’s train system an example).
All the bus drivers will be lining up to get on those routes now they know what the luas operators get. Imagine the pay where a bit of effort is required ??
Hmmm….so is this the real reason why SIPTU has backed the Luas drivers to turn down the WRC agreement. Risking their members jobs and livelihoods in a strategic power game over the privatisation of new bus services.
Looks like Dublin bus going to get the tender for the 10% so there’ll be no problem Transdev or any other private company won’t be getting any of these routes. None of the privates will operate at night when there not making money.
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