"I'm in favor of ending the possibility of offering both free delivery and a five percent discount," she told BFM news television on Friday. "We need a law, so we're going to find a legislative window to introduce one."

Amazon in France declined to comment.

Filippetti's remark underscored tensions between the French government and U.S. online firms such as Amazon and Google, which have been criticized for paying too little to the creators of cultural or news content.

France, like other European countries, bans retailers from discounting books more than 5 percent from a sale price set by the publisher. This is to prevent small sellers from being crushed by giant retailers that can absorb bigger discounts.

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The flamboyant Venezuelan-born terrorist and self-proclaimed revolutionary, whose real name is Ilich Ramirez Sanchez, also is serving a second life sentence for a triple murder in Paris in 1975.

The decision followed hours of deliberation, and Ramirez, true to form, made a several-hours-long final plea. The trial began May 13.

Ramirez, who cuts a dapper style, was once one of the Cold War era's most wanted men. He has been jailed in France since 1994 when French agents whisked him out of Sudan in a sack.

Lawyer Isabelle Coutant-Peyre said that neither she nor her client was surprised by the verdict. She married Ramirez several years ago in a Muslim ceremony in prison in what she calls a "symbolic" union.

"He is very realistic and he knows very well that the French state won't give him normal justice," she said by telephone. "He has been condemned for life one more time by French judges who are not independent (from the state)."

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But violence from fringe right-wing groups and anti-gay protestors has continued in the wake of the landmark reform, so the couple's nuptials will take place amid tight security, with the city of Montpellier calling in extra police to ensure the ceremony goes off without incident.

In addition to a heavy police presence, the Wednesday ceremony will host more than 200 members of the international press, as CNN reports:

Some 200 journalists have been accredited to cover the wedding, many from overseas, signaling the global interest in the social landmark represented by the marriage.

Guillaume Bonnet, senior campaign manager in France for the equality group All Out, said he was honored to be a guest at the wedding on what he described as a historic day for his country.

"We have shown that if we all work together anything is possible," he said. "Now couples like Vincent and Bruno can create life full of love and family just like any other loving and committed couple."

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PARIS (AP) — A 22-year-old man was arrested Wednesday in the stabbing of a French soldier who was attacked while on patrol in a crowded commercial area outside Paris, and prosecutors have opened a terrorism investigation, the Interior Minister said.

Saturday's stabbing came days after a British soldier was killed on a London street in broad daylight in a suspected terrorist attack that has raised fears of potential copycat strikes.

The French suspect was known to investigators, said Interior Minister Manuel Valls, "but I cannot talk about radical Islam."

The uniformed soldier was slashed in the throat by an assailant who came from behind as he was on group patrol in the crowded just outside Paris, where train lines converge on a busy shopping mall.

Valls said there was no immediate confirmation of any link between the French suspect and the London attack, telling the iTele network: "We have to learn more about his motivations, his record, his background."

Three French paratroopers were killed last year by Mohammed Merah, described by police as a French-born radical Islamist, who then went on to attack a Jewish school and kill four more people before dying in a shootout with police.

"Members of the military know they have to be on guard," Valls said.

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The 23-year-old soldier, Cedric Cordier, was in uniform patrolling the busy underground corridors where shops and crowded public transport lines converge beneath the famous Arch of La Defense.

Saturday's stabbing came days after a British soldier was hacked to death on a London street in broad daylight in a suspected terrorist attack that has raised fears of potential copycat strikes. However, there was no immediate confirmation of any link between the two attacks.

Cordier remained hospitalized Sunday but officials said his throat wound wasn't life-threatening.

The French soldier was on a group patrol as part of a national protection program when he was attacked from behind.

France's defense minister, Jean-Yves Le Drian, who visited Cordier at the hospital Saturday evening, said that he had been targeted because he was a soldier.

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André Malraux, the prolific French critic and Minister of Culture under Charles de Gaulle, once wrote that art is an “anti-destin,” a revolt against destiny. And by that measure, the country’s recently-released report calling for a tax on internet-connected devices to fund cultural production qualifies simultaneously as artless and a work of art in itself. The generally well-intentioned document, authored by Pierre Lescure, a special advisor on France’s “exception culturelle” doctrine, was presented to President François Hollande on Monday, and Le Monde reported that it marks a departure from the aggressive copyright-protection tactics previously favored by Nicholas Sarkozy’s conservative government.

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We at GlobalPost live by a third certainty: The world is a weird and wondrous place. However, we didn't realize until recently how much the promises of weirdness and taxes overlap.

From extra charges on flavored vodka in the US to beards in Russia, here are the top six wackiest taxes we've found around the world:

1. Tax on smartphones and laptops in France

French President Francois Hollande is considering a tax on smartphones, laptops and tablets to finance the country's celebrated exception culturelle, or "cultural exception," a precious French principle enshrined in law.

The exception essentially requires that anything considered to be of cultural value to French society must be protected from erratic market forces and the pernicious spread of non-French cultural items — namely, American and other English-language influences.

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Along with the bullets, the Sigolsheim mayor was sent a copy of the interview scrawled over with homophobic slurs. He called the threat "odious."

As reported by English-language French news site the Local, Speitel is not the only French politician to receive death threats as the opposition to marriage equality in France becomes increasingly vocal -- and threatening:

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According toBusiness Insider, right wing lawmaker and gay marriage opponent Henri Guaino voted in favor of the bill legalizing gay marriage despite his opposition to the measure, blaming the electronic voting system for his mistake. Three other members of his party ran into the same problem, reports France's Le Point.

Guaino blamed the "activity" in the Assembly and the flashing lights of the voting system for his momentary confusion, according to a statement: "You saw the mess that was? I've never seen such a mess in the Assembly! There were three buttons flashing, yes, I [pushed] the wrong button!"

But rest assured, he adjusted his vote, even if it didn't change the eventual outcome: "I went to the services of the Assembly to correct my vote," he said.

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In the final reading of the proposal on Tuesday, the National Assembly voted 331 to 225 to adopt the bill. Soon after, anti-gay marriage protestors in Paris began to clash with riot police stationed in the area.

As reported by the Local:

Despite the requests of organizers that marchers disperse peacefully, a hard core group of around 500 refused to leave the Invalides.

Their anger soon boiled over as bottles and firecrackers were hurled at the riot police, who had blocked off a street leading to the parliament.

One officer was taken to hospital with a head wound after being hit by a brick. “The clashes were extremely violent,” one officer told French media.

Police, who responded with tear gas, made 12 arrests. The protesters also turned their ire on journalists in the vicinity, shouting “scumbags" and “collaborators” at the members of the press. At one point a mob of masked protesters chased a group of journalists down the street and a photographer from AFP was sprayed with tear gas.

Interior Minister Manuel Valls later said those arrested were linked to far-right organizations.

There were also violent clashes in the city of Lyon, where anti-gay marriage protesters took to the streets to express their anger. Police said they had made 44 arrests.

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But even with wide voting margins in the legislature and popular support among the public, opposition to the measure that would grant equal marriage and adoption rights to same-sex couples has intensified in recent weeks. Protests in Paris have turned violent, and gay couples have been the victims of vicious assaults.

As The New York Times reports:

At the margins, the demonstrations have also become more violent and homophobic, with a series of nightly demonstrations last week around Parliament that resulted in clashes with riot police officers and a number of arrests. Even opposition leaders have bemoaned the way harder-right groups have infiltrated the demonstrations, and there has been a small surge in violence against gay men and lesbians, with some beatings and angry, offensive words on social media.

Two weeks ago, a Dutch-born man walking with his partner in Paris was beaten up. The man, Wilfred de Bruijn, posted a photograph of his bloodied face on his Facebook page, calling it “the face of Homophobia.” It has been shared thousands of times. Last week, two gay bars, in Bordeaux and Lille, were attacked, and a same-sex couple was attacked Saturday in Nice outside a gay nightclub.

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On Friday, the French Senate voted to approve same-sex marriage and adoption, a move that could bring about full change in the country as early as this summer (civil unions have been legal since 1999). France's justice minister Christiane Taubira, a vocal supporter of the measure, said Friday that the move would strengthen society "by granting the simple recognition of full citizenship to homosexual couples" and  "move our institutions towards ever more freedom, equality and personal respect." Yet conservatives in the French government vowed to continue to fight against the bill, declaring that "nothing is definitive and the debate continues."

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The vote in the upper house of parliament — led by President Francois Hollande's Socialists — comes despite boisterous protests. Opponents — mostly conservatives and fervent Roman Catholics — have sought to defend traditional marriage.

Both houses of parliament will now take up a second reading to consider minor Senate changes to the bill passed in February by the National Assembly, also controlled by a Socialist-led majority.

The bill would allow gay marriage and let same-sex couples adopt children. On the campaign trail last year, Hollande pledged to push through such legislation if elected.

About a dozen mostly European nations already allow gay marriage.

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Mr Hollande initially intended to have the camel vaccinated and transferred to a French zoo. But given the complex procedures required and "the rigours of the harsh French climate for a desert animal", he eventually decided to leave it in the care of a family in Timbuktu.

Mr Le Drian [France's defence minister] said the family apparently wasted no time slaughtering the animal and putting it in a traditional tagine. While mature camel is almost inedible, the flesh from young animals is said to be tender.

 

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They were. If anything, Martin downplays the ruthless bloodthirstiness of the Middle Ages and the people who ruled them. When Ving Rhames says "I'ma get medieval on your ass" in "Pulp Fiction," he's offering a truly terrifying threat. Make no mistake: Beneath the fairy-tale trappings -- velvet robes and golden crowns, stately castles and the lofty rhetoric of chivalry -- most rulers in the Middle Ages were essentially warlords. Herewith, a few of the worst, and some of their dastardly deeds.

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Yet if reports from the Local, an English-language French newspaper, are to be trusted, that's exactly where scores of enterprising smut peddlars are headed. Recently, the historic Catacombs of Paris has become a popular destination for adult filmmakers, models, and photographers, who are heading sixty feet underground to shoot against the backdrop of millions of human skulls and skeletons.

A spokesman for the Musee Carnavelet, the company that manages the catacombs, says that they receive at least one request for permission to film or take photos there every week. Perhaps unsurprisingly, they are not at all pleased with this trend.

“Obviously, we say no. This is a sacred place, which houses the remains of six million Parisians. We only allow serious or scientific documentaries,” the spokesman said. 

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The shirt was disturbing enough that the boy's teacher alerted authorities, and Bagour, along with her brother who bought Jihad the shirt, are being charged with "glorifying crime."

But Bagour thought the shirt would “make people laugh,” and her brother insists that "It's the day (of) his birth I wanted to highlight, not the year," the BBC reports. Bagour attempted to defend herself, saying, "We were never trying to claim responsibility for this thing or defend a cause."

Prosecutors are hoping to fine them more than $5,000, collectively. “Idiocy is often the best alibi to hide the real intentions. The most scandalous thing is that they’ve used and manipulated a three-year-old child to voluntarily convey the words of a terrorist," lawyer Claude Avril told Sky News.

The trial will conclude on April 10.

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