France

Lyon’s second-in-command police chief (pictured) and three other senior officers have been arrested over claims by internal investigators that they were complicit in drug trafficking and corruption, rocking the French police force to its core.

French prosecutors demanded Wednesday that former Panama dictator Manuel Noriega serve the maximum 10-year jail sentence over charges of laundering drug profits through France. A verdict is expected as early as next month.

French President Nicolas Sarkozy promised to crack down on violence, drugs and truancy in France’s impoverished suburbs during a visit on Tuesday to Trembray-en-France, the scene of a brutal bus attack last month.

French President Nicolas Sarkozy met with bus drivers who refused to work in the impoverished northern Paris suburb of Tremblay-en-France after a bus was attacked Wednesday night.