FRANCE …
French soccer players are speaking out on the riots that have plagued the nation's poor suburbs for two weeks:
''Violence never happens for no reason. You have to understand where the malaise comes from. Before talking about law and order, you have to talk about social justice,'' said defender Lilian Thuram, a hero of the 1998 World Cup-winning squad, who also responded to Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy referring to the troublemakers as ''scum.''
''Perhaps Sarkozy doesn't know what he is talking about,'' he added. ''I grew up in a project, too, but I am not scum. People used to say the same thing to me. What I wanted was to find work.
''Not everyone has had an opportunity to work, and it has been going on a long time,'' midfielder Florent Malouda said. ''The victims are the people who themselves live in the projects — the neighbors of the hooligans.''
LIBERIA …
Former soccer star George Weah, who is trailing in Liberia's presidential election runoff to Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf, has made allegations of election fraud: ''The world is saying this election was free and fair, which was not true.''
ISRAEL …
The nation of Qatar's pledge of up to $10 million for the construction of a stadium for Bnei Sakhnin, an Israeli Arab team in Israel's top league, marks the first time an Arab country has donated money to a city inside Israel. The Israeli government has also promised contributions