Today in France

The Guantánamo four remain in jail for the time being. Without comment, the Paris court of appeals ordered their continued detention to-day. The prosecutors office also declared to-day that in its view the release of the four men (Nizar Sassi, 25, Mourad Benchellali, 23, Brahim Yadel, 33, and Imad Kanouni, 27) would disturb public order. See here for more information about the men.

A further three French citizens are currently being held at Guantánamo.

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France has given €300,000 ($368,183) to the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), earmarked to help the four Sahelian nations (Mauritania, Senegal, Mali and Niger) cope with a plague of locusts that threatens to provoke a famine affecting up to a million people.

The situation is very grave, indeed. The last such plague in 1987 caused $300 million worth of damage to food production but, according to the FAO, this time it will be worse. Locusts engulfed Nouakchott capital last week and the Mauritanian government claims that the locusts have gotten to a million hectares (2.47 million acres) of its land. The Gao region in Mali has been overrun and Gambia has declared a national emergency as 70% of its population farms for subsistence.

The infestation coincides with the beginning of the planting season and will deprive affected areas not only of staple foods but also of feed for livestock. Each locust can eat its own bodyweight in 24 hours, meaning in a day a ton of them consume as much as 2,500 people.

Some fear the locusts could spread as far east as Darfur. In fact, the last plague began in western Sudan and ultimately spread to 28 countries, including places as far away as India.

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France's Lieutenant General Jean-Louis Py has taken command of Nato's International Security Assistance Force in Afghanistan.

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The MFA announced to-day that Djiboutian president Ismail Omar Guelleh will enjoy diplomatic immunity while in France for the August 14 and 15 ceremonies celebrating the 1944 Provence landings and the liberation of France. Twenty-two heads of state were invited to participate but only 16 have accepted. Among those absent will be Tony Blair, Dick Cheney and Ivorian president Laurent Gbagbo.

President Guelleh is currently under investigation for the murder of the French magistrate Bernard Borrel, whose half-carbonized body was found alongside a cliff overlooking the sea of Oman in 1995. Borrel had been working as an advisor to the Djiboutian Justice minister and his mysterious death has aroused a great deal of suspicion. As yet, the investigation hasn't turned up anything solid.