French held over Chad 'adoptions'

Nine French citizens have been arrested in Chad, accused of making an unauthorised attempt to fly more than 100 children out of the country.
They include the head of a group called Arche de Zoe (Zoe's Ark) that had said it wanted to bring children from Sudan's Darfur region to France.

The nine were arrested at Abeche, near the Chad-Darfur border. A Paris court has launched a criminal investigation.

The French foreign ministry has condemned the incident.

France's Minister for Foreign Affairs and Human Rights Rama Yade, who had travelled to Darfur earlier this week, said the government had warned Zoe's Ark that it could be breaking the law.

"We know absolutely nothing about how these children were gathered. We don't know their origins, their nationality or the reality of their family situation. Taking them like this is in my view illegal and irresponsible," she told the AFP news agency.

Chadian President Idriss Deby Itno described the operation as "inhumane" and "unacceptable" and said those responsible would be "severely punished".