France cracking down on Corsican violence

The French government, seeking to halt a wave of separatist violence in Corsica, formally outlawed the island's main guerrilla movement and appointed a top Paris policeman to head a security crackdown there.

The measures, announced after a Cabinet meeting, marked a turning point in the policy of the Socialist administration, which last year granted limited self-rule to the Mediterranean island and adopted a conciliatory approach to nationalist activists.