Judges France

He works behind bullet-proof glass windows in a tiny office hidden on one of the obscure, upper floors of the old Palais de Justice. He has no permanent staff except for a secretary. Stacks of working files litter his standard government-issue desk.

The slender, dark-haired woman sat elbow-to-elbow with a handful of Latino youngsters at Santa Ana's Madison Elementary School, patiently helping them with their homework as she has most every Thursday evening for nine years. They didn't seem to mind having their grammar corrected ever so gently by the elegant, well-spoken tutor, who looked more "like a contessa" than a judge in her tailored tan suit, according to Madison principal Marti Baker.

The Libyan government Wednesday invited the French judge who recently accused senior Libyan officials of masterminding the 1989 bombing of a French airliner to visit Libya so they can answer his charges. Attorneys representing the Libyan government said they will guarantee the safety of the investigative magistrate, Jean-Louis Bruguiere, if he goes to Libya.

Didier Schuller, a cocksure political operator with friends in high places, was in deep trouble. And everyone in France knew the source of that trouble was Eric Halphen, a dogged and media-shy magistrate. He was investigating Schuller and others on charges of accepting kickbacks from public housing contracts and funneling them into the conservative Rally for the Republic, the most powerful political party in France. And the judge was closing in.

Libya rejected charges by a French judge that it masterminded an airliner bombing that killed all 170 people on board in 1989. A DC-10 of France's UTA airline exploded over the Niger desert during a flight between the Congolese capital of Brazzaville and Paris after a stop in Chad. The official news agency JANA called the judge's charges "a campaign of racial hatred against the Arab people of Libya" and said Libya "condemns all terrorist operations against innocent civilians."

What began as legislation to clean up rampant corruption in French political fund-raising has backfired on the ruling Socialist Party here, prompting a crisis in the criminal justice system and sinking French President Francois Mitterrand's rating in national public opinion polls. On Wednesday, the Socialist government narrowly escaped an opposition-sponsored vote of censure in the National Assembly that, if successful, could have forced Prime Minister Michel Rocard and his Cabinet to resign.

Didier Schuller, a cocksure political operator with friends in high places, was in deep trouble. And everyone in France knew the source of that trouble was Eric Halphen, a dogged and media-shy magistrate. He was investigating Schuller and others on charges of accepting kickbacks from public housing contracts and funneling them into the conservative Rally for the Republic, the most powerful political party in France. And the judge was closing in.

The slender, dark-haired woman sat elbow-to-elbow with a handful of Latino youngsters at Santa Ana's Madison Elementary School, patiently helping them with their homework as she has most every Thursday evening for nine years. They didn't seem to mind having their grammar corrected ever so gently by the elegant, well-spoken tutor, who looked more "like a contessa" than a judge in her tailored tan suit, according to Madison principal Marti Baker.

There's a two-in-three chance that the winner of "The Next Iron Chef" will be a woman. Cause to celebrate? Chefs Amanda Freitag and Alex Guarnaschelli are now duking it out with pitbull chef Nate Appleman for the Season 5 title of "Next Iron Chef" and a shot at sweet, sweet redemption. Ousted this week was Marcel Vigneron, who no doubt earned some redemption of his own after being bounced from that other competition ("Top Chef"). Like a challenge thrown down by the chairman himself, Marcel transformed from a foam-enthralled kitchen cut-up into a thoughtful chef who no longer stands as sidekick to Spike Mendelsohn or anyone else.

If you thought judging of the pairs figure skating competition was unfathomable and unfair, wait until ice dancing. The most scorned of the four Olympic figure skating disciplines, ice dancing has one edge over the pairs competition: It has been embroiled in more judging scandals.

He works behind bullet-proof glass windows in a tiny office hidden on one of the obscure, upper floors of the old Palais de Justice. He has no permanent staff except for a secretary. Stacks of working files litter his standard government-issue desk.

The Libyan government Wednesday invited the French judge who recently accused senior Libyan officials of masterminding the 1989 bombing of a French airliner to visit Libya so they can answer his charges. Attorneys representing the Libyan government said they will guarantee the safety of the investigative magistrate, Jean-Louis Bruguiere, if he goes to Libya.

Libya rejected charges by a French judge that it masterminded an airliner bombing that killed all 170 people on board in 1989. A DC-10 of France's UTA airline exploded over the Niger desert during a flight between the Congolese capital of Brazzaville and Paris after a stop in Chad. The official news agency JANA called the judge's charges "a campaign of racial hatred against the Arab people of Libya" and said Libya "condemns all terrorist operations against innocent civilians."

What began as legislation to clean up rampant corruption in French political fund-raising has backfired on the ruling Socialist Party here, prompting a crisis in the criminal justice system and sinking French President Francois Mitterrand's rating in national public opinion polls. On Wednesday, the Socialist government narrowly escaped an opposition-sponsored vote of censure in the National Assembly that, if successful, could have forced Prime Minister Michel Rocard and his Cabinet to resign.