A French cabinet minister who is a close friend of President Nicolas Sarkozy faced fresh calls for his resignation on Friday after a Paris court found him guilty of making racist remarks. Interior Minister Brice Hortefeux was fined $900 and asked to pay an antiracism group $2,400 in damages for what the judge called “private insults of a racial nature.” Mr. Hortefeux was caught on video at an event in September making comments that were widely perceived as anti-Arab. He will appeal the ruling, said his lawyer, Nicolas Benoit.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/05/world/europe/05briefs-France.html