Muslim prayer hall set on fire in France

AJACCIO: A Muslim prayer hall was ravaged by fire overnight in the capital of the French island of Corsica, local authorities said, four months after a separate Muslim prayer hall there was ransacked. Prosecutors said was probably a criminal attack. The blaze occurred just months after the island, popular with tourists for its turquoise waters and picturesque mountains, was rocked by anti-Arab riots over Christmas. No one was injured in the fire in Ajaccio, which police are investigating as criminal after finding two separate sources of fire inside the hall. “This is unacceptable,” Ajaccio Mayor Laurent Marcangeli told iTELE news channel. “Those sites are not sufficiently protected.” Arab News