The French love their trains, but these days they're boarding them warily. Last week their government confirmed that its security forces have for the past three months played a cat-and-mouse game with a group that calls itself AZF. The hitherto unknown group has threatened to bomb France's railroads unless the government forks over a hefty ransom.
Beginning in December, AZF sent the President and Interior Ministry letters grousing about the state of French society and warning that it had planted bombs along the nation's rail lines and at two other unidentified vulnerable targets. Officials say they were instructed to communicate...