Newspaper photographer attacked, seriously hurt in France

 Authorities in France have opened an investigation for attempted murder after a news photographer was attacked and seriously injured while reporting on a suspected outbreak of youth violence, his newspaper said.The newspaper L'Union said Sunday that Christian Lantenois, 65, was in a serious but stable condition at a hospital in Reims in northeast France.

The photographer was attacked Saturday while covering reports that youths, some apparently armed with metal bars and golf clubs, had massed in a sector of high-rise housing in the city, the newspaper said.

It said he appears to have been hit on the head by a projectile. The newspaper said Lantenois appears to have been attacked because he is a journalist. It said he had driven to the neighborhood in a car bearing the newspaper's name.

The prosecutors' office in Reims is investigating the attack as an attempted murder, L'Union said.