France plans to rejoin NATO fully
Nicolas Sarkozy faces domestic opposition to his decision to return France to NATO's integrated military command in April ... more
Friday 13 February 2009 Europe hit by economic slowdown
European economies contracted in the fourth quarter of 2008, with some countries registering the worst figures in decades.
Wednesday 04 February 2009 PARIS: SARKOZY HAS STRONG WORDS FOR SEPARATISTS
The president of France, Nicolas Sarkozy, has fired a broadside at those in the province of Quebec who are still pushing for a state separate from Canada. During a visit to Paris by Quebec Premier Jean Charest
, Mr. Sarkozy said the French-speaking world rejects sectarianism and division. He said what the world needs is unity, not hatred. The French leader was speaking during a ceremony Monday at which he presented Mr. Charest with France's Legion of Honour. Mr. Charest leads the Liberal party in Quebec. The party is opposed to Quebec separation from Canada.
Sunday 01 February 2009 Crisis may 'spark social unrest'
Europe faces a risk of more social unrest unless measures are taken to tackle the economic crisis, France's finance minister says.
Friday 30 January 2009 At least one million people took part in labour demonstrations across France on Thursday, in what's described as one of the country's biggest worker protests in 20 years. In Paris, some 300-thousand people marched, demanding pay raises and job protection, and challenging President Nicolas Sarkozy to provide more help for ordinary workers. In a rare show of unity, labour unions presented a joint list demanding that the government drop reforms regarded as a threat to public services.
2008
Friday 19 December 2008 French business morale at new low
French business confidence falls to its lowest level on record, national statistics office INSEE says.
Tuesday 09 December 2008 France has appealed for calm in response to China's strong protest against President Nicolas Sarkozy's recent meeting with the Dalai Lama. China said that Mr. Sarkozy's meeting with the Tibetan spiritual leader in Poland on Saturday had seriously undermined China's relations with France and Europe. France's human rights minister Rama Yade said that there is no need for what he called psycho-drama. Mr. Yade said that the Dalai Lama is not a dangerous man but a man of peace and non-violence. He stressed that China and France must collaborate to tackle the global financial crisis instead of feuding over China's presence in Tibet. France's economy Minister, Christine Lagarde, said that there are many French businesses working in China and that it is in everyone's interest to continue the trade relationship despite what China considers to be a minor incident. China considers international talks with the Dalai Lama as meddling in China's internal affairs.
Thursday 04 December 2008 France unveils huge stimulus plan
French President Nicolas Sarkozy unveils a 26bn-euro ($33bn, £23bn) stimulus plan to help France fend off financial crisis.
Tuesday 02 December 2008 The government has requested emergency talks with its EU partners to send more peacekeeping troops to the Democratic Republic of Congo. French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner has called for negotiations in Brussels to respond to the UN Security Council's request for 3,000 more soldiers. The UN contingent of 17,000 in North Kivu province is the world body's biggest peacekeeping force. France and Belgium have proposed sending more soldiers, but other EU states including Germany prefer humanitarian options and political mediation. Thousands of civilians continue to flee fighting between Congolese government troops and ethnic Tutsi loyal to rebel leader Laurent Nkunda.
Friday 28 November 2008 Protection plans The French president, Nicolas Sarkozy,
is pushing his idea of a state-friendly market economy
Wednesday 26 November 2008 Delegates from the 27 EU states and 27 nations in northern, western and central Africa took part on Tuesday in the second annual EU-Africa ministerial conference. The ministers were to adopt a co-operation program for the next three years to fight illegal immigration and to consider development programs in Africa which would encourage the continent's residents to remain at home. Last month, the EU adopted a common immigration policy aimed at stopping illegal immigration and to co-ordinate members states' policies to adapt legal immigration policies to labour needs. Immigrants comprise 10 per cent of the EU's labour force.
Saturday 15 November 2008 Pilots at Air France have begun a four-day protest strike, leaving passengers around the world to face cancellations and long delays. The pilots are objecting to the French government's new rules that raised their retirement age from 60 to 65. Two out of five long-haul flights were cancelled and about half of all medium-haul flights. More flights might be cancelled over the weekend.
Wednesday 15 October 2008 QUEBEC CITY: FRENCH PRESIDENT AT TWO EVENTS
French President Nicolas Sarkozy will be in Quebec City Friday and Saturday to take part in the Canada-EU summit and the summit of French-speaking nations. The former encounter will occur during a breakfast at which Mr. Sarkozy, the occupant of the rotating EU presidency, the president of the European Commission, José Manuel Barroso, with Mr. Harper also scheduled to appear. Before the summit of la francophonie, which will begin late Friday afternoon, Mr. Sarkozy will address the Quebec legislature, a first for a French president. Before returning to France, the French president will meet U.S. President George W. Bush at Camp David near Washington on Saturday.
Monday 06 October 2008 Europe's four biggest economies have agreed to work together to address the global financial turmoil, but they will not form a joint bailout fund. The leaders of Germany, Britain, Italy and France made the announcement at the end of an emergency mini-summit in Paris on Saturday. France had proposed a joint fund to rescue troubled banks. But the others felt that E.U. states should assume individual responsibility for solving the crisis.
Tuesday 30 September 2008 France, India sign major nuclear deal
France and India on Tuesday signed a landmark nuclear...
Sunday 21 September 2008 QUEBEC CITY: FRANCE'S PRESIDENT TO ADDRESS QUEBEC NATIONAL ASSEMBLY
In a historic first for a French president, Nicolas Sarkozy will address the Quebec National Assembly when he visits Quebec City next month. Mr. Sarkozy's speech is expected to clarify France's new policy toward Quebec, one that he says will promote direct and privileged relations with the province. It's also expected that Mr. Sarkozy will sign an agreement with Quebec that will permit qualified workers to move freely between Quebec and France without having to pass qualifying tests. Gaining access to European government contracts and public-sector services is part of a free-trade agreement with Europe promoted by Quebec Premier Jean Charest. While in Quebec City, Mr. Sarkozy will attend the summit of francophone nations, a body of 55 French-speaking member states and governments and 13 observer states.
Sunday 14 September 2008 Pope Benedict held a mass for a quarter of a million people in Paris on Saturday. The Pope then travelled to the city of Lourdes in southwestern France to celebarte the 150th anniversary of the sighting of the Virgin Mary by a peasant girl, Bernadette Soubirous. Tens of thousands of people gathered in the streets of Lourdes to welcome the Pope, who is making his first visit to France since his election in 2005. France has deep Roman Catholic roots, but only one in ten French citizens regularly attend church.
Friday 12 September 2008 The rail tunnel linking England and France will remain closed indefinitely as a result of a fire on Thursday. The fire occurred aboard a truck on a freight train near the French entrance to the Chunnel. About 100 firefighters worked for more than four hours to bring the fire under control. Six people suffered smoke inhalation. Eight trains had to return to their stations, forcing thousands of passengers to look for alternate transport. It's not clear how much damage the Chunnel suffered, or when it will reopen.
Monday 08 September 2008 France's president, Nicolas Sarkozy, will travel to Moscow on Monday. He will urge Russian President Dmitry Medvedev to comply with a month-old peace plan for Georgia or risk damaging relations with the European Union. Mr. Sarkozy brokered the ceasefire deal between Russia and its smaller neighbour four weeks ago. But Western nations say that Russia has yet to honour half of the six-point plan, including pulling troops back to positions they held before a brief war with Georgia. Russia sent its forces into South Ossetia to support separatists against a Georgian offensive. An undetermined number of people died in the conflict and thousands were left homeless
Monday 25 August 2008 France's president, Nicolas Sarkozy, has convened a special European summit on September the first to discuss the crisis in Georgia. France holds the E.U.'s rotating presidency. The summit was called at the request of several European countries. The request came on the same day that a U.S. navy warship docked in the southern Georgian port of Batumi to deliver humanitarian aid to the victims of the conflict with Russia. Russia continues to maintain troops in Georgia despite a ceasefire arranged last week. Russia says the troops are peacekeepers needed to protect the separatist provinces of South Ossetia and Abkhazia. Russia sent its forces into South Ossetia to support separatists against a Georgian offensive.
Marcel Marceau, Mime, Is Dead at 84 September 23, 2007
YouTube samples } all
Thursday Jul 31, 2008 Sarkozy is getting it done
He has been hard to ignore, but easy to write off. Ever since he was elected French president in May 2007, Nicolas Sarkozy has been breathlessly hyperactive, in both his personal and his official life.
Wednesday Jul 23, 2008 France passes amendment giving expats more clout
....there are as many as 2.4 million French citizens living abroad, with 200,000 in Quebec and 48,000 in Montreal.
French citizens living in Canada will soon have their own representative in the French National Assembly...
Thursday 10 July 2008 American and European space experts are planning the first mission to Mars that would bring back a sample of Martian terrain. At a joint news conference in Paris, experts from NASA and from France's National Centre for Space Studies announced a launch date of 2018. They described the mission as the most complex and costliest Mars probe ever planned. The mission would involve sending a large probe that would bring back 500 grammes of Martian soil for analysis on earth.
Tuesday 08 July 2008 The immigration reform proposed by France received "broad agreement" on Monday at a meeting in Cannes of EU ministers of immigration and the interior. The ministers representing the 27 EU states are seeking consensus on the reform which France wants adopted by October. It aims both at stopping illegal immigration and integration of legal newcomers. France wants its partners to end the practice of mass regularizations of the situation of illegal immigrants, whose numbers are estimated at eight million. Spain has several times engaged in such regularizations. The French draft says that the EU will limit regularization to individual cases and only for humanitarian and economic reasons. The 27 EU members have agreed also that the maximum period for the detention of illegal migrants will be 18 months.
Sunday Jul 6, 2008 Conrad Black: The art of being French
...Lest we forget, the French are magnificent in their way. To appreciate them, it helps to like cats, as they have many feline tendencies: They are elegant, intelligent, stylish, self-absorbed, able to rationalize almost anything and unless directly threatened, unflappable.
Tuesday 01 July 2008 France plans revolution in space
As it takes over the EU's rotating presidency, France says it wants to give European space policy a new political direction.
Saturday 21 June 2008 Liberal and conservative members of the world Anglican Church are approaching a crossroads. Conservative bishops meeting in Paris say that they might part ways with their liberal-minded colleagues. They stopped short of planning a schism, but a prominent conservative archbishop, Peter Akinole of Nigeria, said there's no longer any hope for a unified Anglican church. Conservative Anglican leaders claim to represent 35 million Anglicans, mostly in developing countries. They've hinted at a split since the church's first homosexual bishop was consecrated in the United States five years ago. Next month, many conservative bishops will boycott the Lambeth Conference, an Anglican summit held every ten years that's hosted by the Archbishop of Canterbury.
Sarkozy Visits Washington
International Herald Tribune reporter Katrin Bennhold on President Nicolas Sarkozy of France, who made his first official visit to Washington.
Friday 13 June 2008 The government of Pakistan has lodge a protest with the U.S. over an air attack which left 11 Pakistani soldiers dead. The attack occurred in Mohmand region opposite the Afghan province of Kunar late Tuesday. Pakistan calls the attack a gross violation of its frontier, while acknowledging that it was in fact a counter-attack launched after militants had carried out their on assault into Afghanistan. The U.S. defence department says the attack was justified because the American military was defending itself.
Wednesday 11 June 2008 New warning over French inflation
Inflation will continue to rise in France, economists warn, after figures show an above-forecast rise in May.
Monday 02 June 2008 Yves Saint Laurent, one the top designers of the 20th century died Sunday evening in Paris. He was 71. Mr. Saint Laurent was one of a handful of designers who dominated 20th century fashion, along with with Christian Dior, Coco Chanel and Paul Poiret. Mr. Saint Laurent retired from haute couture in 2002. He had been ill for some time.
Wednesday 28 May 2008 PARIS: PM PITCHES 'GREEN' PLAN
Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper began his three-day, four-nation European visit in the French capital, where he met with President Nicolas Sarkozy. The two leaders met for a half-hour and discussed the environmental plan put forward by Mr. Harper's Conservative government and freer trade between his country and the EU. The prime minister also inaugurated an exposition related to the 400th anniversary of the foundation of Quebec City before leaving for Bonn, where he'll meet German Chancellor Angela Merkel. Mr. Harper will also visit Italy and the UK. The visit is intended in part to prepare for the G8 summit this summer in Japan, a meeting that will focus on climate change. Canada and the U.S. could find themselves isolated at the event for their opposition to any new global environmental plan to replace the Kyoto Protocol on Climate Change which doesn't include all major polluters, including China and India.
PARIS, OTTAWA: PM DISMISSES SECURITY THREAT POSED BY DISGRACED FM
Mr. Harper was asked upon arrival about Monday's dramatic resignation of former Foreign Minister Maxime Bernier. The minister quit after it emerged that he had left classified documents at the apartment of a former girlfriend. The prime minister says Mr. Bernier broke the rules and so had to resign, but that the papers have now been returned to the government and that security wasn't breached. In Ottawa, Conservative Party House of Commons leader Peter Van Loan confirmed reports Monday that the missing papers related to the NATO summit in Romania in April at which Canada sought to persuade its allies to contribute more troops to Afghanistan. Opposition parties, however, demanded that the government explain how classified documents could be missing for five weeks without anyone noticing.
Friday May 23, 2008 Céline joins Légion d'honneur but is snubbed by French critics
French President Nicolas Sarkozy welcomes pop diva Céline Dion at the Palais de l'élysée to induct her...
Sunday 18 May 2008 BORDEAUX: QUEBEC PREMIER MARKS ANNIVERSARY IN FRANCE
The premier of the Canadian province of Quebec, Jean Charest, was in France on Saturday to participate in celebrations marking the four hundredth anniversary of the founding of Quebec City by French explorers. He was joined in the city of Bordeaux by two former French prime ministers, Alain Juppé and Jean-Pierre Raffarin. On Sunday, Mr. Charest will be in Brouage, birthplace of Quebec City's founder, Samuel de Champlain. On Monday, President Nicolas Sarkozy will welcome Mr. Charest to Paris along with the city's mayor, Bertrand Delanoe. Mr. Charest is scheduled to speak before the city's chamber of commerce and he'll later attend the first Paris show of Quebec singing star, Céline Dion.
Sunday 04 May 2008 War tunnels opened in France bbc video
Tunnels under the French town of Arras, which were used by the British army as an underground hideout during World War I, have been opened to the public.
Sunday 27 April 2008 The Spirit of ’68
AT least according to legend, the “events of May” — the strikes and disturbances that convulsed France in the spring of 1968 — began at the movies. On Feb. 9 Henri Langlois, president of the National Cinémathèque Française in Paris and a shambling, revered godfather of the French New Wave, was removed from his post by André Malraux, the minister of culture in Charles de Gaulle’s government. Young cinephiles reacted with outrage, and their angry protests flowed into a tide of political and social discontent that quickly reached the flood stage.
French President Nicolas Sarkozy vowed Wednesday to open a new chapter in ties with Britain as he arrived for a state visit which he hopes will also help repair his image as a statesman.
Wednesday 16 April 2008 A Paris judge says that six Somali pirates who seized a French luxury yacht off the coast of Somalia will be brought to France to face trial. French troops arrested the pirates in the Somali desert on Friday after they had handed over their hostages and fled with their ransom. The pirates are being held by French troops in Djibouti. An armed group attacked the yacht some 850 kilometres off the Somali coast. France has called for greater international co-operation to police the waters off Somalia, where piracy is rampant.
Wednesday 09 April 2008 Officials in Paris have criticized Chinese security staff for their poor handling of the Olympic torch relay. The director of public order and traffic in Paris, Pierre Mure, says the Chinese security officials who ran alongside each torch bearer appeared to be reacting to pro-Tibet and human rights protests along the route. French officials say China's security staff scrapped several stages of the run, slowing the tour down. The head of the French Olympic Committee's athletes' commission says the Chinese officials did not know how to cope with the protests. China has denounced the protesters in Paris, and London and called on the United States to ensure that the torch run on Wednesday in San Francisco proceeds smoothly.
Saturday 05 April 2008
Gallery: President Nicolas Sarkozy and his wife Carla Bruni-Sarkozy on U.K. state visit
French President Nicolas Sarkozy vowed Wednesday to open a new chapter in ties with Britain as he arrived for a state visit which he hopes will also help repair his image as a statesman.
Monday 31 March 2008 The French architect, Jean Nouvel, was awarded the 2008 Pritzker Prize, on Sunday, the highest honour for architecture. Mr. Nouvel has designed more than 200 projects around Europe, in Asia and the United States. The jury cited him for his inquisitive and agile mind that propelled him to take risks in each of his projects. Mr. Nouvel said that he was very honoured to join the elite group of 32 Pritzker laureates. He is the second French architect to win the prize.
Sunday 30 March 2008 TORONTO: CANADA PROTESTS AGAINST FRENCH MISSILE TESTS
The Globe and Mail newspaper reports that Canada has twice protested against missile tests carried out by France in the North Atlantic. Canada is partly responsible for air control in the world's busiest aviation corridor. Documents obtained by The Globe under the Access to Information Act indicate that Ottawa protested the tests twice beforehand, in the first case in August 2006 asking France to cancel the test that in the end was carried out in the following November. The first ballistic missile fell in waters 960 kilometres east of Newfoundland and Labrador, the second in June 2007 falling in U.S.-controlled airspace but near Canada's. One thousand flights a day cross North Atlantic airspace.
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By Paul Reynolds
World affairs correspondent, BBC News website
|
French President Nicolas Sarkozy showed his powers of seduction in his speech to members of the British parliament.
Perhaps the demure figure of his wife sitting behind him had felt the same force.
He was not afraid to come on very strong.
"You represent the touchstone of everything our democracies stand for" was his opening gambit.
Saturday 22 March 2008 France has launched its newest nuclear submarine amid government pledges to maintain a strong nuclear weapons program. President Nicolas Sarkozy participated in the launching of the vessel, called Terrible, at the port of Cherbourg. The vessel is France's fourth nuclear submarine. Mr. Sarkozy warned that France must be ready to strike back at Asian and Middle Eastern countries that he said are working hard to acquire nuclear missiles. He also proposed beginning international talks to ban ground-to-ground missiles and to limit the production of materials to make nuclear bombs.
Tuesday 11 March 2008
Push for change
Can Sarkozy's reforms win support from French conservatives?
Tuesday Mar 11, 2008 Municipal vote humbles Sarkozy
The presidency of Nicolas Sarkozy, the toast of Europe after winning last year's election on a promise...
Monday 10 March 2008 President Nicholas Sarkozy's Union for a Popular Movement suffered losses in several large cities in the first round of local elections in France on Sunday. Losses were reported in Rouen and Caen, while the opposition Socialist Party continued to hold power in Paris, Lyon and Lille. An unofficial poll showed that the UPM party's candidates had won about 40 per cent of the vote, compared to 47 per cent for the Socialists. President Sarkozy's popularity has plummeted since he was elected last year. Local elections have a minor effect on national politics, but the results are considered a warning to President Sarkozy as the country prepares for the second round of local elections next Sunday.
Wednesday 27 February 2008 PARIS: FRANCE WEIGHS AFGHAN REDEPLOYMENT
Le Monde newspaper reports that the French military is considering repositioning its troops in Afghanistan but not to Kandahar, where Canada is hoping for 1,000 NATO reinforcements. According to the newspaper, the French military is weighing moving them to the east, a move that could enable the Americans now there to redeploy to help Canada. France has 1,900 soldiers in Afghanistan and Canada 2,500. Last week, the Conservative government introduced in the House of Commons a motion extending Canada's mission in Afghanistan to 2011, but only on the condition that reinforcements be dispatched to Kandahar and that Canada receive pilotless aircraft and other advanced equipment. As well, after next February the mission would focus on reconstruction and training rather than combat with insurgents.
Sunday 17 February 2008 PARIS: QUEBEC PREMIER AND BILLIONAIRE MEET FRENCH PRESIDENT
The premier of the province of Quebec, Jean Charest, and the province's richest man, Paul Desmarais, were received on Friday night by France's president, Nicolas Sarkozy, in Paris. Mr. Desmarais was awarded the highest rank of the Legion d'Honneur, the Grand Cross. He is the founder of Power Corporation, a company that has wide-reaching concerns in many countries. Mr. Charest has met Mr. Sarkozy twice since he was elected president. On the latest visit, he was accompanied by his wife, Michele Dionne.
Thursday 14 February 2008 ec The popularity rating of Nicolas Sarkozy fell below 40% in some opinion polls. Mr Sarkozy's standing suffered another blow when he was forced by local leaders of his party to withdraw support from his protégé (and spokesman), David Martinon, who had hoped to be elected as mayor of Neuilly, a posh Parisian suburb that Mr Sarkozy once ran.
French police arrested 106 suspected illegal immigrants on Tuesday in a raid on a migrants' hostel in southern Paris. Nine others were arrested on suspicion of housing them in slum conditions for extortionate rents. Police say the operators of the hostel were housing twice the authorized number of tenants per room. A group of left-wing candidates for France's municipal elections in March accused the police of bashing in the hostel's doors and demanded the "prisoners' release." The government of French President Nicolas Sarkozy has been cracking down on illegal immigration and has set an annual deportation quota of 25,000.
Tuesday 12 February 2008 OTTAWA: FRANCE CONSIDERS VARIOUS AFGHAN OPTIONS
The French newspaper Le Figaro reports that the French government is weighing several strategic changes for its army in Afghanistan, only one of which is the reinforcement of Canadian troops in Kandahar. Canadian Foreign Minister Peter MacKay discussed the latter eventuality with his French counterpart last week during a meeting in Lithuania of NATO foreign ministers. The newspaper says the French government is also considering the possibilities of moving its soldiers into Helmand province west of Kandahar, of increasing troops levels around Kabul and of teaming French special forces with American troops. The Canadian government said last week that it wants to prolong the military mission in Afghanistan beyond the February 2009 deadline mandated by Parliament on the condition that NATO provides 1,000 reinforcements in Kandahar and more equipment, including combat helicopters. The minority government of Prime Minister Stephen Harper has presented a motion in the House of Commons proposing that and if the question of confidence is defeated, the House will be dissolved and a national election will ensue.
Tuesday 05 February 2008 France unveils super-fast train
France's Alstom unveils a new high-speed AGV train which should travel at 360km/h (224mph).
Saturday Feb 2, 2008 France's Sarkozy marries Bruni at the Elysee
Thursday 24 January 2008 
French bank Societe Generale says it has uncovered a huge fraud by a Paris-based trader, who has been suspended.
see Roguetrader.asp
Tuesday 22 January 2008
ARE THE FRENCH A LITTLE TOO ROMANTIC?
The Vimy Ridge war memorial in northern France is known in Canada as a
place of somber reflection. But to some locals, it’s earned a
reputation as one of France’s best locales to cruise for sex. The
National and CTV News (not available online) go inside with fuzzy
pictures, captured from the Internet, of a Frenchwoman sans her culottes,
posing erotically against the gargantuan stone structure. The
Globe also goes inside, speculating that the remote location and
size of the monument might explain its popularity with the promiscuous.
The structure was unveiled in 1936 as a tribute to Canadian efforts to
capture Vimy Ridge during the First World War. Nearly four thousand
soldiers died during a four-day battle there in 1917. These days, however,
swingers living near the site are taking advantage of its many nooks and
crannies, including the surrounding reconstructed trenches. Yesterday, a
French couple appeared in court on charges of sexual exhibitionism at
Vimy, part of a crackdown by French police. They will be sentenced on
Monday and, according to the National, face penalties ranging from a hefty
fine to a year in jail. The Royal Canadian Legion and Veterans' Affairs
aren’t taking kindly to the Vimy love-in, either. One legion
spokesman interviewed by The National said the membership was alarmed by
the goings-on, while the Globe has a spokesperson for Veterans’
Affairs Minister Greg Thompson saying that the government participated in
the French legal proceedings in an attempt to send a message that sex at
Vimy would raise Canada’s ire.
Thursday 17 January 2008
Sarkozy media strategy under scrutiny
Nicolas Sarkozy enjoys a closer relationship with the press than any previous French president. But is his media domination a good thing for France?
Wednesday Jan 16, 2008 Jean to mark Quebec anniversary in France
French President Nicolas Sarkozy has invited Canadian Governor-General Michaëlle Jean to join him for..
Sunday 06 January 2008 Sarkozy could wed next month: report
In a report widely picked up on French radio and television, the weekly Journal du Dimanche said that Sarkozy had already given Bruni a diamond engagement ring and received a watch from the exclusive Swiss watchmaker Patek Philippe in exchange.
[looks the same]
2007
Monday 31 December 2007 Six French aid workers convicted of kidnapping children in Chad arrived in France today. Earlier this week, a court in Chad sentenced them to eight years of hard labour in prison for trying to kidnap more than 100 children. The defendants must also pay reparations to the children's families. Under a bilateral treaty, Chad agreed to allow the defendants to spend their prison time in France. The defendants' aid organization, Zoe's Ark, argued unsuccessfully that local authorities had agreed to permit the children to leave for adoption in France. French families who paid to adopt the children are considering lawsuits against Zoe's Ark.
Saturday 22 December 2007 Wine consumption Sour grapes in France
from Wed1346 President Sarkozy’s new romance (why couldn’t he have made yet one more unpredictable move and gone after Ségolène?) - at least this last piece of news is sufficiently glitzy to adorn our Christmas Tree of Knowledge.
nyt video Labor Strikes in France Continue
Roger Cohen, op-ed columnist for the International Herald Tribune, examines the motivations behind the labor strikes in France.
Andy Nulman 
BBC
TRAVEL
Factsheet 
Watch SocGen chairman
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