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French companies are to get a €10bn ($15.5bn, £9bn) tax cut in one of the biggest structural reforms since Nicolas Sarkozy came to power two years ago. The French government will announce on Wednesday the partial scrapping of the taxe professionnelle, a local business tax levied on fixed investment that has become a heavy burden, particularly for manufacturing companies, as part of next year’s budget. The move has been welcomed by industry, which says it penalises investment. But scrapping the tax means delaying serious efforts to reduce France's spiralling public deficit even as the economy recovers. The reform – described...

A 24th France Telecom employee has killed himself in what the company says is a "suicide spiral." The 51-year-old father-of-two hurled himself to his death from a bridge onto a busy road in the Haute-Savoie region of the country. In a letter to his wife, he blamed the unbearable "atmosphere" at his workplace. France Telecomhas been dogged by a series of suicides in the last 18 months. The deaths include a woman who jumped from her office window in the summer, while another man survived stabbing himself in the stomach during a work meeting.

It is shameful when the White House is accused of betrayal by close allies in eastern and central Europe, but utterly humiliating when even the Elysee Palace thinks the United States has been transformed from a lion to a lamb in the face of mounting global threats. As The Wall Street Journal reported this morning, French president Nicolas Sarkozy was less than impressed with Barack Obama’s performance last week in the face of the Iranian nuclear crisis. According to the paper, Washington urged Paris to delete key sections of Sarkozy’s UN speech that were critical of Iran and supposedly threatened...

Gross Domestic Happiness? Why the French want to redefine economic growth. French President Nicolas Sarkozy recently said he wanted the nations of the world to stop using GDP, or gross domestic product, as the main measure of their economic performance. He wants them instead to work up another metric that takes into account not only economic production but such things as environmental quality and even time not spent in traffic—a sort of gross national satisfaction index. France has excellent reason to suppress GDP statistics. Since 1982, among developed nations, France has been a clear laggard in GDP growth. Mr. Domitrovic...

There's a side of America that scares Frenchmen, French Culture Minister Frédéric Mitterrand was quoted by Time magazine Paris-based writer Bruce Crumley, and it's the side of American determination that doesn't let a 32-year-old rape case die, even if the perpetrator is an elderly survivor of the Holocaust. Seeking to explain the "cultural divide" that's as "wide as the Atlantic" between America and Europe, Crumley noted that Europeans are "shocked and dismayed that an internationally acclaimed artist" such as Roman Polanski "could be jailed for such an old offense." Of course, at no point did Crumley cite any public opinion...

The above title speaks much more words then I could even put together. True leadership has been shown by none other then the President of France,Nicolas Sarkozy when he had to take a tough stand in regards to our own President Obama on the issue of Iran and the nukes. Just the recent testing today of a missle by Iran is a reminder of this clear and present danger. This one line has been garnering much deserved attention today. We spent a good bit of time on this on Friday. As my son questioned: “Is it a good thing when...

PARIS, Sept 27 (Reuters) - France's political elite rallied to the defence of Roman Polanski on Sunday, calling on Switzerland to free the 76-year-old film director rather than extradite him to the United States. Artists and film makers also urged the release of Polanski, who faces charges of having sex with a girl of 13 in 1977, accusing Switzerland of being overzealous in pursuing the case. Polanski was due to receive a prize for his life's work at the Zurich Film Festival on Sunday, but was arrested on a 1978 U.S. arrest warrant after arriving in Switzerland on Saturday....

"Alpine scenery". 'Nuff said. Well, maybe better said: "Spectacular alpine scenery". First two are of La Corne de Chamois (second one's not clickable for bigger) Look for the two waterfalls. Classic reflection shot of snow-capped mountains Waterfalls in the cirque

UNITED NATIONS (AFP) – France on Wednesday led a walkout of a dozen delegations, including the United States, to protest a fiery speech by Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to the UN General Assembly. "It is disappointing that Mr Ahmadinejad has once again chosen to espouse hateful, offensive and anti-Semitic rhetoric," Mark Kornblau, spokesman to the US mission to the United Nations, said in a statement. Delegations from Argentina, Australia, Britain, Costa Rica, Denmark, France Germany, Hungary, Italy, New Zealand and the United States left the room as Ahmadinejad began to rail against Israel, a European source said. Israel had already...

A young Afghan man stared through red eyes at the remains of the camp that had been his base in Calais while he attempted to reach Britain. In the blue tarpaulin held up by sticks and string that was his shelter lay the meagre belongings he had been unable to gather as police cleared the area yesterday — a pair of laceless shoes, a tube of toothpaste, a milk churn half full of water. Now it was too late. A burly officer touched him on the shoulder and pointed the man towards his next destination — a police van waiting...

"I wish that you love me," says Patricia, Princess of Cardiff, whose mangled English is one of the few notable differences between her character and the real-life Diana, Princess of Wales. Her would-be lover is French President Jacques-Henri Lambertye — drawn, it seems, to closely resemble real-life former President Valéry Giscard d'Estaing...The florid romantic tale, titled The Princess and the President, might have passed largely unnoticed...were it not for the fact that its author is former President Giscard himself...some newspapers have covered the book as though it might be a thinly disguised kiss-and-tell. "Fiction or reality?" Le Figaro asked in...

CALAIS, France (AP) - French police cleared out, then bulldozed, a squalid forest camp near the northern city of Calais on Tuesday, detaining hundreds of illegal immigrants who had hoped to slip across the English Channel into Britain. French Immigration Minister Eric Besson called the site - known as "the Jungle" - a "base camp for human traffickers" who promise the migrants passage for enormous fees or dump them there after bringing them across Europe.

French riot police have detained 278 migrants in a dawn operation to dismantle the "jungle", a network of makeshift camps set up by illegal migrants, mostly Afghans, near the northern Channel port of Calais. French riot police on Tuesday detained 278 migrants in a dawn raid on a makeshift camp known as "the jungle" near Calais in northern France, a state official said. The migrants – nearly half of whom identified themselves as minors – were to be taken to a nearby shelter as part of an operation to close down the camp used by foreigners trying to gain passage...

It has been dubbed the trial of the decade in France - and is taking place in the same Paris courtroom where Queen Marie Antoinette was sentenced to death by guillotine. Former prime minister Dominique de Villepin has gone on trial accused of trying to smear President Nicolas Sarkozy during his election campaign two years ago - by perpetuating bogus claims that he'd hidden bribe money in a Luxembourg bank account. If found guilty, Villepin could face a five-year jail sentence. Villepin won worldwide fame in 2003 with his impassioned speech at the UN against the US-led invasion of Iraq....

In what has been dubbed the trial of the decade, former Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin of France will face charges of allegedly plotting to tarnish the name of his former rival and now the president of France, Nicolas Sarkozy. France's state prosecutors ordered Villepin, a protégé of former President Jacques Chirac and longstanding political rival of the incumbent French president, to stand trial in a four-year-old scandal known as the Clearstream affair. The scandal dating back to 2004, started when a list containing the name of businessmen, celebrities and politicians among them Sarkozy, leaked to the media. The document...

Russia said on Saturday it had started talks with France for an unprecedented deal to buy a new helicopter-carrying assault warship from NATO-member France. The Russian government daily Rossiiskaya Gazeta reported last month that the ship, which can carry 16 heavy helicopters, 470 airborne troops and other gear, costs 700 million euros (995 million dollars).

The former French presidential candidate, has been mercilessly mocked after a redesign of her official website by her new boyfriend was branded an amateurish embarrassment. Miss Royal, the Socialist candidate who lost to Nicolas Sarkozy in 2007, decided to revamp her Désirs d'Avenir (Future Desires) website in a bid to stay in the political limelight despite losing a party leadership fight last November. Internet buffs had praised an earlier model of her website during the presidential campaign. But a new-look version launched this week was instantly derided. The welcome page showed Miss Royal in a crude rectangular box underneath an...

It sounds like a joke, but it’s all too real: you know American foreign policy is unraveling when France is the stern international voice of sanity on Iran and Israel. This report (h/t Jeffrey Goldberg) explains: French intelligence agencies are certain that Iran is hiding a nuclear weapons program, President Nicolas Sarkozy says.“We cannot let Iran acquire nuclear” weapons because it would also be a threat to Israel, Sarkozy said during a meeting at the Elysee presidential palace with lawmakers from his conservative UMP party on Tuesday. “It is a certainty to all of our secret services. Iran is working...

September 14, 2009, 4:00 a.m. Beyond EconomicsOur massive national debt is more than a financial threat. By Kevin Williamson One hopes Ben Bernanke and the Fed gang are reading the Drudge Report, where the top news items one day last week were: Enlarged U.S. deficits allow Switzerland to displace the United States as the world’s most competitive economy; Obama asks the Senate to raise the debt ceiling beyond its current $12.1 trillion level; the United Nations continues its push for a “global currency� to displace the U.S. dollar as the world’s go-to reserve; and — this will be no...

Closer political ties raise prospects for renewed alliance between Dassault and Embraer By Stephen Trimble Growing political ties between Brazil and France may possibly lead to the rebirth of an even more powerful Dassault/Embraer alliance stretching beyond even their common interests in business jets and combat aircraft. A joint communiqué issued by presidents Nicolas Sarkozy of France and Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva of Brazil commit their governments to pursing closer links in the aerospace industry. Brazil initially appeared to agree to buy 36 Dassault Rafale F3s for the FX-2 contract, but the country's defence minister later clarified that negotiations...

Now, it can't deny there is a problem. France Telecom, the once proud and efficient French public company, is in trouble, big trouble. Twenty-two of the company's employees have killed themselves in the last 20 months and all have left letters or testimonies incriminating their work conditions. This week, another employee tried but failed to take his own life. Some have even committed the desperate act in their own office. For months, France Telecom denied these "accidents" had anything to do with the company's work ethics. Now, the problem is staring it in the face. For the first time this...

Russia to call tender for foreign helicopter carrier 11/09/2009 KALININGRAD, September 11 (RIA Novosti) - Russia plans to hold an international tender for the purchase of a helicopter carrier, involving France, Spain and the Netherlands, the country's Navy chief said on Friday. "I can confirm that negotiations are being held, but there is likely to be a tender," Adm. Vladimir Vysotsky said, adding that other countries could also be involved. He said there were no negotiations with the United States - "for understandable reasons," adding that the U.S. authorities were "highly sensitive" about the transfer of new technology, especially dual-purpose...

NORFOLK -- A French general is set to take command of NATO's only strategic command in North America, becoming the first non-American officer in the alliance's 60-year history to permanently fill a command post.

The head of the French military says military intervention is not a viable option to prevent Iran from obtaining a nuclear capability.

French President Nicolas Sarkozy has announced plans for a new carbon tax aimed at combating global warming. The tax will be introduced next year and will cover the use of oil, gas and coal, he said. The new tax will be 17 euros (£15) per tonne of emitted carbon dioxide (CO2). It will be phased in gradually. It will apply to households as well as enterprises, but not to the heavy industries and power firms included in the EU's emissions trading scheme. Most electricity in France - excluded from the new carbon tax - is nuclear generated. Mr Sarkozy said...

Departing United Nations Nuke Watchdog, IAEA director Dr. Mohammed El-Baradei has a history of appeasing terrorist powers looking to become nuclear, for example the Wall Street Journal described El-Baradei this way: The IAEA director seems intent on undercutting Security Council diplomacy. Just weeks after President George Bush toured the Middle East to build Arab support for pressure on Tehran, Mr. ElBaradei appeared on Egyptian television on Feb. 5 to urge Arabs in the opposite direction, insisting Iran was cooperating and should not be pressured. And as he grows more and more isolated from Western powers intent on disarming Iran, Mr....

In case of a swine flu pandemic the French government has a plan to introduce emergency measures that would gut legal protections for citizens, the daily Liberation reported Tuesday. According to documents provided to the daily by a judges' union, the plan would extend the period police can keep a suspect in detention without charge or a hearing before a judge to up to six months. Suspects would also not be able to contact a lawyer until after spending 24 hours in custody.

“Kings,” Louis XIV once observed, “should enjoy giving pleasure” and when it came to the fairer sex, he obeyed this precept zealously and often. “They’re all good enough for him, provided they’re women,” his sister-in-law remarked, “peasants, gardeners’ daughters, chambermaids, ladies of quality”; women of every stripe benefited from the Sun King’s sexual largesse. Neither the bonds of matrimony (to the sad, neglected Marie-Thérèse of Spain) nor the intrigues of his “official” mistresses (one of whom, Athénaïs de Montespan, wasn’t above spreading the rumor that a particular rival had scabs all over her body) could deter him from sharing the...

Just as President Jacques Chirac was vehemently arguing against invading Iraq in late 2002, General Philippe Rondot wrote that he had been given the green light to "recover" top officials including Tariq Aziz, Saddam's foreign minister. Previously unseen extracts of Gen Rondot's private diaries were reprinted in the newspaper Libération. In a passage dated Dec 3, 2002, the general refers to an "agreement in principle to 'recover' if necessary Mr Aziz and Al-Rafai" – said to be a senior Ba'ath Party politician. The two men were believed to have been considered useful to the French while Gen Rondot knew Aziz...

Brazil says negotiating for French fighter jets Associated Press|Sep. 7, 2009, 12:52 PM| PrintBRASILIA (AP) — Brazil's president says his country is negotiating with France for the purchase of 36 Rafale jet fighters. An announcement released by the office of President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva says negotiations have begun with Dassault SA because France has offered to transfer technology as well as selling the jets. Sweden's Saab AB and Boeing Co. of the U.S. also have been competing for the Brazilian contract, which is expected to be worth about $2.2 to $2.5 billion. The announcement comes as French President...

Christine Vernay was on holiday in Missouri when she got the call. It was August 12 2003 and the French vineyard owner was not due to return home for 10 days; the harvest on her Rhône valley estate would begin in late September. But then a friend from the same village, Condrieu, called her husband’s mobile phone. “The grapes have ripened early. You need to come home now,” he said. France was sweltering in the most extreme heat wave on record. Christine and her husband, Paul Ansellem, caught the first flight back but by the time they reached the vineyards...

Brazil's president likes French fighter aircraft BRASILIA (AFP) - France's offer to transfer technology to Brazil gives its Rafale fighter an "exceptional comparative advantage" over Swedish-made Gripen, President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva said. "A country of Brazil's importance cannot buy a product from another country without technology transfer," Lula said in an exclusive interview with AFP. "France has shown itself to be the most flexible country in terms of transferring technology, and evidently, this is an exceptional comparative advantage," the Brazilian president said. The Rafale, made by France's Dassault, is in fierce competition with Saab's Swedish-made Gripen and Boeing's...

In underground passageways that snake underneath the French capital, nearly six million people who died of disease in the Middle Ages share a final resting place. The vaults, packed with skulls and bones dating from as far back as the Middle Ages, are located on Paris' Left Bank near Place Denfert Rochereau... and are part of the nearly 185 miles of underground passageways that are believed to be part of the catacombs network. ...John Mamburg, tourist from Grand Rapids, Michigan: "I think this is astounding. I've never been around so many, like you've been to cemeteries and things like that,...

Bienvenu Mbutu Mondondo, 41, is taking legal action claiming Hergé's controversial Tintin In The Congo is propaganda for colonialism and amounts to "racism and xenophobia". "Tintin's little (black) helper is seen as stupid and without qualities. It makes people think that blacks have not evolved," he said. Mr Mbutu Mondondo launched a case in Belgium two years ago for symbolic damages of one euro from Tintin's Belgian publishers Moulinsart, and demanded the book be withdrawn from the market.

Note: The following text is a quote: International Arms Dealer Arrested for Conspiracy to Supply U.S. Fighter Jet Engines to Iran Jacques Monsieur, a Belgian national and resident of France suspected of international arms dealing for decades, has been arrested on charges alleging that he conspired to illegally export F-5 fighter jet engines and parts from the United States to Iran. Monsieur is scheduled to have his arraignment today in federal court in Mobile, Alabama. A six-count indictment returned on Aug. 27, 2009, in the Southern District of Alabama charging Monsieur, 56, and co-defendant Dara Fotouhi, aka Dara Fatouhi, 54,...

...The horrific accident (that killed Diana) illustrated the difference between the French and U.S. approaches to emergency care -- a relatively small piece of the French medical system, but deemed by some people to be the best in the world and often cited as a model for U.S. health care overhaul. When rescue workers arrived, Diana was conscious...although she had suffered internal injuries, she did not arrive at the Parisian hospital for 110 minutes -- too late for the surgery that some speculated could have saved her life. Her last hour -- in cardiac arrest and bleeding to death --...

France's embattled Socialists, the main opposition party, gathered in La Rochelle for their 'summer university' Friday to discuss strategies for solving their recent divisive history. The party is already looking ahead to the 2012 presidency France's embattled Socialists, the main opposition party, gathered in La Rochelle for their 'summer university' Friday to discuss strategies for coming out of its divisive recent history. The party is already looking ahead to the 2012 presidency. High on the agenda: how to get out of the mire of despondency that has swamped the party in the past 12 months Party leader Martine Auby yesterday...

On the eve of the publication of a report on Iran by the International Atomic Energy Agency, Chancellor Angela Merkel of Germany and President Nicolas Sarkozy of France have threatened tough new sanctions if Tehran does not show a willingness to negotiate on its nuclear program. At a news conference in Berlin on Thursday with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel, Mrs. Merkel dangled the possibility of new penalties against Iran in the energy and financial sectors. “If there is no positive answer by September we will have to consider further measures,” she said, the Reuters news agency reported. The...

Brazil to build five submarines with French technology by 2021 www.chinaview.cn 2009-08-28 10:34:50 Print RIO DE JANEIRO, Aug. 27 (Xinhua) -- Brazil's Defense Minister Nelson Jobim said on Thursday that the country will build five submarines in a partnership with France by 2021. According to the minister, the construction of the submarines will be started in 2016, and is part of an agreement which foresees transfer of the French military technology. The agreement, which was reached in late 2008, will be signed by the Brazilian and French presidents at a ceremony on Sept. 7, Brazil's Independence Day. Out of the...

A United Nations official in a department that promotes "ethics, transparency and accountability" falsified his permanent address to illegally obtain what could amount to tens of thousands of dollars in family allowance and housing funds that normally go to poor and moderate-income citizens in his native France, according to investigators there. The fraud findings against Bruno Bastet, 40, are contained in an investigation report issued on May 20 by France's Caisse d'Allocations Familiales (CAF), a branch of the French social security system that calls itself "one of the pivots of the French 'social model'" — in other words, a centerpiece...

Health Systems: Health care in France is often held up as a model the U.S. might follow. Yet the French have their own problems that show there's no such thing as a free lunch — or a free doctor's visit.Call it the grass-is-greener syndrome. Advocates of national health care, acknowledging the flaws in ObamaCare yet despising the current U.S. system that has the best medicines, the best medical equipment and the shortest waiting lists, have turned their eyes lovingly to places like France. As City Journal contributing editor Guy Sorman notes, the French would also love to have the low-cost,...

MOGADISHU, Somalia — A French security agent kidnapped by insurgents in Somalia last month was a free man Wednesday and under protection at the presidential palace, officials said. There were conflicting reports over whether the man escaped or was released and whether he had killed three of his captors. The fate of another French security agent kidnapped with him was not immediately clear. Farhan Asanyo, a Somali military officer, told The Associated Press that the man came up to government soldiers early Wednesday, identified himself and said he had escaped after killing three of his captors. -snip-

MOGADISHU, Somalia - A French security agent kidnapped by insurgents in Somalia has escaped, reportedly by killing three of his captors, Somali officials said Wednesday.

MARSEILLE, France. Why does it appear France is bouncing back more quickly from the recession than the United States? France has long been known for having an economy that suffered from too much government interference, too-high taxes and destructive union activity. Yet it grew 1.4 percent in the second quarter of 2009, while the U.S. economy continued to decline. The United States and Britain have had the largest "stimulus" programs of the major economies (as measured by increases in government spending and deficits relative to gross domestic product) and yet they are not moving toward recovery as rapidly as most...

Recently in the New York Times, mystery writer Sara Paretsky published “Le Treatment,” the story of how she took her husband, suffering from chest pains during their vacation in France, to a local hospital, where he was treated without delay. A cardiologist correctly diagnosed the problem, pneumonia, and administered the necessary medication. The hospital charged no money up front, though the doctor apologetically said that he would have to bill the couple, as they were not citizens. Six months later, an invoice arrived for $220. Paretsky expresses one minor reservation about what she sees as a nearly perfect health-care system:...

They met in a Miami restaurant — he a handsome tennis player, she a pretty waitress — and spent the evening smooching at a nightclub. Little did they know that the kisses they exchanged would spark a controversy that has gripped France all summer amid lawsuits and wrangles before international doping tribunals. Richard Gasquet, a former Wimbledon semi-finalist, claimed that he tested positive for drugs a few hours after his encounter with the waitress because her kisses had contaminated him with cocaine. His story, greeted with derision in France at first, was given weight this week when the results of...

The US may have no nuclear trade with India August 21, 2009 13:05 IST Lucrative nuclear trade with India, including supplies of reactors, was among the obvious reasons for the Bush administration to think in terms of offering India a special dispensation for full civilian nuclear co-operation. Varying assessments of the massive increase in jobs in the United States on account of the expected trade in equipment were made. These projections went a long way in vetting the appetite of the industrial sector in the United States and in aggravating the suspicions in the non-proliferation lobbies. The enthusiasm for the...

The French spend the least amount of time at work, a new survey of 73 cities around the world by Swiss bank UBS shows, while the most hours are worked in Cairo and Seoul. On average, people in the cities surveyed worked 1,902 hours per year, but in Lyon and Paris they worked 1,582 and 1,594 hours respectively. In Cairo, they worked 2,373 hours, while in Seoul they worked 2,312 hours.

French anti-war campaigners have desecrated a statue of Winston Churchill in central Paris on the anniversary of the city's liberation from Nazi rule. The night time attack saw the bronze hands of the £250,000 statue daubed in red paint. The initials RH were also daubed on the statue, perhaps a reference to Rudolf Hess, Adolf Hitler's deputy, who flew to Britain at the height of the Second World War to allegedly try and make peace. Instead, Churchill had him thrown in prison in 1941, and the war continued for a further four years. After the war, Hess was tried at...

France’s efforts to win the freedom of a young researcher who was arrested as she tried to leave Iran on July 1, and who was released on hundreds of thousands of dollars in bail over the weekend, have underscored Paris’s readiness to see Syria in a regional mediation role and bolstered hopes the woman will be found innocent and allowed to return home soon. Clotilde Reiss, 24, who had held a temporary lecturing job at a university in Isfahan, was released from Evin prison in Tehran on Sunday after France, using Syria as an intermediary, reached agreement with Tehran to...