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French Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin on Friday urged the United States and other foreign nations to withdraw from Iraq in 2008 and said the war had "shattered" America's image abroad. The Iraqi conflict, which has killed tens of thousands of Iraqis and some 3,200 U.S. troops in the past four years, is sapping the power of the United States to peacefully influence other players in the troubled Middle East, he said. "The war with Iraq marked a turning point. It shattered America's image," said Villepin, who opposed the 2003 invasion of Iraq, at Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts. "It...

Paris suburb names street for cop-killer Abu-Jamal By Jennifer Lin Inquirer Staff Writer As Philadelphians cope with another police slaying, news comes that a suburb of Paris has named a street for Mumia Abu-Jamal, convicted of the 1981 murder of Police Officer Daniel Faulkner. Hundreds of supporters of Abu-Jamal attended a ceremony on April 29 to dedicate the Rue Mumia-Abu Jamal in the city of St.-Denis. "In France, they see him as a towering figure," said Suzanne Ross, cochair of the Free Mumia Coalition of New York City, who was part of the ceremony. Ross said the street is in...

French police turn on Chirac as officer jailed By Kim Willsher in Paris and Henry Samuel in Bobigny (Filed: 13/11/2005) After 16 nights battling urban violence by rioters, Jacques Chirac's government is confronting angry new protests - from the police themselves. Firefighters extinguish a burning car in Strasbourg Officers at the forefront of attempts to control the wave of riots and arson attacks across France are furious at moves to prosecute policemen accused of assaulting a youth. As officers were deployed in force in Paris yesterday following a call on weblogs for a mass demonstration, the police union described the...

PARIS--Are you OK? In the past two weeks, few City of Light denizens have been spared frequent, anxious calls and emails from far-off friends and family. To the outside world, Paris is in a state of emergency brought on by a nationwide frenzy of car, bus and trash burnings. Frankly, I'm not OK. I tasted violence in a recent tussle--more than words were thrown, but no bones were broken--involving an embittered taxi driver who, unwilling to take me and my wife beyond a certain point, forced us out on an isolated street well past the witching hour. Then there's the...

mods-If this isn't in the right place please move or cut it. Why do most Americans hate soccer? It's not just that they don't like it. They are actively against it. Soccer takes more skill and endurance than the other sports. In middle and high school you take a beating.(Elbowed, tripped, kicked, tackled- All done fairly or behind the ref's back and without body armor) There are many tactics decided by the players(unlike football and baseball). It's a sport many different people can do. Not just people who are huge or work out daily at the gym. Fast people, skilled...

Fox Sports reporting Lance Armstrong has won his 7th Tour de France. Here's to an incredible athlete.

OP-ED CONTRIBUTORS What do Europeans want from the United States? As President Bush prepares for his first trip to Europe since his re-election - a five-day swing through Belgium, Germany and Slovakia - the Op-Ed page asked a variety of Europeans to name the single most important thing Mr. Bush could do to reinvigorate trans-Atlantic relations. "No New Wars" By ELFRIEDE JELINEK, Vienna President Bush ought to convince Europeans that he is not planning another war, while at the same time professing to think highly of the opinion of European nations and to value them. PRESIDENT BUSH needs Europe. He...

PARIS, Jan 31 (AFP) - The Iraqi elections showed "the strategy of terrorist groups partly failed," French President Jacques Chirac told his US counterpart George W. Bush by telephone Monday, officials in Paris said. The Sunday poll was "an important stage in the political reconstruction" of Iraq, Chirac told Bush in the 15-minute conversation, according to presidential spokesman Jerome Bonnafont. The French leader said the turnout and technical organisation of the elections was "satisfactory," he added. Between 60 and 75 percent of registered voters were estimated to have cast ballots. The result of the elections would not be known for...

SAW THIS ON SHEP SMITH LAST NIGHT: Maybe I'm the only one who thought this the moment this picture popped onto the screen, but I'm pretty sure I'm not... How much you wanna bet that France's new pride and joy... (THIS)  ...becomes the new "talk of the town" in the Al Jazeera "what should we blow up next" section of the classifieds? What is extremely interesting is that Chirac and all the French leadership are probably delusional enough after the 24 month scolding they have been giving the U.S. to think that they are completely immune to the terrorists that are...

A FRENCHMAN heading back to his car parked in the street had the vehicle blow up in his face when he used his electronic key to unlock the doors at a distance, paramedics said. The explosion was apparently caused by a spark from the security system igniting gas cylinders the man had in his boot, one of which apparently had a leak, they said. The middle-aged man was taken to hospital with face injuries. His car was destroyed by the blast.

The Age of Terror Confronting France. By John J. Miller & Mark Molesky EDITOR'S NOTE: Last year, shortly before the United States and its allies invaded Iraq, Vice President Cheney asked the French ambassador a pointed question: "Is France an ally or an adversary of the United States?" In the 1980s, President Reagan wondered the same thing. Here's an excerpt from the new book by NR's John J. Miller and his co-author Mark Molesky, Our Oldest Enemy: A History of America's Disastrous Relationship with France. (For more information on the authors and their book, plus daily commentary on French politics...

Americans have a better opinion of France and Germany now than when the two European countries opposed the war in Iraq (news - web sites), but France is not quite out of the dog house, according to a Gallup poll. While only 34 percent of Americans saw France in a favorable light last March, 47 percent view the French favorably now, according to poll released Wednesday. The figure, however, is still a far cry from the 70 percent to 79 percent ratings France enjoyed in the 1990s, and many Americans, 49 percent, still view France unfavorably. Politically, Republicans dislike the...

Chirac goes on TV to quell heatwave anger No apology as French cabinet meets to explain 10,000 deaths Amelia Gentleman in Paris Friday August 22, 2003 The Guardian (UK) In a rare public address to the nation, President Jacques Chirac conceded yesterday that weaknesses in France's health system had contributed to thousands of heat-related deaths in recent weeks. The day after his return from a three-week holiday, Mr Chirac broke his long and much-criticised silence to express sympathy with the families of the many people who had "died alone in their homes" during the "exceptional" heatwave. The minister for the...

By Tim Hepher and Merissa Marr PARIS (Reuters) - Giant media company Vivendi Universal officially hoisted a for-sale sign over its American entertainment empire on Tuesday, smashing the Hollywood dream of a French firm that slid from boom to near-bust. Almost a year after the ouster of ex-Chief Executive Officer Jean-Marie Messier, who turned Vivendi from a water company into a media titan with huge debts, the veteran company fixer brought in to replace him pulled down the curtain on a three-year dalliance with Tinseltown. Current CEO Jean-Rene Fourtou said Vivendi's future lay in telecommunications and French television -- not...

A corner entry from Rod Dreher to make you want to nuke France-- A French friend of mine just e-mailed: It's 09:02 pm in Paris, 10 minutes ago I was at a friend's house for dinner. During drinks, someone turned the TV on, French news cable net LCI was broadcasting those horrible images of US POWs. Believe it or not, but my friends made jokes about those fine soldiers! So, I grabbed my coat, said goodbye in German, as French collaborateurs should be addressed, and left. I guess it's about time to apply for a US immigrant visa... Come on...

Bon Jour Quotes "France has neither winter nor summer nor morals. Apart from these drawbacks it is a fine country. France has usually been governed by prostitutes." --Mark Twain "I would rather have a German division in front of me than a French one behind me." -- General George S. Patton "Going to war without France is like going deer hunting without your accordion." --Norman Schwartzkopf "We can stand here like the French, or we can do something about it." ---- Marge Simpson "As far as I'm concerned, war always means failure" --Jacques Chirac, President of France "As far as...

<p>"Dear Editor: I am a journalist with the Daily Mail in Britain and this may be the slushiest thing I have ever compiled. But it is truly from the heart. I do hope you can find space to print some of it.</p>

PARIS - A school bus carrying Jewish students in Paris was bombarded with stones Wednesday, news reports said, drawing immediate condemnation from the Paris mayor and renewed pleas for religious tolerance. Synagogues and Jewish schools and cemeteries around the country have been targeted, often with firebombs, in the last two weeks. In the most serious case, a Marseille synagogue was burned to the ground on March 31. Mayor Bertrand Delanoe issued a statement Wednesday saying he was "profoundly shocked by the intolerable aggression against a bus carrying students from a Jewish school" in the north of Paris. RTL radio...