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European human rights watchdogs are now watching Belgian democracy closely after the move by Flemish local authorities. The Council of Europe has "opened a monitoring procedure on local democracy" fuelling a row between Dutch speaking and francophone Belgians that has threatened the existence of Belgium. Flemish regional authorities have blocked three French-speaking mayors from taking up public office since they were elected in January 2007 in the Brussels suburbs of Linkebeek, Wezembeek-Oppem and Kraainem. Marino Keulen, the Flemish Interior Minister responsible for the ban, remained defiant and announced he will stick by his decision to outlaw the elected mayors....

Belgian Prime Minister offered his government’s resignation to the king Monday, said a source BRUSSELS - Belgian Prime Minister Yves Leterme offered his government's resignation to the king Monday after talks between Flemish and French-speakers on new reforms failed, a source close to the government said. "He will present his government's resignation," the source told AFP under cover of anonymity. "It's an admission of a complete deadlock on community questions, combined with the fact the government will not be able to present an agreement on reforming the state by 15 July," as Leterme had promised, the source said. Leterme only...

BRUSSELS — The move to break up Belgium gathered momentum Sunday as separatists won an emphatic election victory in Flanders, the prosperous Dutch-speaking half of the fiercely divided nation. A stunning electoral success for Bart de Wever’s Flemish nationalist party marks a significant new challenge to the fragile unity of a country where tensions between French and Dutch speakers run deep. Scheduled to take over the rotating presidency of the European Union in less than three weeks, Belgium will now do so with a caretaker administration and facing months of tortuous negotiations to put together a coalition government. “We are...

LANGUAGE wars between French and Flemish-speakers in Belgium have reignited, sparking riots, bringing the Government to the brink of collapse and prompting some commentators to say that the country is “finished”.The dispute, over whether 120,000 French-speakers living in Flemish areas should have the right to elect French- speaking politicians, arouses high passions in a country split between the two languages. As the apparently innocuous spat in an electoral district just outside Brussels escalated out of control, demonstrations ended in violent confrontations with police. Senior government ministers cancelled all other work for emergency negotiations, but failed to broker a deal over...

"Survival" of Belgium as a unified country was called into question last night after a row between French and Dutch speakers brought the government to the verge of collapse. The wrangle has already brought down the government four times in the past three years but the latest spat is the gravest yet and threatens to split the country into Flemish areas and French-speaking areas. King Albert II warned politicians that the political crisis "seriously threatens" the country's role in Europe, after the Prime Minister, Yves Leterme tendered his resignation. Mr Leterme stepped down after talks broke down over plants to...

A recent article in The Times described the fears in France of a brain drain to the United States, as top French scholars move to American universities to teach and do research. A study by the Institut Montaigne found that academics constitute a much larger percentage of French émigrés to the United States today than 30 years ago..Why would France's leading scholars and researchers want to leave a place that reveres intellectuals? More money, more freedom, more competitive energy -- what really drives the global academic marketplace? Brain drains to U.S. universities are nothing new. The globalization of universities means...

PARIS -- A French lawyer has a warning for parents-to-be: Naming your baby girl Zoe could set her up for a lifetime of annoyances - everything from playground teasing to sexual come-ons. That's the contention of David Koubbi, who is wrangling with French carmaker Renault about its plans to call its new electric car "Zoe." Koubbi is representing the parents of two little girls named Zoe Renault (ZO-eh ruh-NO) - no relation to the French automaker - who are outraged their daughters might have to share their names with a car. They want Renault to find another non-human name for...

In an interview with SPIEGEL, German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schäuble, 68, criticizes US calls for Germany to reduce exports, outlines his plans for an insolvency framework for indebted European nations and the emphasizes the significance of the German-French axis for Europe...

The French aircraft carrier which is set to play a key role in defending Britain over the next decade has broken down. As President Nicolas Sarkozy prepares to use a London summit this week to announce that RAF jets will fly from the carrier Charles de Gaulle, his naval chiefs have told him that she is no longer seaworthy. ‘She is meant to be heading to Afghanistan but is instead in her home port with a faulty propulsion system,’ said a French Navy source.

On their way out of Afghanistan Just a day after Osama bin Laden warned France to remove its troops from Afghanistan, French Defense Minister Herve Morin announced Thursday, Oct. 28 that the withdrawal of French troops would begin in early 2011. Paris then raised its terror alert level to "red" after confirming the authenticity of the Bin Laden audiotape aired Wednesday.

Pope Benedict has called on immigrants to respect the laws and national identity of their host countries. He said that every country had the right to regulate the flow of migration and immigrants had a duty to integrate.The Pope's comments are likely to add to the Europe-wide debate about integration of foreigners.The Vatican traditionally identifies with migrants and refugees and recently criticised France for deporting 1,000 Roma (gypsies) to Romania and Bulgaria.During the summer, about 200 camps were dismantled.The policy aroused a sharp response from the EU and prompted the Pope to tell French pilgrims they should "accept legitimate human...

PARIS (AP) — The French Senate, pushed into an early vote, approved on Friday a hotly contested bill raising the retirement age to 62, hours after riot police forced the reopening of a strategic refinery to help halt growing fuel shortages amid nationwide strikes and protests. In tense balloting after 140 hours of debate, the Senate voted 177-153 for the pension reform. The measure is expected to win final formal approval by both houses of parliament next week. President Nicolas Sarkozy's conservative government, keen to get the measure passed and quell increasingly radicalized protests, cut short the debate and voting...

French Minister Says Saudis Have Warned Europe, Notably France, Of Al-Qaida Terror Threat U.S. Department of State ELAINE GANLEY Associated Press Writer 3:18 p.m. CDT, October 17, 2010 PARIS (AP) — Saudi intelligence services have warned of a new terror threat from al-Qaida against Europe, particularly in France, Interior Minister Brice Hortefeux said Sunday. He said the warning of a potential attack by al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula was received "in the last few hours, few days." European officials were informed that "al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula was doubtless active or envisioned being active" on the "European continent, notably France,"...

French Fos-Lavera strike blocks 61 ships2 hours 34 mins ago A three-week old strike at the French oil hub of Fos-Lavera to protest pension reform and working conditions is blocking 61 ships from unloading cargo, the port authority said on Sunday. The strikers want job guarantees as part of a port reform and are also protesting against President Nicolas Sarkozy's pension reforms that raise the retirement age to 62 from 60, which has already sparked several waves of nationwide protests. The strikes at Fos-Lavera, France's largest oil port, has helped squeeze the nation's fuel supply, creating fears it could run...

More than three million people took to the streets of France in protest at pension reforms, with distant echoes of May 1968 as students and schoolchildren swelled numbers to record highs.

PARIS — On the day Paris was liberated from the Nazis in 1944, a young American soldier nabbed a souvenir of epic proportions: He took home the French flag that hung from the Arc de Triomphe, a symbol of the end of four years of struggle and shame. Six and a half decades later, the aging veteran has given the flag back to the city of Paris. Officials from Paris City Hall took possession of the 12-meter (13-yard) tricolor flag Saturday in a ceremony in southern France, a step in its unusual journey from New York state back home to...

PARIS – The French Senate has voted overwhelmingly for a bill banning the burqa-style Islamic veil everywhere from post offices to streets, in a final step toward a making it law. The Senate voted 246 to 1 Tuesday in favor of the bill, which has already passed in the lower chamber, the National Assembly. Any dissenters have 10 days to challenge the measure in the Constitutional Council watchdog, but that is considered unlikely.

A survey by one of France's oldest and most reputable polling and market research organisations has challenged the myth of the French lover. More than three-quarters of Gallic couples have bad sex lives, the Institute for Public Opinion found. More than one in three women said they had used excuses such as headaches, tiredness or children being nearby to get out of having sex. Nearly one in six men said they had also made similar excuses. France has long enjoyed a reputation for romance and the French have traditionally thought of themselves as great lovers, more amorous and flirtatious than...

"...Evidence from U.S. Army records shows conclusively that although blacks were a small statistical minority of U.S. troops in the European Theater --- less than 10 percent --- they were targeted, by French and American authorities alike, as the scapegoats for widespread American misbehavior and sexual violence. Black American soldiers were charged and convicted and punished for crimes against French people in numbers vastly disproportionate to their statistical presence in the American Army."

SNIPPET: "The police arrested two terrorist suspects at the house: Fahri Tanjung, also known as Hilmi, and Hamzah. The police also found chemicals they believed were to be used to make explosives and an activated hand-made high-explosive bomb inside the house. West Java Police chief Insp. Gen. Sutarman said the police detonated the high-explosive bomb on location after failing to defuse it. Books and VCDs on jihad, as well as an air rifle were seized as evidence. One of the VCDs was titled Afghanistan jihad: The journey of the oppressed. Sutarman said the suspects had been involved in acts of...