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PARIS – Over the years, the chief sommelier had forgotten they were there. And when the four bottles of 1875 Armagnac Vieux were finally unearthed from the labyrinthine wine cellar this week, they were covered in a black fungus that looked like matted cat fur. The landmark Tour d'Argent restaurant, which dates back to 1582, is cleaning out its 450,000-bottle wine cellar, considered one of the best and biggest in the world. It is putting 18,000 bottles up for auction in December, an event that has captured the imagination of French wine lovers. The restaurant is selling mostly wine but...

Special Dispatch - No. 2505 August 25, 2009 Pakistan Taliban Commander: We Have 'Thousands of Suicide Bombers' Who Can 'Target Washington, Paris, London, and Kabul' On August 25, 2009, a Pakistani Urdu-language newspaper reported that Waliur Rehman, the commander of the Taliban militants in Pakistan's tribal district of South Waziristan Agency, had said that his group has "thousands of suicide bombers" who can "target Washington, Paris, London, and Kabul."

A Paris swimming pool has refused entry to a young Muslim woman wearing a "burqini," a swimsuit that covers most of the body, officials said Wednesday. The pool ban came as French lawmakers conduct hearings on whether to ban the burqa after President Nicolas Sarkozy said the head-to-toe veil was "not welcome" in secular France. Officials in the Paris suburb of Emerainville said they let the woman swim in the pool in July wearing the "burqini," designed for Muslim women who want to swim without revealing their bodies. But when she returned in August they decided to apply hygiene rules...

Amazing pro Iranian people demonstration ins Paris today. With moving huge fabric ribbon circling walkway. Music of Hamed Nikpay "The Owner of This Land" (Maalek-e Een Khaak) [Iranian music video]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HqONCJoADtQ Mentioned on FR some time ago=> http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2281798/posts

Via the Brussels Journal, news that the French authorities are trying to make the media downplay the latest round of rioting: Only the figures for the night of July 13-14 were published: “Some 500 vehicles” were burned, the worst ever recorded for the eve of the national holiday. Despite repeated requests to the Interior Ministry, and the DGPN [similar to the FBI], no figures were forthcoming for the night of July 14-15. These orders have been strictly applied. The different prefectures contacted by Le Monde refused to respond, citing “ministerial instructions.” Regional news media reported the same problem. The daily...

French anti-terror magistrates wrapped up an investigation into four Islamists who may have helped British shoe bomber Richard Reid in France. Le Parisien reports the suspects include the head of a Paris mosque, the leader of a Pakistani community and two other men. Reid spent several days in Paris before boarding a Miami-bound plane in December 2001 with explosives stuffed in his sneakers. Last year, Reid was sentenced to life in prison by a U.S. court for trying to blow up the flight. One of the French suspects, Imam Kamel Lakhram, reportedly acknowledged to French authorities Reid had slept at...

Teenager jumps to her death from Eiffel Tower, crashing onto roof of packed restaurant 180ft below IAN SPARKS 27th June 2009 A teenage tourist has leapt to her death from the Eiffel Tower in Paris and crashed onto the roof of a packed restaurant 180ft below. The 18-year-old Brazilian girl jumped from a second-storey tier as her brother frantically tried to stop her. Diners on the tower's 170ft-high first floor then heard her smash into the plastic roof of the restaurant, believed to be Altitude 95, five feet above their heads. Altitude 95, on the first tier of the Eiffel...

On 9 November, a 38-year old Belgian named Muriel, blew herself to pieces in Baghdad near a group of Iraqi policemen, killing five other people. The woman had converted to Islam after marrying a Belgian of Moroccon origin. Her husband was shot down by American troops. The American authorities informed the Belgian authorities of the woman’s identity a few weeks ago, but Brussels kept it secret. Yesterday evening the Franco-Luxemburgian network RTL announced the news. Last night, the Belgian police arrested 14 people. Nine of them are Belgians, mostly of foreign origin, three are Moroccans and two are Tunisians. They...

Guess she's not proud of Carla.

A US "taster" tested the food being dished up to President Barack Obama at a dinner in a French restaurant, a waiter said on Sunday. "They have someone who tastes the dishes," said waiter Gabriel de Carvalho from the "La Fontaine de Mars" restaurant where Obama and his family turned up for dinner on Saturday night. "It wasn't very pleasant for the cooks at first, but the person was very nice and was relaxed, so it all went well," he said on the Itele news channel. Asked by AFP to comment, the restaurant confirmed the report.

On March 22, a number of the world’s media outlets reported something along the lines of “ Far-right youths carrying placards reading ‘leave my Pope alone’ clashed with left-wing activists outside Notre-Dame Cathedral in Paris after the latter had thrown condoms on the square as worshippers were leaving Sunday mass.” The Associated Press, AFP and Reuters were among the news-wires which used the term “far right” to describe the young people protesting in favour of the Pope. A group of about 30 demonstrators belonging to a group called Act Up had chosen a major Sunday Mass at Notre Dame Cathedral...

The East Wing has not announced it, but First Lady Michelle Obama will head to Paris next week, after accompanying President Obama to Normandy to mark the 65th anniversary of the June 6, 1944 landing of Allied troops on French shores. Mrs. Obama's press office only disclosed that the First Lady would be in Normandy on Saturday. "She'll have no public events beyond Normandy," I was told on Tuesday afternoon. But it turned out there was a high-level leaker in the White House -- President Obama -- who dropped the news in an interview with a French television outlet that...

Police cleared media and passengers away from the entrance of Charles de Gaulle airport's terminal 2 on Monday. They then blew up a suspicious package. Media are standing by at the airport for news on the missing Airbus and its 228 passengers and crew presumed to have crashed in the Atlantic. Air France says lightning and strong turbulence could have downed the plane en route from Rio de Janeiro to Paris early on Monday. If so, it would be the worst air disaster caused by lightning, according to the Aviation Safety Network. Most experts say however, that such a strike...

(CNN) -- A French passenger aircraft carrying 228 people has disappeared off the coast of Brazil, airline officials say. A file photo shows an Air France jet on take off. Some 228 passengers are aboard the missing aircraft. A file photo shows an Air France jet on take off. Some 228 passengers are aboard the missing aircraft. Air France told CNN the jet was traveling from Rio de Janeiro to Charles de Gaulle airport in Paris when contact was lost. The airline said flight AF447 was carrying 216 passengers in addition to a crew of 12. The plane is listed...

After a Sensational Crime, a Trial Marked by Quiet By MEG BORTIN May 17, 2009 PARIS — In the two and a half weeks since 27 people went on trial here for the brutal 2006 kidnapping, torture and killing of a young Jewish man, little has filtered out about the proceedings. Despite the sensational nature of the case and the serious issues it has raised — from the rise of anti-Semitism in some sectors of French society to the way the police handled the investigation — the French are essentially unable to follow the courtroom drama because of a law...

After watching for 8 years as the Central Intelligence Agency sought to bring down the Bush Administration, the Democrats have decided that the spooks attacking politicians is not a good idea. Funny how "whistelblowers" turn into "leakers" almost overnight.

The Italian police have arrested two men suspected of planning an attack on the Charles de Gaulle airport near Paris. They are also suspected of planning other attacks in France and Great Britain. The two are thought to play a leading role in the al-Qaeda network.

The French have an odd notion of boycotts. My good friend Scott Johnson at Power Line discovers this video of a “boycott” action in France organized, apparently, by Europalestine.com, or at least publicized by them. Take a look at the uniformed thuggery that takes place in a French grocery store: [video at link] Boycotts are perfectly legitimate free-market forms of protest — but this isn’t a boycott at all. A boycott is an organized effort to stop buying products or services from some offending source. This is an organized theft ring and nothing more. Unless they’re paying for those groceries,...

On an August morning in 1978, French filmmaker Claude Lelouch mounted a gyro-stabilized camera to the bumper of a Ferrari 275 GTB and had a friend, a professional Formula 1 racer, drive at breakneck speed through the heart of Paris early in the morning . The film was limited for technical reasons to 10 minutes; the course was from Porte Dauphine , through the Louvre, to the Basilica of Sacre Coeur. No streets were closed, for Lelouch was unable to obtain a permit. The driver completed the course in about 9 minutes, reaching nearly 140 MPH in some stretches. The...

Paris, France. It is very cool to be a French intel guy. A spectacular meal at a Parisian bistro with $90 entrées and a $200 bottle of Bordeaux? No problem. I'd known this fellow since he got me out of a jam in Sudan years ago. His James Bond days are over, but still, riding a desk for the DGSE -- Direction générale de la sécurité extérieure (General Directorate for External Security), France's military intel agency - in Paris has its decided benefits. One of them is not being infected with Obamamania. "My agency considers him a joke," he confides....

The French president unveiled the plan after ten of the world's leading architects, including Lord Rogers, presented blueprints aimed at creating a sprawling city over the next 20 years which would be the world's most sustainable metropolis in the wake of the Kyoto Protocol on climate change. Mr Sarkozy singled out a proposal by the French architect Antoine Grumbach to extend the city to the Channel port of Le Havre via Rouen along the Seine, maximising the green possibilities of the river and with a fast rail link. The idea was mooted by Napoleon Bonaparte, with whom Mr Sarkozy is...

To live as God in France: both the Germans and the Dutch use this expression of longing for a life of ease and beauty, for a terrestrial paradise. It’s easy to see why. Dutch friends came to stay in my house in France and found everything enchanting—from the landscape and the weather to the politeness of the butcher and the quality of the meat he sold. The bread alone seemed worth the trip, to say nothing of the charcuterie, and France seemed a smiling land quite without problems. Opening Le Figaro for March 16, however, one discovers another France: far...

Alexander McQueenParis seemed to be standing still this season. With the current economic climate weighing down on just about every designer, the shows themselves were safe and for the most part terribly uninteresting. Call it the recession effect or just simply a reflection of the atmosphere, but a fashion week usually known for being vibrant, irreverent, directional and fashion forward seemed to be none of these things. Let’s hope that next season brings back the palpable excitement and mischievous quality that ordinarily is Paris Fashion Week.

When I was last in France I stayed with a friend in the M Back in 2005, when I was last there, it seemed like Paris was a tiny jewel surrounding by a sewer on all sides. Well it seems the fecid sewer is lapping at the gates of what was once a jewel. The gifted journalist and regular Atlas contributor Nidra Poller gives on the street reportage on the lastet outbreak of low grade civil war in the streets of the Marais. Baked on the premises- TOAST! Paris, March 16, 2009 Nidra Poller Car burning comes to the Marais!...

Ten of the world's leading architects on Thursday detailed their plans to dramatically transform the French capital into a Grand Paris, in what has been described as the most complex city project ever. A computer image of a project for a bigger and greener Paris, in La Courneuve, by French architect Roland Castro Nicolas Sarkozy, the French president, asked the architects, including Britain's Richard Rogers, to project 20 years into the future and dream up the world's most sustainable post-Kyoto metropolis. Among the more outlandish plans is Antoine Grumbach's proposal to extend the city all the way to the Channel...

a group of bewhiskered men gathered in the bowels of the Paris Opera to launch a project which, by definition, they could never see to fruition. First, 24 carefully-wrapped wax records were placed inside two lead and iron containers. These were then sealed and locked away in a small storage room, with instructions that they remain undisturbed for 100 years. The man behind this musical time-capsule was Alfred Clark, a New Yorker who headed the London-based Gramophone Company and provided the records. And, in truth, once the ceremony was over, he had achieved his primary objective of drawing attention to...

Crazy american drives the french nuts by snowboarding in the streets of Paris. Very funny...

Chinese women forced into Paris prostitution: aid group by Isabelle Ligner Thu Feb 5, 3:02 pm ET PARIS (AFP) – Hundreds of Chinese women have left their children behind in the hope of finding work in Paris, only to end up turning to street prostitution, a humanitarian group said Thursday. A report by Medecins du Monde (Doctors of the World) said the women, mostly in their forties and sharing small rooms, are often victims of rape and violence, and are highly exposed to sexually-transmitted disease. The group runs a mobile clinic in immigrant districts in the French capital to reach...

The heaviest snowfall in 20 years closed thousands of schools and caused transportation chaos up the eastern side of Britain, with London and the surrounding areas the hardest hit. Six million bus passengers were stranded as all London's bus services were halted because of dangerous driving conditions, and almost every subway line was at least partially suspended. Most commuter rail services were also cancelled or seriously delayed, and flights at London's airports were decimated, with both of Heathrow's runways shut, Luton and London City closed, and Gatwick and Stansted flights subject to delays and short-notice cancellations. Similar conditions were reported...

Two men carrying a knife and an electronic stun gun stormed the Planet Sushi restaurant in the city's Latin Quarter on Sunday night, demanding money from the till. But the team of Japanese staff turned on the men, stabbing one to death with a fish knife used for preparing sushi dishes, while the other was pinned to the ground outside the restaurant.

"HAMAS MISSILES FOR ISRAELI FOOD" (Added January 12, 2009) VIDEO DESCRIPTION - QUOTE: IsraelMFA January 12, 2009 Israel gives food, medicine and electricity to Gaza citizens and gets rockets in return. Category: News & Politics Tags: Israel Hamas war rockets missile humanitarian aid children shield Gaza

Pro Israel Rallies (Jan 2009)"Fundamentalism no, human rights yes!” -  ...pro-Israel rally in Poland. EuropeNews January 10 2009. „Fundamentalism no, human rights yes! ... Oslo: Anti-Israel demonstration turns ugly ...http://europenews.dk/en/node/18162Pro-Israel groups demonstrate in Germany against Hamas - Summary ... - 11 Jan 2009 ... Frankfurt - Thousands of people attended demonstrations organized by pro-Israel groups in several German cities on Sunday against the ...http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/show/249951,pro-israel-groups-demonstrate-in-germany-against-hama s--summary.htmlThousands attend pro-Israel rallies in U.K. and Germany - Haaretz ...11 Jan 2009 ... Thousands attend pro-Israel rallies in UK and Germany-News and commentary ... !! it is an anti israel demonstration, stop twisting truth ...http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/pages/ShArtStEng.jhtml?itemNo=1054494&contrassID=1&subContrassI...

"HAMAS AND THEIR SYSTEMATIC VIOLATION OF INTERNATIONAL LAWS (NOT TO MENTION BASIC HUMAN DECENCY)" "Video follows"

SNIPPET: "The fundamental truth is that Hamas' road to Iran runs through the international Muslim Brotherhood, and has for two decades. What is often missing in the discussion of the Muslim Brotherhood is that Hamas, according to its own founding charter, is an integral and armed part of the Ikwhan, not separate from it."

"Summary of Overnight Events, 03 January 2009"

Update: The French press reported that the Interior Ministry released a final "verified" count of 1,147 vehicles burned in France over New Year's Eve. The number is up 30.64% from last year's total, 878. REUTERS - At least 445 cars were torched over the night of New Year's Eve in France, a 20 percent rise on last year, but there were relatively few clashes with police, the Interior Ministry and police said on Thursday. Car burnings are regular occurrences in France but the registering the New Year's Eve total has become something of a tradition since they achieved symbolic status...

NEW YORK -- The New York Times admitted Monday it published a fake letter purportedly from the mayor of Paris criticizing Caroline Kennedy's bid for a U.S. Senate seat as "appalling" and "not very democratic." In a note posted Monday on its Web site, the Times said the letter signed by Paris Mayor Bertrand Delanoe was a fake and should not have been published because it violated the paper's standards and procedures for publishing signed letters.

Artists' models in Paris stripped naked Monday, braving freezing temperatures to protest against a ban on tips and to demand better pay and recognition. More than 20 male and female models, some posing nude while others were draped in a colorful array of shawls, sheets and fur coats, took part in the protest that had the backing of two of France's biggest labor unions. The action was triggered by a recent decision by the Paris authorities to enforce a ban on artists' tips, known as "cornet" after the rolled-up cone of drawing paper in which painters traditionally dropped some money...

PARIS, Dec. 16 -- Police found five sticks of dynamite in a landmark Paris department store Tuesday after an unknown group warned that bombs were hidden there and threatened more attacks unless France withdraws its military forces from Afghanistan.

PARIS — French police neutralized five sticks of explosives discovered in the restrooms of a prestigious department store in Paris on Tuesday following a warning from a group demanding the withdrawal of French troops from Afghanistan. Agence France-Presse said it received a letter from a group calling itself the Afghan Revolutionary Front saying that "several bombs" had been planted in the Printemps store. AFP reported that the letter called for the withdrawal of all foreign troops from Afghanistan by February next year. The bombs were supposed to go off on Wednesday, the group said.

As key international talks on climate change drew to a close in Poland with little progress on a global deal and anger against the EU for failing to lead the way on targets, the Nobel Prize winner attempted to get efforts to stop global warming back on track. In a rousing speech to hundreds of delegates at the UN Climate Change Conference in Poznan, the former US Presidential candidate echoed President-elect Barack Obama in calling for change. "It is wrong for this generation to destroy the habitability of the planet and ruin the prospects of every future generation. That realisation...

INDIANAPOLIS -- A Greenfield man has been indicted on accusations he tried to sell the names of U.S. intelligence agents to Iraq before the 2003 fall of Saddam Hussein's regime. Authorities: Man Was In Iraq In '02 Shaaban Hafiz Ahmad Ali Shaaban, a 52-year-old naturalized U.S. citizen, was arrested Thursday after an investigation of more than a year by the FBI and other agencies, U.S. Attorney Susan W. Brooks said. Shaaban, also known as Shaaban Shaaban Hafed and Joe H. Brown, is suspected of going to Iraq in 2002 and making a deal to sell the names. He isn't accused...

The Taliban threatened to launch attacks in Paris unless France withdraws its troops from Afghanistan:

SNIPPET: "A French couple arrested in connection with a series of anarchist attacks on the country's rail network have been linked by the FBI to a bomb attack in New York." ARTICLE SNIPPET: "French anti-terrorist police are holding 10 alleged members of a violent anarchist movement suspected of sabotaging power cables on high speed TGV train lines. But it now transpires that the alleged culprits were netted thanks to information from the FBI, which allegedly linked two of them to the home-made bomb attack on an army recruitment centre in New York's Times Square in March. Julien Coupat, 34, the...

Until last year, Hassan Diab was leading the quiet life of a Canadian sociology professor. Prof. Diab was teaching at both Carleton University and the University of Ottawa, was said to be a popular colleague and teacher. After leaving the violence of his native Lebanon and earning his doctorate in the United States, Prof. Diab, 54, received his Canadian citizenship and appeared to settle into Ottawa. There, friends said he was a secular man with an interest in sociology and Middle East studies, and was not without a warm side. "He has a great rapport with students," said Carleton professor...

Nobody does fashion week like Paris! The most important and influential shows in the world take place in Paris. The epitome of chic, Parisian fashion houses influence the rest of the fashion world. Here are the top 5 Paris SS09 fashion shows. Maison Martin MargielaThis year marked the 20th anniversary for Maison Martin Margiela. True to usual form the designer was scarce but the clothes were fantastic. The collection was structurally beautiful and pushed all the usual boundaries.

“I first began to fathom the extent of Nadhmi Auchi's reach and corrupting influence when I was given responsibility for monitoring illegal transfers of technology and munitions to Iraq as well as overseeing all coalition transportation and communications reconstruction in Iraq." ### Barack Obama has been appropriately strident in his condemnation of the mortgage-based financial corruption which nearly led to the collapse of the investment banking system in the United States. But there are some strong smelling financial skeletons in his own closet. Obama has his own personal housing crisis that is tied not into Fanny Mae, but into a...

FBI Warns of Potential Terror Attacks The FBI and Department of Homeland Security today issued an analytical "note" to U.S. law-enforcement officials cautioning that al-Qaida terrorists have in the past expressed interest in attacking public buildings using a dozen suicide bombers each carrying 20 kilograms of explosives. Authors with the U.S. Office of Intelligence and Analysis added that they have "no credible or specific information that terrorists are planning operations against public buildings in the United States." The FBI and DHS analysts said they were releasing the note because "it is important for local authorities and building owners and...

Paris will quadruple the number of closed-circuit police cameras in its streets by the end of next year, after President Nicolas Sarkozy's promise to emulate London in an attempt to track crime and terrorism threats. While the Paris metro and rail networks already operate around 9,500 CCTV devices, police have only 330 at their disposal to survey outside public areas. The new plan, dubbed "A Thousand Cameras for Paris", will raise that number to more than 1,200 – with most installed in high-risk areas and outside railway and underground stations. The figure is still small compared with London, where each...

PARIS — Officials say that a John Travolta movie has suspended filming in one of the Paris area's toughest housing projects after 10 cars to be used in the movie were burned. Filming of the action movie "From Paris With Love" was supposed to start this week but local officials and the production company say it was put on hold because the cars were burned by unknown suspects early Monday. Cars are regularly burned in French housing projects, most famously during rioting that raged for three weeks in 2005 in poor neighborhoods across the country. The mayor's office of Montfermeil,...