Free Republic

High hair all the rage at Paris Fashion Week. Seen as homage to Sarah Palin's 'do. Sarah Palin may have had some hair-raising moments in the vice-presidential debate, but at Paris Fashion Week her "hockey mum" style looks to have launched a new trend. For Yves Saint Laurent's Spring/Summer show, influential designer Stefano Pilati sent models down the runway styled with beehive hairdos that appeared to be channelling the 44-year-old Republican vice-presidential nominee. Perhaps geographically Alaska is a long way from the capital of fashion, but sartorially Paris' affection for the "Palin-do" is on the rise. This is not the...

Swedish clothing retailer Hennes & Mauritz has been given the all clear to open an outlet on the swish shopping street Champs-Élysées. H & M beat off the vociferous objections of Paris city council. France's top administrative court, the State Council, rejected an appeal by Paris city council which moved in January to block a store licence granted to the retailer, according to deputy Paris mayor Lyne Cohen-Solal. "We are completely powerless" to stop the spread of big chain stores on what is touted as the most beautiful avenue in the world, she said. The city has now exhausted all...

PARIS (EJP)---Richard Prasquier, head of CRIF, the umbrella group of French Jewish organizations, confirmed to EJP hat one of the suspected assailant in a recent attack on three Jewish teens in Paris’s 19th district is Jewish. According to police sources, six youths aged from 16 to 23 have been detained for questioning about their involvement in the beating on September 6 of three Jewish teenagers wearing kipas. One of the six was freed but the five others were still being detained Tuesday morning at the police station. Three of them are black. Prasquier said the fact that one of the...

Pope Benedict XVI condemned unbridled "pagan" passion for power, possessions and money as a modern-day plague on Saturday, as he led more than a quarter million Catholics at an outdoor Mass in Paris. Benedict was making his first visit as pontiff to the French capital, renowned for its luxury goods, fashion sense and cultural riches. "Has not our modern world created its own idols?" Benedict said in his homily, and wondered aloud whether people have "imitated, perhaps inadvertently, the pagans of antiquity?" "This is a question that all people, if they are honest with themselves, cannot help but ask," the...

Dear friends, we are gathered in a historic place, built by the spiritual sons of Saint Bernard of Clairvaux, and which Your predecessor, the late Cardinal Jean-Marie Lustiger, desired to be a centre of dialogue between Christian Wisdom and the cultural, intellectual, and artistic currents of contemporary society. In particular, I greet the Minister of Culture, who is here representing the Government, together with Mr Giscard d’Estaing and Mr Jacques Chirac. I likewise greet all the Ministers present, the Representatives of UNESCO, the Mayor of Paris, and all other Authorities in attendance. I do not want to forget my colleagues...

Three Jewish teens were attacked by a group of Muslim African immigrants in Paris on Saturday evening, a French police spokeswoman said Sunday. The Jewish teens, ages 17 and 18, who have been identified as Dan Nebet, Kevin Bitan and David Boaziz, are leaders of the Bnei Akiva youth group in Paris' 19th District. http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1018853.html

How The West Was Won The rapid and unexpected decline of the Sunni insurgency in Iraq was officially recognized this week, when Maj. Gen. John Kelly, commanding the Marine Expeditionary Force, turned operational control of Anbar Province over to the Iraqi army and police. Anbar, a vast expanse of desert the size of North Carolina, had been the stronghold of the Sunni insurgency. For years, foreign fighters loyal to al-Qaida had sneaked across Iraq's northwestern border with Syria, into Anbar and down a "rat line" of safe houses in Haditha, Ramadi and Hit. From Fallujah, the arch terrorist Zarqawi...

A picture of Ilan Halimi, who was kidnapped and murdered by a gang in Paris. (Archives) The incident of brutal abuse began at 10 A.M. on February 22. Mathieu Roumi, 19, whose father is Jewish, was strolling through his neighborhood in the Paris suburb of Bagneux, which has been the site of violent riots by immigrants in the past two years. The suburb became notorious as the scene of Ilan Halimi's 2006 murder, which horrified France. ...after which they beat him and, with the help of a third friend, dragged him to a dark basement. The three assailants were joined...

An ad for The Paris Hilton Presidential Campaign. http://www.funnyordie.com/videos/64ad536a6d

LATEST NEWS FROM BIMBO-LAND In case you missed them: A. McCain’s video featuring Paris, Britney, and Obama: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/07/30/mccain-ad-links-paris-hil_n_115841.html B. Kathy Hilton’s Objections to A: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/kathy-hilton/mccains-celebrity-ad-friv_b_116593.html C. Paris Strikes Back Video: http://www.politico.com/blogs/bensmith/0808/Paris_Hilton_responds_Really.html D. Sadly, no feedback from Britney or her mom. Let’s see if I have this straight. McCain’s camp puts out a video comparing Obama to a “rock star,” which features cameos of Paris and Brit, who certainly make it more attractive. Paris’ mommy takes offense at the frivolous waste of money showing her daughter in a video. Paris retaliates by putting out her own video ridiculing McCain’s age. Britney...

Susan Estrich is confused about the latest McCain campaign tactic. Ms. Estrich ran the 1988 Michael Dukakis campaign, so it’s a stunner that she would have a hard time understanding something, but no one can be the master of everything. Let’s clear things up for her. John McCain’s campaign has run an ad equating Barack Obama with Britney Spears and Paris Hilton. This has Ms. Estrich fit to be tied, as she explains in a special commentary for Rasmussen Reports: What does Barack Obama have to do with Britney Spears and Paris Hilton? Absolutely nothing, as far as I can...

So far for Mr. Obama, who came to Europe once in the last four years, making a stop in London on his way to Russia, the response of many Europeans to his potential presidency has been gratifying — emotional, responsive, replete with the sense of hope he seeks to engender about a more flexible, less ideological America. On Thursday evening in a glittering Berlin, cheered by as many as 200,000 people, Mr. Obama delivered a tone poem to American and European ideals and shared history. In contrast, just before he spoke, Mr. McCain, was sitting in Schmidt’s Sausage Haus und...

(ANSAmed) - PARIS, JULY 17 - A "luminous and liberated" veil, in the spirit of Islam's poetics, will cover but not hide, thanks to a light transparent structure, the Visconti Court of the Louvre Museum in Paris, in the right wing, to host the new museum of Islamic arts, to be established in 2010. ¿It is a political museum¿, as explained to ANSA by Rudy Ricciotti, of Italian origins, one of the two architects, with Mario Bellini from Milan, who designed the project, selected among 52 applicants. "In the sense that it recognises all the peoples in a lay state,...

Mayor blames 'gangs' for Paris high school night of violence 4 days ago PARIS (AFP) — Paris Mayor Bernard Delanoe blamed "organised gangs" on Saturday for clashes overnight near the Eiffel Tower between police and high school students celebrating the end of their final exams. Twenty-nine people were arrested, and 22 kept in custody, after the unrest in the Champ de Mars park in the well-to-do Seventh District that pitted police firing tear gas against "250 to 300 youths". About a dozen neighbourhood shops were damaged, and two police officers slightly injured, said Alain Gardere, who is in charge of...

A Young Jew Is Savagely Beaten in Paris FrontPage magazine.com, CA - June 24, 2008 Haddad, like Halimi, and like their attackers, are also of African or possibly Arab descent–as was Sebastien Selam who was murdered in Paris in 2003. ... http://frontpagemagazine.com/Articles/Read.aspx?GUID=ADCCF3FF-97C6-47EE-9A3F-2DA1E8016A22

A 17 year old young man was attacked Saturday evening near the Buttes-Chaumont, in Paris, in what has been denounced as an anti-Semitic attack. The group said that the 17-year-old was wearing a kippa, and walking through a neighborhood where many Jewish families live, when he was beaten Saturday night in eastern Paris. Police said they detained five people for questioning, but were still investigating the reasons for the assault. French President Nicolas Sarkozy, leaving for a visit to Israel later Sunday, as well as the Minister of Interior, Michèle Alliot-Marie, expressed their indignation as well their support towards the...

The Hunt for American al Qaeda The United States is turning up the heat in the hunt for the California boy turned al Qaeda operative, Adam Gadahn, who has been charged with treason and is believed to be hiding in Afghanistan. If caught and convicted, Gadahn could face the death penalty. The State Department along with the Department of Diplomatic Security announced the beginning of a publicity campaign in Afghanistan urging locals to provide any information on Gadahn's whereabouts, with a reward if the information leads to his capture. Radio advertisements with information concerning the $1 million reward have...

France's First Lady, Carla Bruni-Sarkozy, sings of being a "child" despite "my thirty lovers" and compares President Nicolas Sarkozy to class A drugs in her long-awaited new album.

Brigitte Bardot fined for inciting racial hatred By Peter Allen in Paris Last Updated: 9:43PM BST 03/06/2008 Legendary sex symbol Brigitte Bardot has been fined £12,000 for inciting racial hatred against Muslims. Animal rights campaigner Bardot argued that Muslims should stun animals before slaughtering them during the Aid al-Kabir holiday In December 2006 the retired French film star-turned-animal rights activist wrote a letter to France’s then interior minister, Nicolas Sarkozy, arguing that Muslims should stun animals before slaughtering them during the Aid al-Kabir holiday. She outraged anti-racist groups by saying: “I’ve had enough of being led by the nose by...

Yves Saint Laurent, considered by many as the greatest fashion designer of the 20th Century, has died in Paris at the age of 71. Saint Laurent changed the face of the fashion industry when he became chief designer of the House of Dior at 21. He designed clothes that reflected women's changing role in society: more confident personally, sexually and in the work-place.

The frontrunner to become Israel’s next prime minister, Tzipi Livni, was a Paris agent for Mossad, Israel’s overseas intelligence agency, in the early 1980s when it ran a series of missions to kill Palestinian terrorists in European capitals, according to former colleagues. They say Livni, now foreign minister, was on active service when Mamoun Meraish, a senior official in the Palestine Liberation Organisation, was shot dead by a Mossad hit squad in Athens on August 21, 1983. She was not directly involved in the killing, in which two young men on a motorcycle drew alongside Meraish’s car and opened fire,...

U.S. Wary Of Small Boat Terrorism As boating season approaches, the Bush administration wants to enlist America's 80 million recreational boaters to help reduce the chances that a small boat could deliver a nuclear or radiological bomb somewhere along the 95,000 miles of U.S. coastline and inland waterways. According to an April 23 intelligence assessment obtained by The Associated Press, "The use of a small boat as a weapon is likely to remain al Qaeda's weapon of choice in the maritime environment, given its ease in arming and deploying, low cost, and record of success." While the United States...

via translation - One man was very seriously injured in the night when handling an explosive device in an apartment in Clichy-la-Garenne in the Paris suburbs. It is "in a desperate state", according to a source close to the investigation. An important security perimeter was set up in the avenue, one of the main arteries of Clichy, and began to be lifted to 04H00. Demining services were present. According to a police source, the sub-directorate terrorism (SDAT) was seized of the investigation. According to the mayor of Clichy, Gilles Catoire, who was on the spot, "a large quantity of explosives...

Why is the capital of French snobbery starting to look like a mini-America? A city like Paris never stands still. The dollar may be down, but America is up. France prides itself on its exquisite culture--especially in comparison with ours--but American technology and American ways are spreading throughout the world, even here. People in Paris see an easier lifestyle, and the young in particular are ready for a change. Despite their severe criticism of the United States, that's where many want to go. McDonald's and Starbucks are thriving and multiplying all over Paris. The first McDonald's (pronounced McDoze) opened in...

Photos of carefree Parisians lazing in cafes, flocking to cinemas or enjoying a day at the races during the Nazi occupation have sparked outrage in Paris and calls for the exhibit to be shut down.

Paris Draws China’s Wrath Even as France Tries to Smooth Things Over By STEVEN ERLANGER PARIS — China stepped into an internal French political spat on Tuesday, fiercely condemning a decision by the Socialist city council of Paris to make the Dalai Lama an honorary citizen of Paris. “China expresses its strong dissatisfaction and resolute opposition” to the honor, said the Foreign Ministry spokeswoman, Jiang Yu. “This act of crude interference in China’s domestic affairs has seriously damaged the Sino-French relationship, and in particular the existing friendly ties between Paris and Beijing.” Not only that, Ms. Jiang said, “To make...

Six Somali men involved in capturing a French yacht and holding its 30 crew hostage have said they were part of a maritime militia group with a written code of conduct... The men were captured in the Somali desert by French troops on Friday after holding the yacht and its crew off Somalia for a week and fleeing with part of the ransom, which was recovered. They were flown to France this week to face trial. The yacht's captain told investigators the ransom paid was $2 million (1 million pounds). But the half-dozen men are just part of a larger...

PARIS - Security officials snuffed out the Olympic torch and carried it through Paris in the safety of a bus at least five times Monday before canceling the final run of a relay repeatedly disrupted by chaotic protests against China's human rights record. Security officials put the torch on the bus for the last stretch but stopped right outside its destination, a Paris stadium, so a runner could finish the last 15 feet. At least two activists earlier got within almost an arm's length of the flame before they were grabbed by police. A protester threw water at the torch...

If the British and French can design and build spectacular bridges at a modest or at least reasonable cost, why can’t we? Or maybe we can, but we haven’t tried it lately, at least not in Oregon. The question comes up because Peter DeFazio, our man in Washington, is chairman of the highways and transit subcommittee in the U.S. House. His committee will write the next highway bill, probably by the end of 2009. And when DeFazio led his colleagues on a fact-finding trip to Europe, he saw the viaduct at Millau. It’s the most spectacular bridge he has ever...

Tibetans storm Chinese Embassy in Paris Phayul[Monday, March 17, 2008 02:46] By TenamParis, 16 March: A group of Tibetans stormed the Chinese Embassy in Paris this afternoon. One Tibetan protester climbed the Chinese Embassy and replaced the Chinese flag with the Tibetan National Flag. Tibetans and Tibetan supporters in thousand, in an appeal by the Tibetan Community here had gathered few blocks away from the Chinese embassy. After a while a group of Tibetan broke away from the cordoned area and started running towards the Chinese Embassy. After a brief scuffle with the police in front of the Embassy,...

(IsraelNN.com) Thousands of people were told to evacuate the international Paris book fair after a bomb threat was received. This year's book fair gave special honor to Israel, because of the 60th anniversary of its independence. Israeli writers Amos Oz, A. B. Yehoshua, Aharon Appelfeld and others participated at the fair, and President Shimon Peres also paid a visit. Arab countries including Lebanon, Yemen,, Tunisia and Morocco boycotted the fair because of the special honor given Israel.

Tony Blair has found that it doesn’t take too much to wipe the smile off one’s face when trying to resolve the competing Arab and Jewish claims to the territory once called Palestine - known today as Israel, Jordan, the West Bank and Gaza.

France has launched a groundbreaking program to educate future imams and Muslim chaplains about the country and its values. The goal: to put a French stamp on Islam, the second largest religion in France. Lisa Bryant has more from Paris. The courses are being held in an unusual location - the Catholic Institute of Paris, an institution better known for training priests and Christian scholars than Muslim clerics. Established in collaboration with the French government and the Paris mosque, the program began in January with a largely male class of 25. It aims to give the students a broad understanding...

TEHRAN (AFP) — Iran said on Saturday it is boycotting this year's Paris book fair in protest at Israel being invited as guest of honour, the state-run IRNA news agency reported. "The Islamic Republic of Iran has participated in previous fairs but this year because of France's decision Iran is boycotting the fair," said Ali Alipour, an official at the ministry of culture and Islamic guidance. Iran does not recognise Israel and has sharpened its rhetoric against it during the presidency of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. The Iranian president has provoked international outrage by repeatedly predicting that Israel is doomed to disappear...

The well-dressed girl gangs of Paris ready to stab rivals in disputes over boys Adam Sage in Chelles When police learnt that rival gangs were planning a showdown in Chelles, east of Paris, they prepared for the sort of violence that has become routine in France's troubled suburbs. But even the most hardened officers were stunned as they arrived at the scene. The participants in what has become known as the battle of Chelles bus station were all girls aged between 14 and 17. “They were fighting like the toughest of boys,” a policewoman who saw the confrontation this month...

VILLIERS-LE-BEL, France — More than 1,000 police raided housing projects outside Paris in an early morning sweep Monday, detaining 33 people in a bid to find rioters who led an outburst of violence here last year, a prosecutor said. Police were mobilized for raids in Villiers-le-Bel and in the neighboring towns of Sarcelles, Gonesse and Arnouville as part of the investigation into the November riots, according to police. Marie-Therese de Givry, prosecutor of Pontoise, said a total of 33 people were arrested, raising the number from some 20 cited earlier by police. Most of those detained, aged 19 to 31,...

Is the U.S. Failing in Afghanistan? It was malice in wonderland at the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on Thursday as Bush Administration envoys insisted things are getting better in Afghanistan, while angry lawmakers from both parties cited facts and figures showing just the opposite. Even the senior Republican on the panel, Senator Richard Lugar, found the Administration's claims wanting. "I'm not sure that we have a plan for Afghanistan," he said. Long seen as the "forgotten war" eclipsed by Iraq in U.S. priorities, Afghanistan is in the Washington spotlight this week with the release of three independent reports concluding...

Police raided housing projects Monday in a Paris suburb in a pre-dawn sweep aimed at finding rioters who led an outburst of violence here last year.

Paris Hilton is heading to Harvard University, but not to study she will be named its Woman of the Year.

Still in Control Pervez Musharraf was calm, confident and—despite a flurry of rumors—not about to announce his resignation. Instead, the Pakistani president's "concession" to his troubled nation was an announcement that he would allow Britain's Scotland Yard to help local law enforcement agencies with their investigation into last week's assassination of former prime minister Benazir Bhutto. Speaking in a nationally televised address two hours after Pakistan's election commission announced the postponement of the ballot to Feb. 18, six weeks later than had been scheduled, Musharraf was notably deferential in his remarks about Bhutto, often invoking her "martyrdom" and extolling...

Calculating the Risks in Pakistan A small group of U.S. military experts and intelligence officials convened in Washington for a classified war game last year, exploring strategies for securing Pakistan's nuclear arsenal if the country's political institutions and military safeguards began to fall apart. The secret exercise — conducted without official sponsorship from any government agency, apparently due to the sensitivity of its subject — was one of several such games the U.S. government has conducted in recent years examining various options and scenarios for Pakistan's nuclear weapons: How many troops might be required for a military intervention in...

(IsraelNN.com) A Jewish youth who was wearing his yarmulka was badly beaten in Paris as he stood near the entrance to his building on Shabbat one week ago. According to a report by the European Jewish Press, 17-year-old Raymond did not want to violate Jewish law by opening the electronic door to the building in which he lives and was waiting for a neighbor to exit the building when a group of approximately 20 young Muslims surrounded him and began to beat him. The Muslim youth, most of them immigrants or the children of immigrants, beat Raymond while shouting verses...

Excerpt - Libyan leader Moamer Kadhafi arrives in Paris Monday for a high-profile visit set to usher in multi-billion-euro nuclear and aviation contracts, even as critics lashed President Nicolas Sarkozy for welcoming the former pariah. Staying in a heated Bedouin tent pitched near the Elysee presidential palace, Kadhafi is expected during the five-day visit to approve the purchase of three billion euros (4.4 billion dollars) of Airbus planes, a nuclear reactor and possibly Rafale fighter jets. ~ snip ~

France: Deadly Bombing in Paris Stratfor Though the situation in France is tense after weeks of large-scale strikes and riots in the Muslim suburbs surrounding Paris -- as well as recent problems ... http://www.stratfor.com/products/premium/read_article.php?id=299540&selected=Analyses

Nicolas Sarkozy, the man they call the hyper-president, moved back into hyper-drive after the new outbreak of riots in the Paris suburbs. First thing Wednesday morning, barely off the plane from a state visit to China, he was at the sick-bed of the police chief badly beaten by a mob on Sunday night.

<p>IT'S not just the renewed violence in the Muslim ghettos outside Paris creating concern in the French capital. The area around the elegant Champs-Elysees has become dangerous, like the old Times Square, with nightclubs, sex shops and violent drunks.</p> <p>This week, France's National Crime Observatory reported assaults were up 32 percent last year, and violence without theft up 93 percent, in the 8th Arrondissement. Last week, a key police official warned that the Champs had become a center of racketeering and prostitution.</p>

Sarkozy blames Paris riots on 'thugocracy' By Henry Samuel in Paris Last Updated: 8:04pm GMT 29/11/2007 Nicolas Sarkozy, the president of France, has risked inflaming tensions in Parisian suburbs by declaring violence this week was the result of a "thugocracy" of criminals, not social deprivation. His words came after three nights of violence sparked by the deaths of two teenagers in a crash with a police car. President Sarkozy said the riots in the suburbs of Paris had nothing to do with a social crisis At least 120 policemen were injured in the rioting that followed the accident in Villiers-le-Bel,...

Sarkozy issues warning to riotersMr Sarkozy called shooting at officers "completely unacceptable" French President Nicolas Sarkozy has vowed to bring to justice rioters who shot at police in Paris in urban unrest that followed the death of two youths. Mr Sarkozy, visiting policemen injured in the riots, said such shootings could not be tolerated. He also met families of the teenagers killed in a collision with a police car and pledged to hold a judicial inquiry. Mr Sarkozy then headed into crisis talks with key ministers to prevent the spread of three nights of rioting. There was a decrease in...

PARIS - "It felt like they were out to kill us. We knew there were weapons in the suburbs, but never turned against us like that," one of the police officers shot during youth riots near Paris told AFP Wednesday. Sent to the suburb of Villiers le Bel to quell an outbreak of violence that followed the death of two teens in a crash with police, Francois, who asked not to be fully identified, found himself under siege. "We were attacked from all sides" by youths armed with hunting rifles." "The kids were shooting at us at close range, loading...

VILLIERS-LE-BEL, France - Youths rampaged for a third night in the tough suburbs north of Paris and violence spread to a southern city late Tuesday as police struggled to contain rioters who have burned cars and buildings and — in an ominous turn — shot at officers. A senior police union official warned that "urban guerrillas" had joined the unrest, saying the violence was worse than during three weeks of rioting that raged around French cities in 2005, when firearms were rarely used. Bands of young people set more cars on fire in and around Villiers-le-Bel, the Paris suburb where...