Paris is a city divided. Tensions between police, immigrants and ethnic minorities in deprived ghettos have erupted in riots. David Brill investigates the social and racial fault lines of Paris.
The residents of Paris’ outer-suburb ghettos feel angry and disillusioned by a seemingly indifferent government. With unemployment at 40% in these areas, resentment runs deep. Sarkozy, [...]

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President Sarkozy seeks a rapprochement with NATO while strengthening the European Union’s defense dimension. France’s allies, including the United States and Germany, have welcomed this. But Sarkozy faces strong domestic resistance to changing France’s relationship to NATO. By Leo Michel more…

The Third World War: Why NATO Troops Can’t Deliver Peace in Afghanistan
Trans-Atlantic Identity Crisis: NATO [...]

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Others were driven by the uncertainty of the future. The posture Russia chooses to adopt in its efforts to reclaim its former status, in particular, was mentioned as cause for concern. The deterioration of Russian military capacity and the unlikelihood of a direct conflict make it more of a destabilizing factor than a threat. Nevertheless, [...]

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France already controls 11 million square kilometers of the world’s oceans, second only to the US. Now they want more, demanding the equivalent of three Germanys all in one gulp. It’s part of a rush to divvy up the world’s oceans by this time next year. more…

Photo Gallery: The Race to Claim the Seas
Millennia of [...]

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An exhibition in Paris of color photographs of life under the German occupation has caused such a furore that it was nearly cancelled. The photographs, which were taken by an employee of a Nazi propaganda magazine, are now to be shown with new captions explaining their historical context. more…

Uproar over WWII Exhibition: Occupied Paris Shown [...]

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“I have decided on a new disarmament measure: for the airborne component, the number of nuclear weapons, of missiles and of aircraft will be reduced by one third,” he told an audience of defence officials and dock workers.
The reduction will leave France with less than 300 nuclear warheads, half the maximum number it had during [...]

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France’s parliament has ratified the new EU treaty, which needs the approval of 22 more member nations to come into force. The French vote comes three years after voters there derailed the creation of a far-reaching European constitution. more…

SPIEGEL 360: Our Full Coverage of the European Union

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France, India fire up military cooperation, nuclear energy ties
AFP - 8 hours ago
… of Mirage fighters in a contract worth up to 1.5 billion euros that Israel had also been chasing. Nuclear cooperation has been in the works for years, …
France offers nuclear technology to India Pakistan Dawn
Expand G-8 to include India: Sarkozy Times of India
India, [...]

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Abu Dhabi to host naval base.
In a major strategic shift, France is setting up its first permanent naval base in the Persian Gulf, just across from Iran, President Nicolas Sarkozy announced during a visit yesterday to the United Arab Emirates.
The 400-strong military base will be built in Abu Dhabi, the wealthiest and most influential of [...]

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French authorities have frozen bank accounts of Russian government-linked bodies over a legal dispute with a Swiss firm dating back to the end of the Soviet era, a Russian official said Monday.
The move, coming amid renewed tensions between Russia and the West, raised hackles in Moscow. The Russian Foreign Ministry issued a formal complaint to [...]

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It has been described as a publishing sensation. Helene Berr was a young French student murdered in a Nazi concentration camp. Her recently discovered journal has now hit French bookstores — and become an immediate bestseller. By Siobhán Dowling more…

Photo Gallery: The Journal of Helene Berr
Six Decades after WWII: Massive Holocaust Archive Opens to the [...]

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According to the press-service of the French company Thales, it has made a contract with Rosoboronexport on supplying around 100 thermal vision cameras (Catherine FC model) to Russia for being set up on the Russian newest T-90 tanks.
Catherine FC cameras provide effective target recognition in various lighting conditions of day and night. The cameras were [...]

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French authorities express concern over Iran’s newly developed missile, which is capable of hitting targets within a 2,000 km range.
French Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Pascale Andreani said Tuesday that Paris considers Tehran’s announcement a ‘great concern’.
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There is one problem. All of these mighty oaks being felled in France’s cultural forest make barely a sound in the wider world. Once admired for the dominating excellence of its writers, artists and musicians, France today is a wilting power in the global cultural marketplace. That is an especially sensitive issue right now, as [...]

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French warship builder DCNS has made a deal with the Russian Krylov Shipbuilding Research Institute, to provide advanced submarine design technology. DCNS builds France’s nuclear and diesel-electric submarines.
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France has taken a step towards rejoining the Nato military alliance with a series of proposals for closer relations between the organisation and the European Union.
In recent weeks both President Nicolas Sarkozy and his Defence Minister, Hervé Morin, have spoken about the possibility of ending four decades of French isolation from the US-dominated military command [...]

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More than four decades after quitting NATO’s military wing, France may be considering rejoining. Critics say the move is largely symbolic, since Paris is already an active member in the transatlantic alliance. But Lisa Bryant reports from Paris the move would reflect a larger foreign policy shift underway under French President Nicolas Sarkozy. [...]

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The world should “prepare for war” with Iran, the French foreign minister has said, significantly escalating tensions over the country’s nuclear programme.
Bernard Kouchner said that while “we must negotiate right to the end” with Iran, if Teheran possessed an atomic weapon it would represent “a real danger for the whole world”.
The world should “prepare for [...]

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In December, Saudi Arabia and the Gulf Cooperation Council, whose members are Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Qatar, Kuwait, Oman and the UAE, announced a joint project for peaceful nuclear energy. Jordan and Egypt have expressed a desire to go nuclear as well, in hopes of conserving their natural gas and oil reserves.
Most recently, Yemen also jumped [...]

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(IsraelNN.com) Senior members of the European Jewish Congress led by EJC president Moshe Kantor warned of rising anti-Semitism Monday during a visit to Israel.
The delegation met with Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and other government officials to discuss the rising number of anti-Semitic incidents and other issues affecting European Jewry, the Iranian threat and European Jewish [...]

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Nicolas Sarkozy risked horrifying the historically anti-American French establishment yesterday by choosing to spend a two-week summer holiday in New Hampshire.
The French president, who has already drawn howls of protests for his unashamedly pro-Anglo-Saxon stance, spurned his homeland and the Francophone destinations favoured by his predecessors when he arrived yesterday in the select lakeside town [...]

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