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Bush Calls Chirac to Thank France on Haiti

President Bush telephoned French President Jacques Chirac Tuesday to hail their countries’ cooperation over the Haiti crisis, the latest sign of a gradual thaw in U.S.-French relations.

France and the United States, which fell out last year over Paris’s opposition to the U.S.-led Iraq war, led pressure on Haiti President Jean-Bertrand Aristide to step down and have sent troops to restore order after an armed rebellion.

Bush called “to hail the excellent U.S.-French cooperation on Haiti and thank France for its efforts,” Chirac spokeswoman Catherine Colonna said, adding that Chirac also expressed his satisfaction about the tight coordination of their diplomacy.

Paris and Washington find common ground in Haiti

One year after Washington and Paris quarrelled spectacularly over Iraq, US and French military and civilian peace-keeping forces will soon be patrolling beside one another on the streets and roads of Haiti.

The central role played by the French Foreign Minister, Dominique de Villepin, in the negotiations that led to President Jean-Bertrand Aristide’s relatively bloodless departure yesterday is the most visible sign so far of a thaw in Franco-American relations.

M. de Villepin ­ with America’s unspoken blessing ­ became the first foreign leader to urge Mr Aristide to stand down last Wednesday. His statement, which followed almost daily consultation with the US Secretary of State, Colin Powell, helped to get Washington off a sharp diplomatic hook.

French discover Oregon

Pinot noir has been called the “masochist’s grape.” A single mistake at harvest or in the cellar can ruin the taste of the aromatic, but highly volatile wine – and for generations, the French had preached that only the soil of a 32-mile stretch in Burgundy could nurture it.

Lett was convinced it wasn’t the soil. If you could match the climate, he thought, the delicate grape would take hold.

“The word you’re looking for is ‘preposterous,’ ” said wine critic Matt Kramer, author of Making Sense of Burgundy.

But in 1979, when Lett’s 1975 vintage almost unseated a glass of Burgundy’s best in a blind judging at a wine olympiad in Paris, one of France’s famous winemakers took notice.

French in a flap over US ban on foie gras

French producers of foie gras and charcuterie cried foul yesterday after America suspended imports of their delicacies due to food safety concerns, claiming they were the victims of a transatlantic trade vendetta.

The Department of Agriculture’s Food Safety and Inspection Service dropped the bombshell this week, saying that French plants failed to meet American sanitation standards.

The French producers were quick to point out that the Americans announced the suspension immediately after the European Commission slapped a temporary ban on imports of American eggs and live poultry, due to an outbreak of bird flu in Texas.

France calls for a force in Haiti

Foreign Minister Dominique de Villepin of France issued a statement Wednesday calling for an “immediate” international civilian force to restore order in Haiti, where a rebellion threatens to topple President Jean-Bertrand Aristide.

“This force would be charged with assuring the restoration of public order and support actions in the field of the international community,” Villepin said in the statement.

He said France also wanted human rights observers dispatched to Haiti and a “long term” engagement of international aid aimed at reconstructing its economy and society.

Villepin’s statement was highly critical of Aristide but stopped short of an outright demand for his resignation.