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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.

Purported Al-Qaida Tapes Criticize Bush, France

Portions of separate audiotapes attributed to Ayman al-Zawahri, the No. 2 figure in al-Qaida behing bin Laden, were aired a few hours apart on Al-Arabiya and Al-Jazeera, which both are based in the Persian Gulf.

In the broadcast on Al-Arabiya, the speaker, purported to be al-Zawahri, called France’s move toward banning “conspicuous” religious items in schools, most notably Muslim headscarves, more of the West’s campaign against Islam. The speaker compared a headscarf ban to “killing children in Iraq.”

If found to be authentic, the tape had to have been made recently. France’s lower house of Parliament passed the measure to ban religious symbols in public schools Feb. 10.

France's far-right leader Le Pen eyeing another run for president

Le Pen has decided to remain in politics though he was disqualified for France’s regional elections on grounds he doesn’t live in the southern area where he wanted to be a candidate.

“It is not at all his funeral,” said Alain Vizier, referring to the court ruling Sunday that rendered Le Pen ineligible for the March regional elections.

Asked if Le Pen, now 75, will run for president in 2007, Vizier replied: “In theory, if everything goes well, yes.”

Le Pen’s platform calls for deporting illegal immigrants, withdrawing from the European Union, bringing back the death penalty and abolishing abortion.

Orange launches 3G services in France

We are officially launching 3G in France,” said a flamboyant Thierry Breton, chairman of Orange and CEO at parent company France Telecom. “The financials are not what’s at stake here; they are mine to manage and not my customers’ problem,” he continued, hinting that 3G licence costs would not be passed on in service pricing.

“Now is the right time [to launch 3G] because customers are more aware, networks are ready and terminals that we like are finally here,” he said.

OPERATOR YET TO SELECT TERMINALS

Quake jolts eastern France, southwestern Germany

An earthquake measuring 5.1 on the Richter scale jolted parts of eastern France, southwestern Germany and western Switzerland, seismologists said.

The tremor plunged part of the French town of Besancon into darkness for more than one hour after it cut electricity supplies, but fire and police services reported no immediate casualties or major damage.
France’s earth sciences observatory in Strasbourg said the epicenter of the quake, which struck at 6:31 pm (1731 GMT), was in Baume-les-Dames, a town of 6,000 people around 20 kilometres (12 miles) from Besancon.

France’s electricity utility EDF said the power cut affected some 25,000 people in several areas of Besancon, including the town centre.