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France's Peterhansel wins Dakar Rally

DAKAR, Senegal (AP) — Stephane Peterhansel of France won the Dakar Rally on Sunday, capturing a 6,920-mile trek across the bogs, beaches and deserts of two continents and seven nations.

This was his first victory by car after six rally championships on motorcycles. Peterhansel joined Hubert Auriol as the only competitors to win the auto and motorcycle divisions.

Nantes bomb hits Muslim prefect's car

Four days after France appointed Aïssa Dermouche as its only foreign-born and Muslim prefect, his car was destroyed in a car-bombing near his home in Nantes early Sunday.
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No one took responsibility for the explosion, which caused no injuries, officials said.

Muslims Protest Head-Scarf Ban in France

Shouting “The veil is my choice,” hundreds of people marched in Paris on Saturday as part of global protests against the French government’s plan to ban Muslim headscarves in schools.

Muslims from all over France took part in the Paris rally, which drew at least 3,000 people. Many of the protesters were women wearing a headscarf or “hijab,” and bearded men in robes.

Sub recovers Red Sea 'black box'

CAIRO, Egypt (CNN) — An unmanned French Navy “Scorpio” submarine has recovered the flight data recorder from the wreckage of an Egyptian airliner about 1,000 meters under the Red Sea, Egyptian officials said Saturday.

Investigators are hoping the so-called black box will help explain what caused the January 3 crash of the Flash Airlines Boeing 737, which crashed into the sea shortly after take-off from the resort town of Sharm El-Sheikh.

France to offer aid to restore Bam citadel

PARIS, Jan 16 (AFP) — French Culture Minister Jean-Jacques Aillagon will go to Iran this weekend to offer aid to help rebuild the historic citadel of Bam destroyed in last month’s deadly earthquake, the Foreign Ministry said Friday.

Aillagon’s visit to Bam “will allow him to get an update from the Iranian authorities on their needs and mark out the ways France can get involved in the reconstruction effort,” said Foreign Ministry spokesman Herve Ladsous.

Interview: Starbucks Opens Parisian Cafe

PARIS (Reuters) – U.S. coffee chain Starbucks Corp. will open its first cafe in Paris on Friday, and said it could expand to up to 10 branches in France by year-end.

If successful, Starbucks could then move to the country that invented short, strong espresso coffee, Italy, although this would not be until at least next year, Starbucks Chairman Howard Schultz said in an interview with Reuters on Thursday.

Schultz, who joined the company 10 years after it was founded in 1971, said he had been inspired by the French cafes and the Italian coffee bars before importing the concept of espresso bars to the company’s U.S. hometown Seattle.

French 'considering Iraq troops'

FRANCE may send a military contingent to Iraq to serve under a UN mandate once the US-led coalition has handed over sovereignty to the Iraqis in June, Le Monde newspaper said today.

Quoting an unnamed adviser to President Jacques Chirac, the paper said France would not object and may participate if the UN Security Council was to ask NATO to send in a multinational stabilisation force to Iraq similar to the SFOR force in Bosnia.