News

France shows off tallest bridge

The Millau bridge over the River Tarn in the Massif Central mountains is more than 300m (984ft) high – taller even than the country’s Eiffel Tower.

The bridge, which opens to traffic on Thursday, was built to clear summer traffic jams around the town.

The BBC’s Paris correspondent, Caroline Wyatt, says the bridge is one of the most breathtaking ever built.

She says that with its concrete and steel pillars soaring high above the morning fog in the Tarn Valley, the construction makes a spectacular sight.

‘Delicacy of a butterfly’

Seven slender piers support the roadway, rising into seven graceful pylons bound to the bridge with what look like cobwebs of steel, our correspondent says.

French Film Director Philippe De Broca Dies at 71

PARIS (Reuters) – French film director Philippe de Broca, who made his name in the 1960s with comedies starring Jean-Paul Belmondo, has died at the age of 71 from cancer.

“French cinema has lost one of its most talented contributors,” President Jacques Chirac said in a tribute on Saturday.

De Broca started in film in the 1950s as an assistant to legendary directors Claude Chabrol and Francois Truffaut.

He became successful with the adventure films “Cartouche” (“Swords of Blood”) and “L’Homme de Rio” (“That Man from Rio”), which started a lifelong working relationship with Belmondo.

France bewildered by All Blacks' show of brilliance

THERE were so many significant periods in and after this remarkable game, one that nobody who was in the Stade de France will forget for a long time, that it is hard to know which were the most significant.

Perhaps it was the 103 seconds of continuous rugby with which the All Blacks began, setting an agenda for a furiously fast and physical contest that ended in France’s secondheaviest defeat at home.

Or perhaps it was the minutes at the end when the New Zealand players greeted their victory as if they had won the World Cup. They fell into one another’s arms before moving around the field to acknowledge their supporters in a way that past All Black teams, containing taciturn, modest men, would have eschewed.

Sarkozy takes over Chirac party

He replaces Mr Chirac’s ally, Alain Juppe, who was found guilty in a party financing scandal.

Mr Sarkozy is widely expected to use the post to build up support for a presidential run in 2007 against Mr Chirac, his former mentor.

He won the party leadership ballot comfortably, with 85% of the vote.

The 49-year-old, seen as one of France’s most popular politicians, will give up his ministerial post on Monday to take up the party chairman post.

Mr Sarkozy’s election prompted cheering from thousands of supporters at the centre-right Union for a Popular Movement (UMP) congress outside Paris.

In a televised acceptance speech, Mr Sarkozy said he would use his new role to shake up France with reform.

France courts U.S. investors with ads

The French government is starting an ad campaign this week to encourage American investors to do more business in France.

The challenges might seem daunting, particularly given the tensions between the French and American governments over the war in Iraq. But the substance and purpose of the campaign turn out to have less to do with the United States than with Europe.

The creators of the campaign did worry about the chill between President George W. Bush and President Jacques Chirac of France, which has been played out in popular culture for several years now.

France ponders tattered relations with Ivory Coast government

PARIS : After a weekend of bloodshed in Ivory Coast, France was left pondering how — and whether — to rebuild its shattered relationship with President Laurent Gbagbo.

The already tense relations between the Ivorian leader and the government in Paris hit crisis point on Saturday, when Ivorian air force jets bombarding rebel positions in the north of the country struck a peace-keeping encampment and killed nine French soldiers.
Acting under instructions from President Jacques Chirac, French military commanders hit back and destroyed most of the Ivorian air force.

That provoked anti-French riots in the main city Abidjan which led to the deployment of hundreds of extra French troops in its former west African colony.

Report: Arafat on life support

Israeli television reports Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat is clinically dead. 
     
The report quoted French sources and said doctors are debating whether to disconnect him from life support. 
     
Palestinian Prime Minister Ahmed Qureia denied the report, saying Arafat is still alive and being treated at Percy hospital in France.

Bush victory viewed as a boon to Chirac

PARIS If it had been up to the French people, John Kerry would have been elected the next president of the United States by a wide margin. But as officials and political observers here came to terms Wednesday with another four years of George W. Bush in the White House, many said that, ironically, France could come out stronger.

France wishes Bush well

French President Jacques Chirac followed other European leaders Wednesday in congratulating U.S. President George W. Bush on his re-election.

“It is in a spirit of dialogue, esteem and mutual respect that we must continue to develop our cooperation, our shared fight against terrorism and the action we carry together to promote liberty and democracy,” the French president wrote.

Chirac told the U.S. president a close transatlantic partnership is essential if the two continents are to meet a variety of challenges confronting them.

Experts are divided over whether transatlantic

Chirac, Raffarin Drop Again In France

Jacques Chirac continues to lose public support in France, according to a poll by Ifop published in Le Journal du Dimanche. 41 per cent of respondents are satisfied with the president’s performance, a two per cent drop since September.

Chirac won the presidential election in 1995, and was re-elected in a run-off over Jean-Marie Le Pen on May 5, 2002. The head of state’s popularity increased in late 2002 and early 2003 due to his vocal opposition to armed conflict in Iraq without an explicit mandate from the United Nations (UN) Security Council.