News

Turkey and Constitution set to dominate European elections in France

The vexed questions of whether to support Turkey’s
bid to become an EU member and whether to hold a referendum on the
Constitution are emerging as the main issues as the European election
campaigns kick off in France.

On the first issue, the ruling centre-right UMP party, is steadfastly against Turkish entry.

Its electoral programme, recently cleared by the party membership,
says, “Turkey has no business in the European Union”, sentiments echoed
recently by the UMP leader, Alain Juppe who said last month, “The UMP
does not want to see discussions with Turkey at the end of the year”.

Ottawa to fund D-Day veterans' trip to France

Bowing to public pressure, the federal government is set to offer more
than $1 million to allow aging veterans of the D-Day invasion to attend
ceremonies in France next month to mark the historic event’s 60th
anniversary.

According to the Toronto Star, veterans will be reimbursed for part of their travel costs, perhaps as much as $1,000 each.

Veterans Affairs Minister John McCallum will make the announcement from Ottawa at 10:30 a.m. ET Wednesday.

Air France takes control of KLM in merger share swap

Air France has acquired control of KLM Royal Dutch, the two carriers announced Tuesday, cementing both their agreed merger and the privatization of Air France.

In a joint statement, the French and Dutch airlines said they had cleared the last hurdle in the merger they agreed to last year to create Air France-KLM, the world’s biggest airline in terms of revenue.

KLM shareholders tendered almost 42 million shares representing 89.2% of the airline’s capital in a share swap offer that closed Monday evening, the statement said.

U.S. Expects Guantanamo Releases to France Soon

The United States expects to soon begin releasing some detainees from its Guantanamo prison into the hands of French authorities, Secretary of State Colin Powell said on Thursday.

Seven French nationals are among around 600 people held at the camp in Cuba because Washington suspects they are members of al Qaeda and Afghanistan’s former ruling Taliban militia.

The U.S., which has held the detainees caught abroad in its “war on terrorism” at the Guantanamo U.S. naval base in Cuba, has already handed over some prisoners to countries such as Britain and Denmark.

Vandals damage Jewish graves in eastern France

Vandals painted swastikas and other anti-Semitic graffiti on headstones at a Jewish cemetery in eastern France, an act that drew the swift condemnation of the government on Friday.

French President Jacques Chirac promised a tough crackdown on anti-Jewish violence after the vandalism on the cemetery in Herrlisheim.

“Anti-Semitism is contrary to all the values, principles and ideas of the Republic,” Chirac said.

Prime Minister Jean-Pierre Raffarin’s office said he immediately wrote a letter to a local Jewish group to express outrage, and Interior Minister Dominique de Villepin called off appointments and immediately headed to the village in the Alsace region.

Chirac: EU enlargement opportunity for France, but Turkey not ready

Two days before the EU embraces 10 new members, French President Jacques Chirac said Thursday that enlargement will turn Europe into an economic powerhouse, but he warned that Turkey has not yet met the conditions to join.

Speaking at a rare news conference at the Elysee presidential palace, Chirac sought to reassure the French public about the EU’s expansion after opinion polls showed people are concerned about its effects on employment and social welfare — as well as on French national identity.

“I want to say to French men and women that this Europe, which is our common heritage and birthright, is now more than ever an opportunity for us and our future,” the president said in a brief speech before taking questions.

France markets its interventionist free market

As the ink was drying Monday on a $65.5 billion merger deal promoted by the French government between Sanofi-Synthélabo and Aventis, the prime minister, Jean-Pierre Raffarin, took to the podium at his residence, where he had just met with a group of international businessmen.

Launching into a discussion of French competitiveness, Raffarin explained that France had become an exciting destination for foreign investment.

France, he said, was only misunderstood – so much so that the government was planning to begin an advertising campaign at the end of May to attract more foreign investors to the home of Bordeaux wine and high-speed trains. “France has changed,” was the central message of a nine-page PowerPoint presentation on the advertising strategy.

Movie review: 'Bon Voyage'

Jean-Paul Rappeneau’s “Bon Voyage” is the sort of movie we don’t see often enough anymore.

A French romantic comedy-mystery-adventure set during the hectic days after Germany’s crushing pre-WWII battlefield victory, it’s brilliantly written and gorgeously mounted. It’s a genre piece full of great actors and fabulous scenery, a rousing, full-blooded entertainment that uses serious themes and events mostly for pure pleasure.

French director Jose Giovanni dies

French-born director, screenwriter and author Jose Giovanni, who had a string of crime movie hits featuring stars including Jean-Paul Belmondo and Alain Delon, has died. He was 80.

Giovanni died Saturday of a brain hemorrhage in a clinic in Lausanne, Switzerland, funeral director Jean-Robert Decaillet told The Associated Press by telephone. He had been hospitalized since Wednesday.

Giovanni, from the Mediterranean island of Corsica, was born June 22, 1923. He moved to the Swiss Alpine village of Marecottes in the late 1960s and later was naturalized a citizen of his adopted homeland.

France vows piracy crackdown

FRANCE’S culture minister, Renaud Donnedieu de Vabres, vowed his country will get tough with illegal copiers of music and films, saying such piracy threatened French creativity.

“To be a pirate today is to put our culture and musical creation in peril,” he told journalists at a music festival in the central city of Bourges on Sunday.

“I attach the greatest importance to defending authors, composers, creators, technicians,” he said, adding that he would be meeting representatives of the French music and cinema industries in the next few days to start laying out a strategy.

“I want to see what technical measures can be taken to minimise these risks, which are leading to lay-offs,” he said.