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French PM accused of terror "hype" before polls
March 20, 2004  By France.com 

Rivals of French Prime Minister Jean-Pierre Raffarin accused him on Thursday of exaggerating the terror threat facing France in a bid to win support ahead of key regional polls this weekend.

Opposition Socialists said he sought to exploit a climate of fear after the Madrid train bombings by publishing a threat to France made by a shadowy Islamic group whose authenticity has since been questioned. Raffarin allies issued vehement denials.

Manipulating the issue could backfire as it did in Spain, they warned. Although Raffarin’s government is not at stake in the polls, a voter backlash could force a cabinet reshuffle.

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French forces nearly captured Bin Laden — perhaps several times
March 17, 2004  By France.com 

Osama bin Laden narrowly escaped capture by French troops working with American forces in Afghanistan, perhaps several times, the head of France’s armed forces said Monday.

French soldiers are determined to capture the fugitive head of the al-Qaida network by the end of the year, Gen. Henri Bentegeat said Monday.

‘‘Our men were not very far,’’ Bentegeat told France’s Europe-1 radio station. ‘‘On several occasions, I even think that he slipped out of a net that was well closed.’’

Bentegeat did not say when or where the escapes took place and a Defense Ministry spokeswoman declined to give details.

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Trial of French rock star begins
March 17, 2004  By France.com 

On the first day of his trial for killing Marie Trintignant, French rock star Bertrand Cantat on Tuesday admitted that he tussled with his movie-star girlfriend in a Vilnius hotel last July, but insisted her death was a tragic accident.

“We loved each other and our love was growing,” the 40-year-old told a three-judge panel in testimony lasting over an hour at the District Court in Vilnius, Lithuania’s capital.

Cantat did not enter a clear not guilty plea to the manslaughter charge, something that is not required in the Baltic state’s judicial system.

He faces a maximum 15-year jail sentence, with the judges expected to hand down a verdict and sentence this week.

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Chechen link to France threat
March 16, 2004  By France.com 

The letter from the group calling itself the “Servants of Allah the Mighty and the Wise” was addressed to the head of the French government and published in the Paris daily “Le Parisien.”

It was signed with the name “Commando Movsar Barayev,” on behalf of the shadowy group, the newspaper said.

Movsar Barayev is the name of the Chechen rebel and alleged leader of a deadly hostage-taking raid October 2002 on a theater in Moscow.

Russian special forces stormed the theater and killed Barayev.

The French Justice Department opened the investigation in conjunction with special police services.

Interior Ministry Nicolas Sarkozy said the letter is being analyzed.

Investigators said they had not heard of the group.

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After Spanish power shift, France and Germany meet on EU, terror
March 16, 2004  By France.com 

Two days after the left’s election victory in Spain, the French and German leaders met in Paris Tuesday to contemplate a European scene profoundly altered by the Madrid bombings and the departure of one of their leading opponents inside the European Union.

President Jacques Chirac and Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder were accompanied by their foreign ministers Dominique de Villepin and Joschka Fischer for talks at the Elysee palace focussing on the implications of conservative leader Jose Maria Aznar’s dramatic electoral collapse on Sunday.

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France: Bin Laden Nearly Caught in Afghanistan
March 15, 2004  By France.com 

Gen. Henri Bentegeat said about 200 French troops were operating with U.S. forces in southeastern Afghanistan against the Taliban and bin Laden’s al Qaeda. The Saudi-born militant is thought to be there or just across the border in Pakistan.

“Our men were not very far. On several occasions, I even think he slipped out of a net that was quite well closed,” he told Europe 1 radio. He did not specify a time frame.

Bentegeat, who spoke as if he were sure bin Laden was in Afghanistan, said the country’s difficult terrain explained why it was so hard to catch the world’s most wanted man.

“In Afghanistan, the terrain is extremely favorable to escapes, there are underground networks everywhere,” he said.

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Catty, Cruel and French, Très French
March 15, 2004  By France.com 

The new new new “Dangerous Liaisons” — not the one starring Glenn Close (“Dangerous Liaisons,” 1988), Annette Bening (“Valmont,” 1989) or Sarah Michelle Gellar (“Cruel Intentions,” 1999), but the television mini-series with Catherine Deneuve tonight on WE — affords many pleasures of a French kind.

This is irony, is it not, to style Rupert Everett, a gay man about town, as a French womanizer? And sultry Nastassja Kinski, fixed up like a desperate Match.com portrait, playing chaste? And Ms. Deneuve, softened by age and oversweet makeup, looking uncannily like a surgeon’s confection and not the real thing we know her to be? Dressed by Jean Paul Gaultier, more Atlantic City than Parisian court, Ms. Deneuve still runs this show. Quel quel everything.

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Mutual fears draw France, U.S. nearer
March 15, 2004  By France.com 

 Just a year after Washington and Paris were so at odds over Iraq that some Americans changed the name of French fries to ”freedom fries,” the turmoil in Haiti is bringing the two nations closer together.

The deployment of U.S. and French peacekeeping troops to Haiti is continuing in what French Foreign Minister Dominique de Villepin has called ”perfect coordination.” And President Bush called French President Jacques Chirac “to thank France for its action.”

At the root of the transatlantic reconciliation are several factors, from French concerns over a Haitian migration crisis to its frustrations with the three-year political crisis in Haiti, its former colony.

DISCORD, THEN REVOLT

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U.S., France and Spain Mark Bicentennial
March 15, 2004  By France.com 

ST. LOUIS (AP) – Standing under the Gateway Arch, representatives from France, Spain and the United States marked the bicentennial of the Louisiana Purchase, which doubled the country’s size at a cost of about two cents an acre.

The ceremony on Sunday culminated the weeklong Three Flags Festival, which included symposiums, historical exhibits and performances. But the final word went to the Osage Indians, who ended the celebration by chanting and drumming the Osage Prayer Song.

“It’s a prayer for hope, for the future, for a better tomorrow,” said James Roan Gray, chief of the Osage Nation, which was not invited to participate in 1804.

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U.S. women knock off France 5-1
March 15, 2004  By France.com 

Hamm, a two-time FIFA Player of the Year, set up Wambach for the Americans’ first goal in the 16th minute. Hamm added the second from the penalty spot in the 27th after Wambach was taken down.

”The difference today is that we finished the opportunities we created, [and] we got forward in numbers,” Hamm said.

Hucles scored her first goal of the match in the 31st, and notched her second two minutes later after precise passing from captain Julie Foudy and Hamm.

Lindsay Tarpley, who came on at halftime, netted the fifth goal in the 47th, and Sonia Bompastor answered moments later for France, which finished in fourth place in 2003.

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