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Opinion: Old France finds it must adapt

Europeans are different from us. In Australia, economic and social policies have been turned upside down in the past 20 years as we have made ourselves a global leader in free market reforms. In western Europe, too, changes have come, everywhere. But the determination of policymakers and people to retain the great experiment of their welfare state is much stronger.

In Paris, traffic was thrown into chaos on Friday when thousands of research scientists came out on the streets to demonstrate against government cuts to research funding. Last week saw a spectacular mass resignation by the heads of more than 1000 state research institutions, in protest against inadequate funding.

So what makes the French so French?

From our old apartment in Paris, I used to walk our dog down the Boulevard Saint Germain past the once bohemian, now touristy, Café des Deux Magots. At around 7.30am, while Paris slept, lined up in the windows of the café, each at their own individual table, would be four or five American men peering over their coffee cups into the street. You could tell they were not French from their books, their baseball caps and the fact they were up that early.

France increases border checks after Spanish blasts

Police said they were checking all vehicles crossing into France and paying particular attention to heavy goods vehicles. The checks had led to queues on the A63 motorway at the border town of Biriatou, a police official said.

French Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy also sent a telegram to his Spanish counterpart Angel Acebes with an offer of police help.

French and Spanish police have cooperated closely during a recent crackdown on ETA Basque separatist guerrillas who want a separate homeland and consider this includes part of southwestern France.

Doing business in Canada and France costs less than US: study

The study measured business costs according to prices of labor and services as well as tax levels in 100 cities in 11 industrialized countries.

The study stressed the importance of exchange rates, which would currently favor the United States since the dollar in recent months has weakened sharply — notably against the euro.

Japan, Canada and Britain have also benefitted of late because of the depreciation of their currencies against the euro.

Canada, Australia, Britain, Italy, France and Luxembourg are all cheaper for business operations than the United States, the study found.

Apple might get sued in France over unpaid blank media fees

Apple has been sued in France by the French record industry association Sacem for not paying the French blank media levy to the organization. In France, just like in Canada and various other countries, the personal copying of copyrighted material is apparently legal, but music publishers and artists are compensated for this right by having a levy — or “tax” if you like — on blank media products. In France these products that carry levy include blank optical media (CDR discs, DVDR disc), tapes, HDDs are other devices that can be used to store copyrighted music by an individual consumer.

French singer Nougaro dies at 74

Nougaro absorbed jazz and Brazilian influences and collaborated with many musicians around the world.

Born in Toulouse, south-west France, he worked first as a journalist before writing poems that he set to music.

“I am a singer of texts who can just about keep rhythm,” he said in 1997. Nougaro suffered heart problems later in life and stopped singing in 2002.

He recorded 20 albums in a career that spanned nearly 50 years.

Among his best-known songs are Toulouse, Cecile, Jazz et Java and Paris Mai.

Though he was greatly influenced by such jazz greats as Louis Armstrong and Ella Fitzgerald, Nougaro said the French language meant he had to create a different musical form to fit his verses.

Aristide to sue US, France over 'kidnapping'

Deposed Haitian president Jean-Bertrand Aristide plans to sue the United States and France for allegedly kidnapping him, one of his lawyers says.

Mr Aristide, who arrived in the Central African Republic a week ago, has repeatedly accused the United States of forcing him into exile after a rebellion plunged Haiti into chaos.

Lawyer Gilbert Collard says he and an American colleague will file identical suits in France and the United States in the next few days, once they receive full authorisation from Mr Aristide.

“We will file suit against the French ambassador [in Port-au-Prince] and against the [US] military authorities that carried out the abduction of the president,” he said.

French PM offers funds to defuse scientists' revolt

French Prime Minister Jean-Pierre Raffarin offered mutinous French scientists an extra three billion euros (S$6.35 billion) in funding on Saturday, in a bid to stave off protest action that could paralyse public research.

Internationally renowned scientists are among laboratory heads threatening resignation by tomorrow if the government does not promise adequate funding to restore scientific priorities and curb a crippling brain drain.

Paris seduces new Europeans with joys of the French tongue

Art, wine and culture are the weapons being wielded by the French government in a battle to stem a decline in the use of French in Europe.

Paris is offering all three, along with exquisite cuisine and musical soirées, to the 10 future Commissioners of the new EU member states who have been invited to attend free language courses this summer in Avignon.

English is proving by far the most popular second language in the new eastern European member states, with 69 per cent of officials choosing it as their preferred working language against 18 per cent who choose German and 13 per cent French.

French ambassador addresses U.S. relations

After American and French politicians exchanged barbs over the war in Iraq, the French ambassador to the United States denounced the rivalry between the two countries to about 120 people in McKeldin Library yesterday.

France and the United States are improving a long friendship and joining forces on several international fronts, said Jean-David Levitte, French ambassador to the United States.