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Meanwhile: The French know how to make a meal of it

When it comes to eating, the United States has a lesson to learn from France. I’m not talking about the kind of elaborate dinners Americans often associate with the French. Many of the meals the French eat are quick and simple. The difference is that the French eat together. They have managed to preserve a tradition that is good for everyone’s health – the family meal.

According to the French government’s Committee for Health Education, 75 percent of the French eat dinner together as a family and many French schoolchildren still go home for lunch.

French tourism down in 2003

Foreign tourists dropped by 2.6 percent to 75 million last year from 77 million in 2002 in what was a poor year for global tourism, said junior minister for tourism, Leon Bertrand.

U.S. visitors fell 18.3 percent to 2.4 million in 2003, when the dollar fell and relations between Paris and Washington soured over France’s opposition to the U.S.-led war in Iraq.

That was a big blow because U.S. tourists spend more and stay longer on average than people from other countries, according to a report detailing the figures.

France hunts for rail bombs after mystery threats

Ten thousand rail workers combed France’s sprawling train track network for bombs on Thursday and the government said it had heightened security for commuters alarmed by a shadowy group’s threats to blow up trains.

The conservative government, trying to reassure voters ahead of regional elections, vowed to identify and stop the previously unknown group which says it has planted 10 bombs and will explode them if it is not paid four million euros ($5 million).

The government said it is treating it as a criminal case and ruled out the involvement of radical Islamic groups. Crime specialists said that even a single dangerous crank could be behind the blackmail threats.

Bush Calls Chirac to Thank France on Haiti

President Bush telephoned French President Jacques Chirac Tuesday to hail their countries’ cooperation over the Haiti crisis, the latest sign of a gradual thaw in U.S.-French relations.

France and the United States, which fell out last year over Paris’s opposition to the U.S.-led Iraq war, led pressure on Haiti President Jean-Bertrand Aristide to step down and have sent troops to restore order after an armed rebellion.

Bush called “to hail the excellent U.S.-French cooperation on Haiti and thank France for its efforts,” Chirac spokeswoman Catherine Colonna said, adding that Chirac also expressed his satisfaction about the tight coordination of their diplomacy.

Paris and Washington find common ground in Haiti

One year after Washington and Paris quarrelled spectacularly over Iraq, US and French military and civilian peace-keeping forces will soon be patrolling beside one another on the streets and roads of Haiti.

The central role played by the French Foreign Minister, Dominique de Villepin, in the negotiations that led to President Jean-Bertrand Aristide’s relatively bloodless departure yesterday is the most visible sign so far of a thaw in Franco-American relations.

M. de Villepin ­ with America’s unspoken blessing ­ became the first foreign leader to urge Mr Aristide to stand down last Wednesday. His statement, which followed almost daily consultation with the US Secretary of State, Colin Powell, helped to get Washington off a sharp diplomatic hook.

French discover Oregon

Pinot noir has been called the “masochist’s grape.” A single mistake at harvest or in the cellar can ruin the taste of the aromatic, but highly volatile wine – and for generations, the French had preached that only the soil of a 32-mile stretch in Burgundy could nurture it.

Lett was convinced it wasn’t the soil. If you could match the climate, he thought, the delicate grape would take hold.

“The word you’re looking for is ‘preposterous,’ ” said wine critic Matt Kramer, author of Making Sense of Burgundy.

But in 1979, when Lett’s 1975 vintage almost unseated a glass of Burgundy’s best in a blind judging at a wine olympiad in Paris, one of France’s famous winemakers took notice.

French in a flap over US ban on foie gras

French producers of foie gras and charcuterie cried foul yesterday after America suspended imports of their delicacies due to food safety concerns, claiming they were the victims of a transatlantic trade vendetta.

The Department of Agriculture’s Food Safety and Inspection Service dropped the bombshell this week, saying that French plants failed to meet American sanitation standards.

The French producers were quick to point out that the Americans announced the suspension immediately after the European Commission slapped a temporary ban on imports of American eggs and live poultry, due to an outbreak of bird flu in Texas.

France calls for a force in Haiti

Foreign Minister Dominique de Villepin of France issued a statement Wednesday calling for an “immediate” international civilian force to restore order in Haiti, where a rebellion threatens to topple President Jean-Bertrand Aristide.

“This force would be charged with assuring the restoration of public order and support actions in the field of the international community,” Villepin said in the statement.

He said France also wanted human rights observers dispatched to Haiti and a “long term” engagement of international aid aimed at reconstructing its economy and society.

Villepin’s statement was highly critical of Aristide but stopped short of an outright demand for his resignation.

Purported Al-Qaida Tapes Criticize Bush, France

Portions of separate audiotapes attributed to Ayman al-Zawahri, the No. 2 figure in al-Qaida behing bin Laden, were aired a few hours apart on Al-Arabiya and Al-Jazeera, which both are based in the Persian Gulf.

In the broadcast on Al-Arabiya, the speaker, purported to be al-Zawahri, called France’s move toward banning “conspicuous” religious items in schools, most notably Muslim headscarves, more of the West’s campaign against Islam. The speaker compared a headscarf ban to “killing children in Iraq.”

If found to be authentic, the tape had to have been made recently. France’s lower house of Parliament passed the measure to ban religious symbols in public schools Feb. 10.

France's far-right leader Le Pen eyeing another run for president

Le Pen has decided to remain in politics though he was disqualified for France’s regional elections on grounds he doesn’t live in the southern area where he wanted to be a candidate.

“It is not at all his funeral,” said Alain Vizier, referring to the court ruling Sunday that rendered Le Pen ineligible for the March regional elections.

Asked if Le Pen, now 75, will run for president in 2007, Vizier replied: “In theory, if everything goes well, yes.”

Le Pen’s platform calls for deporting illegal immigrants, withdrawing from the European Union, bringing back the death penalty and abolishing abortion.