News

China, France vow to work for solution of global issues

     On promotion of sustainable development, the two countries pledge to make concerted efforts to fulfill the millennium development targets set by the United Nations in September 2000, and strive to eliminate poverty, hunger, diseases, environment degradation, illiteracy and discrimination against women.

    On environment protection, China and France reaffirm their support for the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, recalling that both have ratified the Kyoto Protocol.

    In a bid to draw more international attention to environmental issues, the two countries support the strengthening of the role of the UN Environment Program (UNEP) and broad discussions on the reform of the UNEP.

US confirms u-turn on Iraq reconstruction contract

French companies will be able to act as sub-contractors for the first wave of Iraqi reconstruction contracts and will be able to compete freely for future rounds, a spokesman for the French trade ministry said last night.

This represents an about-face for the US administration, who initially said that no companies from countries that had not participated in its military operations in Iraq would be liable to bid for contracts.

This policy caused fury in France and Germany, who both opposed the US-led invasion of Iraq.

France strikes a nationalistic note on Sanofi-Aventis

The talk at the World Economic Forum was of globalization and an enlarged European economic union. But nationalism may turn out to be the most important factor in determining the outcome of the largest corporate deal discussed in the halls of the forum.

Aventis, the large French pharmaceutical company, prepared last week to defend itself against reported plans by a smaller French drug company, Sanofi-Synthélabo, to make a bid for it. But even before Sanofi made any public offer, the French finance minister seemed to endorse the offer.

Canadians invade France and start buying real estate

Following in the footsteps of their British cousins, Canadians are buying up vacation property in France in droves.

They are mostly aging and affluent and don’t mind flying thousands of miles to bask under the French sun.

Taking advantage of e-mail and Internet armchair shopping, they are buying up old farmhouses in Provence, town houses in Languedoc-Roussillon, and even small castles in Midi-Pyrenees, as easily as they might buy property in the picturesque British Columbian interior or Gulf Islands.

Predictably, they say they are drawn to the charm of the French countryside by the local foods and wines, beautiful centuries-old buildings and enlightened French attitudes or the joie de vivre.

France counts cost of health reform

Doctors, nurses and other health professionals have taken to the streets of Paris to protest against government plans to cut back on a health service which has a projected overspend this year of eight billion pounds. The other day, an American friend, recently returned to live again in Paris, e-mailed from her sick bed.

“This is why I like France,” she wrote. “I have bronchitis and the doctor has just been to see me in my own home.

“He stayed long enough to examine me thoroughly and carefully, prescribe some drugs, drink two vodkas, eat pistachios by the fistful, and then chat about his days as a young doctor on an ashram in India. And all paid for by the state!”

France honours China with Champs Elysees new year parade

PARIS: Two days before the arrival of President Hu Jintao on a state visit, France is affording China a rare honour when it opens up the Champs Elysees in Paris for a traditional dragon-and-drums new year parade.

France, Germany urge US action to avoid sanctions

The duties would grow by 1 percent each month through the end of the year unless the United States complies with World Trade Organization rulings against the measures.

Legislation to eliminate the tax breaks and provide new measures aimed primarily at helping U.S. manufacturers has advanced in the House of Representatives and the Senate.

But it may not be possible for Congress to approve a final bill in the next month.

Powell: France has annoyed me

Calling the French a proud people with “strong views,” U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell admitted France has annoyed him at times — and he has been just as annoying to them.

“They have been with us through thick and thin. They were with us when we fought for our independence 229 years ago. But we have had disagreements with the French,” he told Philadelphia’s WPHT radio on Wednesday.

France Loses Its Head Over Headscarves

Ten thousand people, mostly Muslim women, marched in protest through Paris on Saturday. Similar demonstrations by Muslim women took place in other cities in Europe and the Middle East. Two thousand people turned out in Stockholm, 2,400 in London, 2,500 in Beirut, 300 in Nablus, about 100 in Washington, D.C. A typical chant: “My scarf, my choice.”

The demonstrators were protesting the French proposal to ban all “conspicuous” religious garb of students in its public schools, including the headscarves of Muslim women and girls, yarmulkes and crosses “of manifestly excessive dimension.” The purpose, French President Jacques Chirac says, is the protection of French secularism.

France eases rift with United States

France is ready to open a new chapter in its strained relations with the United States but without changing any of its foreign policy objectives, government officials say.
A series of official comments and news analyses point to a strong desire to end the sniping that has marred the trans-Atlantic relationship for most of last year.