Kicking kung-fu pandas and a chilling Brazilian vision of the apocalypse: the Cannes film festival kicked off on Wednesday blending fun with philosophy, and Hollywood blockbusters with arthouse fare. The world release of the latest long-awaited episode of whip-cracking Indiana Jones is set to be the star act of the 12-day film bonanza.
It is still possible to reach a deal on long-delayed world trade negotiations before the end of the year, the head of the World Trade Organisation (WTO) said in an interview published on Tuesday. ”There are the political and technical conditions to wrap things up in 2008,” the WTO’s Pascal Lamy told the Les Echos newspaper.
Record oil prices and a slowdown in advanced economies are set to curb global oil demand despite growth in China and the Middle East, the International Energy Agency (IEA) forecast on Tuesday, saying stockpiling was a key factor. Demand from emerging economies might be set back if and when governments decide that fuel subsidies are unsustainable, the IEA said.
Influential United States wine critic Robert Parker has drawn long faces in Bordeaux, handing out a series of low scores, and telling buyers not to bother with the 2007 vintage unless chateaux owners cut prices substantially. ”There is unquestionably little need to buy these wines as futures, unless dramatic price reductions occur,” said Parker.
Forget frozen fish-fingers and chewy mashed potatoes. A French school has become the country’s first to hire a professional chef to cook up fresh, cheap food from local products every day. The aim? To energise listless teenage taste buds and control weight problems.
The United Nations’s new top adviser on food blamed two decades of wrong-headed policies by world powers for the food crisis sweeping the globe in a stinging interview published on his first day in office. Frenchman Olivier de Schutter told <i>Le Monde</i> newspaper the world needed to prepare for the end of "cheap food".
France needs to improve its tarnished image across Africa where it was once a powerful colonial power but now competes with countries like China for influence, according to a Foreign Ministry report. The ministry asked ambassadors stationed in Africa for their views on France’s image on the continent and summarised them in a report last autumn.
Pine beetles that have already destroyed huge swathes of Canadian forest are on pace to release 270 megatonnes of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere by 2020, says a study released on Wednesday. That is the same amount of greenhouse-gas emissions that Canada is committed to reducing by 2012 under the Kyoto Protocol.
Speedo’s record-breaking suit may have got the backing of swimming’s world governing body, but it has caused a tidal wave of controversy as athletes battle to book their spot in the Beijing Olympics. The choice is clear — risk wearing a swimsuit that might be slower than those of your competitors, or break with your sponsor.
Fed up with the flaws of Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton and John McCain? Here’s your chance to set things right. An innovative website using Wikipedia-like collaborative software has given people around the world to design the perfect — if sadly fictional — candidate for the United States presidency.
Beleaguered French President Nicolas Sarkozy hopes to use a prime-time TV appearance this week to claw back public support after polls showed a majority of French people think his first year in office has been a failure. The anniversary has been marred by government infighting, policy U-turns and record low opinion polls.
France prop Pieter de Villiers has announced his retirement, saying he is tired of having to fight injuries. The South African-born player, who won 69 caps for France and five French titles with Stade Francais, said he had taken his decision after injuring his neck in a Heineken Cup match in Cardiff in December.
The head of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) warned on Friday that soaring world food prices can have dire consequences, such as toppling governments and even triggering wars. Dominique Strauss-Kahn said that the price hikes that have set off rioting in Haiti, Egypt and elsewhere are an ”extremely serious” problem.
A private United States collector has paid close to -million for the rare skeleton of a triceratops, a three-horned vegetarian dinosaur that roamed the Earth 65-million years ago, Christie’s auction house said on Friday. The unnamed collector paid €592 250 ( 167) for the near-complete skeleton.
French MPs on Tuesday approved a groundbreaking law against the promotion of anorexia, making it illegal to publicly incite excessive thinness. The Bill would bar any form of media, including websites, magazines and advertisers, from promoting extreme thinness, encouraging severe weight-loss or methods for self-starvation.
Staff at Le Monde, France’s newspaper of record, went on strike on Monday to protest plans to axe a quarter of its journalists and sell off several magazines. It is only the second time that journalists at the loss-making newspaper, founded in 1944, have walked off the job.
People searching the internet for information about suicide methods are more likely to find sites encouraging suicide than those offering help or support, according to a study released on Friday. The same set of search terms were fed into Google, Yahoo!, MSN and Ask.
Pirates off the coast of Somalia released 30 hostages seized aboard a French yacht a week ago following negotiations that ended the stand-off peacefully, French officials said. The hostages, including 22 French crew aboard Le Ponant, were freed ”without incident”, President Nicolas Sarkozy said in a statement, without providing details.
Rembrandt and Rubens may be turning in their graves. The latest show at the venerable Louvre sees blood, bones and beetles cohabiting with the grand masters of the Dutch, Flemish and German schools. France’s biggest museum has invited a contemporary artist to show works ”in counterpoint” with those of the old masters.
France’s interior minister faulted the Chinese organisers of the Olympic torch relay for its chaotic run through Paris, saying in an interview on Wednesday that French police merely provided technical support. "The Olympic rule is that the organising country is always responsible for preserving the flame," Interior Minister Michele Alliot-Marie said.
The Paris leg of the Beijing Olympic flame relay was cut short on Monday after citywide protests against China’s crackdown in Tibet forced the torchbearers to take refuge on a bus. The torch’s journey by foot ended outside the French Parliament, where protesting deputies hung a Tibetan flag on a railing.
French authorities were working on Saturday to free a luxury cruise yacht and its 30-member crew taken hostage by pirates off the coast of Somalia. ”The defence and foreign affairs ministries are working to act as quickly as possible. I hope … to try to obtain the release of the hostages,” French Prime Minister Francois Fillon said.
French regulator AMF said on Tuesday it had found evidence of insider trading at Airbus parent EADS surrounding delays to its A380 superjumbo and that it would inform Paris prosecutors. It also alleged the company had misled financial markets by failing to meet standards on the publication of information.
France will not support bids by the former Soviet republics of Georgia and Ukraine to become members of Nato, putting it at odds with the United States, French Prime Minister Francois Fillon said on Tuesday. ”France will not give its green light to the entry of Ukraine and Georgia,” Fillon told France Inter radio.
Comorian rebel leader Mohamed Bacar was put in military custody on the French island of Reunion on Saturday pending a decision on whether to deport him after charges against him were dropped, authorities said. Bacar fled the Indian Ocean island of Anjouan this week when Comorian and African Union troops toppled his renegade government.
England manager Fabio Capello has brought David Beckham back into his team and it’s nothing to do with the star reaching 100 appearances. He believes that the Los Angeles Galaxy midfielder might well be wearing the same white shirt at the 2010 World Cup.
Tourism and commerce are conspiring to turn what for centuries has been a thriving Jewish district — a slice of downtown Tel Aviv in modern Paris — into just another identikit shopping strip, locals say. The ”To rent” sign hanging over a celebrated kosher restaurant is a symbol of the rapid decline of the Rue des Rosiers area.
A Paris court on Tuesday freed Jerome Kerviel, the trader accused of causing record losses at French bank Société Générale, pending investigation, his lawyers said. Société Générale unveiled €4,9-billion (,64-billion) of losses in January in the biggest trading scandal in recent history.
The world’s most expensive champagne, popping the records at €4 166 (about R53 500) for a personalised bottle of bubbly, goes on sale on Thursday targeting a ”super-rich” global elite. The limited-edition, 12-bottle box sets of Perrier-Jouet champagne will be priced at €50 000.
France’s last surviving veteran of World War I, an Italian immigrant who fought in the trenches with the Foreign Legion, has died at the age of 110, the president’s office said on Wednesday. Lazare Ponticelli, who joined his adopted country’s army at the outbreak of the war with Germany in 1914, had attended a memorial ceremony as recently as November 2007.
Police arrested an employee from the trading room of Société Générale on Wednesday as part of their investigation into an alleged rogue trading scandal at the French bank, Europe 1 radio reported. In January, Société Générale unveiled €4,9-billion of losses which the bank blamed on rogue deals carried out by Jerome Kerviel
Back in the wild Sixties and Seventies, a Formula One hotshot would arrive bleary-eyed at his hotel, check out the nearest club and order a large drink or three. In 2008, his corporate-conscious counterpart is more likely to check into the gym and order an early call. ”I have busy testing days, busy marketing days and I have training days,” said Lewis Hamilton.