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/ 4 February 2008

As evacuees flee, Paris puts role in Chad in play

Resolutions at the United Nations or African Union could alter the mission of French troops in Chad, France’s Foreign Minister said on Monday as a first planeload of evacuees landed at a Paris airport. Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner and Defence Minister Herve Morin said French forces secured Chad’s airbases and were protecting French and foreign civilians.

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/ 2 February 2008

Rebels overrun capital of Chad

Rebels penetrated the capital of Chad on Saturday, clashing with government troops and moving toward the presidential palace after a three-day advance through the Central African nation, a French military spokesperson and witnesses said. Witnesses reported looting and gunfire near government buildings.

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/ 1 February 2008

Alonso dreams of Renault renaissance

Former world champion Fernando Alonso has shrugged off his brief and disappointing flirtation with McLaren, confident that his return to Renault will restore his title credentials. The Spaniard has been welcomed back by the French team, with whom he won back-to-back Formula One world championships in 2005 and 2006, after a disastrous time with McLaren.

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/ 29 January 2008

France’s rogue trader freed after escaping fraud charges

Accused French rogue trader Jerome Kerviel walked free after judges placed him under formal investigation on Monday for his role in $7-billion of losses at Société Générale but stopped short of charging him with fraud. Shares in the French bank took a battering as allegations emerged that a board member was guilty of insider trading related to the scandal.

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/ 29 January 2008

French beekeepers feel the sting of dying bees

Less than a year after France’s decimated bee populations showed signs of recovery, beekeepers here are once again in a panic as their income-generating worker drones are disappearing by the tens of millions. The banning in 2005 of two potent pesticides used on sunflower and corn crops, suspected of killing off the bees, appeared to have stemmed the massive die-offs.

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/ 28 January 2008

Matfield eyes Bok return

South Africa’s World Cup-winning lock Victor Matfield could make his international reappearance against Wales in June if he can perform a delicate balancing act with his French club, Toulon. Matfield hasn’t played for the Springboks since the World Cup victory over England in October and has only featured in four games for the ambitious French second division side.

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/ 24 January 2008

How rogue bankers lose billions of dollars

The admission by French bank Société Générale on Thursday that a single trader had defrauded it of €4,9-billion ($7,15-billion) is just the latest example of how a rogue operator can blow a huge chunk of a company’s assets sky high. What rogue bankers have in common is that they are experts in making money.

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/ 24 January 2008

French bank hit by €4,9-billion fraud

French bank Société Générale (SocGen) disclosed one of the biggest alleged frauds in financial history on Thursday, adding to a wave of gloom surrounding world markets battered by credit market losses. SocGen, France’s second-biggest listed bank, said it had uncovered an ”exceptional fraud” by one of its traders. It said this would cost the group â,¬4,9-billion.

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/ 16 January 2008

New giant palm species flowers itself to death

Botanists on Thursday announced they had identified a new species of palm that is so enormous it can be spotted from space and whose bizarre life cycle requires the plant to kill itself after it has flowered. The gigantic, pyramid-shaped plant was discovered accidentally by a French family walking in remote north-western Madagascar.

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/ 13 January 2008

Economists in search for keys to happiness index

President Nicolas Sarkozy’s talk of creating a new growth and well-being index for France is part of a mounting global campaign that many economists believe will shape civilisation and democracy in the 21st century. Sarkozy presented his recruitment of Nobel prize-winning economists Jospeh Stiglitz and Amartya Sen to work on a quality-of-life index.

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/ 13 January 2008

French judges set to adapt Zoe’s Ark sentences

Six French charity workers convicted of child kidnapping in Africa will go before a court near Paris on Monday, as judges seek to adapt their Chadian sentences to French law. Twenty days after the Zoe’s Ark team were given eight years hard labourCreteil prosecutor Jean-Jacques Bosc has already said he will seek eight years imprisonment.

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/ 9 January 2008

Where humans live, coral fails

The world’s coral reefs are in alarming decline, but what — or who — is most to blame? A groundbreaking study published on Wednesday singles out human settlement, especially coastal development and agriculture, as the main culprit, even more so than warming sea waters and acidification linked to global warming.

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/ 8 January 2008

Stormy centenary for feminist icon Beauvoir

Simone de Beauvoir was an iconic figurehead of the 20th-century struggle for women’s liberation, but as France marks the centenary of her birth on Wednesday, critics are taking a cold, hard look at her life and legacy. Beauvoir’s groundbreaking 1949 work on the female condition, The Second Sex, her defiance of social taboos, propelled her to near-mythical status in France and abroad.

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/ 6 January 2008

Hamilton eyes McLaren top spot

Lewis Hamilton insists last year’s spying scandal and the heavy hand of McLaren team politics have been consigned to history as he takes aim at the 2008 Formula One world title. The British driver enjoyed a storming start to his career in 2007 and was on course to clinch the title before he was pipped to the crown by just one point by Ferrari’s Kimi Raikkonen.

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/ 6 January 2008

Matfield gets warm welcome on Toulon debut

Victor Matfield became the latest big name to make his bow with ambitious French second-division side Toulon on Saturday. The giant lock forward, who hadn’t played since helping the Springboks to a second World Cup title on October 20, won generous applause after coming on as a second-half replacement as Toulon went on to beat La Rochelle 36-0.

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/ 29 December 2007

Golden Slam beckons for Federer, Henin

It will be the year of the Golden Slam for tennis in 2008 and realistically only two names are in the running. Both Roger Federer and Justine Henin finished this year as clear number ones in their sport and they are set to dominate again. But from there to winning all four Grand Slams events plus Olympic gold in Beijing in the same calendar year is a huge step.

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/ 26 December 2007

It’s a small world — for the rich and famous

Care to rub shoulders, virtually speaking, with the likes of supermodel Naomi Campbell or fashion icon Jean-Charles de Castelbajac? If the answer is yes, then the solution is aSmallWorld.net, an exclusive social networking website for the wealthy and glamorous — that is, for those wealthy, glamorous and lucky enough to be admitted.

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/ 24 December 2007

A Christmas right up Scrooge’s alley

Whether it’s drug dealers shooting at Santa in Rio, a father selling off a present to punish his son in Canada, or Manila authorities banning carols, Scrooge would have a field day this Christmas. In Brazil’s Rio de Janeiro, suspected drug dealers fired gunshots at a helicopter flying Santa Claus into a slum to deliver presents to poor children.

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/ 20 December 2007

Bayern, Bolton seal Uefa Cup berths

Italian striker Luca Toni inspired Bayern Munich to a 6-0 rout of Greek side Aris to book their berth in the Uefa Cup knockout round on Wednesday as English side Bolton advanced without kicking a ball. Two goals in either half from Toni maintained Bayern’s decade-long unbeaten UEFA home record and defenders Christian Lell and Philipp Lahm completed the rout.

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/ 20 December 2007

French children hone taste buds at three-star restaurant

In food-obsessed France, distinguishing between the tart and the bitter or the crunchy and the crackly, or even simply sorting good food from bad, became part of the school year nearly two decades ago. So it is almost routine to march a class of 10-year-olds into one of the world’s most sought-after restaurants for a morning of munching through platefuls of delicacies whipped up by one of the country’s top chefs.