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You are here: Home » Politics + Society » Archive » November 2007-1
POLITICS AND SOCIETY NEWS AND EVENTS ARCHIVE NOVEMBER 2007-1
Archives: November 1-15, 2007
Sarkozy Pushes French nuclear power
IHT. Nov. 15, 2007
Six months into his term, President Nicolas Sarkozy is aggressively
pursuing a new policy to give Muslim countries access to nuclear power
- and win lucrative contracts for France's energy champions in the
process. After signing a memorandum of understanding with Libya in the
summer, Sarkozy struck a preliminary cooperation accord with Morocco
last month. Diplomats say he is planning to discuss nuclear power
during trips to Algeria in December and Saudi Arabia in January.
> More
Mitt Romney was a Mormon Missionary in France
New York Times. Nov, 15, 2007
American presidential candidate Mitt Romney left for France as a
19-year-old freshman at Stanford, a sheltered child of privilege full
of ideas about how to shake up the French mission. In France, as a
Mormon missionary, he lived rough, sleeping on cast-off mattresses and
crowding into small apartments in groups of four. Despite Mitt’s three
years of French at the exclusive Cranbrook school in Bloomfield Hills,
Mich., he suffered endless rejection, but also aquired a gloss of
culture. The experience but redoubled both his faith and his ambition.
> More
In France, obesity is a growing concern
Los Angeles Times. November 14, 2007
So it turns out French women do get fat. The crisis is nowhere near as
bad as in the United States, where 65 percent of the people have
serious weight problems. But 42 percent of the French are either
overweight or obese, according to Inserm, the national institute for
medical research and health.
> More
French and German Ministers Singalong
Telegraph. Nov. 13, 2007
France and Germany’s foreign ministers clubbed together to perform a
rhythm and blues song in honour of their immigration efforts. Bernard
Kouchner and Frank-Walter Steinmeier recorded their unprecedented
musical duo on the margins of a joint council of ministers meeting in
Berlin. The song was written by three musicians of Turkish origin -
seen as a symbol of successful integration.
> More
Who Is Sarkozy?
New York Review of Books. Nov. 6, 2007
A wide-ranging examination of France’s new President. France's
constitution gives Sarkozy theoretically unchecked power in foreign and
security policy. Yet in matters of international politics and security
Sarkozy is the most inexperienced and unsophisticated president in the
history of the Fifth Republic. Nobody seems to know much about Sarkozy
beyond his ambition.
> More
French Company Moves to Buy Puma
Der Spiegel. Nov, 2, 2007
On Apr. 10, 2007 the extent of Puma's comeback became clear as French
retailing and luxury giant PPR (formerly known as Pinault Printemps
Redoute) snapped up 27% of the company for €1.4 billion ($1.88
billion), valuing the whole at more than $7.1 billion. PPR, led by CEO
François-Henri Pinault, intends to take controlling interest of Puma
later -- perhaps as soon as this summer -- adding the sportswear maker
to a stable of brands that includes Gucci, Yves Saint Laurent, FNAC,
and Redcats. The friendly takeover, supported by the Puma board,
carries a 24% price premium over Puma's average share price during the
past month. Both sides talk up its potential to create synergies and to
boost Puma beyond the $3.2 billion in revenues it booked last year.
> More
Zoé’s Ark Scandal: Kids Were Not Orphans
New York Times. Nov. 2, 2007
Virtually all of the children a French aid group tried to fly out of
Chad last week had been living with family members in villages and were
not orphans of the Darfur conflict, as the group claimed, the United
Nations said. The plane carrying the children was stopped moments
before it was scheduled to take off from Abéché, a small, dust-choked
city in eastern Chad. Zoé’s Ark, he French aid organization which is
accused of kidnapping the children, had claimed that the kids were
sick, hungry and abandoned, and had raised money from European families
to rescue the children and place them temporarily in French homes. But
checkups showed the children to be in good condition.
> More
Wikipedia Cleared in French Defamation Case
Reuters. November 2, 2007
A French judge has dismissed a defamation and privacy case against
Wikipedia after ruling the free online encyclopedia was not responsible
for information introduced onto its Web site. "Web site hosts cannot be
liable under civil law because of information stored on them if they do
not in fact know of their illicit nature," Binoche declared.
> More
Depressive Symptoms Higher In Europe's Latin Countries
MedicalNews. Nov. 1, 2007
Among older people, depressive symptoms and syndromes are more
prevalent in the latin countries of Europe (France Italy and Spain),
than in the Germanic (Sweden, Denmark, Germany, Austria, Switzerland,
The Netherlands) and Hellenic (Greece) countries. This is particularly
true of symptoms related to lack of motivation, according to a new
study of over 22,000 older Europeans published in the November 2007
issue of the British Journal of Psychiatry.
> More
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