West to East: EU officials have been refused help by China as the balance of power shifts. Hopes that China will ride to the rescue of the single currency were dealt a blow last night after Beijing warned that it will not be Europe’s ‘saviour’. State-run news agency Xinhua said the country cannot ‘provide a cure for the European malaise’. It came after European officials begged China for... 

Delegates cheer after they approved the membership of Palestine during the session of UNESCO's 36th General Conference, in Paris, Oct. 31, 2011. Palestine has been admitted as a full member of the UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) despite strong opposition from Washington. Palestinians won the UNESCO seat in a Paris vote on Monday. The membership bid required two-thirds... 

Humiliating phone call: It has been revealed that Nicolas Sarkozy contacted Chinese leader Hu Jintao to ask for investment and backing of the European fund. Further embarrassment as one trillion euro bailout fund announced yesterday does not really exist. Europe is holding out the begging bowl to China in an effort to keep the rescue package for the single currency alive. In a clear sign of how the... 

Ketchup has been banned in student cafeterias in France within the framework of the propaganda of healthy diet. Cafeterias may now serve ketchup only with French fries and only once a week. The new rules also stipulate the increase of vegetable dishes on the menu and the decrease of the content of fat in the food. “Canteens have a public health mission, but also an educative mission,”... 

France, Marseille: Pupils wait for entering their classroom at Fraissinet school, on the first day of the school year. Parents and teachers across France are up in arms over new textbooks which carry accounts of French history revised to avoid insulting ethnic minority pupils. They say common sense has been sacrificed to political correctness in French schools. ­Natives of France now fear their identity... 

France is implementing austerity measures with a new budget proposal that would cut government spending for the first time in decades, Press TV reports. The 2012 budget proposal of French President Sarkozy’s government is the first to reduce public spending since World War II. “This was a budget created to please the European commission in Brussels. It stems from the desire to drastically... 

A Frenchwoman who wears an Islamic face veil, in defiance of the nationwide ban implemented since April, is aiming to run for president in the upcoming elections next year. Kenza Drider is part of a group of women challenging the law, asserting that it violates fundamental rights, and seeking to defend the rights of all French women. The controversial law banning Muslim face veils on the streets of... 

Anti-government protesters, one of them holding Libya's National Transitional Council (NTC) adopted flag, shout slogans against the regime during a demonstration. In Libya, new government forces are turning up the heat on Colonel Gaddafi’s remaining supporters. Meanwhile, some Western leaders are facing charges at home over the legacy of their military intervention. ­The defiant loyalists... 

Former French President Jacques Chirac A French lawyer and former aide to Jacques Chirac says the ex-president of the country and his prime minister received millions of euros in cash from despotic leaders of African nations. Robert Bourgi, who served as an adviser to Chirac and former Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin before switching sides and joining the conservative camp of French President... 

In December 2008 a group of Muslims launched an unprovoked attack on a young Frenchman on board a bus in Paris. As they beat him, they shouted insults like “fils de pute” (son of a bi**h) and “Français de merde” (French sh*t). Interestingly, French mainstream media reports mention the first of these insults but not the second. The whole incident was captured by the bus’s... 

Former French President Jacques Chirac The trial of former French President Jacques Chirac has opened in his absence in Paris on charges of misusing public funds during his time as mayor of the city. Chirac’s lawyers had last week submitted a medical report to the court, explaining that the 78-year-old is in a state of vulnerability that makes him unable to answer questions about his past, the... 

It seems that French President Nicolas Sarkozy has warmed to the role of Napoleon. The events in Libya have infatuated him. Gaddafi has not been toppled yet, but Sarkozy already threatens Iran. “Its military nuclear and ballistic ambitions constitute a growing threat that may lead to a preventive attack against Iranian sites that would provoke a major crisis that France wants to avoid at all... 

A shocking report prepared by the Russian Foreign Ministry for Prime Minister Putin on French President Nicolas Sarkozy’s unexpected trip to China last week to meet with China’s President Hu Jintao states that this Western leader told the Chinese that the Americans were responsible for removing from Libya an estimated 1,500 young girls and boys purported to be utilized as ‘sex slaves.’ Though... 

French President Nikolas Sarkozy, left and French Prime Minister Francois Fillon, right. France is due to announce tighter fiscal measures, clamping down on tax breaks, as it seeks to restrain its deficit, amid concerns that the country could lose its AAA credit rating. French president, Nikolas Sarkozy ordered the budget and finance minister to pull together the measures earlier this month, after... 

Front National leader Marine Le Pen is unlikely to win power but she is shaping France’s political debate, writes Charles Grant. Since becoming leader of France’s Front National in January, Marine Le Pen has started to shift her party away from the far right. She has not only dropped the overt racism and Islamophobia of her father, but also adopted hard-left economic policies. “Left...