France has a long good relationship with Russia and Russians. Before Soviet Union, the Russian elite spoke French and even among other Russians. Most of them were educated in France, many emigrated to France when the Bolsheviks took power and a lot died there.
The good relationship between the French and the Russians lasts to this day. So, when the news first broke that France could sell Russia an advanced war ship, I had no doubt …

Women who wear burkhas in public will be liable to a fine of more than £700 under strict new laws being formulated in France, the Daily Mail reports.
The amount could be doubled for Muslim men who force their wives or other female members of their family to cover their faces.
Jean-Francois Cope, president of Nicolas Sarkozy’s ruling UMP party in the French parliament, said the new legislation was intended to protect the dignity and security of …

The best place to live in, according to International Living’s Quality of Life index this year, is apparently France, and the United Kingdom has dropped to 25th place.
France is the best place to live in for the fifth year running. The magazine says that the country’s “tiresome bureaucracy and high taxes are outweighed by an unsurpassable quality of life, including the world’s best health care”.
Second place to live in is Australia,famous …

French constitutional court declared today that President Nicolas Sarkozy’s flagship carbon tax that was to be introduced on Friday, breaches the principle of equality in taxation.
The Constitutional Council said that Sarkozy’s scheme had so many exemptions that it “runs counter to the goal of fighting climate change and breaches the principle of equality in taxation”, The Times reports.
According to Sarkozy, the carbon tax had “one objective – to force you to change your behaviour toward fossil fuels. …

Mozilla’s new version of Thunderbird, unveiled this week, contains code from an unusual source – the French military  which decided the open source product was more secure than Microsoft’s rival Outlook, Reuters reports.
France’s military chose open source software after an internal Government debate that began in 2003 and culminated in a 2007 directive requiring state agencies “seek maximum technological and commercial independence”.
The military found Mozilla’s open source design permitted France to build security extensions, while …

French President Nicolas Sarkozy gloated at the appointment of Frenchman Michel Barnier as European Commissioner for the Single Market, saying that France is in charge of the City of London now.
Sarkozy’s glee at the appointment of Barnier took on an edge of menace yesterday when he said that unfettered City practices must end, The Times reports. “Do you know what it means for me to see for the first time in 50 years …

Belgium’s new Prime Minister Yves Leterme has previously called his country “an accident of history” – which is probably the most accurate character of this central European country.
Leterme is nothing new to Belgium, as he was the Prime Minister already before his successor Herman van Rompuy. But as van Rompuy was elected European Union’s first President, Belgian King Albert II recalled the 49-year-old former leader to head the Government.
Although Leterme has a French-speaking father, he …

French President Nicolas Sarkozy has reiterated his belief that the burqa, the head-to-toe veil worn by some Muslim women, has no place in secular France, the Daily Telegraph reports.
“France is a country where there is no place for the burqa, where there is no place for the subservience of women,” he said in a speech on French national identity.
France, home to Europe’s biggest Muslim minority, has set up a special panel of 32 lawmakers to …

France accused the Tories of “castrating” Britain’s position in Europe and threatening to turn the country into a backwater which would “disappear off the radar”, the Daily Mail reports.
In an extraordinary attack on David Cameron’s party, a leading member of France’s centre-right government said that their approach to the future of the EU was both “autistic” and “pathetic”.
“It’s pathetic. It’s just very sad to see Britain, so important in Europe, just cutting itself out from …

French President Nicolas Sarkozy dealt a heavy blow to ex-Prime Minister Tony Blair’s hopes of becoming European Union president by withdrawing support for his candidacy, the Daily Telegraph reports.
The French move, at an EU summit in Brussels, confirmed Foreign Secretary David Miliband as the British politician with the best chance of getting one of the new European jobs that will be created with the passing of the Lisbon Treaty later this month.
Miliband’s prospects were further strengthened …

Former French President Jacques Chirac has been ordered to stand trial for corruption in a case which has shed light on sleaze allegations from his time as Mayor of Paris, The Times reports.
In an unprecedented move, an investigating magistrate said that 76-year-old Chirac should be tried over a so-called ghost jobs scandal dating from the 1980s and 1990s. The decision will not only tarnish the reputation of the man who ruled France for 12 years, but …

French financial watchdogs slammed the country’s President Nicolas Sarkozy for spending £160 million on his country’s six months in charge of the EU – including £250,000 on a personal presidential shower which he never used, the Independent reports.
The vast expense is set out in a report blaming poor management and a lack of transparency by the President’s staff. Costs soared because so many of the EU-related events were organised at the last minute, the report said.
On …

A French court convicted the Church of Scientology and one of their leaders of fraud on today, but stopped short of banning the group’s activities in France, AFP reports.
The Celebrity Centre and a book shop — the two branches of Scientology’s French operations — were ordered to pay a 600,000-euro (£544,000) fine for preying financially on vulnerable followers.
Scientology’s leader in France Alain Rosenberg was handed a two-year suspended jail sentence and fined 30,000 euro (£27,183) …

France is to launch a hard-hitting campaign aimed at reaffirming pride in the country and combating Islamic fundamentalism, the Daily Mail reports.
As well as providing civic lessons for adults – including classes about the country’s Christian history and liberal political institutions – the Government will encourage school children to sing the national anthem at least once a year.
Immigration Minister Eric Besson also suggested that foreigners should learn to speak better French.
His proposed measures contrast sharply …

Six Lidl employees were taken hostage in an armed robbery on supermarket north of Paris today, AFP reports. The hostages were released unharmed and three suspects detained.
Dozens of police deployed around the Lidl discount store in an industrial zone in Sevran north of Paris after it was attacked at around 8:00 am (0700 BST) and six of the staff taken hostage. Three women were released mid-morning as police teams negotiated with one of the hostage-takers, who …

Mother of a small child, Iratxe Sorzabal Diaz, has been named as the “political” chief of the Basque terrorist organisation ETA.
Former “political” chief of ETA, Aitor Elizarán Aguilar, was arrested yesterday in northwest France.
Sorzabal is the most significant member of ETA’s ideological structure, The Times reports. Her appointment means that women are wresting power from men inside an organisation described by a senior anti-terrorism source as “traditionally macho”.
During the 1990s, Sorzabal was linked to an ETA …