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Thousands of people, including relatives, friends and disciples, flocked to Lyon cathedral on Friday, some standing in the rain for hours, to bid a final farewell to the city’s favourite son, Paul Bocuse. Paul Bocuse, who died last Saturday aged 91, established a global network of admirers throughout his extended career, providing inspiration to a multitude of chefs for his nouvelle cuisine style. But despite his global fame, the "pope of French cuisine" always remained accessible to the people of Lyon, who tued out in droves on Friday for his funeral service. “Monsieur Paul, you loved your city and it loved you,” said Interior Minister Gérard Collomb, a longtime mayor of Lyon, in a moving tribute that captured the mood in France’s capital of gastronomy. Laurence Fayolle, a local, sheltered under an umbrella outside the Cathedral Saint-Jean while she waited for the service to start. She braved the cold rain “because I am Lyonnaise and I like to cook,” she said. “I knew all his restaurants.” She didn’t know Bocuse personally, but she used to see him around town because he used to frequent a restaurant in her neighbourhood, and once she shook his hand. Th, ...ادامه مطلب

‘Everyone was watching everyone’: Interpreting for the US in Iraq Read more Turkey aims to create 30km 'secure zone' in Syria, says PM Read more Police, protestors clash over disputed election in Honduras Read more Taliban claims responsibility for deadly assault on Kabul hotel Read more Man charged in France for planning terror attack Read more French prison unions vote to continue strike Read more Nigel Farage, the middle man between the Trump campaign and WikiLeaks? Read more Celebrated French chef Paul Bocuse dies at 91 Read more Tens of thousands take to US streets for Women's March Read more Pence starts Mideast tour in Egypt amid Arab anger over Jerusalem Read more US govement in shutdown as midnight deadline passes Read more Brazil ‘ungoveable’ if court blocks Lula’s election run, says Rousseff Read more , ...ادامه مطلب

Independent centrist Emmanuel Macron, a 39-year-old political neophyte, has officially become the youngest president ever elected in France and the youngest serving leader of a G7 nation.Sunday moing’s handover of power between the outgoing Sociali, ...ادامه مطلب

François Hollande's reign as president was marked by a secret love affair, deadly terror attacks and an economic policy U-tu that could still rip his own Socialist Party apart – so much for the 'normality' he promised French voters five years ago.Hollande was crowned France’s first Socialist presi, ...ادامه مطلب

French right-wing presidential candidate Francois Fillon on Thursday accused President Francois Hollande, a Socialist, of orchestrating media leaks that have dented his image as a scandal free leader a month ahead of the key vote.Hollande immediately condemned in the "strongest terms the untruthful , ...ادامه مطلب

President Vladimir Putin granted an audience to French far-right party leader Marine Le Pen in the Kremlin on Friday, bestowing a level of inteational recognition that has so far eluded her in the countdown to France’s presidential election.Opinion polls show Le Pen getting through to the second, , ...ادامه مطلب

A woman who killed her abusive husband and became a symbol of the suffering of France's domestic violence victims walked free from prison on Wednesday after receiving a presidential pardon. President Francois Hollande granted the pardon because he "considered that (Jacqueline) Sauvage's place was no longer in prison but with her family," the president's office said in a statement earlier. Sauvage, 69, was serving a 10-year sentence at a jail southeast of Paris for shooting her husband Norbert Marot dead a day after their son hanged himself in 2012. A police source said a car seen leaving the prison was carrying Sauvage and three family members. Hordes of joualists were on hand, but the car did not stop. Sauvage's daughter Carole Marot told French radio earlier that she was on her way to the prison. "I'm crying, it's wonderful," she said. "Endless thanks to the president." One of her lawyers, Nathalie Tomasini, said Wednesday she was "overcome by joy and emotion" over the pardon. The , ...ادامه مطلب

President François Hollande on Saturday acknowledged that France bore "broad responsibility" for the intement of thousands of Roma by the World War II Vichy regime and in the early months of the post-war govement. "The day has come, and this truth must be told," Hollande said in the first presidential visit to the main intement camp for Roma, located in Montreuil-Bellay, central France. "The (French) Republic acknowledges the suffering of travelling people who were inteed and admits that it bears broad responsibility," Hollande said. Roma, also known as gypsies, were brutally persecuted in the Holocaust, paralleling the systematic murder of Jews. Estimates of how many died vary widely, between 220,000 and half a million. The Vichy regime is the term for the govement set up in France -- but under de-facto Nazi control -- after the French surrender to Germany in 1940. It fell in late 1944 when the allied forces reconquered France and General Charles de Gaulle set up a provisio, ...ادامه مطلب

France’s president is facing a chorus of critics for reportedly describing judges as “an institution of cowardice”, suggesting footballers do a little “weight training on their brains", and accusing his former partner of an "odious betrayal". The controversial remarks appeared in a 672-page book titled “A President Should Not Say That” (in French, "Un président ne devrait pas dire ça"), the result of a staggering 61 private interviews François Hollande granted to investigative joualists Gérard Davet and Fabrice Lhomme throughout his term in office. The book touches on a range of subjects, including the president’s troubled private life, his belief that there is a “problem” with Islam in France, and his intense rivalry with his predecessor Nicolas Sarkozy, whom he refers to as a “Duracell bunny, always flapping about”. Even before its release on Thursday, critics had seized on extracts leaked to the press to blast the French president – accusing him at onc, ...ادامه مطلب

The French president’s candid remarks on the sensitive issue of Islam, part of a wide-ranging collection of interviews that also touch on his troubled private life, have triggered a frenzy on both sides of the political divide. A 672-page doorstopper of a book, “A President Should Not Say That” is the result of a staggering 61 private interviews François Hollande granted to investigative joualists Gérard Davet and Fabrice Lhomme throughout his term in office. The book is due out on Thursday, but critics have already seized on extracts leaked to the press to round on the unpopular French president – accusing him at once of Islamophobia and “appeasement” to Islam, a hot-button issue in the run-up to next year’s presidential election. One phrase from Hollande has attracted particular scrutiny from right-wing commentators: “The veiled woman of today will be the Marianne of tomorrow”. This refers to the cherished figure of a woman bearing a tri-colour who symbolises th,wear a veil or not,wear a veil,wear a veil with hair down,wear a veil day,wear a veil in church,wear a veil at wedding,why wear a veil on wedding day,wear a wedding veil or not,why wear a veil for first communion,why wear a veil on your wedding day ...ادامه مطلب

A ceremony to honour the victims of terrorism was held in Paris Monday, with French President François Hollande leading tributes to those killed, injured and bereaved in the recent spate of attacks. Addressing an audience of victims, the bereaved, politicians and officials at the historic Invalides military museum, Hollande promised to boost compensation and to step up the fight against terrorism. "We must ensure that sustained action is taken to anticipate attacks, deter them and stop them. It's a constant battle and it will need even more resources," he said. The French president’s speech was followed by a solemn reading of the names of the victims of the attacks carried out by Islamist extremists last year in Paris and in July in Nice. 'Compensation schemes to be fairer, more transparent' The ceremony, organised by support groups for victims of terrorism, has been held every year since 1989. Its date – September 19 – marks the anniversary of an attack on a plane flying f, ...ادامه مطلب

President François Hollande will be awarded the 2016 “World Statesman Award” at a ceremony in New York on Monday for his “leadership in safeguarding democracy and freedom in a time of terrorist attacks” in France. Hollande, who will already be in New York to attend a United Nations Security Council meeting, is being recognised not only for his “leadership” but also for “his contribution to global stability and security". The prize, which is awarded by the New York-based interfaith Appeal of Conscience foundation, honours “individuals who support peace, prosperity, liberty and promote tolerance, human dignity and human rights, both in their own countries and inteationally through cooperation with other leaders”. The foundation confirmed to FRANCE 24 that the president will attend the ceremony at the famed Waldorf Astoria New York hotel in person. The award comes at a time when Hollande is struggling with record-low support at home, with opinion polls showing that he,french president hollande,french president hollande approval rating,french president hollande twitter,french president hollande pronunciation,french president hollande net worth,french president hollande press conference ...ادامه مطلب

French police on Friday announced a new arrest in connection with an abandoned car found to contain gas cylinders in Paris over the weekend. The suspect is the boyfriend of a woman detained Thursday and is thought to have links to radical Islam. The suspect was arrested late on Thursday and was already known to French intelligence services for having links to Islamist radicals, sources close to the investigation told AFP. The suspect's brother is also in custody over his relationship with Larossi A., a jihadist who killed a police couple at their home in a Paris suburb in June, sources said. The latest arrest came just hours after police arrested three women near a train station in Boussy-Saint-Antoine near Paris as part of the investigation into several gas canisters found in a car parked near Notre Dame Cathedral on Saturday. "A group has been neutralised. Others are out there," French President François Hollande said on the sidelines of a summit of southe European states in Athen, ...ادامه مطلب

President François Hollande delivered a key speech in Paris on Thursday in which he rejected the idea that the state should sacrifice civil liberties in the fight against terror and emphasised that French secularism is not incompatible with religion. “The French Constitution is not a flexible text with ellipses or parentheses," Hollande said in his speech on “Democracy in the Face of Terrorism”. “As president of the Republic, I vow that there will be no new laws that prove to be either overreactions or hastily imposed, or that would be as inapplicable as they are unconstitutional.” But Hollande went on to wa that the struggle against terrorism would prove long and difficult. "While the govement led by [Prime Minister] Manuel Valls is doing everything possible to protect the French, I need to tell you the truth: The threat is not going away soon. We must face it with courage, determination and while keeping a cool head," he said. Hollande added: "Democracy will be stronge, ...ادامه مطلب

French President François Hollande will deliver a key speech in Paris on Thursday, but is likely once again to disappoint those eager to know if he will run for a second term in the April 2017 elections. Hollande is expected to address the subjects of “democracy and terrorism”, less than two months after a Bastille Day truck attack that killed 86 people in the Mediterranean city of Nice and the slaughter of a Catholic priest by two young men claiming allegiance to the Islamic State (IS) group. For the Socialist president, it will be an opportunity to retake – at least briefly – the country’s political stage, which has been dominated since the end of summer by the simmering rivalry between right-wing presidential hopefuls Nicolas Sarkozy and Alain Juppé, and by the resignation of France’s economy minister Emmanuel Macron ahead of his own likely bid for the Elysée Palace. The speech will be Hollande’s chance to outline his vision for France as it continues to nurse the , ...ادامه مطلب