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France kicked off Bastille Day celebrations on Monday in a whirlwind of controversy as Syrian President Bashar al-Assad joined dozens of leaders to watch the Champs Elysees military parade. United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon was the guest of honour at this year's festivities and two units of UN blue helmets were to lead off the traditional march from the Arc de Triomphe down to Place de la Concorde. But President Nicolas Sarkozy's invitation to Assad has angered opposition politicians and some in the French military who served in a UN peace force in Lebanon, where Syria for years was...

rance is celebrating its national day under new President Nicolas Sarkozy with a shake-up of tradition. For the first time, soldiers from France's 26 EU partners have taken part in the Bastille Day military parade. The move, meant to underline France's commitment to Europe, was announced shortly after Mr Sarkozy took office. Mr Sarkozy, who took over from Jacques Chirac in May, has also broken with the customary television address and amnesty of minor offenders. Flag-bearers from all the European Union's member states marched down the Champs Elysees in Paris, with the EU and French flags at the front. Mr...

From the OFST Education FIles: Subgroup The Sexes and Silliness and Sex Women Like Funny Men Women Like Funny Men--The Study: “The influence of humor on desirability,” Evolution and Human Behavior, Jan. 2006 The Findings: Psychologists Eric Bressler and Sigal Balshine enlisted 210 undergraduate psychology students at McMaster University in Ontario, Canada, to consider, for class credit, photographs of campus peers. Each photo was paired with a remark that was ostensibly funny (“My high school was so rough, we had our own coroner”) or ostensibly dull (“I like having friends over for dinner”). Women found the “funny” men most desirable,...

In honor of Bastille Day, I have decided to dedicate this column to that proverbial fly in the world's ointment, France. I suppose "honor" is the wrong word to use. Bastille Day signified the birth of le republique and the beginning of the end of le ancien regime, which wasn't necessarily a good thing for France or the rest of Europe. While this commentary is going to seem harsh, I would like to say that I am quite proud of my French heritage. France was the home of my paternal ancestors, though it was a very different place when Jean-Baptiste...

July 14 is Bastille Day (search) in France, or as they call it there — national day. This is the day a couple centuries ago that the French stormed the famous prison known as the Bastille... the hated monarchy then fell, some heads were removed for the betterment of society and the French were free. That's the very short version. Now even though the French sent Lafayette to help George Washington in the revolution against the British, and even though they sent us that nice Statue of Liberty for New York harbor, relations have been dicey ever since. The basis...

As Americans begin to unwind from our nation's July 4th celebrations, our French friends across the ocean are celebrating this week a national holiday connected with their revolution. July 14, more commonly known as Bastille Day, commemorates the attack and successful overthrow in 1789 of a Parisian fortress that marked the advent of the French Revolution and paved the way for the establishment of the French Republic. For those not familiar with French history, the Bastille was a hated symbol of monarchical tyranny. The word "bastille," not capitalized, means any armory or fortified building, generally at the entrance to a...

British Army handout photo of The Queen's Company 1st Battalion Grenadier Guards forming up at the start of the annual Bastille Day Parade on the Champs Elysees in Paris, Wednesday July 14, 2004. The Grenadier Guards were guests of the French Government to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the Entente Cordiale, a treaty of friendship between Britain and France, signed in 1904. It is the first time British troops have led the parade. (AP Photo / PA, British Army /Mike Harvey) The British household cavalry mounted regiment ride on the Champs Elysee during France's annual Bastille Day military parade, in...

During the second half of the 17th century, the Cardinal Richelieu converted the royal fortress into a state prison for the upper class - mainly people who committed high treason or some other kind of offense against the king or the state (who were considered to be essentially the same). The very often arbitrary warrant of arrest (lettre de cachet, i. e. letter with the royal seal) made the Bastille fortress one of the darkest symbols of royal despotism, although the conditions of the imprisonment were in general quite comfortable. The prisoners could welcome visitors, bring their servants, their furniture,...

France's struggling economy, labour unrest, street protests and trouble from Corsican separatists yesterday damped President Jacques Chirac's attempts to use Bastille Day celebrations to burnish his profile as an international statesman. Jacques Chirac waves to the crowds during the annual Bastille Day parade The traditional parade on the Champs-Elysées, with low-flying jets trailing red, white and blue smoke above nearly 4,000 troops, was a chance for television cameras to capture M Chirac as he wants to be seen: head of state of a leading military power. A German general, Holger Kammerhoff, led the parade with 120 troops from Eurocorps, the...

French noticeable [sic] absent from Bastille Day festivities July 14, 2003, 2:40 AM EDT NEW YORK -- Despite Bastille Day celebrations taking place in New York on Sunday, and French music and delicacies being abundant, the French themselves seemed to be noticeably absent from them. "I don't think I've seen any French people at all," said Joe Becker, 89, while attending an Orchard Street Bastille Day party.

(CNSNews.com) - Bastille Day, the day marking French independence, was also the day for opponents of the Bush administration to praise the French for their opposition to the war in Iraq. Internet activists from Democrats.com actually began their celebration Sunday, a day early, by conducting events in three cities to applaud the French resistance to U.S. foreign policy. All attendees received "Re-Defeat Bush" buttons, bumper stickers and lawn signs, a reference to the 2000 presidential election in which George W. Bush lost the popular vote to Democrat Al Gore but won the presidency by capturing the Electoral College majority. "The...

German Gen. Holger Kammerhoff, head of the five-nation Eurocorps (standing in the command car at front), leads the traditional Bastille Day parade on the Champs Elysees in Paris Monday, July 14, 2003. (Photo/Michel Euler) AP

Nashville’s Bastille Day Festivities, celebrating France’s independence, have been canceled this year because of the strong anti-French sentiment stemming from the war with Iraq. The event, which has taken place in Hillsboro Village for several years, and a variety of other places prior to that, is a worldwide celebration that occurs on July 14. It marks the beginning of the French Revolution and is similar to the July 4th Independence Day celebration in the United States. Wes Green, vice president of Alliance Française de Nashville, the organization that presents the event, said the group opted to not hold the celebration...

PARIS, March 12 (Reuters) - A commando-style gang used a bazooka to blow its way into a prison near Paris and free one of the inmates in a pre-dawn raid on Wednesday, officials said. The gang of four or five men machine-gunned watchtowers at the prison, in Fresnes to the east of the French capital and near Disneyland Paris, before rushing inside to the cell of Antonio Ferrara, who was serving time for organised crime. "The commando gang entered the high-security section of the prison and gave Antonio Ferrara explosives which allowed him to blow open the bars on the...

Arab NewsSAUDI ARABIA'S FIRST ENGLISH LANGUAGE DAILYhttp://www.arabnews.com/Article.asp?ID=16877French govt says ‘no’ to NYC firetruck in Bastille paradeBy Paul Michaud, Special to Arab NewsPublished on 14 July 2002PARIS, 14 July — This year’s Bastille Day parade, which today will go down the Champs-Elysee before a reviewing stand top heavy with such dignitaries as President Jacques Chirac, will not include one exhibit that US authorities had hoped would be accorded a place of honor in the July 14 manifestation: A shiny bright 9-meter long firetruck belonging to the fire department of the city of New York.But, "enough is enough," say sources at the...

The common view [by the liberal establishment] of the French Revolution is that it was a justified rebellion of oppressed lower classes against a tyrannical king, corrupt nobilities, and an insensitive church. Some try to portray the French Revolution as similar to the American Revolution--a blow for freedom and self-government struck against tyranny. The high middle age kingdom of Louis IX was destroyed by the wars of religion, by the absolutism created by Cardinal Richelieu, by the extravagance of Louis XIV, and by the corruption of Louis XV. The results for France were the creation of a parasitical nobility, which...

Thank GOD this Neo-Nazi didn't succeed. NN's seem to be popping up all over the place lately. Man Gets Out Gun as French President Passes; Arrested by Police PARIS (AP) - Police arrested a man who pulled a rifle out of a guitar case as French President Jacques Chirac was inspecting troops Sunday during the annual Bastille Day military parade, police and witnesses said. Cries of alarm from the crowd lining the parade route apparently alerted police, and the gunman fired a single shot as he was wrestled to the ground. Agents stood him up, searched him and took him...