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Hundreds of thousands of people from across France gathered in Paris on Sunday to oppose President Francois Hollande's plan to legalize same-sex marriage, which would allow gay couples to adopt and conceive children. Police estimated about 340,000 people participated in the "demo for all" march to oppose a proposed legislation billed as "marriage for all." It was one of the largest demonstrations in the French capital since an education protest in 1984, according to The Associated Press. Organizers claimed more than 800,000 people turned out to oppose the proposal. Protesters started the march from three points in the city, walking...

Al Qaeda-linked Islamist rebels launched a counter-offensive on Monday in central Mali after four days of air strikes by French warplanes on their strongholds in the desert north, promising to drag France into a long and brutal Afghanistan-style ground war.

French fighter jets struck deep inside Islamist strongholds in northern Mali on Sunday, shoving aside months of international hesitation about storming the region after every other effort by the United States and its allies to thwart the extremists had failed. For years, the United States tried to stem the spread of Islamic militancy in the region by conducting its most ambitious counterterrorism program ever across these vast, turbulent stretches of the Sahara. But as insurgents swept through the desert last year, commanders of this nation’s elite army units, the fruit of years of careful American training, defected when they were...

The leading figure in France’s anti-gay marriage movement, which hopes to get 200,000 demonstrators out on Sunday to protest the proposed “marriage for all” law, is an unlikely firebrand for the Catholic and right-wing dominated campaign. The French anti-gay marriage movement has an unlikely figurehead in the form of a reactionary comedienne who goes by the moniker “Frigide Barjot”. The name – which translates as Frigid Loony – is a play on the name of Brigitte Bardot, the French actress better-known as a symbol of the 60s sexual revolution. Barjot – real name, Virginie Tellene – is a born-again...

A failed plan to tax the rich at 75 percent. A glaring lack of global competitiveness. Famous actors trading in their French citizenship for Russian to avoid paying high tax rates. The news from Paris as of late has been a bit sensational, but also dire. Could France be the first northern country in the European Union to confront potential economic demise in 2013? Perhaps that assessment is not unlike Gerard Depardieu's highly publicized Moscow defection—a bit dramatic. But according to recent economic figures, there is some cause for concern. The French economy—Europe's second largest—grew at just 0.1 percent in...

A French commando raid in Somalia to free a captive intelligence agent ended in the deaths of 17 Islamists and a French soldier. France said the hostage also died in the failed rescue, but the man's captors denied he had been killed and claimed Saturday to have seized a second soldier. Confusion surrounded early reports of the botched rescue of the French agent, known by his code-name Denis Allex. He was captured in the east African country on July 14, 2009, and last seen in a video released in October pleading for the French president to help him. But it...

<p>The battle to retake Mali's north from the al-Qaida-linked groups controlling it began in earnest Saturday, after hundreds of French forces deployed to the country and began aerial bombardments to drive back the Islamic extremists from a town seized earlier this week.</p>

President Francois Hollande says French troops are taking part in operations against Islamists in northern Mali. French troops "have brought support this afternoon to Malian units to fight against terrorist elements", he said. Armed groups, some linked to al-Qaeda, took control of northern Mali in April. Mr Hollande said the intervention complied with international law, and had been agreed with Malian President Dioncounda Traore. A state of emergency has been declared across the country. The militants said on Thursday that they had advanced further into government-controlled territory, taking the strategic central town of Konna. Mr Hollande said French military action...

On a busy road near Gare du Nord station in Paris, sandwiched between a Bengali grocery and a mobile phone shop, the green door of number 147 rue Lafayette did not stand out. There was no plaque to advertise the first-floor office of the Kurdistan information centre, where three female Kurdish activists had met on Wednesday afternoon. As their dead bodies were removed on stretchers on Thursday morning after what French authorities described as an execution-style killing ...

Militants Islamist in Mali say they have entered the key central town of Konna, advancing further into government-held territory. This is the most serious fighting since Islamist groups captured the north from government forces in April 2012. The army has not commented on the claim by the Ansar Dine group that its fighters are in Konna. Earlier, it said it had advanced on Douentza, a central town held by another Islamist group. A resident in Douentza said no fighting had so far taken place for control of the town, about 800km (500 miles) north-east of the capital, Bamako. It was...

<p>MERRILLVILLE, Ind. — A World War II veteran who served in France during the war has been reunited with his Army-issued duffel bag nearly seven decades after it went missing.</p> <p>William Kadar, 92, opened a carefully wrapped package Tuesday at his Merrillville, Ind., home and found his drab green duffel bag inside, still stenciled in black with his name and serial number. Kadar last saw the bag used by soldiers to tote their gear in November 1944, a month before he was captured by the Germans.</p>

By now you've probably heard Russian President Vladimir Putin has bestowed Russian citizenship upon Gérard Depardieu as part of the French actor's quest to seek refuge from his country's onerous income taxes. It's a pretty funny situation. But French President Francois Hollande is not laughing. Because after all the fuss, the 75 percent marginal income tax that was the highlight of the new taxes which Depardieu and others were attempting to flee was ultimately vetoed by the country's Constitutional Council. The ruling came on technical grounds, and the government has vowed to resubmit a similar proposal. But the project has...

France’s President François Hollande has weighed this weekend into the war of words between his government and the Catholic Church over holding discussions in schools on the planned legalization of same-sex marriage. He defended Education Minister Vincent Peillon on Saturday for urging Catholic schools, which teach about one-fifth of all pupils in France, to stay neutral in the debate. … The shrill polemics could not drown out another big news story: the growing unpopularity of Hollande and his government. One poll said 75 percent of voters doubt he can keep a New Year’s promise to turn around rising unemployment this...

France’s Esther Duflo, a star economist who was once named one of Time magazine’s 100 most influential people in the world, has been nominated by US President Barack Obama to help shape US global development policy. France’s Esther Duflo, a world renowned economist, has been nominated by US President Barack Obama to join a government body dedicated to advising the administration on global development policy. Duflo, who was raised in a “left-leaning Protestant” family, said she became aware of economic divides and social injustice at a very early age.

It is not the only country which has a controversial history of which it may not be entirely proud. But it seems that for French president Francois Hollande, his country's past is not something he thinks should be revisited. This week, ambitious and expensive plans for a museum about the history of France were binned because the Socialist president felt it would be too controversial. A number of academics were left delighted by the decision, because they had argued that French history is too divisive to be recounted in a museum. However, some historians have been left furious over the...

Vienna, Austria, Jan 4, 2013 / 02:08 pm (CNA).- Several Catholic churches in Europe were reportedly set on fire in the days before Christmas, raising concerns of vandalism motivated by an opposition to Christianity.   The Observatory on the Intolerance and Discrimination against Christians in Europe reported that three churches were burned in Austria on Dec. 23, while a Nativity scene was burned at a church in France on December 18.   In the small Austrian town of Amstetten, three churches were set aflame, with one being severely damaged. The alleged suspect – a young man – was interrogated by...

French cinema legend Brigitte Bardot on Friday threatened to follow Gérard Depardieu to Russia unless two elephants under threat of being put down are granted a reprieve. Depardieu the Russian praises 'democracy' (04 Jan 13) Putin makes Depardieu Russian citizen (03 Jan 13) Bardot leaps to Depardieu's defence (19 Dec 12) In a surreal twist to the saga over Depardieu's move into tax exile, the veteran animal rights campaigner said she would emulate his request for Russian nationality unless authorities intervened to save Baby and Nepal. The two elephants face being put down because they have been diagnosed with tuberculosis...

The Venezuelan Minister of Correctional Services, Iris Varela, has announced on her Twitter account the expulsion of a French citizen known as Frédéric Laurent Bouquet, December 29, 2012 Mr. Bouquet (photo) had been arrested in Caracas on June 18, 2009, with three Dominican nationals in possession of an arsenal. In the apartment he had acquired, forensic police seized 500 grams of C4 explosives, 14 assault rifles including 5 with telescopic lenses, 5 with laser sighting and one with a silencer, special cables, 11 electronic detonators, 19,721 cartridges of different calibers, 3 machine guns, 4 hand guns of different calibers, 11...

Israeli officials have been holding talks in Jordan with Syrian opposition officials “in advance of a possible Israeli-U.S. operation in Syria to protect the Golan Heights,” Western intelligence sources reported Tuesday, Jan. 1. There was no further information about this operation or how rebel commanders were involved in military plans “to protect the Golan Heights.” Altogether, the goings-on on the Israeli and Jordanian borders with Syria are in deep hush. But European intelligence sources, some of them French and Russian, reveal nightly clashes taking place between US, Jordanian, Israeli special forces and Syrian rebels, on the one hand, and Syrian...

"IRAN SPY NETWORK 30,000 STRONG Pentagon report: Iranian intelligence linked to spying, terror attacks" SNIPPET: "Iran’s intelligence service includes 30,000 people who are engaged in covert and clandestine activities that range from spying to stealing technology to terrorist bombings and assassination, according to a Pentagon report." SNIPPET: "“MOIS provides financial, material, technological, or other support services to Hamas, Hezbollah, and al Qaeda in Iraq (AQI), all designated terrorist organizations under U.S. Executive Order 13224,” the report said. The spy service operates in all areas where Iran has interests, including Afghanistan, Iraq, Kuwait, Lebanon, Central Asia, Africa, Austria, Azerbaijan, Croatia, France,...