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PARIS – France suspended the planned delivery of a warship to Russia on Tuesday, after months of growing speculation about what would be the biggest arms sale ever by a NATO country to the Kremlin. ·

- A new deadline for a political framework agreement for Iran's Nuclear talks has been set for March 1, 2015, a Western diplomat tells CNN on Monday, with a deadline for final agreement including annexes on July 1. Negotiators had been scrambling to reach a deal on Iran's nuclear program before a Monday night deadline. The negotiators included representatives from Iran and the P5+1 countries -- the five permanent members of the U.N. Security Council (the United States, Russia, China, France and Britain), plus Germany.

In an interview on the i24news network, Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu referred Sunday to the anticipated vote in the French parliament on recognizing a Palestinian state: “Of course I'm worried about this because what they're voting on is Palestine without peace," he said. "That's what the Palestinians want. They want to have a state to continue, not to end the war with Israel, but to continue the war from improved boundaries. That's all they're saying. Look at what has happened. Every time we gave territory to the Palestinians, for example in Gaza, Iran walked in with its Palestinian proxies, fired...

President Obama has been obsessed with Iran Monday, November 24, is the deadline for the negotiations between Iran and the United States, Britain, France, Germany, Russia and China regarding its program to build its own nuclear weapons to conclude. At this writing, whether the negotiations will be extended or not is unknown, but it seems unlikely. President Obama has been obsessed with Iran, seeking to change its hostility by finding an answer to the problem its nuclear weapon program represents. That is typical of his “magical thinking” whereby something he wants is automatically assumed to be accessible. In the case...

Ambassadors from five major European Union (EU) member states met with the Foreign Ministry's senior diplomat Alon Ushpiz in Jerusalem on Thursday, where they voiced opposition to the demolition of the homes of Arab terrorists. Germany, France, Britain, Italy and Spain were the five countries whose consul generals argued that such demolitions, which are meant as a deterrent for future terrorists and a punishment for heinous crimes, are "counterproductive." The ambassadors also denounced the attack on a Jerusalem synagogue this Tuesday in which four Jews and a Druze police officer were murdered by two Arab terrorists, reports Haaretz citing Israeli...

North Korean linked to Kim Jong-un's purged uncle 'goes missing' in Paris Kim Jong-un's secret agents strike in Paris, reports say, as North Korean architecture student whose father was close to dictator's uncle goes missing By Henry Samuel, Paris 5:44PM GMT 21 Nov 2014 Comments4 Comments The son of an aide to North Korean leader Kim Jong-un's uncle has gone missing in Paris, sparking speculation that secret agents tried to kidnap him to spirit him back to the Communist nation. Referred to only by his surname Han, the architecture student went missing two weeks ago, raising concerns for his safety....

France has confirmed the selection of 12 Airbus A330 refueling tankers for the French Air Force, Airbus Group said on Thursday. First delivery is expected in 2018, followed by a second in 2019 and then at a rate of one or two per year, Airbus Defense & Space said in a statement. India and Qatar are in the "final stages of contractual negotiations" for six and two aircraft respectively, Airbus said. Airbus said France is the sixth country to order the tanker after Australia, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, the United Arab Emirates and Britain.

François Hollande would be forgiven for not sleeping well in his bed tonight after French MPs were, for the first time, handed the power to sack the president in the case of "a breach of duties".Heads of state in France have until now enjoyed some of the strongest legal protections in the West - only removable in cases of high treason - a procedure that's never been used in modern France. But all that changed on Wednesday when MPs were finally handed powers that would enable them to depose a president. Given François Hollande's disastrous approval ratings, there may be...

A French left-wing MEP has hit out at the creators of video game Assassin's Creed over their portrayal of Maximilien de Robespierre. A slight artistic liberty from the creators sees the character of Robespierre presented as a psychopathic mass-murderer, which has enraged the French left, Jean-Luc Melenchon claims the depiction of Robespierre, considered by many to have been the architect of the French Revolution, in the latest installation of the game is 'propaganda against the people'.

Under Obama, U.S. personal freedom ranking slips below France Americans' assessments of their personal freedom have significantly declined under President Obama, according to a new study from the Legatum Institute in London, and the United States now ranks below 20 other countries on this measure. The research shows that citizens of countries including France, Uruguay, and Costa Rica now feel that they enjoy more personal freedom than Americans. As the Washington Examiner reported this morning, representatives of the Legatum Institute are in the U.S. this week to promote the sixth edition of their Prosperity Index. The index aims to measure...

One week to ‘finish the job’ in Iran nuclear talks ‘Failure would be a dangerous scenario for the entire world’ AFP Published: 14:30 November 16, 2014 Gulf News Vienna: Iran and six world powers begin a final round of talks in Vienna on Tuesday aiming to overcome significant remaining differences and agree a historic nuclear deal by a November 24 deadline. “There’s still a big gap. We may not be able to get there,” US President Barack Obama warned last Sunday. After 12 years of rising tensions, threats of war and failed diplomacy this accord would silence for good fears...

UPDATED: Russia on Friday warned France of "serious" consequences unless Paris delivers a Mistral-class assault warship, whose handover has been delayed by concerns over Moscow's role in the Ukraine crisis, by the end of this month, a report said. "We are preparing for different scenarios. We are waiting until the end of the month, then we will lodge serious claims," the state news agency RIA Novosti quoted an anonymous high-ranking Moscow source as saying. The first of two mammoth Mistral helicopter carriers was supposed to be delivered on Friday according to the original deal signed in 2011 and worth €1.2...

French lawmakers will vote on November 28 on a proposal by the Socialist Party urging the government to recognise Palestine as a state, a parliamentary source said Wednesday. The non-binding but highly symbolic vote would follow a similar vote in the British parliament and after Sweden announced it formally recognised the state of Palestine. A draft of the proposal states that the lower house National Assembly "invites the French government to use the recognition of the state of Palestine as an instrument to gain a definitive resolution of the conflict". France will "obviously at a certain moment recognise the Palestinian...

Ex-French PM accuses Hollande aide of lying over Sarkozy legal case claims PARIS Sun Nov 9, 2014 4:36pm EST (Reuters) - Former French prime minister Francois Fillon accused President Francois Hollande's chief of staff of lying on Sunday after a media report accused Fillon of asking him to accelerate a legal case against his rival Nicolas Sarkozy. Newspaper Le Monde said that Fillon had asked Jean-Pierre Jouyet in June to speed up legal cases involving Sarkozy to undermine his political comeback, including one linked to fines over the funding of the former president's 2012 campaign.

Only hours after a firebomb was hurled at a kosher restaurant in the 17th district of Paris, a group of French teenagers assaulted a Jewish boy outside of his school. The attack took place Thursday in the 3rd district, outside of private high school Progress - known for having a large number of Jewish students. The victim was standing in front of the school with a group of friend when a gang of approximately 15 youths ages 16-19, described as "African," assaulted him. He was wearing a kippah, according to the National Bureau for Vigilance against Anti-Semitism (BNVCA), which reported...

FULL TITLE: Nurse who confessed to strangling EIGHT of her babies 'because she did not want to use contraception' to stand trial for murder in France A nursing assistant who strangled and buried eight of her newborn babies will be tried in France four years after she admitted the country's worst ever infanticide case. Dominique Cottrez, 50, is said to have killed the children and hid their bodies in bin liners between 1989 and 2000 because she did not want to use contraception. After her confession in 2010, she tried to escape the charges by claiming the crimes all took...

While the treasure – consisting of about 90 silver objects weighing more than 50 pounds – was first discovered in 1830, it was not until 1861 and again in 1896 that the site was extensively surveyed and excavated, uncovering the foundations of a Gallo-Roman fanum, a square colonnaded precinct with two temples. One was dedicated to Mercury Canetonensis (of Canetonum), while the other was devoted to his mother Maia or his consort Rosmerta. A theater-shaped gathering space was also found nearby... The most impressive objects in the Berthouville Treasure bear Latin inscriptions stating that they were dedicated to Mercury by...

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his associates think slanders recently published against him in the name of a senior White House official were intended to soften public opinion toward a developing major US agreement with Iran, Israel’s NRG News reported Tuesday. Netanyahu believes that the Obama administration wants to minimize Israel’s visibility in the United States, in order to muffle attempts to delegitimize such a deal, one that Israeli officials fear would allow Teheran a “breakout” ability to quickly assemble a nuclear weapon. However, at this point, Netanyahu plans to work behind the scenes and is not planning an overt...

France insisted on Thursday that conditions "have not been met" to allow for the controversial delivery of a warship to Russia, but with the deadline approaching, Paris finds itself in a real predicament - lose billions or risk NATO's wrath? As a deadline for the controversial delivery of a warship to Russia nears, France faces a gruelling dilemma: ditch the deal, lose billions and antagonise Moscow - or go ahead and attract NATO's wrath. Until the deadly crisis in Ukraine erupted this year, the €1.2 billion ($1.5-billion) contract to build and sell two mammoth Mistral-class assault ships to the Russian...

Half-way into his five-year mandate the popularity of French President Francois Hollande hit a new low on Thursday, hours before the Socialist leader addresses the nation to defend his shaky record on the economy. In the worst score for a president in modern-day polling, Hollande received a 12 percent approval rating in the monthly survey by pollster YouGov, down 15 percent from the prior month. Other recent polls have put his popularity at 13 percent. Hollande is due later to face journalists and members of the public for a question-and-answer session on prime-time TF1 evening television. He will likely face...