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"An Airbus A320 has crashed in the southern French Alps, a security source has said." & "A Germanwings A320 has crashed in the southern French Alps, according to security sources."

Unable to find support from its U.S. allies, Israel is turning to France to help head off what it sees as a bad and dangerous nuclear deal with Iran. In an interview with The Associated Press in Paris, Israeli Intelligence Minister Yuval Steinitz said Monday that dialogue with France over Iran's nuclear program "has proven in the past that it was productive" and makes this week's last-minute diplomatic mission to Paris worthwhile. France played a key role strengthening an interim agreement with Iran in late 2013 that froze key parts of the Islamic republic's nuclear program in exchange for some...

Around 7 p.m. on Friday, Feb. 13, about two dozen high-level U.S. diplomats, politicians and four-star generals held a discussion in a briefing room on the sixth floor of the luxury Bayerischer Hof hotel in Munich. Their frank comments behind a sound-proof door were leaked, perhaps to German intelligence but certainly to the German newspapers Bild and Der Spiegel, which published reports of the discussions. They reveal a ham-handed U.S. diplomacy in Europe that has raised consternation and revulsion against the administration of President Barack Obama and by extension against NATO. Although not directly involved, Canadians can learn from the...

It was just over a month ago that I appeared on the Fox Business Network and recommended that U.S. investors put their money to work in Europe. To say that my recommendation was greeted with skepticism would be an understatement. After all, as the host pointed out, Europe was on the verge of bailing out a Marxist government in the form of Greece. And my closing recommendation to invest in Germany was greeted with a roll of the eyes and a barely stifled yawn. Fast forward one month, and Germany is the hottest market on the planet. The German DAX...

Intelligence Minister Yuval Steinitz headed to Paris Sunday afternoon, as differences emerged over the weekend between France and the US over the negotiating strategy with Iran. "This is an effort to prevent a (nuclear) deal that is bad and full of loopholes, or at least ... to succeed in closing or amending some of these loopholes," Steinitz told Israel radio. He is being accompanied by National Security Council head Yossi Cohen, and several other intelligence officials Steinitz said he may go to other European capitals as well. At one point during the latest negotiations, French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius phoned...

22 March 2015 Ex-President Nicolas Sarkozy's conservative UMP and its allies led voting in the first round of French local elections, exit polls suggest. They pushed the far-right National Front into second, with President Francois Hollande's ruling Socialists in third. Voters are electing representatives in 101 departments, or counties, charged with issues like schools and welfare. A second round of voting will take place in a week's time.

Day after Obama urges Iran to seize ‘historic opportunity,’ supreme leader says US seeks to create insecurity. Iran’s Supreme leader Ali Khamenei called for “Death to America” on Saturday, a day after President Barack Obama appealed to Iran to seize a “historic opportunity” for a nuclear deal and a better future, and as US Secretary of State John Kerry claimed substantial progress toward an accord. Khamenei told a crowd in Tehran that Iran would not capitulate to Western demands. When the crowd started shouting, “Death to America,” the ayatollah responded: “Of course yes, death to America, because America is the...

LAUSANNE, Switzerland—France is again adopting the toughest line against Iran in negotiations aimed at curbing Tehran’s nuclear program, potentially placing Paris at odds with the Obama administration as a diplomatic deadline to forge an agreement approaches at month-end. President Barack Obama called French President François Hollande on Friday to discuss the Iran diplomacy and try to unify their positions. The presidents “reaffirmed their commitment” to a deal “while noting that Iran must take steps to resolve several remaining issues,” the White House said. French diplomats have been publicly pressing the U.S. and other world powers not to give ground on...

President Obama spoke to French President Francois Hollande on Friday to discuss the nuclear talks with Iran, which have reportedly hit a snag over the question of easing sanctions. The two leaders discussed the nuclear negotiations, as well as the conflict in Ukraine, according to the White House. “The presidents reaffirmed their commitment to achieving a long term comprehensive deal that fully and verifiably addresses the international community’s concerns about Iran’s nuclear program, while noting that Iran must take steps to resolve several remaining issues,” the White House said in a statement. A round of talks in Switzerland concluded Friday...

No doubt every FReeper is familiar with the writings of Alexis de Tocqueville. The French political scientist and historian is best known for his monumental work "Democracy in America." In his later years, De Tocqueville broadened the scope of his studies and observations. Who knew that way back then he brilliantly recognized Islam for exactly what it was, and the dangers it posed to the world.....

A Jewish school in Paris was evacuated on Thursday — three years to the day after the brutal massacre at a Jewish school in Toulouse, French news website JSS News reported. The evacuation follows disturbing instances of increased antisemitic violence throughout France and Europe. Police searched the classrooms and common areas at the Ecole Alliance Gustave Leven in Paris using bomb-sniffing dogs. Though the report did not indicate whether the police found any explosives, sources did tell JSS News that it was a fairly serious threat. The evacuation at the French school occurred on the third anniversary of the horrific...

The recent massacres in Paris of the staff of Charlie Hebdo and the Jews in a kosher supermarket, and the increasing incidences of butchering young people coming out of pubs have made more people concerned about the rise of terrorism. Tens of thousands have come out to demonstrate. Since the 9/11 attack on New York and the Pentagon in 2001, there have been close to 25,000 terrorist attacks worldwide, all of which were perpetrated in the name of Islam. That is about 5 terrorist attacks every day. So far two million people have been killed and a similar number are...

During Barack Obama's recent State of the Union speech, he told America he had no more campaigns to run. But it seems that statement flies in the face of reports that an organization known as “One Voice” has brought in what has been called a "five-man Obama team" to defeat Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Included in that five-man team is Jeremy Bird, the national field director for Obama's 2012 campaign, Dr. Aaron Lerner, Director of the Independent Media Review and Analysis, said Monday, citing a report at Haaretz. That group, Dr. Lerner added, will run the anti-Netanyahu effort out...

Finance Minister Wolfgang Schäuble confirmed on Tuesday that Germany has agreed to join the China-led Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB), despite pressure from the US.Germany, France and Italy “want to bring our long experience … to help the bank build a solid reputation,” Schäuble said at a joint press conference in Berlin with Chinese vice-premier Ma Kai. “We want to make a contribution to the positive development of the Asian economy, in which German companies are actively taking part,” he said. France and Italy have also agreed to become members of the $50-billion institution, seen as a rival to the...

The French government is expected to throw its weight behind amendments to a new health bill that would ban the fashion world from hiring underweight models, slapping violators with fines or even prison sentences, the health minister said Monday The bill, which will be debated in parliament on Tuesday, also proposes banning websites and other forums that are viewed as promoting anorexia and other eating disorders. “This is an important message to young women, young women who see these models as an æsthetic ideal,” Health Minister Marisol Touraine said, adding that the Socialist government is likely to back the bill....

French experts re-examining evidence have confirmed their earlier conclusion that the 2004 death of Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat was not the result of poisoning, a prosecutor told AFP Monday. The prosecutor for the western Paris suburb of Nanterre said the experts found there was no foul play in Arafat’s death, which sparked immediate and enduring conspiracy rumors. […] Arafat died aged 75 on November 11, 2004 at the Percy de Clamart hospital, close to Paris. He had been admitted there at the end of October that year after developing stomach pains while at his headquarters in the West Bank city...

Recent scientific findings date their arrival earlier than ever thought, sparking hot debate among archaeologists For much of its length, the slow-moving Aucilla River in northern Florida flows underground, tunneling through bedrock limestone. But here and there it surfaces, and preserved in those inky ponds lie secrets of the first Americans.For years adventurous divers had hunted fossils and artifacts in the sinkholes of the Aucilla about an hour east of Tallahassee. They found stone arrowheads and the bones of extinct mammals such as mammoth, mastodon and the American ice age horse.Then, in the 1980s, archaeologists from the Florida Museum of...

You are mine entirely now for My Flames have touched you and bathed you in My Glory among the coals and now I AM the Gold and Silver in your life for "The Veil is torn " and now the Fullness and Saphire of My Spirit (( ( RESIDES ) )) in you in a abundantly overflowing manner and My Eyes( 7 Spirits of The Lord) are yours for you have already obediently sat quietly at my feet and listened intently for my Voice and will . So now "Take" the Fullness of My Kingdom to the reckless and lost...

<p>Today German Chancellor Angela Merkel proclaimed Greek Diplomatic Offensive Is Failing.</p> <p>Merkel’s Christian Democratic-led bloc in parliament has agreed not to give in to any “bad compromise that “defacto adds up to a debt writedown,” Hans-Peter Friedrich, a deputy leader of the caucus, said in an interview today.</p>

Brussels- European leaders agreed on Friday to extend Greece's bailout for four months after weeks of terse negotiations.