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France's Socialist government on Friday (28 September) unveiled €30 billion ($38.6 billion) worth of tax hikes and spending cuts in a bid to bring the public deficit in line with EU rules next year. Dubbed a "combat budget" by Prime Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault, the fiscal plan is based on sharp tax increases for the rich (75% on millionaires) and for companies expected to bring in €20 billion ($25.7 billion).The budget is based on the assumption the economy will grow by 0.8 percent.This may prove difficult, as France's growth was zero this year and the continuing eurozone crisis is worsening the...

If you ever wondered what Obama would do in a reprise of America’s Got President, the Next Term, you only have to look at Obama’s European hero, French President Francois Hollande. The guy’s becoming a Taxinator: half man, half machine, all taxes, all the time.  As a result France is becoming the juggernaut of worldwide taxation.  While it stinks to be a producer of tax revenues in France, man if you want to leach off the rest of the European economy- or what’s left of it- France is the place for you.  Hollande not only wants to the tax the...

Residents of a housing estate in the southern French city of Marseille forced a group of Roma (Gypsy) families that had installed themselves nearby to move on, before burning all that remained of their encampment, local press reported on Thursday. According to La Provence newspaper, police were called to separate dozens of the residents from the Roma families, who left the site in Marseille’s 15th arrondissement (district) “without violence”, police said. Everything that was left behind was gathered up and burned. Police said no arrests were made and that there had been no violence. The locals, according to La Provence,...

President Francois Hollande's Socialist government unveiled sharp tax hikes on business and the rich on Friday in a 2013 budget aimed at showing France has the fiscal rigor to remain at the core of the euro zone. The package will recoup 30 billion euros ($39 billion) for the public purse with a goal of narrowing the deficit to 3.0 percent of national output next year from 4.5 percent this year - France's toughest single belt-tightening in 30 years. But with record unemployment and a barrage of data pointing to economic stagnation, there are fears the deficit target will slip as...

Paris and its allies are working on an intervention to rid the region of the terrorist threat. The principle of military action against AQIM (al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb) is now established. The capitals of numerous countries are actively working to develop a politico-military strategy intended to rid the region of the terrorist threat. Because it is targeted by AQIM, France is at the forefront of future operation, which will be composed of the backbone forces of ECOWAS, the Economic Community of West Africa. Bogged down in Afghanistan for over ten years, their budget strained, the French army were warned...

France's President Francois Hollande showed a fine understanding of American politics Tuesday when he refused to endorse a US presidential candidate.  Asked by a reporter at the UN General Assembly in New York whether he backed Democratic incumbent Barack Obama or his Republican rival Mitt Romney for the White House, a smiling Hollande shot back: "Who do you think?" "Are you aware that Mitt Romney never ceases to attack socialist Europe at his campaign rallies?" asked Hollande, Europe's most powerful socialist leader. "Yes, that's why I'll be careful not to say anything at all on this subject because, as you'd...

The US has angered vineyard owners across France with a plan to sell some of its wines in the European Union with a "chateau" or "clos" label. "What is at stake is the respect for tradition and quality," Laurent Gapenne of Chateau de Laville and president of the Federation des Grand Vins de Bordeaux told the Associated Press. For American vintners it is a question of selling more wine in their top export market, unshackled by historic language or restrictive terms in the world of 21st century globalization. "People use words in different ways," WineAmerica chief operation officer Cary Greene...

Contributed by Jan Bennink, a Dutch advertising guy and a columnist for the leading newspaper De Volkskrant. He is @superjan on twitter. This column was first published in Dutch on Volkskrant Opinie.As far as I can remember I’ve never been afraid of the government. When I was a young upstart protesting military parades with safety pins through my ears, I wasn’t afraid. Even if the place was swarming with soldiers. When I was the bass player in a punk band, the P.A. Splashing Tovs, screaming at all kinds of government injustice, I did not feel unsafe. And in protest...

France is set to ban the words "mother" and "father" from all official documents under controversial plans to legalise gay marriage. The move, which has outraged Catholics, means only the word "parents" would be used in identical marriage ceremonies for all heterosexual and same-sex couples. The draft law states that "marriage is a union of two people, of different or the same gender". It says all references to "mothers and fathers" in the civil code – which enshrines French law – will be swapped for simply "parents". Justice Minister Christiane Taubira told France's Catholic newspaper La Croix: "Who is to...

(Reuters) - French President Francois Hollande's approval ratings have tumbled to their lowest level since he first took office in May, a new poll showed on Sunday, as France's grinding economic stagnation and record unemployment show little sign of easing. According to the Ifop poll for Sunday newspaper JDD, Hollande now has a 43 percent positive rating, down from 54 percent in August - one of the sharpest drops in over a decade.

This is the second Muslim arrested in France for threatening to kill the editors of Charlie Hebdo.Via Times Live: French police arrested a man for apparently calling on a jihadi website for the decapitation of the editor of a magazine that published cartoons mocking Mohammed, a judicial source said.The man was detained in the western city of La Rochelle for calling on the radical website for the head of satirical weekly Charlie Hebdo, which on Wednesday published cartoons of a naked Prophet.“The essential thing is not to let him live in peace,” the man allegedly wrote.Police have opened a preliminary...

A 55-year-old French hunter who had to have his right hand amputated after his dog accidentally shot him said Monday he didn't blame the pet, which he still considered "adorable". The hunter, identified only as René, told France Bleu radio the dog accidentally pulled the trigger of his shotgun when he jumped on him while they were hunting Sunday in the Dordogne region. René said he was hunting with three dogs when two of them ran off after a deer while the youngest stayed behind. "He jumped on top of me for a cuddle" and accidentally fired the gun, shooting...

France announced Wednesday it will close 20 embassies across the Muslim world on Friday after French weekly Charlie Hebdo published cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed naked, amid growing unrest over an anti-Islamic film that has left dozens dead.

Experts not involved in the study were skeptical, with one accusing the French scientists of going on a "statistical fishing trip" and others describing its methods as well below standard. The animals on the genetically modified (GM) diet suffered mammary tumors, as well as severe liver and kidney damage, according to the peer-reviewed study which was published in the journal Food and Chemical Toxicology and presented at a news conference in London. The researchers said 50 percent of male and 70 percent of female rats died prematurely, compared with only 30 percent and 20 percent in the control group.

Leading rabbi makes Vichy comparisons after Marine Le Pen, of the third-largest French political party, suggests giving ‘headscarf ban’ a Jewish twist  French right-wing politician Marine Le Pen on Friday suggested Jews should be banned from wearing the kippa, or ritual head-covering for Jewish males, in public places. Le Pen heads the nationalist Front National (FN) party, the third-largest in France. She is the youngest daughter of French politician Jean-Marie Le Pen, formerly the party’s president. Her suggestion comes less than two years after France banned the wearing of full Muslim veils in public. In response to Le Pen’s suggestion,...

FRANCE BANS ALL MUSLIM PROTESTS Gus LubinSeptember 21,2012 French interior minister Manuel Valls just confirmed that no protests would be allowed over the Mohammed cartoons, according to Reuters. "There will be strictly no exceptions. Demonstrations will be banned and broken up," he said. Think that'll pacify the 10 percent of France who are Muslims?France has already closed 20 embassies around the world in fear of backlash. Too bad it cannot outlaw protests in these countries.

That didn’t take long. PARIS/MARSEILLE, France Sept 20 (Reuters) – Police detained a young man in southern France on Thursday on suspicion that he was planning a revenge attack on the staff of a satirical magazine which published cartoons mocking the Prophet Mohammad.Anti-terrorism magistrates near the Mediterranean port city of Toulon questioned the 18-year-old after he threatened in a message on Facebook to cut the throats of anyone he could find at the offices of Charlie Hebdo, a judicial source said.The magazine’s publication of cartoons ridiculing Mohammad added to the anger of Muslims already outraged over an anti-Islam film produced...

PARIS — When I. M. Pei’s glass pyramid opened at the Louvre more than 20 years ago, many argued that this 70-foot-tall structure had destroyed the classical beauty of one of the world’s great museums. But today, as crowds wait on long lines outside the pyramid, which serves as the Louvre’s main entrance, what once seemed audacious has become as accepted a part of the city’s visual landscape as the Eiffel Tower or the Arc de Triomphe. Now the museum is again risking the public’s wrath as it introduces the most radical architectural intervention since the pyramid in 1989. Designed...

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The editor of French satirical magazine Charles Hebdo stands by his decision to print a cartoon of a nude Muhammed after global protests against an anti-Islamic film. Riot police have been posted outside the magazine's offices in Paris and the French government will close its embassies in 20 countries on Friday in case of attack.