Free Republic

PARIS (AFP) — France accused Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Friday of prejudicing the outcome of the Middle East peace process by declaring that Jerusalem would forever be Israel's undivided capital. "The declaration made by the Israeli prime minister yesterday in Jerusalem prejudices the final status agreement," foreign ministry spokesman Frederic Desagneaux told reporters in Paris. Separately, President Nicolas Sarkozy's office announced that the French leader had invited Netanyahu to talks in Paris on June 3, their first meeting since the Israeli right-winger returned to office in February. The international community does not recognise Jerusalem as Israel's capital and...

Frédéric Desagneaux, consul general of France for San Francisco, is not happy with the light being shown on his country’s involvement with U.N. corruption in Iraq. Poor thing. Yesterday, the independent committee investigating corruption in the U.N.’s “oil-for-food” program for Iraq made public the names of 3,545 companies that sold goods to Saddam. Also published were the names of 248 companies which received Iraqi oil under the program. Through oil-for-food, Saddam stole “$10.1 billion through oil smuggling and kickbacks from suppliers.” Leave it to the U.N. to pull off one of the biggest scandals in world history. Evidence is emerging...