Word: frans
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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Paris, France Wrapped in a brown apron as he greets visitors in a warm, booming voice, François Bonduel owns the kind of Parisian restaurant beloved by tourists and locals alike. But these days - with the euro still relatively strong and economies seizing up around the globe - the foreign visitors that typically make up a third of Bonduel's clientele have been thinning out and spending less. To make matters worse, many French visitors to his restaurant, Au Bon Saint-Pourçain - a stone's throw from the church of St. Sulpice in Paris' tony sixth arrondissement...
...week, 42 officials went on trial for taking millions in kickbacks and organizing huge arms commissions from the Angolan government during the mid-1990s. In the dock were such big names as Charles Pasqua, a former French Interior Minister; Jean-Christophe Mitterrand, the son of the late French President François Mitterrand; and Russian-Israeli billionaire Arkadi Gaydamak, who is currently a candidate for mayor of Jerusalem. The group is charged with having supplied almost $800 million worth of arms to Angolan President José Eduardo Dos Santos, including 12 helicopters, 6 naval vessels, 150,000 shells...
...beauty and distinction of his wife, Carla Bruni. Sarkozy's audacious Union for the Mediterranean summit in July 2008 in Paris, and his high visibility in his current six-month stint as President of the European Council, stand in striking contrast to the leaden final years of François Mitterrand's second term, or to the two mandates of Jacques Chirac. From the Caucasus to Damascus, it seems, France is back...
...François Bayrou, a centrist candidate in last year's presidential election, denounced the move as an abuse of executive power and a reflection of the omnipotent nature of the current regime. "Such arbitrary and disproportionate decisions are what you get when all power is concentrated in the same hands," said Bayrou. Rossi's punishment - the interior ministry says the official's "error in judgment" has resulted in his transfer to a new post - and similar measures in the past that benefited Sarkozy's friends, are "princely whims" according to Bayrou. Leftist daily Libération quoted officials involved...
...There's been wide consensus for a long time in France that when the right times come, the army must be used - even if the price to pay for that will be the loss of soldiers," says François Heisbourg, special adviser to the Foundation for Strategic Research in Paris. "Once the shock of these deaths eases, people won't ask whether we can stand the losses - we obviously can. Nor will it be whether this is a legitimate and important war for global stability - it is. Debate will focus on how we get down to business...