Barack Obama arrived in Strasbourg on Friday for this weekend's NATO summit enthusing about the military organization, which he described at a joint press conference with French President Nicolas Sarkozy as "the most successful alliance in modern history." That it may have been. But Obama's praise contrasts starkly with the scathing assessment of the state of NATO, now 60 years old, by European military analysts, who say that the gap in military capability between the United ...

By my watch, the takeoff roll for Air France flight 380 lasted 35 seconds. "39 seconds," corrected Laurent Bonnard, a French historian, as we chatted in a lounge area later. Either way, all the planiacs on board Air France's inaugural A380 Airbus flight from New York City to Paris agreed the takeoff was a thing of beauty. Imagine an apartment building with wings that steps into the sky with the quiet grace of a ballet dancer. The lack of ...

Former French President Jacques Chirac must stand trial on corruption charges, French public radio reported Friday.

American tennis legend Andre Agassi has admitted using crystal methamphetamine a year before he won the French Open in 1998, and that he lied to the sport's governing bodies in the same period about a positive drugs test to avoid a ban.Later in the year an Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) doctor confirmed to Agassi -- who is currently married to former number one women's tennis player Steffi Graf -- that his use of recreational drugs had shown up in ...

A French court on Tuesday convicted the Church of Scientology and six of its members of organized fraud, but stopped short of banning the church.

Several armed men Thursday abducted a French national working for the Red Cross in Sudan's volatile Darfur region, the agency said. China has also become the biggest vehicle market in the world this year and car sales expanded an extraordinary 78 per cent last month from a year ago. Over the National Day holiday in early October, retailers say large flat-screen TVs flew off the shelves. Throughout the biggest external crisis to hit the Chinese economy in at least a ...

Chelsea are seeking to have the English club's worldwide transfer ban put on hold until an appeal is heard by the Court of Arbitration for Sport. The London outfit have already lodged an appeal against FIFA's ruling, which prevents the club from registering any new players during the next two transfer windows. They had been found guilty of illegally inducing teenager Gael Kakuta to breach his contract with French club Lens two years ago. The CAS has now confirmed ...

Lyon snatched a dramatic last-gasp 2-1 victory at Anfield as Liverpool lost four games in succession for the first time since 1987 to leave the English giants' Champions League qualification hopes hanging by a thread. Liverpool came into the match struggling in the English Premier League, having already lost four of their nine matches this season. And their form in Europe has been no better, with Rafael Benitez's side slumping to a 2-0 defeat at Fiorentina in their last match. ...

In her two previous books, French author Mireille Guiliano instructs women on how to live their lives to the fullest by, ironically enough, not eating to the fullest. She insists that the French have the right answers, pointing to the French joie de vivre as one of the reasons why the country's women stay so infuriatingly thin. In her latest book, Women, Work & the Art of Savoir Faire: Business Sense & Sensibility, released in the U.S. last ...

The wisdom of business professors, once only available to MBAs and business students, can now be accessed by anybody with an Internet connection. Hundreds of universities, and a growing number of business schools, are making recordings of lectures, seminars and conferences available to the general public via Web sites such as iTunes and YouTube. Leading business schools including University of Cambridge Judge Business School, Fuqua School of Business, and Yale School of Management make course content available for ...