French fishermen suspended their blockade at two English Channel ports Thursday, allowing ferry traffic and freight to move through, a ferry operator said. The fishermen lifted the blockade at Calais and Dunkirk, a spokeswoman for P&O Ferries told CNN, but the blockade remained in place at Boulogne, French media reported. The fishermen began their blockade of the three ports Tuesday to protest European Union fishing quotas, which they say threaten their livelihoods. The flotillas forced a halt to all cross-Channel ...

Jenson Button's wins in the opening two races of the Formula One season will stand after motorsport chiefs ruled on Wednesday that the aerodynamic diffuser ftited to the rear of his Brawn GP car is legal. The FIA Court of Appeal said that the rear diffusers used by the Brawn, Williams and Toyota teams "comply with the applicable regulations." The FIA panel sat for eight hours in Paris on Tuesday to hear evidence and their decision backs up a decision ...

A French hostage and two pirates died Friday in a rescue operation off Somalia's coastline, the French president's office in Paris said Friday. Four hostages, including a child, were freed from the hijacked yacht after almost a week of captivity, Nicolas Sarkozy's office said. The French military decided to move in when pirates refused their offers and increased threats against the hostages, it said. The four adults and a child had been held aboard their yacht, the Tanit, ...

Regular programming has just been interrupted by a news conference. A slender black man in a suit steps up to a podium, flanked by American flags and a White House logo. "I wish I could announce such an economic package," he says, "but there is a bank in Turkey that did it. It is Garanti. I wish we had Garanti in America." Don't be fooled. This is a commercial on Turkish TV. The actor is a 44-year-old Barack Obama look-alike ...

Truly appreciating the beauty of Paris is a pleasure that can't be hurried. Take time to wander down its wide boulevards, savour every sip of strong, black coffee and resist the temptation to fall into step with the throng of tourists and sightseers. Our advice to anyone who finds themselves with 24 hours to spare in the French capital is to stop, breathe, appreciate and indulge. Start the day with a walk down the Champs-Élysées. For some, it retains ...

You know it's a recession when leggy Las Vegas showgirls can't sell enough tickets to stay in business. That's what's happening to "Les Folies Bergere," a revue modeled after its famous namesake in Paris, that has run in Vegas for nearly 50 years. The curtain will go down on the act for the last time on March 28, according to the Tropicana Las Vegas, where the show runs on the Strip. The hotel's Web site trumpets that the "timeless musical ...

Move over Wonder Woman and Lois Lane - Hillary Clinton and Sarah Palin are breaking into the world of comic books. Washington-based publisher Bluewater Productions released a series of comic books featuring Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin on March 11. The company says it has already sold 7,500 copies of each to distributors. "We really want to show strong, independent, female role models in comics," said Darren Davis, president of Bluewater Productions. Another company released ...

Amid the gruesome headlines generated by the world's auto industry these days, it almost read like a typo: new car registrations in Germany rose 21% year-on-year in February, the country's Association of the Automotive Industry announced March 3. This, though, was no error. The 278,000 cars put on the road, crowed Matthias Wissmann, VDA's president, amounted to "the highest level of sales in the month of February for ten years." Why the splurge German drivers have latched ...

Christian Vandevelde of the United States claimed Wednesday's fourth stage of the Paris-Nice while Astana's Alberto Contador showed just why he is the race favorite in the early season classic. Garmin's Vandevelde pulled clear of a small breakaway group in the later stages of the 173.5 kilometer leg from Vichy to Saint Etienne and crossed the line 14 seconds clear of a chasing group containing Contador. The Spaniard had stretched his legs on a third category climb approaching the finish ...

French President Nicolas Sarkozy will Wednesday make one of the largest foreign policy gestures of his tenure when he announces France's return to NATO's high command. Sarkozy is expected to say that he wants France to rejoin the military alliance as a full member at its 60th anniversary summit next month. Charles de Gaulle took France out of NATO more than 40 years ago in protest at U.S. domination. In 1966, de Gaulle, then president, evicted all allied troops and ...