France

The headlines from last month's Iranian nuclear talks in Istanbul could not have been more misleading: "Iran is ready to resolve nuclear issues. " The accumulation of historical fact in this long crisis proves just the opposite: The Iranian regime is bent on acquiring a nuclear weapon, and will take full advantage of diplomacy toward this end if allowed to do so, including this week's talks in Baghdad. Indeed, the Iranian strategy of exploiting diplomacy to further advance the nuclear program is a matter of regime policy.

Mali's interim president, who was beaten by a mob of demonstrators who broke into his office this week, has left the country to seek medical treatment in France, an adviser and two French government officials said Wednesday. The unexpected, and unpublicized, departure of the 70-year-old Dioncounda Traore leaves a dangerous power vacuum in the West African nation, which was thrown off course following a March coup. Contacted by telephone, an adviser to Traore said the interim president had left Mali for France to do medical tests on his heart because he has had a previous heart...

With the school year winding down, Tufts University administrators met recently with students planning to study abroad, outlining what they should do before they leave and what to expect when they arrive. Above all, they stressed the risks - and ways to minimize them. But with an audience of young adults eager to see the world and seize adventure, it was hard to know whether the warnings truly hit home. "I think the message gets through," said Sheila Bayne, who directs the university's study-abroad program.

The woman who caused a security scare that resulted in a flight from Paris to Charlotte, N.C., being diverted to Bangor, Maine, will not be charged but will be returned to France, federal prosecutors in Maine said today. Lucie Zeeko Marigot, 41, was investigated by the FBI on possible charges of interfering with a flight crew throughout Tuesday night and into this morning. She appeared before US Magistrate Judge Margaret Kravchuk this afternoon, prosecutors said. But prosecutors told the court that, based on further...

SAO PAULO -- Accused of killings in his native Italy, militant 1970s leftist Cesare Battisti reinvented himself in France as a celebrated writer of police thrillers. But Paris got tougher on suspected terrorists and Battisti went on the run again in 2004, disappearing, apparently with the help of a French "support committee. " Disappearing, that is, until yesterday, when police tracking a woman bringing Battisti money found the fugitive novelist near Brazil's Copacabana Beach.

PARIS -- Floyd Landis will skip the Tour de France -- and all races in France this year -- as part of an agreement with French doping authorities in a case that could strip him of cycling's most prestigious title. Last year's Tour champion had hip-replacement surgery 4 1/2 months ago and was unlikely to have competed in this year's Tour. He agreed yesterday not to race again in France until 2008, and in return the French anti-doping agency postponed its decision on whether to suspend him from competing in France for a maximum of two years because of a...

PARIS - Of all the changes that have hit Europe during its long-running debt and economic crisis, a power shift in France, where Francois Hollande is preparing to take over as the first Socialist president in 17 years, may prove to be one of the most crucial. Street crowds in Paris were cheering Hollande's victory, but with unease rising about the future of the euro union, investors around the world were on edge. Hollande's campaign captured the imagination of an austerity-wary public.

Last week's snowstorms caused a few local avalanches on Mount Mansfield and Mount Washington, but while the seriousness of either should not be taken lightly by outdoor enthusiasts, the power of a full scale avalanche is truly something to behold. In case you missed it, the following footage was taken last weekend at the St Francois-Longchamp resort in France, where a snow slide quickly turned into a full-scale avalanche, taking out a chairlift as wide-eyed skiers looked on. In all, 41 people were rescued from the chairlift by helicopter.

Abercrombie & Kent 800-554-7016; 800-680-2858 www.abercrombiekent.com Our Provence barge cruise was $3,690 per person, not including air fare to Paris and train to Montpellier. The TGV Paris-to-Montpellier fare was $156 per person first class, $122 second class (914-681-7216, www.raileurope.com).

PARIS -- France honored victims of the slave trade yesterday with a national day of concerts, school lessons, Louvre exhibits, and ceremonies in a trading port that grew rich from New World slave plantations. President Jacques Chirac, marking the first annual commemoration day, urged France to confront the dark chapters of its history, 158 years after it abolished the practice of traders seizing Africans to toil in Caribbean colonies. "Looking directly at our entire past is one of the keys to our national cohesion," said Chirac, who announced the national day in January, soon after riots swept...

The Taliban on Sunday urged all NATO nations in Afghanistan to follow France's lead and pull their forces from the war. The call came in a three-page statement released just as heads of state opened the NATO summit in Chicago to talk about the future of Afghanistan. The Taliban also on Sunday took responsibility for a suicide bombing in southern Afghanistan. The newly elected president of France has said he will withdraw all French combat troops from Afghanistan by year's end — a full two years before the timeline agreed to by nations in U.S.-led NATO coalition.

► Today is Sunday, May 20, the 141st day of 2012. There are 225 days left in the year. ► Today's birthdays: Actor-author James McEachin is 82. Actor Anthony Zerbe is 76. Actor David Proval is 70. Singer Joe Cocker is 68. Singer-actress Cher is 66. Actor-comedian Dave Thomas is 63. Rock musician Warren Cann is 60. Former New York Governor David Paterson is 58. Actor Dean Butler is 56. TV-radio personality Ron Reagan is 54. Rock musician Jane...

Members of France's new Socialist-led government are taking office and preparing for their first Cabinet meeting with President Francois Hollande. New Prime Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault, a moderate longtime legislator valued for his knowledge of Germany, named the Cabinet on Wednesday night. The ministers are taking office Thursday in ceremonies bidding farewell to their conservative counterparts who served under former President Nicolas Sarkozy. The new Cabinet meets later Thursday.

France raised (EURO)9 billion ($11.6 billion) in a successful pair of bond auctions Wednesday that also saw some of its long-term borrowing costs move up. Borrowing costs, as measured by yields or interest rates, for a slew of bonds with maturities between two and five years dropped, an indication investors consider France a safe bet. On the day's largest issue, a 5-year bond, the yield was 1.72 percent compared to 1.83 percent when it was...

PARIS — In a dignified ceremony in a red and gold hall in the Elysee Palace, Francois Hollande, 57, was inaugurated Tuesday as president of France, the first Socialist to hold the office since Francois Mitterrand. Later, after naming Jean-Marc Ayrault, 62, as his prime minister, Hollande boarded a state aircraft bound for Berlin for his first official meeting with the German chancellor, Angela Merkel. Hollande's plane was hit by lightning in flight and had to return to Paris, but Hollande, unhurt, took off again for Berlin in a different plane, the French Defense Ministry said.

An advocate for children and parents, Frances Litman believed all families needed and deserved support and education. "Fran always said that when you work with children, you don't just work with the child, but with the whole family," said Eleonora Villegas-Reimers, a professor at Wheelock College, where Mrs. Litman had taught. "She always asked, ‘How can we help parents do the best job they can do for their children?' " In 1978, Mrs. Litman founded at Wheelock the Center for Parenting Studies, which offered workshops for parents and teachers and "elevated the study of...

PARIS - Just in time for New Year’s Eve, a new decree from France: Let them dance till dawn. Despite France’s reputation for bon vivants sipping champagne until the wee hours, aficionados have been complaining that nightlife, especially in Paris, is in decline. An Internet petition warns that the City of Light has become “Europe’s capital of sleep’’ - and complains that musicians, deejays, and partiers are heading instead to London, Barcelona, Prague, and Berlin.

The Vatican has denied an appeal by parishioners holding vigil at the long-shuttered St. Frances Xavier Cabrini Church in Scituate to reverse its deconsecration, said a spokesman for the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Boston. The parish was closed and the doors locked by the archdiocese in October 2004, but parishioners slipped in through a forgotten door and have been holding a round-the-clock vigil ever since. The church was deconsecrated last July. Under church law, deconsecration turns a house of worship into a secular building.

Francois Hollande became president of France on Tuesday in a ceremony steeped in tradition, taking over a country with deep debts and worried about Europe's future and pledging to make it a fairer place. Hollande is only the second Socialist president of modern France, after Francois Mitterrand's 1981-1995 tenure, and rode to the presidency on a wave of resurgent leftist sentiment amid Europe's debt crisis and anti-free-market protests around the world. Hollande, 57, was elected to a five-year term earlier this month after voters ousted incumbent Nicolas Sarkozy after only one...