France – News Stories About France - Page 58

Dec 30, 2011 12:16 PM CST

French 'Cola Tax' Starts Next Week

Tax on soda will help state coffers, rising obesity

(Newser) - Two things in France keep getting bigger: the deficit and the nation's waistline . To fight both simultaneously, a new "cola tax" will go into effect on New Year's Day, reports Der Spiegel . The tax will be a little more than a penny per can on Coke and...

Venezuela Offers Free
Removal of Faulty Implants

Dec 28, 2011 3:39 PM CST

Venezuela Offers Free Removal of Faulty Implants

But it won't pay for replacements

(Newser) - The Venezuelan government has offered to pay for the removal of defective breast implants for its own citizens, reports the BBC . The implants were produced by a now-defunct French company and are filled with industrial grade silicone—increasing their chance of rupturing. Replacement implants, however, will not be covered.

FDA Dinged French Breast Implants Maker in 2000

FDA Dinged French
Implants Maker in 2000

Dec 27, 2011 9:48 AM CST

FDA Dinged French Implants Maker in 2000

Called out 'adulterated' implants

(Newser) - Interpol wants to arrest Poly Implant Protheses' founder , and a Dutch company that bought its implants is now cautioning women ... how could things get uglier for PIP? Maybe by way of the revelation that US health authorities expressed worry about PIP in May ... of the year 2000. That's nearly...

French Breast Implants Sold Under New Name to Dutch

Dec 27, 2011 2:22 AM CST

French Breast Implants Sold Under New Name to Dutch

Lawyer says company's founder ready to face courts

(Newser) - The potentially dangerous breast implants made by a French company accused of using cheap industrial-grade silicon were sold in at least one other country under a different name, Reuters has found. Implants made by Poly Implant Protheses were rebranded by a Dutch company that sold them to close to 1,...

Arrest Warrant Issued for Faulty Breast Implant Boss

Dec 24, 2011 9:57 AM CST

Arrest Warrant Issued for Faulty Breast Implant Boss

Costa Rica wants him busted for crimes against 'health and life'

(Newser) - Interpol has issued an arrest warrant for the head of a French company that used industrial grade silicone in potentially dangerous breast implants for some 30,000 women. Jean-Claude Mas, 72, is wanted by Costa Rican authorities for crimes involving "life and health," and was last seen in...

France Advises Yanking Suspect Breast Implants

France Advises 30K to
Yank Breast Implants

Dec 23, 2011 8:19 AM CST

France Advises 30K to Yank Breast Implants

Poly Implant Prothese used industrial-grade silicone

(Newser) - The French government today advised women who got breast implants from Poly Implant Prothèse to have them removed post-haste, and even offering up public health care funds to finance the operation, over fears that they might rupture or cause irritation. The PIP boobs were yanked off the market last...

Muslim Hits Nurse
for Removing
Wife's Burka
During Birth

Dec 23, 2011 12:57 AM CST

Muslim Hits Nurse for Removing Wife's Burka During Birth

He gets 6 months for slugging French health-care worker

(Newser) - A Muslim man has been sentenced to six months in a French prison for slugging a nurse as she removed his wife's burka during childbirth. Nassim Mimoune, 24, was first ejected from the delivery room at a Marseille hospital after he accused the health-care worker of "rape" during...

France's Woman
of Year: DSK Wife

Dec 20, 2011 5:41 AM CST

France's Woman of Year: DSK Wife

Poll finds Anne Sinclair more popular than husband's successor at IMF

(Newser) - Standing by her man has made Anne Sinclair a very popular woman in France. Dominique Strauss-Kahn's wife has been named as woman of the year by a French women's magazine after topping an opinion poll, the New York Post reports. With 25%, Sinclair came out ahead of Christine...

France Finds Chirac
Guilty of Corruption

Dec 15, 2011 4:28 AM CST

France Finds Chirac Guilty of Corruption

Suspended sentence seen as seachange against French corruption

(Newser) - A French court found former President Jacques Chirac guilty of embezzling public funds to illegally finance the conservative party he long led, in a historic verdict today with repercussions for his legacy and France's political elite. Chirac will not go behind bars, but was handed a two-year suspended prison...

Snub? Sarkozy,
Cameron Have
Handshake Fail

Dec 9, 2011 11:03 AM CST

Snub? Sarkozy, Cameron Have Handshake Fail

Even body language is under scrutiny at euro summit

(Newser) - Britain's Daily Mail is calling it "Le Snub!": Reading much (maybe too much?) into the body language of Nicolas Sarkozy and David Cameron, it says the French president dissed the UK prime minister by blowing off Cameron's handshake at today's high-stakes European Union summit. (Britain...

Cops Raid Homes
of 6 Ex-SS Soldiers

Dec 7, 2011 1:27 AM CST

Cops Raid Homes of 6 Ex-SS Soldiers

Germany probing 1944 massacre in occupied France

(Newser) - German police have raided the homes of six former SS soldiers suspected of having taken part in the worst massacre of civilians in Nazi-occupied France. A German war crimes prosecutor says the John Demjanjuk trial inspired him to reopen the investigation into the massacre of 642 men, women, and children...

French Alpine
Glaciers Vanishing

Dec 7, 2011 12:00 AM CST

French Alpine Glaciers Vanishing

Glaciers down by a quarter over 40 years

(Newser) - France's glaciers have lost more than a quarter of their area in the last 40 years, and the rate of retreat appears to be accelerating, researchers warn. The 600 or so glaciers in the French Alps covered some 145 square miles in the early '70s but that was...

Greenpeace
Raids French
Nuclear Plant

Dec 5, 2011 8:51 AM CST

Greenpeace Raids French Nuclear Plant

Incident shows building is 'vulnerable': activists

(Newser) - Four Greenpeace activists were arrested in France today after breaking into a nuclear power plant; some scaled one of the reactors and sat atop it. The activists, who aimed to reveal flaws in plant safety, entered the area at 5am. "Simple activists with peaceful intentions and few means managed...

Sarkozy: Change—or Kiss Eurozone Goodbye

Dec 2, 2011 4:08 AM CST

Sarkozy: Change—or Kiss Eurozone Goodbye

At odds with Germany over ECB, deflation, budget enforcement

(Newser) - French President Nicolas Sarkozy yesterday called for changing the eurozone treaty to make a tighter, stronger union, and demanded more budget discipline, increased help for foundering economies, and replacing countries' veto rights with qualified majorities, reports Reuters . He also called for the European Central Bank to be more interventionist and...

DSK: Maid Gave Me a Look That Said 'Quickie'

Dec 1, 2011 6:35 AM CST

DSK: Maid Gave Me a Look That Said 'Quickie'

It was 'consensual, but stupid,' Strauss-Kahn says in new biography

(Newser) - Dominique Strauss-Kahn said when he stepped naked from the shower to see the Manhattan hotel maid who later accused him of rape, their eyes met and he read an invitation to "precipitous but consensual" sex, says a new biography out today. But he still considers the encounter "stupid"...

Now France's Rating
May Be Cut

Nov 29, 2011 2:30 AM CST

Now France's Rating May Be Cut

S&P may switch outlook on Triple-A rating to negative

(Newser) - Is there no nation with sound credit? Standard & Poor's is now considering changing the outlook for France's triple-A rating to negative within the next 10 days, signaling a possible downgrade, the French financial newspaper La Tribune reported yesterday. France is the last cushion between crumbling European economies...

Get Ready for 'Eurogeddon'

OPINION

Nov 27, 2011 7:23 AM CST

Get Ready for 'Eurogeddon'

Jeremy Wagner warns of riots, 'biggest mass default in history'

(Newser) - With the euro crisis spreading even to mighty Germany last week—when investors ignored a bund auction and sovereign debt yields grew more expensive than the UK's—it is clear now that the euro crisis is not just about the debts of the poorer, peripheral countries like Greece and...

Syria Agrees 'in Principle'
to Let Observers In

Nov 18, 2011 8:34 AM CST

Syria Agrees 'in Principle' to Let Observers In

As violence from dissidents mounts

(Newser) - As anti-government protests intensified and armed rebels started attacking government installations, Bashar al-Assad's regime has agreed "in principle" to allow Arab League observers into Syria, a senior official tells the AP . "Syria has agreed in principle to the Arab League proposal ," he said. "We are...

Energy Giant Guilty of
Spying on Greenpeace

Nov 11, 2011 4:25 AM CST

Energy Giant Guilty of Spying on Greenpeace

Hacking case also snared Floyd Landis

(Newser) - French electricity giant EDF, the world's biggest operator of nuclear power plants, has been found guilty of spying on Greenpeace and fined $2 million. EDF, a frequent target of Greenpeace campaigns, hired a security agency to hack into the group's computers to gain information about its anti-nuclear activities,...

French Built Fake Paris
to Fool German Bombers

Nov 10, 2011 2:55 AM CST

French Built Fake Paris to Fool German Bombers

Replica city wasn't finished by end of WWI

(Newser) - A sham Paris was built near the end of World War I in an attempt to fool German bombers, according to recently unearthed archives. The fake city—built on a bend of the Seine similar to the one in Paris—boasted fake railways, fake factories, and even a fake Champs-Elysé...