FRANCAIS AVEC MONSIEUR CALDWELL

Saturday 12 April 2008 from France 24/7 Jacques Chirac underwent surgery Friday to implant a pacemaker. The 75-year old former French president is to return home over the weekend, according to a statement from his office. Former French president Jacques Chirac underwent successful surgery early Friday in Paris to implant a pacemaker, his office said. The 75-year-old former leader was admitted to La Pitie Salpetriere hospital Thursday evening for the procedure that was scheduled several days ago following a routine checkup. Chirac, who handed over to President Nicolas Sarkozy in May last year, is to return home at the weekend, a statement from his office said. After 12 years as president, Chirac set up a foundation devoted to the environment, sustainable development and promoting understanding among cultures. But he has also been placed under investigation for misuse of city funds dating f

Saturday 12 April 2008 By Reuters French military officials captured six pirates who had seized a luxury yacht off the Somali coast. The former hostages, released through the payment of a ransom, are expected back in Paris on Monday. (Report: M. Henbest) PARIS, April 11 (Reuters) - The 30-strong crew of a luxury French yacht seized by Somali pirates a week ago were freed without incident on Friday but French troops later captured half the pirates, French military officials said. France sent a warship and special forces to the region after the pirates seized the three-master in the Gulf of Aden last Friday and troops were standing by as negotiations to free the hostages took place on Friday morning. The pirates had sailed the yacht, the Ponant, to the Somali coast, eventually mooring the vessel at Garaad, near the town of Eyl. French officials said earlier this week they believed t

Tuesday 08 April 2008 By FRANCE 24 with wires Pro-Tibetan protesters succeeded in disrupting the Olympic torch relay in Paris, forcing officials to put the torch on a bus after a day of clashes that saw the flame extinguished three times. (Report : R. Thompsett) It was billed by the Chinese authorities as “the harmonious journey,” but the Paris leg of the 2008 Olympic torch relay Monday did not go according to script, with protests, arrests and scuffles between pro-Tibet demonstrators and security officials disrupting the flame’s passage through the French capital. Three times in the course of its 28-kilometer route through the City of Lights, the Olympic flame was extinguished by security officials and the torch was finally put on a bus for the final leg of the Paris relay. After four hours of a chaotic journey through the streets of Paris, Chinese officials finally called off the relay, with the torch r

Tuesday 08 April 2008 By AFP A French medical mission to aid French-Colombian hostage Ingrid Betancourt has been rejected by the Colombian guerrilla group FARC. "Our actions are not determined by blackmail or by the media," the FARC said in a press release. Leftist Colombian rebels on Tuesday rejected a French humanitarian mission trying to assist hostages that include ailing French-Colombian Ingrid Betancourt. France sent a jet with doctors and diplomats on board to Colombia last week in hopes of getting access to Betancourt, 46, who was said to be gravely ill. "For the same reasons given the ICRC (International Red Cross) on January 17, the French medical mission is not appropriate and, moreover, is not the result of an agreement," read a statement from the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) guerrillas, issued through the pro-rebel Bolivar

Monday 07 April 2008 from France 24 International News After scuffles disrupted its tour round London, the Olympic flame arrived in Paris late on Sunday. Torchbearers are set to carry it through the French capital on Monday where campaigners are planning protests over China's human rights record. The Olympic flame arrived at Paris' Charles de Gaulle airport late on Sunday, an airport official said, ahead of a high-security tour through the French capital where campaigners are planning protests over China's human rights record. The flame was welcomed China's ambassador to France, M. Kong Quan and former athlete Guy Drut, according to the airport official. The flame was to be transported by a convoy of 40 motorcycles to a hotel in the city that has been surrounded by police. On Monday, police plan to secure a perimeter of some 200 metres (yards) around the torch as it is carried in relay by 80 runners on a 28-kilometre (18-mile) route through Paris from the Eiffel Tow

From France 24/7 and AFP France has made contact with pirates holding a luxury French cruise yacht with around 30 crew off the coast of Somalia, Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner said in a radio interview Sunday. "We've made contact and the matter could last a long time," Kouchner told France Inter. "Our contact needs to be fruitful and we have to do everything to avoid bloodshed." He did not rule out the payment of a ransom to secure the release of the crew -- 22 French nationals and around 10 Ukrainians. The French military kept up its surveillance of the hijacked vessel as it was taken toward a pirate lair off northeast Somalia, officials said earlier. Defence Minister Herve Morin said there could be no military intervention unless the safety of the crew could be guaranteed. Any order to launch a military operation "cannot be taken unless there is certainty that this will happen in secure conditions that preserve the integrity of the crew," he

Tuesday, April 1 The Associated Press Colombia's president said Tuesday he had approved a French mission to try to meet with hostages held by leftist rebels, including gravely ill politician Ingrid Betancourt. The mission would be "to protect the deteriorating health of the hostages," President Alvaro Uribe said. Betancourt, who holds both French and Colombian nationality, is being held along with dozens of other hostages by the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia or FARC. In Paris, French President Nicolas Sarkozy said he had called Uribe to inform him France was sending a humanitarian mission "without delay to contact the FARC and obtain access to our compatriot," his office said. Uribe said once Colombia's military has the co-ordinates of the location for any meeting between the French delegation and the rebels, it will temporarily suspend military ope