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France

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Latest stories about France

29 February 2012

International Mother Language Day in Francophone Regions

Written by Suzanne Lehn · Translated by Andrew Kowalczuk · Language, Citizen Media

February 21st is International Mother Language Day. Discussion of the origins of this celebration, and a brief review of current developments in French language and new technologies.

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25 February 2012

Italy: Historic ‘Guilty' Verdict in the Eternit Asbestos Trial

Written by Abdoulaye Bah · Translated by Jenny Sin · Environment, Governance

It is a historic verdict: on February 13, 2012 in Turin, northern Italy, the two top senior executives of the multinational Eternit, a producer of asbestos, were sentenced to 16 years in prison after a criminal trial began in 2009. Here are the reactions of the associations and the families of asbestos victims in Italy and Europe.

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16 February 2012

China: A Portrayal of Portrayals of Cultural And Ethnic Stereotypes

Written by John Kennedy · Arts & Culture, Humor

One Chinese vlogger has gone viral with his impersonation of the accents of a few Asian neighbors and other cultures from around the globe. How much do these differ from similar crude stereotypes you've seen elsewhere?

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17 January 2012

Black Women in European Politics: from Struggle to Success

Written by Abdoulaye Bah · Translated by Vivienne Griffiths · Human Rights, International Relations

Nowadays, it is a common to witness African-born women with successful careers in Europe. Despite the evident challenges, many have also distiguished themselves in politics. Still, it was not so long ago that such success would have seemed impossible.

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9 January 2012

COP17: Young Trackers Share Final Thoughts on Climate Change Talks

Written by Andrea Arzaba · Freedom of Speech, Environment

Adopt a Negotiator Project trackers updated their blogs daily during the two weeks of climate change talks at the United Nations Conference on Climate Change, COP17, held from November 28 to December 9, 2011, in South Africa. In this post we share some of their conclusions.

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15 November 2011

Eurozone Crisis: Where Will the Economy Go?

Written by Evan Fleischer · Governance, International Relations

Economists would be hard pressed to forecast the future of Europe's bailouts and the consequences of the current financial crisis. While opinions differ, reactions abound online to try to make sense of what future awaits the Eurozone.

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8 November 2011

Equatorial Guinea: Teodoro Obiang Nguema and Son Face French Justice System

Written by Abdoulaye Bah · Translated by Theodora Rowlands · Freedom of Speech, Development

The French justice system has dismissed a complaint by the Equatorial Guinean president against a report accusing him of having stolen from his people. Abdoulaye Bah investigates.

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3 November 2011

France: Satirical Magazine's Office Burnt Down After Mocking Sharia

Written by Julie Owono · Freedom of Speech, Human Rights

During the night of November 2, the Paris head office of satirical French weekly Charlie Hebdo was attacked and burnt down. This happened on the same day an issue of the long established French weekly featuring the Prophet Muhammad as guest editor on its cover, was about to hit newsstands.

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31 October 2011

France: Calls for Official Recognition of 1961 Paris Algerian Massacre

Written by Suzanne Lehn · Translated by Patricia Worth · Governance, History

Fifty years after the bloody suppression of a peaceful demonstration by Algerians in Paris, French officials are still struggling to admit their responsibility. Calls for the official recognition of the 1961 massacre have been building in this anniversary year.

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27 October 2011

France: New Visa Restrictions for Foreign University Graduates

Written by Julie Owono · Education, Law

France has taken a legal step which makes it more difficult for foreign students who have graduated from French universities to work on French territory and thus change their student visa permit into a working visa. Julie Owono reports on reactions to the new immigration rules.

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Updates about France

21 March 2012

English

Babalobi wrote on eWash: “Accompanied by unarmed policemen, protesters marched through the streets of central Marseille singing, dancing and chanting slogans against ‘privatisation’ and ‘commodification’ of urban water supply.” The protests were organised by global civil society movements that include Public Service International, Africa Water Network, European Federation of Public Service Unions, Transnational Institute, WASH United, Greenpeace and Food and Water Watch.

• Abdoulaye Bah

14 March 2012

Updates

The blog Afro Europe reports on a new film about the black community in France: ” Noirs de France” (”Blacks of France”) is a new documentary of the history of black people in France. It's based on the book “La France Noir” of French historian Pascal Blanchard. The documentary is aired on France 5 in 3 episodes and will be will be available on DVD on 20 February 2012. A traveling exhibition is also on the program.”

• Abdoulaye Bah

7 March 2012

French

Sandrine Dionys interviewed [fr] Emmanuelle, a young entrepreneur from La Réunion for the Bondy Blog. She rails against the cliché of the Réunion Islanders being dependent on the French government for aid.

• Suzanne Lehn

28 February 2012

French

Abdellali Hajjat, author of the book The Boundires of National Identity: The Injunction to Assimilation in France and its Territories, explains in an interview [fr] on the blog Contretemps the ideological seeds of Islamophobia and the institutional logic that reinforces it. “Racism needs a crutch to provide the principle of separating national/foreign” he concludes.

• Suzanne Lehn

22 February 2012

French

StopTGV.com is a web campaign launched by a number of Moroccan NGOs. It calls for the cancellation of the controversial French-made Tangier-Casablanca TGV rail link due to start operating by December 2015 and which is worth an estimated 20 billion dirhams (US$2.4 billion). The campaign calls on the authorities to “reconsider this costly project in a country like Morocco ranked second last in the region in terms of human development.”

• Hisham Almiraat

17 February 2012

French

The blogger Menilmuche reports [fr] that a massive search began on February 14th at the home of Teoforo Obiang, the son of the president of Equatorial Guinea, in his Parisian mansion on Avenue Foch. The search is in response to complaints against some heads of African states in France for their “ill-gotten gains”.

• Claire Ulrich

15 February 2012

English

The Local blog posts a Human Rights Watch report that states : “French police use broad powers to conduct abusive identity checks on black and Arab young men and boys despite the absence of any evidence of wrongdoing, Human Rights Watch said on Thursday.”

• Abdoulaye Bah

French

Despite freezing temperatures, a few thousand netizens joined the Saturday Feb. 11 worldwide protests against ACTA, in Paris and some 40 other cities in France. One can find pictures on clubic.com, a video of the protests [fr] on Madmax's blog, an Anti - Acta France Facebook page and the details [fr] of a petition on the Gizmodo blog.

• Suzanne Lehn

10 February 2012

French

Elsa Doladille writes [fr] on the Educators Without Borders blog : ” While the Guéant Bill in France aims at toughening the conditions for foreign students to obtain a work permit, Germany encourages the integration of students from abroad in their workforce.”

• Abdoulaye Bah

French

Pierre Vicari [fr] had this to say about the results of a survey [fr] which appeared on the site Lefigaro.fr, “To the ignoramuses who say that PACS and marriage are the same thing: No! A PACS does not provide any of the same rights as marriage! In addition, you intolerant people who do not want equality for all human beings, please tell us why because so far, despite the years that this debate has been going on, nobody has been able to put forth any real arguments.”

• Abdoulaye Bah

Comments on "France"

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