The Paris Gazette

MySpace goes French

"Bonjour mon ami!" You've got a friend in France…or so. Social networking powerhouse MySpace is coming to a website…near you. After running a beta site for several months, the French version of MySpace will go live this week. It will compete against rivals such as Skyblog, which grew out of a French rap radio station and had 13.2 million unique visitors in France in November. MySpace, bought by News Corp.'s billionaire Rupert Murdoch for $580 million in 2005 is looking to boost its global network of users via international expansion. France is the second European country to play host to MySpace. The U.K version attracted 6.9 million unique users late 2006.

In God's Country

France is no longer a "catholic country". According to a recent poll published in Le Monde des Religions the number of self-declared French Catholics has dropped from 80% in the early 1990s and 67% in 200 to 51% today. In the meantime the number of atheists has risen sharply to 31% from 23% in 1994. Only 10% go to church regularly. Mainly to Sunday mass. And of the 51% who still call themselves Catholics, only half said they believe in God. Hey wake up!!! Time out. Does this really make any sense??? Ok, here's THE explanation: many said they were Catholics because it was a family tradition. Le Monde des Religions cited varied reasons for the decline, including the rural exodus, changing values, and the rise of individualism. However, Catholicism remains by far the country's number one religion. As Muslims accounted for only 4% of the population, Protestants 3% and Jews only 1%.

C'est SO Paris? Cà c'est Paris!

Cities across the world try to market themselves to you, hoping you'll travel there as a tourist and inject money into the local economy. London is known for its history, its castles, the monarchy and those infamous pubs. New York is home to countless museums and Broadway plays and is the city that never sleeps. Los Angeles is where the stars shine and surf's up. And then there's Paris, France.  It will always be known as the City of Lights and give you an eyeful of the Eiffel Tower. But now marketers trying to hype you on the merits of a vacation in the French hub are turning to a different tactic - selling rudeness. Here's the message: you don't need to speak French to understand the Parisians. You just need to know how to gesture. Or so claims a new guide (cestsoparis.com) issued by French tourism officials to help foreign tourists understand Parisians. The city's famously rude inhabitants have long been a headache for tourism authorities who have made repeated attempts to persuade Parisians to be more friendly to foreign visitors. The latest campaign appears to cede to the notion that if you can't beat them, join them.

Its part English-language Web site promises to show people "How to Cop the Parisian Attitude" with games to help them learn commonly employed gestures. The guide is linked to an advertising campaign in London that hopes to show that Paris isn't a stuffy museum city. And just in case it is taken too literally, it also includes a cautionary note suggesting that visitors may see some even ruder Parisian expressions if they use the gestures too freely. Although if tourists take the advice to heart, it may become much harder to tell who's only there for a brief stay. "People will start mistaking you for a native in no time," the guide warns.

Adopt A Truffle

Périgord truffles (Tuber melanosporum), known as Black Diamonds due to their high price and rarity, are perhaps the most sought after culinary product in the world. They grow in a strange symbiotic relationship with the roots of many species of tree, predominantly oak. Now Dick Pyle, a former restaurant owner in London offers food lovers the opportunity to have their owntruffle-producing oak tree in a French truffle plantation. In July 2002, he moved to Le Gers, a small département in South West France know to outsiders mainly for its Foie Gras, Gascony wines and Armagnac. After buying a parcel of land adjoining his house from a local farmer, Dick Pyle started a new truffière planted with several hundred oaks. Trees (a mixture of evergreen Quercus ilex and deciduous Quercus pubescens) have been planted at four metre intervals in rows five metres apart, giving twenty square metres of truffle growing area per tree. Tree owners are able to choose between pooling their truffles for sale in the market and receiving a cheque at the end of the season or having them sent by post as they are harvested. On his website, Dick Pyle encourages owners to take personal interest in their tree, perhaps even planting their own, doing a little pruning or helping during the harvesting season. Standard Adoption price is 219 euros ($ 279) per tree. And standard annual maintenance & care price is 49 euros ($65) per tree.

More Infos >>> Truffle Tree.co.uk

Une histoire de truffes

French truffles producers have asked the European Commission to give them a subsidy to plant more "truffle trees", The Independent reports. This variety of oak promotes the growth of the much-prized underground fungi, which are sniffed out by dogs and pigs. Brussels has turned up its nose at the request but the French federation of truffle producers says it will continue its campaign in the European Parliament. The problem is the quantities of truffles found in Europe - mostly France and Italy - which are plummeting. Hot summers, the advance of the suburbs and the use of agricultural chemicals are all blamed for the growing scarcity of the Tuber melanosporum, or "black" Périgord truffle. In the late 19th century, France harvested 1,600 tons a year. Only 20 tons are expected to come to market in the south of France this winter. About 10,000 people in France are engaged in the truffle industry, mostly in the south-east. But only a few dozen make their living entirely from truffles. Which the price is fetching up to 800 euros a killogram this winter in village markets in the south of France.

VIDEO >>> La Grande Muraille de la "bravitude"

Par Ségolène Royal :-) Candidate à l'élection présidentielle ou à l'Académie française. On ne sait plus trop. Mais déjà diplomée en buzz médiatique.

Tiananmen In Memoriam

A new guide co-produced by France's Tourism Ministry advises businesspeople not to mention Tibet, Taiwan and the Tiananmen Square crackdown on pro-democracy demonstrators when negotiating with the Chinese.The guide, "Chinese tourists: How best to welcome them?" was launched by French Tourism Minister Leon Bertrand last month and was produced by his ministry and its tourism promotion agency. Destined for use by tourism professionals, the 65-page guide has plenty of handy tips. The advice to avoid sensitive political subjects comes in the chapter "Negotiating and Doing Business." "Avoid speaking about Chinese politics, for example: The events on Tiananmen Square, strategic questions of Taiwan or of Tibet ," the guide says under the subheading, "Principles of etiquette." Thousands, of unarmed protesters were killed when the Chinese army cleared the square in the heart of Beijing of student demonstrators on June 4, 1989. China claims sovereignty over the self-ruling island of Taiwan and has been accused of destroying Tibetan culture and of widespread human rights abuses in Tibet since it invaded the Himalayan territory in 1950.

Elisabeth Alles, a spokeswoman on China affairs for the human rights league, called the advice "completely scandalous." "We know that the word 'Tiananmen' is practically banned in China, but it is not in France, and the French should not submit to directives in effect in China," Alles told The Associated Press. "We should not be telling people what they should and should not be saying," she said. Chinese tourism to France is growing rapidly. An estimated 650,000-660,000 tourists from China visited last year, up from 600,000 in 2005.

Un capitalisme à visage inhumain

L'argent n'a pas d'odeur, l'argent n'a pas idée, on cherchera en vain un scoop dans ces deux affirmations. Avec le ministère français du Tourisme, on a aujourd'hui la confirmation que l'argent n'a pas non plus de morale. Car conseiller le plus officiellement du monde à des hommes d'affaires de ne pas évoquer l'occupation du Tibet, ou les massacres des étudiants de Tiananmen, c'est s'asseoir dans les grandes largeurs sur le respect des droits de l'Homme. Et donner une bien pâle image de ce que pourrait être le capitalisme de demain. On attend avec impatience, les prochains "manuels de savoir-vivre" du ministère français du Tourisme, qui pourraient bien conseiller au choix de ne pas parler de la Tchétchénie avec des Russes, de ne pas évoquer la question de la liberté d'expression avec des officiels Cubains, et de ne jamais, au grand jamais, discuter nucléaire avec des diplomates Nord-coréens. Car entre gens de bonne compagnie, vous comprenez ma bonne dame, il est des choses qui ne se font pas.

Not a very Good Year

"Appaling", "cliched", "a pitiful Anglo-Saxon caricature of France", "boring", "totally useless", the French press has lined up to demolish Ridley Scott's latest film "A Good Year" (Une Grande Année), deriding the romance of a London banker (Russell Crowe) who retires to a chateau in Provence. The movie which is loosely based on Peter Mayle's novel of the same name written in 2004, has attracted mixed reviews elsewhere.

Mayle's book describes the process of buying and renovating an old farmhouse and adapting to life in a Luberon village, with colourful portrayals of French workmen, neighbors and bureaucracy. Over the decades French reactions to the hordes of Britons, fed up with grey skies and rain, flocking first to the south of France then all over the country, have varied from anger to amusement, The Guardian writes. An estimated 500 000 Britons now own property in France, worth about 7.5 billion euros (9.7 billion dollars). At least 100 000 are believed to be permanent residents, double the number five years ago.

The Wal-Mart factor

French chain stores which have been banned from advertising on television under a law passed in 1968 to protect the regional press, are now free to do so. They will devote about 230 millions euros to television this year. Slots for a total of more than 60 television advertisements have been reserved this month. Under the new rules, French supermarkets will be prevented from advertising promotional offers on TV. Nevertheless, The Union of Small Shopkeepers described this liberalisation as "totally unacceptable", saying it would reinforce the stranglehold of big business and have a catastrophic impact on France's network of small shops. The Times writes. "Independent shops see this as yet another competitive handicap for small businesses," the French Senate said in a report.

Tintin At The Top

The Pompidou Center in Paris is commemorating the 100th birthday of Herge, the creator of comic-strip character Tintin, with a retrospective exhibition. Tintin, the forever young journalist who trots the globe like the heroes of Jules Verne novels, is as familiar to Europeans as Superman is to Americans. Charles de Gaulle called him his only rival as most popular Frenchman. The general was mistaken. Tintin is Belgian. And his creator Herge, or Georges Remi (1907-83), spent his entire life in Brussels. The Pompidou show is organized in two parts: The first traces Herge's career chronologically, from his first works for modest boy-scout magazines to the founding of the Studios Herge, with 15 collaborators, and his apotheosis as an art collector and patron of young talents. In the second part, there's the whole Herge "family'' : Tintin and Tchang, of course, as well as the bearded, blustering Captain Haddock, the ear-splitting diva Bianca Castafiore, the hapless detectives Dupont and Dupond, and Milou, the white dog with whom Tintin communicates telepathically. On display are original drawings, letters, samples of the various magazines for whom Herge worked and  "Tintin et le Thermozero," a spy story he never finished, Bloomberg reports. The highlight of the show is the complete series of printing plates for "Le Lotus Bleu,'' all 124 of them. Entrance is free. The exhibition runs through Feb.19.

You've got a message

French presidentials frontrunners Segolene Royal and Nicolas Sarkozy issued New Year greetings via the Internet on Monday in constrasting styles that spoke about their different approach to the campaign. While Interior Minister Sarkozy offered a traditional message to welcome 2007, Socialist candidate Royal appeared in an amateur-style (but technically sophisticated) video. A relaxed Royal is seen wearing no make up, sitting in the corner of a white room with a string of simple Christmas lights hanging from the wall, Reuters reports.

By contrast, a sombre-suited Sarkozy stands in front of the symbol of his Union for a Popular Movement (UMP) party for his Internet message, making a traditional party political broadcast. In the meantime, UMP is gearing up for the country's first Web-based primary, in a presidential campaign during which Internet has acquired unprecedented importance. About 331 000 members of the ruling party will be able to vote electronically to nominate their presidential candidate. Nicolas Sarkozy is the only contender, so the result is a foregone conclusion, but supporters of the Interior Minister hope this vote will give their web campaign a boost and give to the party an aura of tech-savvy modernity.

France to publish UFO archive online

The French space agency (the CNES) is to publish its archive of UFO sightings and other phenomena on its website late January or mid-February a spokesman said. The French database of around 1600 incidents would go live but the nameof those who reported them will be kept secret to protect them from pestering by space fanatics, Reuters reports. The archive consists of around 6000 reports, many relating the same incident, filed by the public and airline professionals.

BONNE ANNEE !!!

Jesus Christ Superstar

Bienvenue dans la "Discothèque de Dieu" !!! Pour la nuit de la Saint-Sylvestre, c'est-à-dire pour le réveillon de fin d'année, l'évêché de…Lourdes, ville de miracles et de pèlerinages s'il en est, invite les jeunes à venir assister à un concert de "rock chrétien", du groupe Exo, avant de rejoindre la 3D, comprenez la Discothèque De Dieu, pour une nuit d'adoration ou un "café nocturne".

Comme le note Le Figaro: "après l'opération "Gâteau de Toussaint" qui a fini par avoir raison de la fête païenne d'Halloween, désertée cette année, l'Eglise vise le réveillon", qui n'est pourtant pas une date majeure du calendrier catholique. C'est à se demander où va parfois se nicher le prosélytisme…

La troisième mort du Docteur Guillotin

On Oct. 9, 1981 France abolished capital punishment (and therefore French Guillotine). Now President Jacques Chirac says he wants to go further by making the policy part of the constitution. France's parliament is to vote early 2007 on a bill that would revise the constitution to include the fact the death penalty is illegal. The measure would add a single line to the constitution: "No one can be sentenced to the death penalty". Mr.Chirac wants to prevent those who will be elected by the French people in the future from making their decision on the death penalty.

The Labour Party

France's jobless rate was down 0.1% in November to 8.7%, according to data released Thursday by the Labor Ministry. Still, France's unemployment rate remains above the euro-zone average that stood at 7.7% in October. However, a coalition of unions and pressure groups calling itself "The Other Unemployment Figures" claimed that official measures (which are calculated in accordance with norms laid down by the International Labour Organisation) do not reflect the full extent of the problem. According to this coalition, there're another 2.3m job-seekers who're overlooked in headline statistics, such as those hunting part-ime or temporary work, The Financial Times reports.

Corot to paint a new picture of space

France's space agency has launched Corot (i.e The Convection, Rotation and Planetary Transits satellite) from Baikonur, Kazakhstan, aboard a Russian Soyuz-Fregat rocket. The space telescope's mission is to find rocky planets outside of our solar system. Corot was launched from Baikonur, Kazakhstan, aboard a Russian Soyuz-Fregat rocket. Corot, part of the French National Space Agency (CNES) Proteus mini-satellite series, will detect planets in other solar systems, called extrasolar planets, by monitoring the changes in a star's brightness that comes from a planet crossing in front of it. The satellite's secondary objective is to probe into previously inaccessable stellar interiors and study the physics of stars. 

Led by CNES, Corot is a collaborative effort with international partners, including French laboratories (CNRS), the European Space Agency (ESA), and organisations in Austria, Belgium, Germany, Spain and Brazil. Partner contributions range from providing hardware to setting up ground stations and analysing the incoming scientific data. ESA plans to continue the search for habitable worlds with the future launch of the Darwin mission. Darwin will be a flotilla of four or five spacecraft that will take pictures of Earth-like planets around other stars and will allow scientists to analyse their atmospheres for the chemical signature of life.

Hors-d'oeuvre en péril

Many of France's top chefs, and at least one government minister, are pressing the UN to give French cuisine special status under a new treaty that aims to preserve traditions in danger of dying out. Significantly, traditions recognized under the Convention for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage will be eligible forinternational grants to help them survive. At the very least, receiving international recognition will help the respective home countries attract tourist and investors CanWest News Service reports. The accord is administered by UN Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). France's chances of succeeding are not insignificant. Although UNESCO rejected Argentina's bid to win recognition for the tango, it approved Japan's application on behalf of Kabuki, a forof traditional Japanese theatre which is also performed regularly in Europe and North America. In any event, the French are pulling out all the stops.

"Everyone must act", said celebrity chef Philippe Legendre of Cinq restaurant in the George V hotel just off Champs-Elysees. Joining him are other big-name chefs such as Paul Bocuse, Alain Ducasse, Pierre Troigros, Michel Guerard, Marc Veyrat and Alain Passard. Along with the former French culture minister Jack Lang, most of the group are memebers of an action committee formed by the French-based European Institute of Food History and Culture and the University of Tours. For his part, the current French Minister of Culture, Renaud Donnedieu de Vabres, called the idea of seeking international acclaim for French cuisine "excellent". Bon appétit!

Cocorico! Or is it?

The theme for this year's box office in Gaul could be described as "Vive la France!" Six out of the top 10 — including the No. 1 — earners were local pics, with the rest hailing from the U.S, Variety reports. For the rest of Europe, however, it wasn't the best year at the French box office. Only two films from other Euro territories made it on the top 50 list: Pedro Almodovar's "Volver," which came in at No. 13 and grossed $17.7 million, and "Perfume: The Story of a Murderer," which ranked 41 and pocketed $7.12 million. But for the Gallic film industry it was sunny skies. Topping the list was long-awaited third installment of the "Les Bronzes" franchise. "Les Bronzes 3: Friends for Life," a laffer that reunited the now-aging cast from the first two cult films, grossed $80.4 million in the 14 weeks it played here. The other French flicks to make the top 10 were laffer "Camping," "Je vous trouve tres beau," surprise hit "Prete-moi ta main," "The Valet" and Cannes winner "Days of Glory." Pics that seemed to book the best returns this year were the family comedies, like "Les Bronzes 3" and "Camping," both of which celebrate the tacky vacations of the average French Joe.

NY-Paris-NY

"To know Paris is to know a great deal", Henry Miller once said. "The chief danger about Paris is that it is such a strong stimulant", T.S Eliot added. The New York Times takes you to a stunning 36 hour-trip to the "City of Light". Few cities thrill visitors with such a beguiling multiplicity of personalities. There is the devout Paris of Notre Dame’s Gothic solemnity, and the naughty Paris of Pigalle’s red-light bars. Sophisticated Paris radiates from the vaulted galleries of the Louvre and the gilded Opéra Garnier, while bohemian Paris emerges in the art galleries of the Marais and gritty rock ’n’ roll nightclubs. For every Gallic gastronomic temple, there’s an Asian, African or Middle Eastern restaurant brimming with exotic flavors. And for every Jean Paul Gaultier, there’s a fledgling fashion student opening his first boutique. The Times writes. Where to stay. Where to eat. What to do >>> See The New York Times travel section...Vous avez rendez-vous!

More Infos: "36 Hours Paris" The New York Times

Le Dernier Métro

Depuis le 23 décembre, les samedis et veilles de fêtes, le métro parisien circule une heure de plus jusqu'à 2 h 15, au lieu d'1 h 15 auparavant. En 2007, la mesure sera étendue au vendredi. A Paris, l'horaire du dernier métro n'avait pas changé depuis cent ans. "Nous attendons 45 000 nouveaux voyageurs entre 1 h 15 et 2 h 15, indique dans Le Monde,  Philippe Martin, directeur général adjoint de la RATP. Soit une hausse de 5 à 10 % par rapport au trafic du samedi estimé en moyenne à 3,5 millions". Pour les bus, dès janvier 2007, dix lignes supplémentaires circuleront chaque soir, jusqu'à minuit trente et non pas 21 h 30, dans Paris intra-muros (42, 47, 54, 57, 65, 66, 72, 87, 61, 76). Elles rouleront aussi le dimanche. Enfin pour les touristes, le Montmartrobus (le bus d'Amélie Poulain) roulera tous les jours jusqu'à 0 h 30 au lieu de 20 h 30.

Plus d'infos:  Sur le site de la RATP

Just Married

The New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) said on Wednesday its shareholders approved its planned $14.3 billion acquisition of the Paris-based Euronext NV in a deal that would create the first trans-Atlantic securities market and set the stage for further expansion. The purchase of the European exchange operator is set to be completed during the first quarter of 2007 after getting regulatory approval. The deal is seen as a prelude to an era of cross-border exchanges trading stocks, options and other financial products on a global scale, Associated Press reports.

Rodin / The Eros figures

Although Rodin is recognized as one of the fathers of modern sculpture, his graphic work remains generally unknown.  Through 140 drawings and watercolors, executed between 1890 and 1917, as well as 5 sculptures, an exhibition at the Musée Rodin (Paris) presents all the aspects of the body, from a simple to the most erotic nude. This exhibition probes the nature of the view Rodin has of the body: where does the nude end and where does nudity begin, and what are the esthetic ramifications of eroticism.  Eroticism is in fact often associated with plastic concerns, highly characteristic of Rodin’s later work.  Although, above and beyond their erotic charge, these drawings are mainly part of a quest for pure form, eroticism nevertheless emerges as an essential element, as the main driving force behind the artist’s creation.

The drawings exposed up to February 18th, similarly to the entire bulk of his graphic work, were in no way a preparation for his sculptures; these are works of art in their own right that have a life of their own, enriching the scope of the artist’s experiments with form. The many models flowing through the artist’s studio lend themselves simultaneously to conventional and unusual poses, for example, showing themselves undressing or combing their hair.

The intimate and trusting atmosphere that reigns in Rodin’s studio enables the artist to sketch his models in the most extravagant positions, without restraint or a sense of modesty. The models offer themselves to his eyes, his devouring curiosity for women. The body in all its excitement becomes the sole preoccupation for Rodin.

More Infos: The Musee Rodin

Chiracophobia

On the TV screen, they all line up to tell stories about his thirst for power, his betrayals, his opportunism and his policy U-turns that have earned him the nickname “the Weathervane.” He's “a sort of political Don Juan, more preoccupied with the conquest or the preservation of power than by its execution,” one tells. He's a “chevalier of opportunism” who put into place a system of “corruption” in the years he was mayor of Paris, said a former prime minister who was part of his own camp. For another minister who worked under him in the 1970s, he “is a killer.” Who's this guy? Don't look any further, this is Jacques Chirac we're talking about.

The President of France whose current term expires in 2007, is the subject of a four-hour documentary that recently aired on France 2 television. “Chirac was a wild cat who eliminated everyone in his way to the Élysée,” the author, historian Patrick Rotman said. “Now he is rather alone and isolated. It’s the tragedy of powerful men who were kings, who gave their lives to win power and at the end of their reign are abandoned.”

Mr. Rotman’s documentary is perhaps the most authoritative but only one of many attempts to write Mr. Chirac’s political history — and obituary — in the past year, The New York Times reports. In “The Irresponsible,” Hervé Gattegno, a journalist for Le Monde, accuses Mr. Chirac of transforming France into an autocracy, using his presidency with “political and judicial irresponsibility, as a debtor without scruples uses his insolvency.” Earlier, “The Tragedy of the President,” an unforgiving portrait by veteran journalist Franz-Olivier Giesbert, drew on private conversations with Mr. Chirac and pictured him as personifying the decline of France. “By cowardice as much as blindness, he persists in pursuing policies that have been leading the country to ruin for more than 20 years,” Mr. Giesbert wrote.

For his part, and even if the French have already looked beyond him, Mr.Chirac doesn't seem to care this much about this so-called waves of Chiracophobia. He may be "a lion in winter", he is unready to say adieu. So far he has refused to announce that he will not run for a third term next spring, saying that he will announce his decision next March.

More Infos: "Chirac's Last Act: Lion in Winter, Wolves All Around" The New York Times

Une lettre pour Ingrid Betancourt

Une preuve de vie. C'est tout ce que Mélanie Bétancourt demande aux Farc (Forces armées révolutionnaires de Colombie). Le 23 février 2002 la guérilla a enlevé sa mère, la sénatrice franco-colombienne Ingrid Bétancourt. Mélanie Betancourt a annoncé mercredi 20 décembre sur la radio privée française RTL qu'elle avait écrit une lettre ouverte aux ravisseurs sur la radio privée française RTL. Elle a rappelé que depuis mai 2003 les Forces armées révolutionnaires de Colombie (Farc), qui détiennent plus de 4.000 otages, dont sa mère, n'avait pas donné de preuve de vie de l'ancienne candidate verte à la présidentielle colombienne. "On demande une preuve de vie, quelque chose, une lettre, une vidéo... C'est le minimum. On n'est pas les seuls dans cette situation, il y a beaucoup d'otages dont on ne sait rien depuis des années", a déclaré Mélanie Bétancourt. C'est "la première fois" qu'une telle lettre est adressée aux Farc, a-t-elle expliqué, se disant "convaincue" que sa mère était toujours en vie. Mais "on demande une preuve de vie, quelque chose, une lettre, une vidéo... C'est le minimum. On n'est pas les seuls dans cette situation, il y a beaucoup d'otages dont on ne sait rien depuis des années". Les Farc réclament la libération de 500 rebelles détenus par le gouvernement contre celle de 58 otages, dont Ingrid Betancourt, indique l'AFP. Si vous souhaitez soutenir l'action en faveur de la libération d'Ingrid Bétancourt, de sa directrice de campagne Clara Rojas et des centaines d'otages retenus dans la jungle colombienne, rendez-vous sur le site Betancourt.info.

Danone lance un fonds SOCIAL d'investissement

Le numéro 1 mondial des produits laitiers frais et le numéro 1 mondial du microcrédit, la Grameen Bank (du nouveau Prix Nobel de la Paix, le Bangladais Mohammed Yunus) font cause commune. Les deux organisations, pourtant assez éloignées sur le papier, vont créer ensemble une joint-venture: "Danone.Communities". Ce fonds d'investissement, puisque c'est de cela dont il s'agit, devrait lever une masse de 50 à 100 millions d'euros, a précisé à Libération Emmanuel Faber, directeur général Asie-Pacifique de Danone. Il s'agit du premier fonds de "business social" lancé par un groupe industriel.   Danone.Communities a beau poursuivre un objectif social, comme tout fonds d'investissement qui se respecte il devra répondre à des critères de rentabilité bien précis. Ici 3% par an. L'idée étant de financer des projets alimentaires rentables, donc pérennes dans le monde entier.

Le groupe agroalimentaire compte apporter 20 % du capital initial du fonds, ouvert aux actionnaires du groupe, aux salariés, aux particuliers et aux groupes intéressés. Parallèlement Danone a lancé lundi 18 décembre sa première usine de production au Bangladesh. A Bogra (nord de Dacca) ce sont ainsi 3 000 tonnes de yaourts qui devraient être produites à partir du lait de "300 microfermes de quatre vaches en moyenne" , créées avec des microcrédits de la Grameen Bank, a indiqué le président du groupe agroalimentaire, Franck Riboud. Deux nouvelles usines devraient voir le jour courant 2008 et à terme elles devraient être une cinquantaine à terme. En Asie, mais aussi en Amérique latine et en Afrique.

Parisians sleep out to see what homelessness is like

"For most people, the homeless are just another part of the cityscape, like cars and trees and buildings. People don't give them a second thought,'' said Jean-Baptiste Legrand, a movie producer and president of the non-for-profit group, The Children of Don Quixote. To better understand the plight of the homeless, Parisians are invited to sleep in tents, trading comfortable apartments for the cold, dirt, noise and dangers of the French capital's streets, AP reports. Jean-Baptiste and Augustin Legrand, the two brothers who paid more than euro 3,000 (nearly US $4,000) of their own money for 100 pup tents to be planted this weekend on the banks of Paris' Saint-Martin canal want homelessness to become an unignorable issue as France heads into presidential elections next spring and as winter grows colder. France, with a population of some 63 million, has about 86,500 homeless people, according to a landmark 2001 study by the INSEE statistics agency. The Abbe Pierre Foundation, which works with the homeless, said this year that the figure is closer to 150,000. The initiative echoes another by aid group Doctors of the World, or Medecins du Monde, which has distributed more than 400 tents to the homeless in Paris over the past year - both to provide shelter and to make their plight less invisible.

Les misères de Paris

Dans trois jours c'est l'hiver. Trois sans-abri sont déjà morts de froid cette année. Lundi 18 décembre au matin la police est intervenue pour évacuer une vingtaine de personnes qui vivaient depuis plusieurs mois sous des tentes de fortune fournies par l'association Médecins du Monde, tout près de la gare d'Austerlitz à Paris. Des évacuations sans solution de relogement, sans aucune proposition. De l'autre côté de la Seine, le long du canal Saint-Martin, une nouvelle association humanitaire, "Les enfants de Don Quichotte" propose aux Parisiens de dormir sous la tente en plein cœur de la capitale. Une idée pour faire découvrir aux citadins ce que c'est que de vivre dans la rue et sans domicile fixe. Des personnalités comme l'acteur Jean Rochefort et quelques responsables politiques se sont joints à cette action de solidarité. Mais au-delà d'une simple alerte médiatique, l'association "Les enfants de Don Quichotte" souhaite par ces opérations menées aujourd'hui dans toute la France "toucher l'ensemble de la population" et mettre l'Etat devant ses responsabilités, indique le site NouvelObs.com.

VIDEO >>> MC Solaar / Nouveau Western

France to partly withdraw from Afghanistan

France will withdraw its 200-strong special forces from Afghanistan, all of its ground troops engaged in the U.S anti-terror operation code-named Enduring Freedom, Defense Minister Michele Alliot-Marie said on France-Info radio Sunday during a visit to Afghanistan. The elite troops have been deployed in southeastern Jalalabad since July 2003 to help bolster the fight against al-Qaida and the Taliban and the search for al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden. Nevertheless, the 1,100 troops engaged in the separate NATO-led International Security Assistance Force will remain in Afghanistan, Associated Press reports. The French troops are currently in charge of the sector based in Kabul. The 200 special French forces are to withdraw "at the start of 2007," the authorities said. The decision was made "in concert with our partners, notably the Americans."

Fiber Optics Everywhere

France Telecom will spend €270 million (US$356.4 million) on the launch of the first phase of a fiber-optic Internet network in March 2007, targeting 150,000 to 200,000 customers by the end of 2008. Services will include up to 100 Mbps of symmetrical speeds, HDTV and PC channels and unlimited call packages. They will first be introduced in Paris and neighbouring regions before being extended to a dozen cities, including Lille, Lyons, Marseilles, Poitiers and Toulouse, in June 2007.

A Streetcar Named Desire

Trams are back to town after a 69-year gap. On December 16th Paris has inaugurated a modern electric tram line. The first time trams have run in the city since 1937.  According to Paris Mayor Bertrand Delanoe, the new line has been built to offer Parisians environmentally-friendly public transport. It is set to carry 100,000 people a day along a crowded section on the Left Bank of the Seine. This is the largest public transport project for Paris since the city's ring road was built in the 1970s. "We need to respond to pollution with action, it's a necessity of public health and civilisation," the mayor said.

Tram lines already run in some suburban areas outside Paris' city limits. But the new tram is the first within the metropolitan area since Paris's extensive tram network was finally closed just before World War II, BBC reports. The new line runs through 17 stops in the city's 13th, 14th and 15th arrondissements. Rather than serving the city's tourist sites, the 311.5 million euros (408 million dollars) project was designed to help suburban residents travel along the congested inner ring road. There are plans to expand the network to other areas of the city. In France a total of 26 cities either have tram networks already, including Nantes and Bordeaux, are constructing one or have plans for one.

L'Egypte, une passion française

Treasure hunters have long scoured the Egyptian coast for vestiges of the great port of Alexandria. Now an exhibit at Paris' Grand Palais brings together 500 ancient artifacts recovered from the area by underwater archeologists. "Egypt's Sunken Treasures" features colossuses of pink granite, a 17.6-ton slab inscribed with hieroglyphics, a phalanx of crouching sphinx, pottery, amulets and gold coins and jewelry -- all painstakingly fished out of the Mediterranean, AP reports. Some of the oldest artifacts are estimated to have spent 2,000 years underwater. The show which takes place at the Grand Palais (the newly restored turn-of-the-century building with a vast glass cupola nearby the Champs-Elysees)  spans more than 1,500 years of Egyptian history and traces the decline of the Pharaohs and occupations by Greeks, Romans and Byzantines. Some of the oldest pieces, such as a sphinx dating from the 13th century B.C., were brought to Egypt's coast from other regions of the country. Later objects clearly show the influence of the Greeks, who controlled much of Egypt starting in the fourth century B.C. "Egypt's Sunken Treasures," which attracted some 450,000 visitors at its first stop, Berlin, closes March 16. After Paris, the show will return to Egypt. Authorities in Alexandria plan to build a museum of submarine archaeology to hold the artifacts as well as new items yet to be discovered...

Entente cordiale

The Cour d'Appel in Paris on Tuesday upheld record fines of €534 million ($705 million) against the three biggest French cellphone operators for conspiring to undermine competition. In December 2005 had ruled that monthly exchanges of sales data among France Télécom, Bouygues and Vivendi's SFR unit from 1997 to 2003 had broken antitrust laws. Orange was fined €256 million, SFR €220 million and Bouygues €58 million. The decision was based on a 90-page report that cited, among other evidence, handwritten notes explicitly mentioning an "agreement" among the three market leaders. The biggest French consumer organization, UFC-Que Choisir, welcomed the appeal verdict but said that under French law the outcome would benefit only the 12,500 consumers on whose behalf it had filed its original complaint in 2002. UFC, which is leading a separate campaign for the introduction of class- action lawsuits in France, said that about 20 million cellphone users had been overbilled by at least €1.2 billion because of the cartel.

VIDEO >>> JL Murat / Cartier-Bresson