Special to WorldTribune.com Charles de Gaulle once said: “Europe is France and Germany. Everything else is just the garnishes.” … While France rocked the Continent with a triumph for Marine Le Pen and her anti-EU National Front, German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s center-right pro-EU governing coalition emerged with a majestic 35.5 per cent of the vote, […]
Special to WorldTribune.com LONDON — The global demand for oil was expected to increase in 2014. The International Energy Agency revised its forecast for global oil demand this year. The Paris-based agency, citing an economic recovery by several countries, said demand would increase to 92.6 million barrels per day. “Far from drowning in oil, markets […]
Special to WorldTribune.com LONDON — Western nations have concluded that the regime of President Bashar Assad was preventing the transfer of Syria’s weapons of mass destruction. Western diplomats said the Assad regime, despite pledges to the United Nations, has surrendered less than five percent of Syria’s 1,300 ton-chemical weapons stockpile. The diplomats said Damascus was […]
Special to WorldTribune.com LONDON — Morocco was said to have acquired an Israeli-designed unmanned aerial vehicle. French sources said the Royal Moroccan Air Force has signed a contract for the purchase of at least three Israeli UAVs. The sources identified the unmanned platform as the Harfang, a French variant of Israel’s Heron medium-altitude, long-endurance UAV. […]
Special to WorldTribune.com LONDON — The European Union plans to increase surveillance over illegal migration through a new unmanned aerial vehicle. The EU’s Frontex frontier surveillance force has demonstrated the S-100 UAV for operations in the Mediterranean Sea. The French Navy deployed the S-100, also produced in the United Arab Emirates, on the L’Adroit offshore […]
Special to WorldTribune.com By Yossef Bodansky, Senior Editor, Global Information System/Defense & Foreign Affairs Operation Sangaris (a local exotic butterfly) — the French and MISCA (the French acronym for the International Support Mission to the Central African Republic) military intervention in the Central African Republic (CAR) — is escalating. The French contingent will now be […]
John J. Metzler UNITED NATIONS — An arc of political and social instability exists on the soft underbelly of the Sahara Desert, as Islamic militants and ethnic separatists chip away at the fragile political geography of five states on the southern fringe of the Sahara desert. The West African country of Mali, wracked by a […]
Special to WorldTribune.com LONDON — The exiled uncle of Syrian President Bashar Assad has been under investigation in France. French prosecutors have been investigating Rifat Assad on charges of stealing millions of dollars from Syria. The investigation was prompted by an official complaint by two groups on Sept. 13 that questioned Rifat’s assets in France, […]
Special to WorldTribune.com NICOSIA — The United Nations is bracing for a withdrawal by European Union peacekeepers from Lebanon. The UN Interim Force in Lebanon has been consulting with EU states on the prospect of an imminent withdrawal from Lebanon. EU contingents from France and Italy, which have an ordered an evacuation of its diplomatic […]
John J. Metzler PARIS — The Lone Ranger has galloped down the Champs d’ Elysees on his trusty horse Silver. The little blue Smurfs are at the palatial Opera Garnier. As has long been the case in recent memory, the French remain enchanted and enthralled with American movies ranging from Wolverine, Pacific Rim and World […]