Journal of the French Left; Le Monde: Broke, No Longer Chic
PARIS - Liberation, a sloppier newspaper than Le Monde with less background and documentation and fewer texts of speeches and interviews, nonetheless seems to fit this sharper mold better than Le Monde. Liberation likes to focus on the main news story of the day, with five or six tabloid pages of news, pointed analysis, background, human interest, photos and maps. In an era of...
January 4, 1985

As Facism Fades, Spain Debates Pace Change
MADRID - No doubt because of the troubled economy and the Socialist economic policy, the popularity of the Socialist Workers' Party has been decreasing in the polls. [Felipe Gonzalez] and the Socialists came to power in October, 1982, with 48% of the popular vote, an extraordinary total in Spain, where there are many parties. The result gave the Socialists an overwhelming majority in Parliament.
OPINION
January 6, 1985

New Caledonia Offered Sovereignty With Ties to France
PARIS - Warning against the belief that New Caledonia has only two starkly opposed alternatives for its future, [Edgard Pisani] said: "France and independence. Why say one or the other instead of saying neither without the other? . . . The best solution, doubtless the only solution, is independence, but independence associated with France." After listening to Pisani's radio speech in New Caledonia, Mayor...
January 8, 1985

French Send 1,000 Troops to Islands, Racial Enmity Persists in Wake of New Caledonia Killings
PARIS - New Caledonia has a population of only 145,000, but it is divided in a way that guarantees tension. The Melanesians, who are known as Kanaks, make up the largest single group on the islands, but they are outnumbered by the combination of whites and Asians from other countries. According to the police account of those killings, gendarmes had surrounded a group of...
January 13, 1985

Hart Meeting European Leaders but Denies He's on Political Trip
PARIS - During his official visit to the United States last March, French President Francois Mitterrand, who has the reputation of being an insatiably curious intellectual, arranged to meet [Gary Hart]. On Tuesday, Hart met for 45 minutes with Mitterrand at the Elysee Palace. Arguing that NATO defense cannot be improved by simply spending more money, Hart proposed increasing the cohesion of units by...
January 16, 1985

Mitterrand to Visit Troubled New Caledonia
PARIS - French President Francois Mitterrand, in a dramatic announcement, told a national television audience Wednesday that he will fly to the troubled French territory of New Caledonia to try to persuade the antagonistic racial groups there that their only hope for peace lies with Paris' offer of limited independence. The situation in New Caledonia has set off a bitter political debate in France.
January 17, 1985

Mitterrand Leaves Paris for New Caledonia, Faces Anger of White Residents
PARIS - White political leaders did not call for any anti-[Francois Mitterrand] demonstration, which would be against the law in the present state of emergency there. But anonymous tracts circulated throughout Noumea, the white-dominated capital, urging a massive display of the French flag during Mitterrand's visit and a silent pouring into the streets of all those opposed to any form of independence. There was...
January 18, 1985

Letters From Jewish Children May Return to Haunt 'Butcher of Lyon'
PARIS - In this case, Riss ruled that Barbie should stand trial for the raid on Izieu; for closing down the offices of the main Jewish organization in Lyon and deporting 86 of its officials and members to extermination camps, and for deporting 650 people, half of them Jews, to extermination camps just a few days before Lyon was liberated in 1944. The other...
January 20, 1985

France to Reinforce S. Pacific Base, Will Stress Presence in New Caledonia, Mitterrand Says
PARIS - France has offered the territory independence in 1986 with continued legal association with France. Many whites, who want New Caledonia to remain French, have been disdainful of the offer, fearing that it is an artful way of granting the territory complete independence. They might feel less suspicious if France demonstrated, by reinforcing the base, that it is serious about maintaining its strategic...
January 21, 1985

OPEC Tries to Ease Pressure on Oil Prices, New Fixing System May Actually Be a Cut in Disguise
According to the Petroleum Intelligence Weekly, OPEC was producing between 15.5 million and 15.9 million barrels a day in January, within the ceiling of 16 million set by OPEC last October in hopes of keeping the price up. The OPEC level of production was then 16.7 million barrels a day. "Saudi Arabia and the other low-cost producers," he said, "are thought to...
BUSINESS
January 27, 1985

Testy OPEC Ministers Confront Price Issues at Emergency Meeting
GENEVA - Talking with journalists, Oteiba accused [David-West] of "stabbing OPEC in the back" and Nigeria of undermining the OPEC oil price by producing more oil than it was supposed to under cartel agreements. At present, the official OPEC price for oil is usually described as $29 a barrel. That price, however, is only for Saudi Arabian Light crude oil, which is regarded as...
BUSINESS
January 29, 1985

OPEC Meeting Again Today as Reports of Oil Price Cut Persist
GENEVA - Some analysts insist that OPEC cannot regain control of the market until it lowers its price well below that. Moreover, they say, OPEC cannot have any influence on the open market unless it reduces production of oil well below its present 16 million barrels a day. Meanwhile, there were increasing signs that OPEC, which once had enough power to persuade non-members to...
BUSINESS
January 30, 1985

Badly Split OPEC Cuts Price of Oil; Iran, Algeria, Libya Refuse to Agree to $1-a-Barrel Trim
GENEVA - Nevertheless, Sheik Ahmed Zaki Yamani, the oil minister of Saudi Arabia, OPEC's largest producer, said that the agreement by nine of the 13 OPEC members will stabilize prices on the world market. Many analysts believe that setting a price was less important for OPEC now than holding down its production. Yamani agreed with this, and both he and OPEC President Subroto of...
January 31, 1985

Launches Early Start on Election Drives, Mitterrand Seeks to Boost Personal and Party Appeal
RENNES, FRANCE - That slogan was echoed throughout the day. One of the banners in the arena proclaimed, "We Are the France That Triumphs." When [Francois Mitterrand] toured a computer plant in the afternoon, the employees presented him with a music box that, when the lid was lifted, echoed with the voice of Mitterrand saying, "I believe in a France that triumphs." This, as the...
February 3, 1985

New Caledonia: a Crisis Full of Irony
PARIS - Yet the descendants of the deported followers of the Commune are now among the 54,000 whites on New Caledonia who vote rightist, oppose any form of independence, and show their disdain, almost every night on French television, for the native Kanakas. The modern story of the Kanakas is a familiar one in the Third World, of a tribal people caught between the...
February 6, 1985

Divided French Communists Open Party Talks
SAINT-OUEN, FRANCE - Reading aloud a 198-page report for five hours, Secretary General Georges Marchais refused to acknowledge any major responsibility for the sorry state of the party's electoral fortunes. Instead, he scathingly blamed the troubles on a series of betrayals by his former allies, President Francois Mitterrand and his Socialist Party, though he did not rule out joining the Socialists in another "union of...
February 7, 1985

African Famine Grows on Its Fallow Farmlands
PARIS - In the 1960s, [Rene Dumont]'s views were so prized that leaders like President Julius Nyerere of Tanzania and President Kenneth Kaunda of Zambia adopted them as their own. Nyerere issued official documents on agriculture and education in 1967 and 1968 that were obviously inspired by his reading of Dumont's book. Kaunda made declarations on economics based on what Nyerere said. Both presidents...
OPINION
March 3, 1985

Intellectuals' Delight Adult Comics - Tres Chic in France
PARIS - One comics artist and writer, Jacques Tardi, 39, has been made the subject of a biography. The literary magazine Lire, in its list of the 20 best books of 1983, had a comic book in 12th place. The French Institute of Architecture is mounting an exhibition this year on the way artists use architecture in their comic books. The new and special...
March 7, 1985

Extreme Rightist Leader Fascinates, Frightens French Electorate
TOULOUSE, FRANCE - Even while saying this, the rightists have been slow to condemn him. Two electoral realities have made it difficult for them. Many of [Jean-Marie Le Pen]'s supporters come from the regular rightist parties, and it would make little sense to offend them while trying to woo them back. Also, the French electoral system of two rounds of voting encourages hard bargaining between...
March 9, 1985

Conservative Parties Cut Socialists' Edge in France
PARIS - [Lionel Jospin], his face tense and his voice rising, accused [Jean-Marie Le Pen] of anti-Semitism and fascism and described him as "dangerous for France." Le Pen shouted back: "Don't accuse me of fascism! Fascism was invented by a socialist - Benito Mussolini!"
March 11, 1985

French Rightists Split on Dealing With Le Pen
PARIS - The confusion seems to be enhancing the image of [Jean-Marie Le Pen]. While the regular conservative parties, the Rally for the Republic of former Premier Jacques Chirac and the Union for the French Democracy of former President Valery Giscard d'Estaing and another former premier, Raymond Barre, insist that they will have nothing to do with Le Pen, some party officials are obviously...
March 15, 1985

Conservatives Win Again in French Local Elections
PARIS - Leaders of the two regular conservative parties - the rightist Rally for the Republic of [Jacques Chirac] and the right-center Union for French Democracy of [Valery Giscard d'Estaing] and former Premier Raymond Barre - claimed that the results of the two rounds of what are known as cantonal elections have proven they represent a majority of French voters. Moreover, many analysts expect President Francois Mitterrand to introduce...
March 18, 1985

11 Nations Call for Reforms, UNESCO Director Under Rising Pressure to Resign
PARIS - The second pressure may turn out to be more important. Many members of the UNESCO staff, nervous about their jobs since the United States withdrew from the agency at the end of last year, believe that only [Amadou-Mahtar M'Bow]'s resignation can save UNESCO and that only the French government, by turning African governments against M'Bow, can force him to quit.
March 26, 1985

After Centuries, Nation Really Becoming a Part of Europe, Spain Swept by Euphoria on Entry to Common Market
RONCESVALLES, SPAIN - [Fernando Moran], a donnish professor who likes to sit in the corner of an old Madrid cafe and read his newspapers, has often been the butt of political jokes in Spain. But Cambio 16, Spain's leading news magazine, celebrated him this week with a cover story. While the cover drawing depicted him as a Don Quixote, the headline proclaimed good-naturedly: "The Conquistador...
April 2, 1985

In France: an Echo of Prior Pain Rightist Le Pen Recalls Sad Past
PARIS - The philosophy of [Charles Maurras] influenced the Vichy government. Its record was so distasteful that many French still have difficulty discussing it. Even without Nazi orders, Vichy passed a host of anti-Semitic laws and began arresting Jews. Vichy, in fact, rounded up and turned over most of the more than 90,000 Jews who were later deported by the Nazis and killed in...
OPINION
April 7, 1985

Americans Abroad for BBC 'Tender is the Night'
VERSAILLES, FRANCE - The classic was F. Scott Fitzgerald's "Tender Is the Night," a novel that a celebrated Hollywood director, Henry King, turned into a movie in 1961, starring Jennifer Jones and Jason Robards Jr. as Nicole and Dick Diver. The American production is generally regarded as a failure, and its failure may be one reason director Robert Knights and the British Broadcasting Corp. production...
ENTERTAINMENT
April 10, 1985

Celebrating a Grade-A Cleaning Job in Iberia
Madrid - [Diego Velazquez] was the court painter of King Philip IV. "Las Meninas," completed four years before his death, is probably his most famous work. The huge painting has an unusual perspective, for it depicts the Infanta Margarita, her maids of honor, two dwarfs and three other attendants in a room with Velazquez while he paints the portrait of King Philip and Queen...
ART
April 14, 1985

France Postpones Referendum on New Caledonia Independence
PARIS - [Laurent Fabius]' announcement amounted to a significant change, at least in the timing, of the plan announced last January by Edgard Pisani, the government's special representative in New Caledonia. Pisani had proposed that New Caledonia have sovereignty and a seat in the United Nations while still legally associated with France. He called for a vote on his proposals in July and their...
April 26, 1985

Ambitious New Programs Planned, French Push Europeans for Independence in Space Series:  Space:  Preparing For a New Era
PARIS - The Ariane rocket came out of all the French cajoling, a launcher whose performance has matched French promises. As a result, Western Europe, especially France, now plays a significant role in space. Last year, Ariane took 40% of the world's business in launching communications satellites, and Ariane now has firm orders for 30 launchings and options for 12 more in contracts worth...
April 27, 1985

A Grand Route of Christendom, Old Spanish Pilgrimage Survives
SANTIAGO DE COMPOSTELA, SPAIN - None of this means that the great treks of the Middle Ages are being repeated. Tens of thousands of tourists do come to Santiago de Compostela every year. Spain, after all, brimming with magnificent art, often basking in sun, charging little for sumptuous hotels and long meals, is one of the great tourist attractions of Europe. But, according to Jose Maria Ballesteros...
May 4, 1985

Visiting Reagan May Find Spain in Chilly Mood
Madrid - The Nicaragua issue is an emotional one. Spain has made the transition from a dictatorship to a democracy only during the last decade, and, as a new democracy run by Socialists, it feels that it has a role to play, even if only as a model, in the Third World. In addition, after years of isolation under [Francisco Franco], Spain is trying...
May 5, 1985

The President in Europe, Thousands in Spain Protest Visit Today, Leftists and Pacifist Marchers Denounce Reagan as 'Gunslinger,' Say 'No to NATO'
Madrid - Many marchers carried copies of El Pais, Spain's largest and most influential newspaper, under their arms. In a poll published in the current edition, El Pais reported that 64% of the Spaniards surveyed do not believe that President [Reagan] and the United States are loyal and sincere friends of Spain, that 74% do not believe that the President's defense policies help peace...
May 6, 1985

The President in Europe, Thousands Demonstrate in Madrid
Madrid - Several thousand Spanish leftists, protesting the visit of President Reagan, crowded across a main boulevard of Madrid during rush hour Tuesday evening, burning American flags and snarling downtown traffic for more than two hours. The demonstration was the most dramatic of several that have marred the visit since the President's arrival Monday. However, it was much smaller than the marches of an...
May 8, 1985

Anti-NATO Forces Stronger, Political Problems Left for Gonzalez
Madrid - Although U.S. officials minimized the significance of the anti-[Reagan] demonstrations in Spain on the eve of the President's arrival, officials of Spain's Socialist government are concerned. In their view, the most vulnerable target of the demonstrations was [Felipe Gonzalez], not Reagan. Some analysts believe that the cause is hopeless and that Gonzalez, to salvage the situation, will cancel the referendum and hold...
May 9, 1985

Unusual Choice for Cannes Jury, Yugoslav Film Snares Golden Palm
Cher shared the award for best actress for her role in the Peter Bogdanovich movie "Mask." Cher plays the mother of disfigured teen-ager Rocky Dennis in the film. Cher shared the award with Argentine actress Norma Aleandro who starred in the Argentine film "Official Story," a powerful account of the repercussions from the recent years in which the Army tortured and killed...
May 21, 1985

Many Ceremonies Honor Writer Victor Hugo, Still France's Conscience After Century
In fact, the official designation of 1985 as the "Year of [Victor Hugo]" by a Socialist government strikes some French conservatives as self-serving. They suspect that the Socialists intend to improve their own image by associating themselves with Victor Hugo. [Jean-Pierre Thibaudat] insisted that the French know Hugo less these days by reading his works than by seeing them adapted for the...
May 25, 1985

'Universal Horror' - Millions of Europeans Watch Soccer Disaster on Television
William Tuohy
London - Millions of Britons and other Europeans watched television coverage showing followers of the Liverpool soccer team launching an attack on the backers of the Juventus team from Turin shortly before the start of the European Cup championship match. At the end, thousands upon thousands of Italian fans lit flares, waved flags, and cheered lustily for their team's victory, almost as if it...
May 30, 1985

French President 'Plugged-In', TV Shows Help Mitterrand Mold Image
PARIS - [Francois Mitterrand] was even asked what he thought of a popular television show in which French political figures are satirized by puppets much like those on the Muppet Show. The show portrays Mitterrand as Kermit the Frog. Raymond Barre, a former premier who is a leading conservative opponent of Mitterrand, takes the form of a huge teddy bear. According to the official...
May 30, 1985

Passionate Affair For French, Filmgoing Is De Rigueur
PARIS - The Americans make much more money with their movies and dominate the world market. The Indians produce almost five times as many movies, and the Russians go to the movies more often. But no one gets more excited about movies than the French, or treats movies with more respect, awe and true love. The city of Paris has 247 commercial cinemas. The...
June 12, 1985

UNESCO Shelves Soviet Plan in Bid to Please Critics
PARIS - To a casual observer, it may not have seemed like much. But in terms of UNESCO tradition it was close to revolutionary and reflected a new attitude by many Third World delegates to swallow their pride and try to please the British and delegates of other industrialized countries in hopes of saving UNESCO. [M'Bow] is now regarded as certain to stay in...
June 22, 1985

Sputtering Renault Faces a Major Overhaul to Get It Running Again
PARIS - [Georges Besse] told the union officials that Renault's labor force in France, which totalled 98,000 at the end of 1984, would have to be reduced to 77,000 by the end of 1986. Renault's oversized labor force, according to Besse, made the company inefficient, handicapping it in competition with foreign manufacturers. In his presentation, Besse outlined other changes at Renault, including the appointment...
BUSINESS
June 23, 1985

France Says It's Available to Act as Protector of Beirut Hostages
PARIS - In a Beirut news conference Tuesday, though, Shia leader [Nabih Berri] said an unidentified caller told him that the two Frenchmen abducted May 22 will also be released when the American hostages are freed. Berri said that he asked the caller for the release of 11 missing foreigners in Beirut, including the other two Frenchmen and seven Americans previously kidnaped, but was...
June 27, 1985

France Bars 'Jailer' Role With Hostages
PARIS - This stand by officials and in the press, reflecting uneasiness over the role thrust upon France by the hostage crisis in Beirut, may have snagged the negotiations between the French and Shia Muslim militia leader Nabih Berri. In Beirut, Berri reportedly said that his proposal to transfer the hostages to the French Embassy there, for holding until Israel frees Lebanese detainees, is...
June 28, 1985

OPEC Faces Crucial Bid for Survival, Saudis Threaten to Open Oil Spigot if Others Flout Rules
PARIS - OPEC set a limit on the 13 countries' combined production of 16 million barrels a day. The largest quota, as usual, was assigned to Saudi Arabia, a bit more than 4.3 million barrels a day. During the year, OPEC has managed to keep within the 16-million barrel limit - in fact, Russell Seal, general manager of British Petroleum, estimated recently that OPEC production had...
BUSINESS
June 30, 1985

Tiff Compounds Problems for French Socialists, Two Young Leaders Jostle Publicly for Key Role in Parliamentary Elections
PARIS - The president's distinction, however, seemed out of date. In 1981, the Communists joined the Socialists in electing [Francois Mitterrand] and taking control of the National Assembly through a coalition of the left. But the Communists withdrew their support last year, and [Laurent Fabius]' assembly "majority" is now made up almost entirely of Socialists. There had been obvious differences of opinion between Fabius and [Lionel Jospin]...
July 1, 1985

Flags Fly for Ex-Hostages in W. Germany
Tyler Marshall
WIESBADEN, WEST GERMANY - American officials want the liberated hostages to remain for more than two days at the Air Force Regional Medical Center in Wiesbaden for medical checkups and intensive questioning by government specialists about exactly what happened aboard the hijacked TWA Boeing 727 and in Beirut. As news came Sunday that the hostages had left Beirut, tension among their relatives already waiting here and in Frankfurt eased...
July 1, 1985

Most Hostages Flying Back to U.S. Today
Tyler Marshall
WIESBADEN, WEST GERMANY - Trans World Airlines, which had initially planned to fly the 39 freed hostages and their relatives back to the United States on a chartered aircraft Wednesday, confirmed that 61 hostages and family members have signed up to travel today. It was unclear how many of the 39 hostages planned to leave Wiesbaden later. Remembering the terror of the early phase of the drama, the hostages ...
July 2, 1985

Ministers Far From Reaching Accord on OPEC Pricing Policy
VIENNA - Despite this, the price of oil on the world market has fallen significantly below the OPEC price. This could be seen by the market prices for Arab heavy oil and Arab light oil, the two standards quoted most often by OPEC and by others in the oil business. On Wednesday, Arab light oil was selling for $26.70 a barrel, $1.30 below the official OPEC price...
BUSINESS
July 6, 1985

OPEC Weighs, Rejects New Market Plan
VIENNA - The 13 OPEC producers now sell oil individually. This makes it difficult for OPEC to police how much oil its members produce and the price at which they sell it. The worldwide oil glut has encouraged widespread cheating by OPEC members, either by producing more than their quotas or by selling their oil below the official price. This defiance of quotas and prices has made...
July 7, 1985

OPEC Ends Talks, Makes No Price Cuts, Cartel Schedules Another Meeting in 2 Weeks in Geneva
VIENNA - After three days of long discussions, the ministers in Vienna came up with little more than a statement of good intentions about sticking to OPEC rules. Similar statements have been made at past OPEC meetings without ending the price discounting and overproducing that helps to make a mockery of the official OPEC oil price. Yet Nigeria is regarded as one of the worst offenders within...
BUSINESS
July 8, 1985

Leaving Job, He Calls 'Risks Worth It' President's Man in Paris - an Undiplomatic Envoy
PARIS - [Evan Galbraith]'s public advocacy of [Ronald Reagan]'s ideology often provoked controversy in France. Many French people looked on his pronouncements as blatant interference in their internal politics. This is often cited by career diplomats as proof that the Galbraith diplomacy is bad diplomacy. Career diplomats believe that an ambassador accomplishes far more if he is discreet in public. Despite official reprimands from the French government...
July 15, 1985

U.S. Envoy Gone, but Comments Leave Paris With a New Flap
PARIS - Barely two days after he left Paris and his post as U.S. ambassador, Evan Galbraith ignited a new controversy Wednesday with a farewell interview in a prominent French newspaper that led the French government to summon the U.S. diplomat left in charge of the embassy for an official protest. A spokesman for the French External Relations Ministry said that John Maresca, the U.S. charge d'affaires...
July 18, 1985

Laissez-Faire TV: Will Mitterrand Deliver?
PARIS - The Socialist government of President Francois Mitterrand has announced it will break the traditional government monopoly on television by allowing two commercial channels on the air in a few months. But there is some confusion about just how revolutionary the new policy will be in terms of broadening access to the nation's airwaves. Secretary of Communications Georges Fillioud announced this week that the Mitterrand Cabinet...
ENTERTAINMENT
August 3, 1985

France Probing Charges Its Agents Sank Protest Ship
PARIS - For this reason, it is considered probable that the accusations that prompted the investigation came from the New Zealand government. [Laurent Fabius], in fact, promised that the French will cooperate fully with New Zealand police on the case. And [Francois Mitterrand], according to his office, sent a letter to New Zealand Prime Minister David Lange Thursday pledging "the determination of France to shed all light...
August 9, 1985

Opera Fans Like 'Diable' Even If The Critics Don't
PARIS - Giacomo Meyerbeer's "Robert le Diable" was looked on throughout the 19th Century as one of the glories of grand opera in Paris. For more than six decades, critics and opera lovers hailed it as a prized attraction of every season. Then Meyerbeer fell out of favor. His music and his spectacle no longer excited audiences. In 1893, the Paris Opera dropped "Robert le Diable," with...
ENTERTAINMENT
August 10, 1985

Mitterrand Government Facing Political Scandal Over Sinking of Greenpeace Ship
PARIS - Additional embarrassment could be in store. At a crowded news conference in Paris on Friday, David McTaggart, the Canadian who heads Greenpeace, the anti-war and environmentalist organization, announced that another ship, the Greenpeace, would take the place of the Rainbow Warrior at the head of a convoy steaming toward the French nuclear testing site at Mururoa Atoll in the South Pacific in late September as...
August 17, 1985

In August, France's Month Off, Even the Family Rabbit Must Learn to Make Do
PARIS - It takes experience and planning to deal with the problems of Paris in August. The household of this correspondent, for example, new to Paris, was caught short of prepared rabbit food last year when the neighborhood pet shop closed for August. Jacques, the pet rabbit, refused to accept corn flakes as a substitute but finally and grudgingly settled for granola. This year, wiser to the...
August 18, 1985

Pepsi Gets Jump on Rival, Unveils New Coke Abroad
Jube Shiver Jr.
PARIS - Meanwhile, back in the United States, Coca-Cola claimed that Pepsi has been selling "New Pepsi," a less-sweet version of regular Pepsi, in some overseas markets. Coke officials released a photograph showing a Pepsi can with "New" atop the familiar round Pepsi logo. A band across the lower portion of the can says "Join the Pepsi Challenge!" Last year in France, Coca-Cola sold 55 million gallons...
BUSINESS
August 21, 1985

The One Who Pays When Airline Loses the Bags
PARIS - Because TAP's records showed that the suitcase that did arrive in Lisbon had weighed 20 kilograms, [Ondina Carvalheiro] said, simple arithmetic showed that the missing suitcase had weighed nothing: The total weight of the two bags (20 kilograms) minus the weight of the returned bag (20 kilograms) equalled the weight of the missing bag (zero). I had therefore lost nothing. Carvalheiro, according to the small...
TRAVEL
August 25, 1985

France Denies Any Role in Ship Sinking, Report on Greenpeace Blast 'Incredible,' New Zealand Says
PARIS - [Bernard Tricot] said he did not interview a sixth intelligence agent who had infiltrated the Greenpeace organization in Auckland. He said she had left New Zealand in late May, long before the environmental organization's ship came to Auckland. Tricot identified one of the two people now under arrest in New Zealand on charges of murder, arson and possession of false passports as Maj. Alain Marfart...
August 27, 1985

Hegemony of Language In French, Ignorance Is Not Bliss
PARIS - An American in France is struck by the way that people in public life have mastered the language. Unlike their U.S. counterparts, French politicians and civil servants speak in complete sentences, using correct verb forms. They are not guilty of mispronunciations, malapropisms or mistakes in grammar. In Washington, English grammar is so far down on virtually everyone's list of priorities that politicians would probably think...
August 28, 1985

Fabius Challenges New Zealand to Offer Proof of French Guilt in Bombing of Ship
PARIS - French Premier Laurent Fabius, accepting the findings of a controversial official report, challenged New Zealand authorities Tuesday to produce evidence that French agents are guilty of sinking the Greenpeace ship Rainbow Warrior in Auckland harbor. Curiously, [David Lange] chose to view Fabius' hard-line remarks as "not an apology in any specific sense but very conciliatory." In a radio interview, Lange said the statement was...
August 28, 1985

Greenpeace to Challenge France in Court Over Sinking of Ship
PARIS - David McTaggart, the Canadian president of Greenpeace, announced Thursday that his environmental organization will challenge the French government in the courts over the sinking of the Greenpeace ship Rainbow Warrior in the harbor at Auckland, New Zealand. Without disclosing the details of Greenpeace's legal strategy, McTaggart said that [Lloyd N. Cutler], who served as counsel under President Jimmy Carter, has agreed to serve without pay...
August 30, 1985

New Storm Hits French Spy Agency, Greenpeace Ship Sinking Touches Off Latest Controversy
PARIS - In the aftermath of the latest scandal, Premier Laurent Fabius has decided to take a hesitant step backward. Complaining that the government's control over the intelligence agency "does not seem satisfactory to me," Fabius ordered the minister of defense from now on to make annual reports to Parliament detailing the agency's intelligence activities. According to [Bernard Tricot], the two French intelligence agents now held in...
September 7, 1985

From Glory to Gloomy: That Is France
PARIS - The French Establishment has closed ranks over the Greenpeace affair to protect the national honor. Bernard Tricot, chief of staff of the late President Charles de Gaulle, wrote the report that cited the flimsiest of evidence to clear the Socialist government and five French intelligence agents accused by New Zealand authorities of blowing up the Greenpeace ship Rainbow Warrior in Auckland harbor on July 10...
OPINION
September 8, 1985

Sweden's Palme Likens His Foes on Right to Thatcher
GOTEBORG - [Olof Palme], in an outdoor meeting on a chilly day in a suburb of Goteborg, Sweden's second-largest city, lumped his conservative opponents with [Margaret Thatcher], insisting that they are intent on applying her rigid free-enterprise policies to Sweden. "They came from a city with tremendous unemployment, a city where the state does nothing for the unemployed," Palme said, reminding his followers that Sweden has an...
September 15, 1985

Spanish Communists Losing Heroic Luster Revered During Franco's Last Years, Party Now Divided and Diminished by Vicious Infighting
MADRID - The separation was not accidental. [Santiago Carrillo] and [Gerardo Iglesias] do not march together any more. They are in fact bitter enemies. Iglesias, selected as secretary general two years ago by Carrillo himself, has purged Carrillo from all positions of influence and power in the party. This terrible showing put so much pressure on Carrillo that he resigned, making way for his protege Iglesias. Carrillo...
September 15, 1985

Palme Narrowly Reelected Sweden's Prime Minister
STOCKHOLM - According to nearly complete returns reported by Swedish television, the Social Democrats won 44.9% of the votes and 159 seats in the Parliament. With the help of the Communists, who vote with the Social Democrats and won 19 seats, the 58-year-old [Olof Palme] will have 178 seats, a majority of seven in the 349-seat Parliament. The opposition parties have thus forced Palme to depend more...
September 16, 1985

Welfare State Now Sacrosanct in Sweden, Voters' Feelings Made Clear in Premier's Electoral Victory
STOCKHOLM - Thus, Sweden remains an anomaly in democratic Europe. In an era of grudging acceptance of Reaganomics and Thatcherism, at a time when even the Socialist governments of France and Spain are following austere policies that reduce spending, ease restrictions on business and allow high unemployment, Sweden continues to follow its own way. It is a heavily taxed society protected by what is probably the most...
September 17, 1985

French Cover-up Seen in Greenpeace Ship Blast
PARIS - Le Monde, France's most influential newspaper, reported Tuesday that two French frogmen, whose presence in New Zealand waters had been kept secret until now, are believed to be responsible for the bombing and sinking of the Greenpeace ship Rainbow Warrior in New Zealand last July. The Greenpeace affair has resulted in a good deal of acrimony between France and New Zealand and hardened New Zealand's...
September 18, 1985

2 French Officials Ousted Over Greenpeace Bombing
PARIS - Premier Laurent Fabius, under pressure from President Francois Mitterrand, ordered the removal of the defense minister and the director of the French intelligence agency Friday in the face of persistent charges that French agents blew up the Greenpeace ship Rainbow Warrior in New Zealand two months ago. After being ordered by an impatient Mitterrand to do something about the growing scandal, Fabius, in a public...
September 21, 1985

France Admits Greenpeace Ship Bombing
PARIS - Premier Laurent Fabius, contradicting previous official claims of innocence, admitted Sunday night that French intelligence agents, acting under authorization, blew up the anti-nuclear protest ship Rainbow Warrior in New Zealand 10 weeks ago. [Paul Quiles], who stood by Fabius' side in the Hotel Matignon, the premier's office, was appointed Friday after [Francois Mitterrand] and Fabius forced the resignation of Minister of Defense Charles Hernu and...
September 23, 1985

Officials Urged to Reveal Who Ordered Ship Sinking, Paris Greenpeace File Reported Destroyed
PARIS - In the meantime, [Laurent Fabius] moved to try to repair some of the damaged relations with New Zealand. A government spokesman said that Fabius has asked the French ambassador in Wellington to inform Prime Minister David Lange of New Zealand that Fabius was distressed at how the affair had hurt relations between the two countries. But Fabius did not make the apology that was initially...
September 24, 1985

France Jails 2 Agents for Leaking Truth on Scandal Papers, Got Details of Bombing
PARIS - Meanwhile, Le Monde said today that [Charles Hernu] probably gave the order to get rid of the Rainbow Warrior. Neither [Francois Mitterrand] nor [Laurent Fabius] was informed of the order, Le Monde said. Le Monde writer Edwy Plenel said he had discussed Hernu's probable role with Bernard Tricot, the member of the Council of State who was assigned in August by Mitterrand and Fabius to...
September 24, 1985

France Arrests 2 Agents for Ship Bombing, Leak Disclosures to Press of Attack on Greenpeace Protest Vessel Charged by Intelligence Unit
PARIS - Meanwhile, Le Monde said Tuesday that [Charles Hernu] probably gave the order to get rid of the Rainbow Warrior. Neither [Francois Mitterrand] nor [Laurent Fabius] was informed of the order, Le Monde said. Le Monde writer Edwy Plenel said he discussed Hernu's probable role with Bernard Tricot, the member of the Council of State who was assigned in August by Mitterrand and Fabius to investigate...
September 25, 1985

Knew Nothing of Greenpeace Plot, Fabius Says
PARIS - Premier Laurent Fabius, insisting that he had known nothing in advance about the bombing and sinking of the Greenpeace ship Rainbow Warrior, put the blame Wednesday on his former defense minister and his former director of intelligence. Fabius laid the primary responsibility for the Rainbow Warrior incident at the feet of Charles Hernu, the former defense minister, saying he was the only political official involved...
September 26, 1985

France's New Version of Ship Blast Draws Some Skepticism
PARIS - Some political analysts, however, said [Laurent Fabius] may have defused the affair by insisting that he was kept in ignorance while former Defense Minister Charles Hernu and the former director of intelligence, Pierre Lacoste, concocted the scheme to bomb and sink the Greenpeace ship Rainbow Warrior in New Zealand last July 10...
September 27, 1985

Vote Fails to Set New Caledonia's Course
PARIS - Jean-Marie Tjibaou, the former priest who heads the Kanak Front, cited the party's victories as evidence that "independence now appears to be inevitable." But the results showed that the voters in the South Pacific archipelago as a whole rejected independence. Anti-independence parties took almost 61% of the total vote, but much of their strength was concentrated in a single region, the white settler bastion of...
September 30, 1985

Nation Distressed by Folly of Greenpeace Operation, Ship Episode Unnerves French
PARIS - The ship tried again in 1973. This time, the French navy stopped the [Vega] by boarding it. Greenpeace members were beaten, and David McTaggart, the president of Greenpeace, suffered a serious eye injury. Greenpeace militants may have seemed foolhardy for sailing a yacht into a zone where nuclear bombs were fired into the air, but the resulting publicity, especially the photos of French sailors roughing...
October 1, 1985

French Actress Simone Signoret Dies at 64
PARIS - Miss Signoret met [Yves Montand], a young singer discovered by Edith Piaf, in 1949, and they were married in 1951, moving into Montand's apartment on the Ile de la Cite, which remained their Paris home until her death. Montand developed as an actor during their marriage, the two performing together in the Paris theater in such plays as Arthur Miller's "The Crucible." They appeared in...
October 1, 1985

Israeli Jets Attack PLO's HQ in Tunis 36 Killed; Raid Called Response to Cyprus Deaths
Dan Fisher
TUNIS, TUNISIA - PLO leader Yasser Arafat had just returned to Tunis from a trip to Morocco but was not at the compound when it came under attack. He and an aide later toured the devastated site, where his political headquarters, his residence and the homes of several PLO officials were destroyed. PLO Secretary General Abu Abbas vowed to retaliate, saying, "We will hit very hard." A background...
October 2, 1985

Tunis Assails U.S. Approval of Raid, Sees a Possible Role in Israel's 'Cowardly' Strike
TUNIS, TUNISIA - President [Habib Bourguiba Jr.] of Tunisia summoned the U.S. ambassador to the presidential palace in Carthage on Wednesday and denounced the United States for approving and possibly participating in what he called "cowardly Israeli aggression" against Tunisia. Bourguiba also expressed "his concern and worry about the role that the United States could have played in the operation," the communiqué said, although it did not indicate...
October 3, 1985

Gorbachev Rails at U.S., Backs Off
William J. Eaton
PARIS - [Francois Mitterrand] rejected [Mikhail S. Gorbachev]'s surprise proposal, which came in a speech to a French parliamentary committee Thursday, that the Soviet Union and France begin negotiations for a limitation of the size of the French nuclear arsenal. The Soviet leader said he was making the same proposal to Britain. After the rebuff, Mitterrand gave Gorbachev what was probably a far more important dividend. The...
October 4, 1985

U.S. Talks, Doesn't Act, for Peace - Gorbachev, Kremlin Chief Hits American 'Demagoguery' but Praises Reagan's Reaction to Soviet Arms Bid
William J. Eaton
PARIS - [Francois Mitterrand] rejected [Mikhail S. Gorbachev]'s surprise proposal that their countries hold separate arms control talks to limit the size of the French nuclear arsenal. The proposal, which came in Gorbachev's speech to a French parliamentary committee Thursday, also included a Soviet bid to start similar talks with Britain. Winning French support for the Soviet position against Star Wars had obviously been a major aim...
October 5, 1985

Reporter's Notebook: Gorbachev Exposes Sole, Recites Parable
William J. Eaton
PARIS - The French term for [Mikhail S. Gorbachev] is le numéro un Soviétique, translated as the Soviet No. 1. Although he is not technically a head of state, he has been treated as one by everyone from Mitterrand on down. Even so, a Soviet briefing on Gorbachev's new arms control proposals was shunted to a tiny basement room because the main hall was occupied by a...
October 5, 1985

Rights Queries Dog Gorbachev on Paris Visit
PARIS - When [Mikhail S. Gorbachev] met Thursday with Premier Laurent Fabius, the latter handed him a list of seven cases of violations of freedom in the Soviet Union. Neither Fabius nor Gorbachev made the list public, but a French government spokesman described one case as that of a political prisoner and the six others as cases of husbands and wives or parents and children unable to...
October 6, 1985

Gorbachev Leaves France With Mixed Reviews of Visit
William J. Eaton
PARIS - The French press generally was far more critical of [Raisa Gorbachev] than he probably anticipated. During interviews, Gorbachev was asked repeatedly about human rights issues, including the condition of physicist Andrei D. Sakharov, exiled in the city of Gorky for more than five years. Gorbachev received some backing from Mitterrand for his opposition to space weapons, but his proposal for separate negotiations to limit the...
October 6, 1985

Portugal's Parliamentary Elections Deal Severe Blow to Soares' Presidential Hope
LISBON - While [Antonio Ramalho Eanes] is forbidden by law from electioneering while serving as president, his wife, Manuela, campaigned hard throughout the country for the new party, and there was little doubt in the minds of voters that this was the Eanes party. The new party cut deeply into the traditional vote of the Socialists. That probably does not displease President Eanes, who clashed many times...
October 7, 1985

Portugal Election Victor Faces Uncertain Future
LISBON - The new [Antonio Ramalho Eanes] party - which calls itself the Democratic Renewal Party - cut into the Socialist vote so badly that the Socialist Party's share of the electorate dropped from 36% two years ago to 21% Sunday. It is weaker than at any time since the 1974 revolution that overthrew the Portuguese dictatorship. With returns practically complete, the government provided these figures: Social Democrats, 29.8% of the...
October 8, 1985

French Premier Tries to Rally Divided Party, Position His Candidacy
TOULOUSE, FRANCE - A Socialist, according to these polls, is the most popular politician in France and therefore a leading candidate for the presidency. But that Socialist is neither [Laurent Fabius] - declining in poll ratings - nor President Francois Mitterrand, who is recording dismal ratings. Michel Rocard, a 55-year-old short, tense intellectual who resigned from the Cabinet in a dispute earlier this year, is the Socialist with rare popularity. Basically, Rocard...
October 13, 1985

300-Year-Old Decree Seen Now as Shameful, France Recalls Ban of Protestants
PARIS - There are believed to be 850,000 Protestants in France, 1.5% of the population. A generation or two ago, many Protestants believed that other French citizens looked on them as strange and different. But a recent poll showed that more than 90% of the French regard themselves as either sympathetic or indifferent to Protestants. Only 4% said they felt hostile. [Henry IV] issued the Edict of...
October 18, 1985

Premier at Embassy, Fabius Stages Paris Protest of Execution
PARIS - Premier Laurent Fabius drove to the South African Embassy on Friday and stood outside its door for a minute in a silent and conspicuous protest against the execution of black poet Benjamin Moloisi in Pretoria for his part in the 1982 murder of a black policeman. The official protests were in step with the recent policies of the Socialist government of [Francois Mitterrand] and Fabius...
October 19, 1985

Global Correspondents' Courses: Times writers around the world reveal the names of their favorite little-known restaurants
PARIS - Our own favorite, Au Petit Tonneau, is in our neighborhood on the Left Bank, just off Rue St. Dominique, between the Invalides and the Eiffel Tower. It is run by Ginette Boyer, who greets her customers at the door and then slips back into the kitchen to prepare meals for them...
Los Angeles Times Magazine
October 20, 1985

French Controversy Flares Over Role of Communist Party in Resistance
PARIS - According to the accusation, denied vehemently by the party, the Communist leaders wanted their comrades out of the way to make sure that, as liberation approached, the Communist wing of the Resistance would be controlled by native French and not foreign immigrants. This may have seemed even more necessary toward the end of the war when the Communists were in competition with the native French...
October 25, 1985

10 Years After Franco New Spain: The Fears Are Gone
MADRID - Sometimes the change seems swifter than it really is. Spain has not changed overnight. When [Francisco Franco] died, his people had long outgrown his dictatorship. Spain had become a middle-class country, and Spaniards had some of the same aspirations that other people had in Western Europe. In the view of many analysts, many forces were in place, ready to be unleashed by Franco's death. Yet...
November 8, 1985

California Air in Antique Setting Toulouse: Medieval City Joins Space Age
TOULOUSE, FRANCE - The city Establishment resisted industrialization and modernization in the 19th Century, keeping Toulouse too small and insignificant for sophisticated tastes. As the French Institute of Architecture described them in a recent study, the rich of Toulouse in the 19th Century preferred "writing bad poetry and playing dominoes rather than directing factories." Stylish boutiques have now come to Toulouse, and some Parisians say that, unlike such...
November 15, 1985

Banking on Outsiders Geneva - Affluence, Calvin, Too
GENEVA - The wealth of Geneva is based mainly on servicing all this international activity, on banking, and on the manufacture of luxury watches. At a time when the Swiss watchmaking industry as a whole is depressed because of Japanese competition, the Geneva industry is booming, selling diamond-studded gold watches, the most luxurious of them for many thousands of dollars each. Shop windows along the lakefront avenues...
November 16, 1985

Thousands March in Geneva in Protest Against U.S. and Soviet Policies
GENEVA - Several thousand demonstrators, representing an odd mixture of leftist, pacifist, religious and nationalist organizations, marched through the downtown streets of Geneva on Saturday, heaping both scorn and demands on President Reagan and Soviet leader Mikhail S. Gorbachev. In a peaceful protest staged several hours before President Reagan's arrival in Geneva and three days before the opening of his summit conference with Gorbachev, they walked behind...
November 17, 1985

The Summit at Geneva - Reporter's Notebook: Media Invasion the Biggest Geneva Has Ever Seen
Don Cook
GENEVA - When Geneva had its last summit conference, 30 years ago, television was in its childhood in the United States and in its infancy elsewhere. There was not much demand for technical facilities. But 42 foreign television chains have asked the Swiss television network in Geneva for assistance in transmitting programs on this meeting. Geneva, a beautifully lit city at night during the summer, usually turns...
November 17, 1985

The Summit at Geneva - Reporter's Notebook: An Unexpected Émigré Dismays Soviets
GENEVA - After arriving in Geneva on Saturday night, the President and First Lady headed straight for the Maison de Saussure along Lake Geneva in suburban Creux-de-Genthood as everyone in Geneva knew they would. The mansion, constructed in the 18th Century for a minister and book collector and now the residence of the Aga Khan, will serve as their home during their stay for the summit. No...
November 18, 1985

Reporter's Notebook: 2 Leaders May Have a Cold in Common
GENEVA - The Reagans' stay in the Maison de Saussure and the President's use of another mansion, the Fleur d'Eau, as a site for his meeting with [Mikhail S. Gorbachev] has denuded a historical Geneva chamber of all its furniture for the week. The chamber-the Alabama Hall of the City Hall in the old quarter of Geneva-is of special interest to the United States. Standing in below-freezing ...
November 19, 1985

The Summit at Geneva - Reporter's Notebook: Summit Veteran Gromkyo Not Even a Spectator Now
GENEVA - Reagan and Gorbachev, as custom dictates, will exchange gifts. Soviet officials have not disclosed their leader's choice of a gift, but American officials said Reagan will give Gorbachev a Geochron Globaltime Indicator. That is a clock that, among other things, tells what time it is anywhere on earth. President Reagan may have offended Latvian exiles in the United States by entering the Soviet Mission compound...
November 20, 1985

Media and Diplomats Lobbied Activists Basking in Geneva Spotlight
GENEVA - Also vying for a share of attention are several Jewish organizations, mostly from the United States. All are concerned about Soviet treatment of Jews and the Soviet refusal to allow more than a trickle of Jewish emigration. But, unlike [Albert L. Kotzobue], these groups know they have a good deal of political influence back home and a President who often agrees with them. Their impact ...
November 20, 1985

2 Leaders Stroll by the Lake Amid Signs of Hope on a Cloudy Day
GENEVA - At 10:01 on this wintry Tuesday morning, Soviet leader Mikhail S. Gorbachev stepped out of his limousine into the chilling winds from nearby Lake Leman, smiled, slipped off his hat and rushed up the portico of the mansion known as Fleur d'Eau to take the hand of President Reagan. The two leaders then stepped into a large room to meet around a massive oval table ...
November 20, 1985

The Summit at Geneva: Soviets Trying to Ignore Question That Won't Go Away: Human Rights
GENEVA - The barriers kept her blocks away from the compound where Soviet leader Mikhail S. Gorbachev and his wife are living and working during the summit conference. Avital, who is married to Anatoly Shcharansky, a Jewish activist who was sentenced to 13 years in labor camps for treason and anti-Soviet agitation in 1978, had been expected to hand the letter to Nancy Reagan when she arrived...
November 21, 1985

Reporter's Notebook: Two Leaders Fence With Press - and Hair Style Is Critiqued by Mr. Julius
GENEVA - CBS reporter Lesley Stahl repeatedly tried to question both President Reagan and Gorbachev as they sat together and posed for photographs at the start of their meeting in a room of the Soviet Mission compound. Reagan shuffled papers, grinned, and said, "No reporting until the meeting is over." When Reagan and Gorbachev met with their top aides around a table in the Soviet Mission, an...
November 21, 1985

Regan's Remarks Touch Gorbachev, Too; President Tries to Calm Storm Over Women, Issues
GENEVA - [Donald T. Regan] also said he expected that Nancy Reagan and Raisa Gorbachev would not discuss substantive issues addressed during the summit. The two women would "build bridges, talking as the wives of two leaders as to how things could be done mutually." They might talk about "drugs and other common problems that affect people in both countries," he said. "(Nancy Reagan) doesn't get into...
November 21, 1985

Spirit of Good Feeling Marks Summit's End
Eleanor Clift
GENEVA - With huge Soviet and American flags draped behind them on the back wall, President Reagan and Soviet leader Mikhail S. Gorbachev chatted and gestured. They brimmed with confidence and a show of optimism Thursday as they watched top aides sign a series of minor agreements in the ceremony closing their summit in Geneva. Another major event followed. Gorbachev returned to the Soviet Mission compound for...
November 22, 1985

Europeans Relieved but Warn Geneva Was Only a Start
Don Cook
PARIS - The outcome of the Geneva summit has been greeted by European leaders and commentators almost unanimously with a mixture of relief at the prospect of improvement in the atmosphere of East-West relations and cautious skepticism over the practical tests that lie ahead. In Brussels on Thursday, West German Chancellor Helmut Kohl said "the door is open" to [Erich Honecker], and the West German newspaper Bild...
November 24, 1985

UNESCO Staff Fears Job Cuts, Goes on Strike
PARIS - Deep distrust pervades the U.N. specialized agency's modernistic headquarters on Paris' Left Bank, with Africans accusing other staff members of racial bias against [Amadou Mahtar M'Bow], and non-Africans suspicious that African staff members are turning in reports to M'Bow about dissenters. The deep malaise within the organization was shown when a second, smaller union accused [De Padirac]'s union of racism. Z'Ahidi Ngoma of Zaire, the...
December 12, 1985

Mickey and Friends to Open Near Paris in 1991, France Wins Battle for Disneyland
PARIS - Spaniards had been so obsessed with attracting a Disneyland that Cambio 16, the leading Spanish news magazine, ran a cartoon parody recently of the famous Francisco Goya etching, "The Sleep of Reason Produces Monsters." In the parody, the Spanish sleeper dreamed of Walt Disney characters instead of Goyesque monsters. "France, more than any other country in the world, has been enthusiastic about Disney productions, Disney...
BUSINESS
December 19, 1985

Changes For French TV Provoke Political Ire
PARIS - The French press derides [Silvio Berlusconi], a 49-year-old Milan businessman, as "the pope of tele-pizzeria." Berlusconi runs a commercial television empire in Italy that thrives on offering viewers a diet of American serials and soap operas, a procession of quiz shows, lots of sports and old movies interrupted by frequent commercials. His three commercial networks overwhelm the three Italian government networks in popularity. Most outsiders...
ENTERTAINMENT
December 19, 1985

Afghanistan, Pakistan Study Secret Plan to Break Impasse in U.N.-Sponsored Geneva Talks
GENEVA - The latest round of diplomatic talks on the Afghanistan war deadlocked Thursday, but U.N. mediator Diego Cordovez said both sides are considering his secret proposal to break the impasse. Oddly, the foreign ministers of Afghanistan and Pakistan have not met each other since 1982, when Cordovez began mediating the first of the six rounds of talks. Instead, Cordovez meets privately with one delegation in one...
December 20, 1985

French Court Seizure Ends; Hostages Freed
PARIS - From the police car, [Georges Courtois] himself said he had surrendered because he wanted to save the life of Khalki, a convicted holdup man. "He put his life and freedom at stake in the courtroom, and we believe today we should exchange ours for his," Courtois said. "This has been guaranteed to us by the Interior Minister (Pierre Joxe)," Courtois said. Courtois and [Patrick Thiolet]...
December 21, 1985

Identity Crisis To Be French in Caribbean, C'est Crazy
FORT-DE-FRANCE, MARTINIQUE - Despite these similarities, the influence of French culture and the special relationship of the islanders with France do make Martinique and Guadeloupe different from the rest of the Caribbean. The career and attitude of the distinguished Martinique poet and politician, Aime Cesaire, probably illustrates this best. The 72-year-old Cesaire, as a deputy from Martinique in the French National Assembly, mayor of Fort-de-France and president of...
December 28, 1985

French Rightist Party Deputy Called Spy for Romania
PARIS - The accusations came in a front-page story in the London Sunday Times. The account, written by Jon Swain, a former Paris correspondent of the paper, said that Gustave Pordea, 69, a Romanian-born French citizen, had bought a place on the National Front ticket in the 1984 European parliamentary elections by giving [Jean-Marie Le Pen] $500,000 in campaign funds. This money, the Sunday Times said, came...
December 31, 1985

1967-1984 COMING SOON | 1986 ->