France

Avignon Cathedral is a Roman Catholic cathedral, and a national monument of France, located in Avignon, above the Palais des Papes. It is the seat... of the Archbishop of Avignon. The cathedral is a Romanesque building, mainly of the 12th century, the most prominent feature of which is the gilded statue of the Virgin Mary which surmounts the western tower. Among the many works of art in the interior, perhaps the most beautiful is the mausoleum of Pope John XXII, a masterpiece of Gothic carving of the 14th century.
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The Pont Saint-Bénezet , also known as the Pont d'Avignon , is a famous medieval bridge in the town of Avignon, in southern France. The bridge... originally spanned the Rhône River between Avignon and Villeneuve-lès-Avignon on the left bank. It was built between 1171 and 1185, with an original length of some 900 m , but it suffered frequent collapses during floods and had to be reconstructed several times. Over the centuries, it became increasingly perilous as arches collapsed and were replaced by rickety wooden sections. The bridge was finally put out of use by a catastrophic flood in 1668, which swept away much of the structure. It was subsequently abandoned and no more attempts were made to repair it. Since then, its surviving arches have successively collapsed or been demolished, and only four of the initial 22 arches remain intact today. The arches are elliptical, with the long axis vertical. This innovation in bridge building allowed spans of up to 35 meters, longer than any Roman arch spans.
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The Observatoire de Nice is an astronomical observatory located in Nice, France on the summit of Mont Gros. The observatory was initiated in 1879 by... the banker Raphaël Bischoffsheim. The architect was Charles Garnier, and Gustave Eiffel designed the main dome. The 77-cm refractor telescope made by Henry and Gautier that became operational around 1886-1887, the largest in a privately funded observatory, and first at such high altitude . It was slightly bigger in aperture and several meters longer than the new 30 inch at Pulkovo observatory in the Russian Empire. The French telescope was also at a higher altitude. The two 30 inch had taken the crown from the 69 cm at Vienna Observatory . All three were outperformed by the 36-inch refractor at the Lick Observatory in 1889. As a scientific institution, the Nice Observatory no longer exists. It was merged with CERGA in 1988 to form the Observatoire de la Côte d'Azur. The Nice Observatory was featured in the 1999 film Simon Sez.
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The InterContinental Carlton Cannes is a 343-room luxury hotel built in 1911, located at 58 La Croisette in Cannes on the French Riviera and listed... by the Government of France as a National Historic Building. During the Cannes Film Festival it is the most prestigious place to stay and the undisputed headquarters of motion picture industry deal-making. Part of the InterContinental chain, the Carlton is famous for hosting movie stars from around the world during the annual Film Festival. The hotel was also featured in Elton John's well-known 1983 music video for the single, "I'm Still Standing", and the exterior and interior features in New Order's 1993 music video for the single, "World ". More famously, the hotel was a central location for the Alfred Hitchcock film To Catch a Thief starring Grace Kelly and Cary Grant. While staying at the Hotel Carlton during the 1955 Cannes Film Festival, Academy Award winning movie star Grace Kelly had an arranged meeting and photo shoot with His Serene Highness Prince Rainier III of Monaco which eventually resulted in their 1956 marriage and in her becoming Her Serene Highness Princess Grace.
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The Uzbin Valley ambush occurred when ISAF troops were ambushed by Afghan militants in eastern Afghanistan on 18 August 2008. It took place outside... the village of Spēṟ Kunday, of the Surobi District of Kabul province and resulted in heavy casualties to the French ISAF contingent. A NATO report of the incident summarised that the surviving members of the Coalition forces were "lucky to escape" arguing that they were poorly equipped, ill-organised and faced a well-prepared enemy. However, this version was denied by the French government. Later reports claimed that until then the relative calm of the region had only been obtained by bribery, of which the French were unaware. The sector of Surobi was under French control between 2006 and 2007. At the time, French troops crossed the 35th parallel only once, as the region beyond was considered to be dangerous. Then and until August 2008, responsibility of the Surobi district switched to 140 Italian troops who had undertaken development projects for the local population, as part of ISAF's "comprehensive approach" strategy.
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The Battle of N'Djamena began on February 2, 2008 when Chadian rebel forces opposed to Chadian President Idriss Déby entered N'Djamena, the... capital of Chad, after a three-day advance through the country. The rebels were initially successful, taking a large part of the city and attacking the heavily defended presidential palace. They did not capture the palace, and after two days of fighting they withdrew to outside the city. Around two days later they retreated east. The assault on the capital was part of a longer military campaign to unseat the Chadian president. The array of rebels fighting against the government shifted during the war: this attack involved approximately 2,000 men from the Union of Forces for Democracy and Development, the Union of Forces for Democracy and Development-Fundamental and the Rally of Democratic Forces. Several non-rebel opposition leaders were arrested by the government. Hundreds died in the battle, which displaced at least 30,000. French forces evacuated foreigners, but also provided intelligence and ammunition for the Chadian National Army and sporadically exchanged fire with rebels.
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The Central African Republic Bush War began with the rebellion by the Union of Democratic Forces for Unity rebels, led by Michel Detodia, after the... current President of the Central African Republic, François Bozizé, seized power in 2003. However, the real fighting began in 2004. The Civil War may be connected to the Darfur conflict in neighbouring Sudan. So far, around 10,000 people have been displaced because of the civil unrest. The UFDR consists of three allies, the Groupe d'action patriotique pour la liberation de Centrafrique , the Mouvement des libérateurs Centrafricains pour la justice , and the Front démocratique Centrafricain . The group signed a peace agreement with the government in April 2007. In November 2004, at least 20 people were killed in a raid on the remote town of Birao in the north-east of the Central African Republic. Thousands of people marched into the capital of the CAR, Bangui, on November 8, and pleaded for the government's troops to confront the UFDR. Twenty members of the government were killed, and only three of the rebels died in this attack.
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In 2004, an armed conflict took place between France and the West African nation of Côte d'Ivoire . On 6 November 2004, Ivorians launched an air... attack on French peacekeepers in the northern part of Côte d'Ivoire who were stationed there as part of Operation Unicorn , the French military operation in support of the United Nations Operation in Côte d'Ivoire . French military forces subsequently clashed with Ivorian troops and government-loyal mobs, destroying the entire Ivorian Air Force. Those incidents were followed by massive anti-French protests in Côte d'Ivoire. In 2002, a civil war broke out in Côte d'Ivoire between Ivorian military and other forces loyal to Laurent Gbagbo, the Ivorian president since 2000, and rebel forces identified with the Forces Nouvelles de Côte d'Ivoire. Although most of the fighting ended by late 2004, the country remained split in two, with a rebel-held north and a government-held south. Gbagbo ordered air strikes on Ivorian rebels.
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The Western European Union was an international organisation tasked with implementing the Modified Treaty of Brussels , an amended version of the... original 1948 Treaty of Brussels. The WEU was established by seven Western European nations during the Cold War. Since the end of the Cold War, WEU tasks and institutions have been transferred to the Common Security and Defence Policy which is being framed for the geographically larger and more comprehensive European Union. This process was completed in 2009, when a solidarity clause between the member states of the European Union which was similar to the WEU's mutual defense clause, entered into force with the Treaty of Lisbon. The states party to the Modified Treaty of Brussels consequently decided to terminate that treaty on 31 March 2010, with all the remaining WEU's activities to be ceased within 15 months. On 30 June 2011 the WEU was officially declared defunct. The WEU was headquartered in Brussels, with a staff of 65 and an annual budget of €13.4 million.
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Template:Country data Secretariat of the Pacific Community The Secretariat of the Pacific Community, or SPC , is a regional intergovernmental... organisation whose membership includes both nations and territories. It aims to "develop the technical, professional, scientific, research, planning and management capability of Pacific Island people and directly provide information and advice, to enable them to make informed decisions about their future development and well-being." The SPC headquarters is in Nouméa, New Caledonia. SPC was founded in 1947 as the South Pacific Commission by six developed countries with an interest in the region: For reasons either of reduced development interest in the Pacific Islands region or a desire to concentrate assistance in other areas of greater poverty, two founding members have since withdrawn from the SPC: the Netherlands and the United Kingdom . SPC's founding charter is the Canberra Agreement. In the aftermath of World War II, the six colonial powers which created the SPC, arguably intended it to secure Western political and military interests in the postwar Pacific.
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The African Development Bank Group is a development bank established in 1964 with the intention of promoting economic and social development in... Africa. The Group comprises the African Development Bank , the African Development Fund , and the Nigeria Trust Fund . AfDB provides loans and grants to African governments and private companies investing in the regional member countries in Africa. It is owned and funded by member governments, and has a public-interest mandate to reduce poverty and promote sustainable development. Following the end of colonial period in Africa, growing desire for more unity within the continent led to the establishment of two draft charters, one for the establishment of the Organisation of African Unity , and for a regional development bank. A draft accord was submitted to top African officials, then to African Ministers, before being cosigned by twenty-three African governments on August 4, 1963, in the form of an agreement establishing the African Development Bank.
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The Asian Development Bank is a regional development bank established on 22 August 1966 to facilitate economic development of countries in Asia. The... bank admits the members of the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific and non-regional developed countries. From 31 members at its establishment, ADB now has 67 members - of which 48 are from within Asia and the Pacific and 19 outside. ADB was modeled closely on the World Bank, and has a similar weighted voting system where votes are distributed in proportion with member's capital subscriptions. At present, both the United States and Japan hold 552,210 shares, the largest proportion of shares at 12.756% each. China holds 228,000 shares , India holds 224,010 shares , the 2nd and 3rd largest proportion of shares respectively. The highest policy-making body of the bank is the Board of Governors composed of one representative from each member state. The Board of Governors, in turn, elect among themselves the 12 members of the Board of Directors and their deputy.
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The University of Lille -Nord de France , located in Lille, France, is a center for higher education, academic research and doctoral studies located... over multiple campuses in the Academie de Lille. It includes a doctoral college that federates university institutes, engineering schools and research centres. With more than one hundred thousand students, the Université Lille Nord de France is one of the five largest university federations in France. Founded as University of Douai in 1562, the state university in Northern France was renamed Université impériale de Douai-Lille in 1808, then as Université de Lille with faculty expansion in the Lille region from mid-19th century onwards.. The university expanded into several campus in Lille region end 20th century and has built itself as the Université Lille Nord de France. University of Lille -Nord de France is organised over several campus sites: 139 research labs and institutes are associated to the European Doctoral College Lille Nord-Pas de Calais. Altogether, the university research labs own an active portfolio of more than 170 invention patent families.
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The University of Nantes is a well-known French university, located in the city of Nantes. Currently, it is attended by approximately 34,000... students. 10% of them are international students coming from 110 countries. The current University was founded in 1970 under the terms of the 1968 law which reformed French higher education. This newly established institution replaced the former University of Nantes which had been founded in the early 1960s. This itself was a re-establishment of the original University of Nantes which was established by papal bull in 1460 but was abolished during the French Revolution.
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Louis Pasteur University , also known as Strasbourg I or ULP was a large university in Strasbourg, Alsace, France. As of January 15, 2007, there were... 18,847 students enrolled at the university, including around 3,000 foreign students. Research and teaching at ULP concentrates on the natural sciences, technology and medicine. On 1 January 2009, Louis Pasteur University became part of the refounded University of Strasbourg and lost its status as an independent university. According to the Academic Ranking of World Universities, when it was an independent university, the ULP belonged to the first 100 rank . The university was a member of the LERU . It was named after the famous 19th-century French scientist Louis Pasteur.
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William Wyler was a leading American motion picture director, producer, and screenwriter. Notable works included Ben-Hur , The Best Years of Our... Lives , and Mrs. Miniver , all of which won Wyler Academy Awards for Best Director, and also won Best Picture. He earned his first Oscar nomination for directing Dodsworth in 1936, starring Walter Huston and Mary Astor, "sparking a 20-year run of almost unbroken greatness." Film historian Ian Freer calls Wyler a "bona fide perfectionist," whose penchant for retakes and an attempt to hone every last nuance, "became the stuff of legend." His ability to direct a string of classic literary adaptations into huge box-office and critical successes made him one of "Hollywood's most bankable moviemakers" during the 1930s and 1940s. Other popular films include Funny Girl , How to Steal a Million , The Big Country , Roman Holiday , The Heiress , The Letter , The Westerner , Wuthering Heights , Jezebel , Dodsworth , A House Divided , and Hell's Heroes .
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Mireille Delunsch is an opera soprano. She was born in Mulhouse, France, and studied musicology and voice at the Conservatoire de Strasbourg. Her... debut was at the Opéra du Rhin in Mulhouse, in Mussorgsky's Boris Godunov. Her repertory is wide, from Baroque opera to 20th century art songs, with an emphasis on French music. She is best known for the operas she has sung under the direction of French conductor Marc Minkowski. Among the operas Delunsch has recorded with Minkowski are: and DVD/TV broadcast Other recordings include: Delunsch has also appeared in a number of opera telecasts.
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Vitaa is a French pop singer. She was discovered by DJ Kost, who organized a duet with Dadoo. It was this song, "Pas à pas" , where she was... first called Vitaa. Vitaa worked for several years in collaboration with various rap and R&B artists and eventually with Diam's and Pit Baccardi on Oublie, then a solo on the album Première classe RnB with the song "Ma sœur" . She performed a second duet with Dadoo, "Sur ta route" , then made several more duets with various other singers, such as "Mytho" with Mafia K'1 Fry, "Bol d'air" with Rohff and Jasmin. Vitaa later collaborated with Diam's on the song "Confessions Nocturnes", with which she became known to the general French public. Since then, Vitaa has appeared on the track "Peur d'aimer" with Nessbeal and "Ne dis jamais" with Sinik. The first artist signed to the label Motown France, Vitaa released her debut solo album A fleur de toi on 5 February 2007, which peaked at number one in France. The music video for the album's title track was filmed in Montreal, Canada.
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Huguette Dreyfus is a French harpsichordist born on November 30, 1928 in Mulhouse, Alsace, France. Huguette Dreyfus began taking piano lessons at... four years old. In 1946, she began working with renowned piano teacher Lazare Lévy. In 1950, having learned that music historian Norbert Dufourcq was to give special classes on the music of Johann Sebastian Bach at the Conservatoire de Paris, she entered into the class and remained there for four years. In addition to her piano class, she also studied the harpsichord at the Académie Chigiana de Siena under Ruggero Gerlin who, himself, was a student of harpsichord-reviver Wanda Landowska. Years later, in 1958, Dreyfus won the Geneva international harpsichord competition, becoming a prominent figure of ancient Renaissance and Baroque music and of the revival of the harpsichord in France. Her favorite instrument is a harpsichord from Johann Heinrich Hemsch, a German harpsichord maker. His best instruments were made in Paris in the 18th century and are often comparable to those made by Blanchet, another celebrated harpsichord maker.
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Belgium , officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a federal state in Western Europe. It is a founding member of the European Union and hosts the EU's... headquarters, and those of several other major international organisations such as NATO. Belgium covers an area of 30,528 square kilometres , and it has a population of about 11 million people. Straddling the cultural boundary between Germanic and Latin Europe, Belgium is home to two main linguistic groups, the Dutch-speakers, mostly Flemish , and the French-speakers, mostly Walloons , plus a small group of German-speakers. Belgium's two largest regions are the Dutch-speaking region of Flanders in the north and the French-speaking southern region of Wallonia. The Brussels-Capital Region, officially bilingual, is a mostly French-speaking enclave within the Flemish Region. A German-speaking Community exists in eastern Wallonia. Belgium's linguistic diversity and related political conflicts are reflected in the political history and a complex system of government.
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Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the... capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km and has a largely temperate seasonal climate. With 81.8 million inhabitants, it is the most populous member state and the largest economy in the European Union. It is one of the major political powers of the European continent and a technological leader in many fields. A region named Germania, inhabited by several Germanic peoples, was documented before AD 100. During the Migration Age, the Germanic tribes expanded southward, and established successor kingdoms throughout much of Europe. Beginning in the 10th century, German territories formed a central part of the Holy Roman Empire.
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Spain , officially the Kingdom of Spain , is a sovereign state and a member of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian... Peninsula. Its mainland is bordered to the south and east by the Mediterranean Sea except for a small land boundary with the British Overseas Territory of Gibraltar; to the north by France, Andorra, and the Bay of Biscay; and to the northwest and west by the Atlantic Ocean and Portugal. Spanish territory also includes the Balearic Islands in the Mediterranean, the Canary Islands in the Atlantic Ocean off the African coast, and two autonomous cities in North Africa, Ceuta and Melilla, that border Morocco. Furthermore, the town of Llívia is a Spanish exclave situated inside French territory. With an area of 504,030 square kilometres , it is the second largest country in Western Europe and the European Union after France, and the fourth largest country in Europe after Russia, Ukraine and France.
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Switzerland ]; Italian: Svizzera [ˈzviːtːsɛra]; Romansh: Svizra [ˈʒviːtsrɐ] or... [ˈʒviːtsʁːɐ], in its full name the Swiss Confederation , is a federal republic consisting of 26 cantons, with Bern as the seat of the federal authorities. The country is situated in western Europe, where it is bordered by Germany to the north, France to the west, Italy to the south, and Austria and Liechtenstein to the east. Switzerland is a landlocked country geographically divided between the Alps, the Central Plateau and the Jura, spanning an area of 41,285 km . While the Alps occupy the greater part of the territory, the Swiss population of approximately 7.9 million people is concentrated mostly on the Plateau, where the largest cities are to be found. Among them are the two global cities and economic centres of Zurich and Geneva. The Swiss Confederation has a long history of neutrality—it has not been in a state of war internationally since 1815—and did not join the United Nations until 2002.
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