Keyword: United States

After days of hesitation, the United States finally seems poised to intervene militarily following Syria's use of chemical weapons against its own people. But until then, faced with the enduring crises in Syria and Egypt, the White House had sometimes given the impression that the entire administration was on its summer holiday. More generally, during the first five years of his presidency Barack Obama has shown indecision and muddle in his handling of international issues. To the point, argues Thomas Cantaloube, that the United States is in danger of slipping towards insignificance on the world stage.

After complaints by human rights groups, prosecutors launched probe into alleged fraudulent access to personal data and personal correspondence.

The revelation that the United States has been spying on European Union offices in America – and possibly in Brussels too – has sparked outrage across the continent. French president François Hollande has called for an 'immediate' end to such snooping and he and others have suggested the scandal could affect the imminent negotiations over transatlantic trade. There have also been calls from the Right and Left in France for Paris to offer the whistleblower Edward Snowden political asylum. However, as Ludovic Lamant and Stéphane Alliès report, the reaction from EU leaders in Brussels to the affair has so far been much more restrained.

French foreign minister Laurent Fabius said that if claims made in Der Spiegel magazine are confirmed, it would be 'totally unacceptable'.

France says that it will not start negotiations on transatlantic trade talks if cultural industries are not excluded from the start.

For all their current difficulties, the average French citizen lives better than his American counterpart according to UN and Unicef figures.

The 87-year-old iconic chef got a rapturous welcome for the inauguration of a new restaurant bringing his culinary prowess to American.

The US Air Force begins transporting French troops and equipment from France to Mali for the military campaign there against Islamist militants.

Election of a socialist government was cited as main reason why French divisions of US businesses see country as less attactive to do business.

While attention in France and elsewhere in the world last week was mainly focused on the presidential race between President Barack Obama and his Republican challenger Mitt Romney, there were also many Congressional contests taking place across the United States. An investigation has revealed that a number of French groups were involved in funding candidates at those elections. Officially the fund-raising was carried out by American employees of those French businesses rather than the firms themselves. But, curiously, these staff members tended to favour Congressional candidates who were close to their own company's interests. Martine Orange reports.

French utility giant Electricité de France has suffered a major setback in its plans to export European Pressurized Reactors to the United States, where the Nuclear Regulatory Commission has rejected its subsidiary’s application for a licence to build and operate an EPR reactor in Maryland. With its flagship EPR plant at Flamanville, northern France, suffering recurrent construction delays and overruning costs, the American debacle is a significant blow for both EDF, with debts of almost 40 billion euros, and for EPRs in general. Meanwhile, development of EDF's two EPR projects in the United Kingdom have become bogged down in a row over the true subsidised cost of the energy they will produce. Jade Lindgaard reports.

Fifty years ago a beach ball-sized satellite carried the first live television images across the Atlantic, starting a new era of global communications.

U.S. farmers set to lose their advantage over French growers in export markets after worst Midwest drought in more than a decade.

The United States is confident of France's commitment to NATO regardless of who wins the upcoming presidential election, say White House officials.