Bonne nuit, mon cher: Report shows the French sleep, eat more than people in other countries

September 30th, 2009 3 French soldiers killed in Afghan stormPARIS — Officials in France say three French soldiers have been killed in a violent storm in northeastern Afghanistan. President Nicolas Sarkozy's office says the three died while taking part in an operation on Saturday night in the Afghanya Valley.

August 30th, 2009 Report: French get list of tax suspects from SwissGENEVA — France has received a list of 3,000 French taxpayers with bank accounts in Switzerland as part of a double taxation agreement signed between the two countries last week, according to a report in a French newspaper Sunday. French Budget Minister Eric Woerth was quoted in the weekly Journal du Dimanche as saying the accounts contained some euro3 billion ($4.3 billion), "some of which is very likely linked to tax evasion." Woerth called on the account holders to come forward and bring their tax affairs in order by the end of the year.

August 23rd, 2009 KUALA LUMPUR - If a new survey is anything to go by, a good night's sleep is much better than great sex. In a global sleep study of more than 12,500 frequent travellers, conducted by Westin Hotels, 52 per cent Asian respondents felt that a great night's sleep trumped great sex, reports the New Straits Times Online.

August 23rd, 2009 2 French teens killed in Las Vegas bus crashPARIS — France's Foreign Ministry says two French teenagers have been killed in an auto accident in the Las Vegas area. The ministry says four French teens were injured, one seriously, and the driver was also hurt in the accident.

July 14th, 2009 PARIS - The decision of the G8 countries to put a ban on helping non-NPT countries to reprocess uranium would have no effect on India, officials accompanying Prime Minister Manmohan Singh for his four-day trip to France and Egypt said. "We are receiving no help from anybody," official sources said.

June 23rd, 2009 Report: Signals heard from Flight 447 black boxesPARIS — The French newspaper Le Monde reported Tuesday that French military ships have detected a signal from the black boxes of Flight 447 in the Atlantic depths. The report says a mini research submarine, the Nautile, dived Monday to search for the boxes based on a "very weak signal" from the flight recorders picked up by the French ships.

June 17th, 2009 French: no conclusions in Flight 447 probeLE BOURGET, France — French investigators say more than 400 pieces of Flight 447 have been recovered in the Atlantic. Paul-Louis Arslanian, head of the French air accident investigation agency, says no firm conclusions have been drawn in the probe into the crash.

June 10th, 2009 WASHINGTON - A new study has found a link between couples' sleep quality and the quality of their relationship. It has shown that couples' relationship quality affects their sleep, and their sleep also affects their subsequent relationship functioning.

June 8th, 2009 WASHINGTON - Television watching may be an important determinant of bedtime and may contribute to sleep debt, according to the latest research. The study included 21,475 people aged 15 or older.

June 8th, 2009 SO PAULO - Search teams Sunday recovered the bodies of 17 people from the Air France plane that plunged into the Atlantic Ocean with 228 people on board June 1, a Brazilian Air Force spokesman said. While Brazilian teams retrieved nine bodies, French teams recovered eight, Brazilian Air Force spokesman Henry Munhoz said in the northeastern city of Recife.

June 4th, 2009 MADRID - A pilot of the Spanish airline Air Comet covering the route between Lima and Madrid saw a white flash in the area where the Air France plane went missing, the daily El Mundo reported Thursday. El Mundo quoted a report by the pilot to his airline.

June 2nd, 2009 Obama says Americans love all things FrenchPARIS — President Barack Obama said Tuesday the American people love all things French and acknowledged his own penchant for Gallic food and wines. In his first interview with a French television channel, Obama heaped praise on the country in an apparent attempted to stamp out any lingering tensions sparked by France's opposition to the United State's 2003 invasion of Iraq.

May 4th, 2009 PARIS - No one in the developed world spends more time than the French on eating, drinking and sleeping, according to a study by the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) issued here Monday. The study, titled Measuring Leisure in OECD Countries, found that French men and women above the age of 15 spend an average of about two hours and 15 minutes a day eating and drinking.

May 4th, 2009 Survey says French excel at eating, sleepingPARIS — The French are living up to their image as lovers of food and can add a new love to the mix, sleep, according to a survey released Monday. In fact, the French excel at the two leisure activities, spending more time at table and in bed than many other nations.

January 4th, 2009 PARIS - A French warship Sunday foiled attacks by Somali pirates on two commercial vessels in the Gulf of Aden, the French president's office said. Patrolling off the Somali coast, the French warship 'Jean de Vienne' captured 19 Somali pirates when they tried to seize a Croatian freighter and a Panamanian cargo ship.