Churchill statue in Paris desecrated

October 14th, 2009 BUENOS AIRES - Unknown people damaged a bronze statue of Ernesto Che Guevara in Rosario, the Argentine city where the icon of the Cuban revolution was born, an official said. Horacio Ghirardi said Tuesday that the act of vandalism was committed last weekend by "someone who does not like this figure or had the intention of robbing or damaging it.

August 25th, 2009 Vets mark 65 years since Paris freed from NazisPARIS — Veterans of the French Resistance have joined President Nicolas Sarkozy in a ceremony marking the 65th anniversary of the liberation of Paris from the Nazi occupation. On Aug. 25, 1944, Resistance leader Charles de Gaulle moved back into the War Ministry in central Paris and made a famous speech from City Hall.

August 5th, 2009 Paris-Spain flight catches fire, several injured PARIS — The Paris Airports authority says the engine of an Airbus 320 of the low-cost carrier Vueling on its way to Alicante in southeastern Spain has caught fire and that several people have been slightly injured. An official at Paris Airports says the passengers were injured as they tried to exit the plane down the emergency slides.

July 27th, 2009 LONDON - A sofa that had once belonged to Britain's war-time Prime Minister Winston Churchill has fetched 7,500 pounds at auction, despite being valued at just 80 pounds. Originally destined for a skip, the battered and ripped Chesterfield was saved when the brother of the late owner mentioned the connection.

July 20th, 2009 LONDON - Britain's wartime Prime Minister, Sir Winston Churchill, was furious reportedly when he discovered that his secret bunker headquarters was not bombproof, a letter has now revealed. Churchill accused advisers of ­"selling him a pup" by letting him think the famous Cabinet War Rooms in London's Whitehall would withstand a Nazi bomb attack.

July 2nd, 2009 LONDON - British Prime Minister Gordon Brown Thursday garlanded a recently installed statue of Mahatma Gandhi in the city of Leicester. Brown surprised shoppers in Belgrave Road, a popular Indian shopping area of Leicester, when he dropped by to view the statue - believed to be only the second of Gandhi in Europe.

June 30th, 2009 LONDON - US President Barack Obama with newly acquired grey hair travelled to the Eiffel tower in wax form along with two bodyguards. After visiting France's most famous monument on Monday, the statue travelled to Paris' Musée Grevin wax museum, where it will stand alongside the likenesses of Nicolas Sarkozy, Angela Merkel and Vladimir Putin.

June 27th, 2009 LEICESTER - A large statue of Mahatma Gandhi was unveiled in this southeastern English city on Friday by British Home Secretary Alan Johnson amid tight security after internet protesters warned it could be defaced. Around 1,000 people, including a large number ethnic Indians, turned up to watch the unveiling by Johnson and Hindu spiritual leader Swami Satyamitrananda of Hardwar.

June 26th, 2009 LONDON - A statue of Mahatma Gandhi was unveiled Friday in the southeast British city of Leicester known as Little India for its Indian-origin population. Though locals were opposing the installation of the statue, no protest was made during the unveiling of the seven-foot icon, sitting on a five-foot plinth, of India's independence hero.

June 24th, 2009 LONDON - British Home Secretary Alan Johnson will join Hindu spiritual leader Swami Satyamitranand at the unveiling of a statue of Mahatma Gandhi in the city of Leicester in southeast England Friday, the local MP said Wednesday. Keith Vaz, the longest-serving ethnic Indian MP in Britain, said the statue is to be placed in Belgrave Road - home to the city's thriving Indian business community.

June 23rd, 2009 PARIS - An anonymous car owner in Paris, apparently fed up with looking for a place to park his car, has purchased a parking space in the heart of the city for the astronomical sum of 470,000 euros ($654,000), the daily La Tribune reported Tuesday. The space is located on the bank of the Seine River in the heart of the chic Sixth Arrondissement.

June 5th, 2009 Prosecutor's office opens Airbus plane probePARIS — The Paris prosecutor's office says it has opened a manslaughter probe in the crash of Air France flight 447, a routine step by authorities in the deaths of French citizens overseas. The prosecutor's office said Friday it opened the case because some of the victims lived in Paris.

May 9th, 2009 NEW YORK - American Interior Secretary Ken Salazar has announced that the crown of the Statue of Liberty will be reopened to tourists on July 4, to mark the 233rd birthday of the country. This is the first time that visitors will be welcomed to the Statue of Liberty's crown since terrorists toppled the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001.

April 29th, 2009 Sarkozy unveils sweeping new vision for ParisPARIS — French President Nicolas Sarkozy has unveiled an ambitious, costly new plan to rethink the structure of Paris and its troubled suburbs. Sarkozy says a key focus of the plan should be expanding the French capital's links to the English Channel via more trade along the Seine River and a new high-speed rail line to Le Havre.

April 19th, 2009 LONDON - Even as a schoolboy, former British Prime Minister Winston Churchill (1874-1965) yearned for the thrill of battle. His playroom in the Blenheim Palace in Woodstock, Oxfordshire resembled a field of war with troops ready for action.