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Luis Miguel Goitizolo

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RE: ARE WE NOW IN THE END TIMES?
12/30/2015 1:07:07 AM

Schizophrenia at the UN: “The Post 2015 Sustainable Development Agenda”, No More Poverty, No More War…

Global Research, December 28, 2015


The United Nations Security Council: An Organization for Injustice

Financial Times, September 24, 2015 title: “Rise in World Bank Poverty Threshold Set to Push Millions More Below the Line”

With great fanfare, last September the United Nations adopted the “Post 2015 Sustainable Development Agenda,” a seemingly laudable agenda containing 17 goals from “End Poverty in All Its Forms Everywhere,” through Goal 16, “Promote peaceful and inclusive societies for sustainable development, provide access to justice for all and build effective, accountable and inclusive institutions at all levels,” Goal 17: “Strengthen the means of implementation and revitalize the global partnership for sustainable development.”

These 17 ambitious goals, if achieved, would lead to a paradise on earth. However, there is an elephant in the room that the architects of these post-2015 Sustainable Development Goals are ignoring, and which will, if left unaddressed, prevent the attainment of these goals. Under the section entitled: “Means of Implementation and the Global Partnership,” is stated:

“5. ‘We note the critical importance of private finance and we call on businesses to apply their creativity and innovation to engage as partners in the development process.’”

The document enumerates resources for achievement of these post 2015 Development Goals, which include, vaguely worded,

“domestic public resources, private business, philanthropists and foundations, parliaments, local authorities and other stakeholders, etc.”

These enumerated “resources” for implementation of these development goals are disparate and not necessarily reliable or adequate sources of financing for implementation of this new Post-2015 Development Agenda. Conspicuously ignored is the huge and greatest potential source of financing, which is contained in the astronomically large investment many countries are making in their military budget. There is absolutely no mention of the military budgets as a potential source of financing of this development agenda. In fact, 5% of the world’s military budget could completely fund the entire Post-2015 Sustainable Development goals.

According to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) for 2015, world military expenditure for 2014 is estimated at $1776 billion, an almost inconceivably huge amount. Armaments and the military-industrial complex are among the most profitable of all industries, and constitute an enormous investment in destruction, human agony and mass murder. This is, obviously, the virtual annihilation of any possibility of achieving the “Post 2015 Sustainable Development Agenda.”

At a UN press briefing I raised the question of this dilemma which confronts the architects of the Post 2015 Development Agenda: while the UN is attempting to build sustainable infrastructure to provide decent lives for all global citizens, the massive investment in the military, and war profiteering, leads to war, and the destruction of entire nations, and, indeed civilizations, so that while the UN is attempting to construct and create, a ruthless war industry is simultaneously destroying innumerable nations, making the task of construction and reconstruction endless.

This is a mutually exclusive situation, a win-lose dilemma, which ultimately renders futile and unattainable the entire Post 2015 Sustainable Development Agenda. Wu Hongbo, Under-Secretary General For Economic and Social Affairs, added that wars also cause enormous environmental destruction, which prevents the attainment of Sustainable Development Goals # 13, 14 and 15, which focus on protection of the environment.

The United States heads the list of main exporters of major weapons, with Lockheed Martin, Boeing, Raytheon topping the list of the 10 largest weapons producing companies. While the UN Post 2015 Sustainable Development Goals are admirable, the method and possibility of their implementation remains precarious as long as certain of the most powerful and influential member states of the UN are based on an economy driven by profit-maximization as their paramount concern and overriding interest. And war is one of the most profitable of all activities.

Unless the UN can prevail upon all their member states to restrain investment in the military, and transfer these destructive and wasteful investments to support human development, poverty will continue, failed states will continue, terrorism will increase, and the global quality of life will deteriorate even further. There is no mechanism within the UN, nor any attempt being made to confront these mutually exclusive “interests.” The success of the Post 2015 Sustainable Development Goals will require a restructuring of the global economic architecture, a restructuring currently opposed by the United States and other capitalist powers.

Carla Stea is Global Research’s Correspondent at the United Nations headquarters in New York

"Choose a job you love and you will not have to work a day in your life" (Confucius)

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Luis Miguel Goitizolo

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RE: ARE WE NOW IN THE END TIMES?
12/30/2015 9:44:25 AM

NEO – Will the World Survive Obama’s Last Year?

By Jim W. Dean, Managing Editor on December 28, 2015

We have come a long way from our Founding Fathers who warned us to always be away of what our government was really doing or we would suffer for it

We have come a long way from our Founding Fathers, who warned us to always be aware of what our government was really doing or we would suffer the consequences

… by Gordon Duff, VT Sr. Editor, … with New Eastern Outlook, Moscow

America used the scum of the earth to attack Ukraine, under the black flag of "pursuing our interests"

America used the scum of the earth to attack Ukraine, under the black flag of “pursuing our interests”

[ Editor’s Note: As we come to the close of 2015, it has been an exceptionally busy year for us. Despite the victories against the neoConzies, where we beat them by getting the Iran nuclear scam exposed for what it was — a complete fraud to set the stage for a war against that country — the Obama administration has kept several undeclared wars going.

Ukraine had turned into the slam dunk disaster that we forewarned about at the beginning of the Maidan CIA coup. Although all of the hoax claims of Russian aggression have been shot down in flames, no one at the State Department nor the US NATO command, nor the White House, has jumped off a bridge to make some moral restitution to the American people and the world.

But even worse, America’s institutions, have stood down completely from standing against the foreign policy insanity. This includes virtually all the veterans associations, where weaning them off their focus on benefits and their love of fluff stuff is like pulling teeth.

We find more interest among common citizens for fighting against the political criminals in the US power structure than we do in the military structure, where playing it safe seems to be their top priority. More than a few rubber stamp every aggressive foreign policy announcement with joy, similar to winning a modest lotto.

Frankly, they don’t see it as their job. They are philosophically AWOL, and have not suffered any negative publicity for it, so they see no reason to change. The church community is in the same boat… “not our job, man”, despite the huge moral issues at stake, with American foreign policy having become the biggest killer on the planet, and yet there is no real rage.

This puts all of us here at home at huge risk — those who are willing to fight — because it is proven that when “they” come for us, we can expect nothing from our American institutions, in terms of fighting back. They will keep their heads down to focus on their own skins, and yet wave tiny flags and chant “God Bless America” on cue whenever asked toJim W. Dean ]

____________

– First published … December 27, 2015

Mr. Hope and Change

Mr. Hope and Change

Why does the world have to be concerned about American politics? The answer is simple, if you are going to die in your home with your family torn to pieces around you, chances are it will be America killing you.

Americans are quite aware of this and although the majority don’t approve of America’s insane foreign policy, the right wing Republican Party, the “opposition” not only does, they don’t think Obama is doing enough killing and certainly not in enough places.

So, the world is stuck living and dying under the shadow of Washington politics, with Obama’s frightening policies representing the “moderate” point of view and, in the wings a dozen madmen await, promising American armies across Africa and the Middle East, American hegemony in the Far East and nuclear annihilation for anyone who objects.

Is this really how it is? The answer, which is a resounding “yes,” is only history repeating itself. You see, best information out there, leaked detailed investigative reports from the US government indicate that 9/11 was staged by an international cabal. Yes, Saudi Arabia was involved.

When these documents were sent from Russia in May of 2014, citing not only Saudi Arabia but a very different “cabal” of political and financial leaders — American, Canadian, Israeli and South African, backed by rogue groups in the CIA and Pentagon and backed by Saudi and Israeli intelligence — sent from Russia and published in Veterans Today only (after being refused by CNN), no one heard what they wanted to hear.

There were no Islamic extremists, no bin Laden, only the secretive and powerful, names like “Bronfman” or “Netanyahu.” Nobody was hiding in caves, not the real perpetrators, same as today with ISIS, the terror group run from boardrooms in Zurich and London, not from tunnels under Mosul.

Four horsemen of the apocalypse

The four horsemen of the apocalypse

Why we take a look at this nowis that Bush-era history may well be repeating itself. His brother Jeb is a presidential frontrunner; Donald Trump, a total unknown may be elected as well, and so many others, all working for the shady Koch Brothers and Israeli gambling boss Sheldon Adelson, are looking for a world war.

All have one thing in common, war with Russia, a worldwide police state with universal surveillance and what is less understood, environmental collapse that will inexorably lead to world depopulation.

What we also need to look at, why I hesitantly mention 9/11 and the proven facts, nuclear weapons planted under the “triple towers,” arrests of Mossad teams across New York, radio jammers that block first responder communications, suspects flown out of the country, two planeloads of Saudis and Israeli…we are seeing it all again.

Now it is called “ISIS,” the exact same marriage of Israeli and Saudi intelligence, with Erdogan thrown into the mix, working hand in hand with the CIA and Pentagon, caught over and over commanding ISIS units, supplying their weapons and pouring in cash from what is now exposed by Russia to be a massive oil trade that everyone knew about all along.

Not only are the players the same for ISIS but the Ukraine as well, for Boko Harum, for al Shebab in Kenya and East Africa, for the new expanded war in Afghanistan and a new terror war now sweeping across Europe and into the US as well.

But then, what does this have to do with American politics? What does it have to do with Obama?

Can American Survive Bush Three - From a National Security View?

Would America survive a third wave of Bushes – from a national security view?

Seven years ago, Obama came on the scene addressing world Muslims, offering peace, offering Americans justice and a new direction. In America, Obama’s domestic policies have led to relative economic successes, while Obama and the Democratic Party have fought for worker’s rights, health and education and a return to voting rights.

Under Obama’s watch, however, police murders have either increased or have begun being reported after years of silence, we don’t know which is true, the “Arab Springs” have thrown a hundred million people into a political disaster – now clearly a CIA plot – and the Cold War is back on, based on another Mossad/CIA plot in Ukraine.

What is, or at least seems to be insane, are the moves in the opposite direction as well, the nuclear agreement with Iran and the recent Syrian accord with Russia, to name a few.

Thus, we have Obama and Kerry one moment spouting the most obvious and clumsy lies and following genocidal policies, particularly toward Iran, Syria, Russia and China, while only a short time later coming to the bargaining table with competent and rational initiatives.

This is pure schizophrenia.

There is no question that Russia has been pushed into drawing a line in Syria against American aggression. Whatever anyone says, particularly how Obama is failing to fight ISIS, those who voice the most concerns about ISIS are those who helped found ISIS and continue to support that terrorist group. We are talking not only Israel, Saudi Arabia and Turkey but America’s Right, the same people who helped stage 9/11 in order to create an atmosphere of fear.

As a minor aside, we ask a simple question: “What is the difference between the power mad NSA (National Security Agency) that intercepts world communications and Google Corporation?”

The answer to this is simple, “none.”

Thus, where in seven years, Obama failed to bring America into the light, pushing the world into a New Cold War and Europe into a period of political insanity not seen since August 1914. The same tired players — the American political gangsters, the McCain and Romney cartel, tied to Mexico’s Salinas family, the Adelson empire out of Macao and the Rothschild-Rockefeller “Federal Reserve Cartel” that controls world currency and banking — wield the real power.

This is what we are really seeing, an America ruled at an overt level by scamsters and criminals, oil, defense, insurance, nuclear power and coal, hand in hand with drug cartels and powerful families like the Walton/Walmart group.

Behind this, there is no “America” as such, only a thin “front” for channeling military power into the hands of worldwide organized crime, more than “multi-generational,” more like “millennial.”

__________

Gordon Duff is a Marine combat veteran of the Vietnam War who has worked on veterans and POW issues for decades and consulted with governments challenged by security issues. He’s a senior editor and chairman of the board of Veterans Today, especially for the online magazine “New Eastern Outlook”.








"Choose a job you love and you will not have to work a day in your life" (Confucius)

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Luis Miguel Goitizolo

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RE: ARE WE NOW IN THE END TIMES?
12/30/2015 10:47:15 AM

US criticizes Russia over civilian deaths in Syria
By BRADLEY KLAPPER | December 29, 2015 | 3:55 PM EST

A woman walks past damaged shops in the rebel-controlled area of Maaret al-Numan town in Idlib province, Syria, December 29, 2015. REUTERS/Khalil Ashawi


WASHINGTON (AP) — The United States criticized Russia on Tuesday for killing hundreds of civilians in airstrikes in Syria and accused Moscow of undermining hopes for a cease-fire between Bashar Assad's government and leading rebel groups.

The surprisingly sharp critique came as Washington banked on Moscow's help to launch a Syrian peace process that would allow both countries to focus on defeating the Islamic State. Negotiations between representatives of Assad's government and the opposition were expected to start next month, though hurdles remain.

In the meantime, the Arab country's almost five-year civil war raged on. Human rights groups say Russian airstrikes are contributing to a growing humanitarian crisis that includes more than a quarter-million people killed, millions left homeless or as refugees, and vast expanses of chaos that the Islamic States has exploited to carve out a repressive, self-proclaimed caliphate.

Amid reports of indiscriminate killing by Russia, including the use of cluster bombs, Secretary of State John Kerry called Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov earlier this week to share his concerns. U.S. officials wouldn't describe Lavrov's response.

"The reports of Russian attacks on Syrian civilians are extremely disturbing," State Department spokesman Mark Toner told reporters Tuesday. Activist accounts suggest Russian strikes "killed hundreds of civilians, including first responders" and "hit medical facilities, schools and markets," he said.

The campaign uprooted some 130,000 Syrians in October and the first half of November alone, Toner said.

An Amnesty International report last week cited evidence of Russian use of cluster munitions and unguided bombs in populated residential areas. The group denounced what it called Russia's "shameful failure" to acknowledge civilian killings.

Russia immediately rejected the claims, calling them "clichés and fakes."

While Toner didn't endorse all of the findings directly, he said the U.S. has "seen a marked and troubling increase in reports of civilian casualties since Russia commenced its air campaign there" in late September.

He repeated Western assessments that most of Moscow's bombs haven't targeted Islamic State and other terrorist fighters, as the Kremlin argues. Instead, he said the "large majority" have struck areas held by Assad's opponents, where many have been killed or wounded.

Those attacks may include one last weekend that killed Zahran Alloush, a top Syrian rebel commander who led one of the most powerful groups battling Assad's forces. Although the U.S. has steered clear of Alloush's Army of Islam, it had praised the hard-line conservative group for supporting the U.S.-Russian mediation effort with Assad and opposing the Islamic State. Syria's army said it was responsible for the strike, though opposition figures blamed Russia.

In Washington's view, such killings may prove the most damaging in prolonging the conflict. If top rebels can't be assured that they and their fighters will be protected after laying down their arms, they'll have little motivation to join a peace process that could keep Assad in power for months, if not years, to come.

And if Russia was indeed responsible for Alloush's death, the recent cooperation between Washington and Moscow to stop Syria's bloodshed may prove untenable.

Toner didn't ascribe blame for Alloush's death, but said Kerry discussed the attack with Lavrov.

The U.S. is focused on "beginning a credible political process that can lead, finally, to an end to the violence in Syria and a new political path forward for the Syrian people," Toner said. "Attacks on those who could be part of this political process, as well as attacks that kill innocent civilians, undermine efforts to find a political resolution."

Russian officials repeatedly have rejected accusations of civilian killings, and residents and opposition activists inside Syria acknowledge they have no way to categorically differentiate Russian-operated planes from Syrian-operated planes. Amnesty's report came days after Human Rights Watch issued similar accusations against Russia.

The talks between Syria's government and rebels are supposed to start in Geneva in the final week of January, but several obstacles remain. The opposition must first announce its delegation to the negotiations. And a host of rival countries including the U.S., Russia, Saudi Arabia and Iran still must agree on a list of rebel militias that would be welcomed into a political process, and a separate list of terrorist groups that would be fought by all.


"Choose a job you love and you will not have to work a day in your life" (Confucius)

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Luis Miguel Goitizolo

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RE: ARE WE NOW IN THE END TIMES?
12/30/2015 2:17:53 PM

Islamic State suffers double blow as Ramadi falls, leaders killed

Reuters

A member of the Iraqi security forces holds an Iraqi flag at a government complex in the city of Ramadi, December 28, 2015. REUTERS/Stringer

By Ahmed Rasheed and Stephen Kalin

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - U.S.-led forces have killed 10 Islamic State leaders in air strikes, including individuals linked to the Paris attacks, a U.S. spokesman said, dealing a double blow to the militant group after Iraqi forces ousted it from the city of Ramadi.

Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi planted the national flag in Ramadi after the army retook the city center from Islamic State, a victory that could help vindicate his strategy for rebuilding the military after stunning defeats.

"Over the past month, we've killed 10 ISIL leadership figures with targeted air strikes, including several external attack planners, some of whom are linked to the Paris attacks," said U.S. Army Colonel Steve Warren, a spokesman for the U.S.-led campaign against the Islamist group also known by the acronym ISIL.

"Others had designs on further attacking the West."

One of those killed was Abdul Qader Hakim, who facilitated the militants' external operations and had links to the Paris attack network, Warren said. He was killed in the northern Iraqi city of Mosul on Dec. 26.

Two days earlier, a coalition air strike in Syria killed Charaffe al Mouadan, a Syria-based Islamic State member with a direct link to Abdelhamid Abaaoud, the suspected ringleader of the coordinated bombings and shootings in Paris on Nov. 13 which killed 130 people, Warren said.

Mouadan was planning further attacks against the West, he added.

Air strikes on Islamic State's leadership helped explain recent battlefield successes against the group, which also lost control of a dam on a strategic supply route near its de facto capital of Raqqa in Syria on Saturday.

"Part of those successes is attributable to the fact that the organization is losing its leadership," Warren said.

He warned, however: "It's still got fangs."

"EXCITED ABOUT THIS VICTORY"

The Iraqi army's seizure of the center of Ramadi on Sunday is its first major victory against the hardline Sunni Islamists that swept through a third of Iraq in 2014, and came after months of cautious advances backed by coalition air strikes.

Three mortar rounds landed about 500 meters (0.3 miles) from Prime Minister Abadi's location during his visit, security sources said. The prime minister was not in danger but was forced to leave the area, they said.

Arriving by helicopter in the shattered city west of Baghdad, Abadi traveled in a convoy of Humvees and met soldiers at the main government complex captured by counter-terrorism forces on Monday, where he planted the tri-color Iraqi flag.

He had announced the visit to Ramadi himself on Twitter and declared Thursday a national holiday in celebration, even though security forces must still remove explosives planted throughout the city and clear out fighters in some densely built-up areas.

Ramadi was the only city to have fallen under Islamic State control since Abadi took office in September 2014.

"He is excited about this victory, because he managed to remove this blot from his historical record as commander-in-chief of the armed forces," said Hisham al-Hashimi, a Baghdad-based analyst who has worked with the Iraqi government.

The retaking of Ramadi suggested Abadi's strategy of heavy U.S. air support while sidelining the Shi'ite militias could be effective. The militias have served as a bulwark against Islamic State but drawn objections from Washington.

"Ramadi is an example that the regular army wishes to promote for upcoming battles of liberation," Hashimi said.

Coalition spokesman Warren said casualties to Iraqi forces during the battle for Ramadi were in the low double digits. He and Iraqi officials put Islamic State casualties in the hundreds.

Reuters could not independently confirm those estimates.

LONG ROAD TO MOSUL

The government has designated the mostly Sunni city of Mosul, 400 km (250 miles) north of Baghdad, as the next target for Iraq's armed forces.

But Finance Minister Hoshiyar Zebari told Reuters the army would need the help of ethnic Kurdish Peshmerga fighters to retake the largest city under the control of Islamic State, home to rival religious and ethnic groups.

"Mosul needs good planning, preparations, commitment from all the key players," Zebari, a Kurd, said on Monday in Baghdad.

"Peshmerga is a major force; you cannot do Mosul without Peshmerga," he said, referring to the armed forces of Iraqi Kurdistan, an autonomous northern region close to Mosul.

(Writing by Stephen Coates; Editing by Mark Bendeich)

"Choose a job you love and you will not have to work a day in your life" (Confucius)

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Luis Miguel Goitizolo

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RE: ARE WE NOW IN THE END TIMES?
12/30/2015 2:26:32 PM

US accuses Iran of conducting rocket test near warships

Associated Press

This US Navy handout photo released on December 10, 2012 shows the aircraft carrier USS Harry S Truman in the Atlantic Ocean (AFP Photo/Kristina Young)


DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) -- Iranian naval vessels conducted rocket tests last week near U.S. warships and commercial traffic passing through the Strait of Hormuz, the American military said Wednesday, causing new tension between the two nations after a landmark nuclear deal.

The vital strait, a narrow waterway between Iran and Oman that is the route for nearly a third of all oil traded by sea, is crucial for ships taking part in the war against the Islamic State group in Iraq and Syria. In the past, Iran has threatened to block the strait, which lies at the entrance of the Persian Gulf.

While the United States has complained previously about other Iranian war games and maneuvers there, Saturday's incident comes after a series of weapons tests and other moves by the Islamic Republic following the nuclear deal.

Iranian media and officials did not immediately discuss the tests Wednesday.

Cmdr. Kyle Raines, a U.S. Central Command spokesman, said in a statement that Iranian Revolutionary Guard naval vessels fired "several unguided rockets" about 1,370 meters (1,500 yards) from the USS Harry S. Truman aircraft carrier, the USS Bulkeley destroyer and a French frigate, the FS Provence. Raines said commercial sea traffic also was nearby, though the missiles weren't fired in the direction of any ships.

Raines said the Iranian vessels announced over maritime radio that they'd carry out a live fire exercise only 23 minutes beforehand.

Iran's "actions were highly provocative," Raines said. "Firing weapons so close to passing coalition ships and commercial traffic within an internationally recognized maritime traffic lane is unsafe, unprofessional and inconsistent with international maritime law."

A French military official, speaking to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity as he was not authorized to publicly named, confirmed the rocket fire took place Saturday. However, the official said the French military did not consider it to be a threatening event as the rocket fire clearly wasn't directed toward the Western fleet.

The French frigate is now escorting the French aircraft carrier Charles de Gaulle, which is launching airstrikes against the Islamic State group.

NBC News first reported news of the Iranian rocket fire.

The Strait of Hormuz is only about 33 kilometers (21 miles) wide at its narrowest point between Iran and Oman. Ships traversing the chokepoint have even less room to maneuver. The shipping lane in either direction is only 2 miles (3.22 kilometers) wide, with a 2-mile (3.22-kilometer) buffer zone between them.

The U.S. Navy's 5th Fleet is based in nearby Bahrain, on the southern coast of the Gulf. It conducts anti-piracy patrols in the greater Gulf and serves as a regional counterbalance to Iran.

While the U.S. didn't retaliate to Saturday's rocket test, the Strait of Hormuz has been the scene of a battle between the two countries' navies. On April 18, 1988, the U.S. attacked two Iranian oil rigs and sunk or damaged six of its vessels, including two naval frigates, in Operation Praying Mantis. That came after the near-sinking of the missile frigate USS Samuel B. Roberts by an Iranian mine.

A few months later, in July 1988, the USS Vincennes in the strait mistook an Iran Air flight heading to Dubai for an attacking fighter jet, shooting down the plane and killing all 290 passengers and crew onboard. The shoot-down of the jet came shortly after the U.S. vessel reported coming under fire from Iranian speedboats.

Saturday's rocket fire comes after Iran and world powers led by the U.S. agreed to a landmark nuclear deal to limit the Islamic Republic's enrichment of uranium in exchange for lifting economic sanctions. While heralded by moderates in Iran, hard-liners have criticized the deal.

In the time since, Iran has conducted missile tests criticized by the U.S., as well as aired footage on state television of an underground missile base. Iran also sank a replica of a U.S. aircraft carrier in February near the strait. It seized a Marshall Islands-flagged cargo ship and later released it in May after earlier surrounding U.S.-flagged cargo ship transiting the strait.

___

Associated Press writer Angela Charlton in Paris contributed to this report.

"Choose a job you love and you will not have to work a day in your life" (Confucius)

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