A celebration of 130 years of diplomatic relations between Korea and France launches next year. A host of cultural programs will be held in both Korea and France for a year from Sept. this year to the end of next year. It is being called “The Year of France in Korea” and “The Year of Korea in France” events.

Away from the xenophobic hysteria aimed at desperate immigrants are people taking steps to help newcomers and promote the good things they bring. [...] But on a local level, there are thousands of people across the continent who are braving the vitriol of their peers, and filling the void left by the politicians.

French President Francois Hollande is calling for an ambitious accord on the climate to address the threat of global warming. Hollande isn't at the Vatican climate conference, but he made the call at a Paris conference of religious and political leaders.

Over the next few days, leaders from cities, local governments and other organizations around the world will gather in Lyon, France. It is an important step toward COP21, the UN conference on climate change that will happen in Paris in December. The bold actions taken not only by local leaders but also by all the range of non-state actors to reduce greenhouse gases place them at the forefront of the fight against climate change.

The French have a reputation for their enviable lifestyle and smug confidence in their superiority. Books on why French women don’t get fat and the beautiful behaviour of French children have reinforced the image. Now the Sorbonne, one of the world’s most elite universities, is inviting Britons to France to be lectured about the virtues of being French. Aimed at expats, students and retired couples, the summer course will be taught in English and French, to appeal to Francophiles across the Channel. 

It is one of the great allegorical paintings celebrating the French revolution: Liberty Leading the People, by Eugène Delacroix, shows a barefoot, bare-breasted woman – representing Marianne, the female symbol of the republic – brandishing a tricolour in one hand and a bayonetted musket in the other, leading the people over the bodies of the fallen.

It is one of the great allegorical paintings celebrating the French revolution: Liberty Leading the People, by Eugène Delacroix, shows a barefoot, bare-breasted woman – representing Marianne, the female symbol of the republic – brandishing a tricolour in one hand and a bayonetted musket in the other, leading the people over the bodies of the fallen. Pupils at the French Lycée in Kuwait, however, might be forgiven for missing the symbolism of the celebrated work of art used to illustrate their history books after local censors slapped a large red sticker over