Japan is increasingly turning to other countries for help as it struggles to stabilize its tsunami-stricken nuclear plant and stop radiation leaks that are complicating efforts to recover the bodies of some of the thousands swept away by the towering wave.

Hsueh Sheng Wang's Eurasia group plans to turn the port of Le Havre into a hub for trade between China and France.

The success of yesterday’s Paris summit in securing international backing for the military strikes on Libya marks quite a comeback for French diplomacy. Just two months ago, France was offering another Arab autocrat, in Tunisia, help controlling rebellion.

A meeting of the Azerbaijani Students and Alumni International Forum (ASAIF) was continued here on Friday. The participants continued their debates in the “networking and new ways of representing Azerbaijan” section led by head of the Azerbaijan delegation to PACE Samad Seyidov...

Libya’s warring sides opened a new and critical front in the deepening conflict there. Muammar Qaddafi and rebels trying to oust him sent envoys to European capitals to sway the debate over potential international military involvement in Libya, a day ahead of a European Union summit that could well determine the future of the crisis.

Moving ahead of its allies, France on Thursday became the first country to recognize Libya’s rebel leadership in the eastern city of Benghazi and said it would soon exchange ambassadors with the insurgents.

France’s ambassador to Israel presented data yesterday showing a 45 percent drop in anti-Semitic incidents in his country during 2010. Cristophe Bigot attributed the year-over-year drop to a sharp rise in 2009 in the wake of Operation Cast Lead.

A new poll shows that 81 percent of the French think France’s importance on the international stage is declining. After a widely criticised reaction to uprisings in the Arab world, the survey is the latest bit of bad news for French diplomacy.