Her stirring, tragic story has moved millions of people. As an eight-year-old Jewish girl during World War II, she was taken in by wild wolves and walked for thousands of kilometers in search of her family. Sound too implausible to be true? Turns out it is. Her story is fiction, and, in fact, she’s not even Jewish. Though she may be the James Frey of French World War II tales, her lawyer claims she’s done nothing wrong.

Those of us who live in the United States are used to being able to buy some medications right off the shelves. But in France, until very recently, you weren’t able to purchase painkillers without first speaking to a pharmacist. Now certain painkillers are available on a self-serve basis, but are pharmacists ready for this change?

José Bové may be famous for having dismantled a McDonald’s, but it turns out he also knows a thing or two about building houses — all in line with his alterglobalist ideals!

On the final leg of French President Nicolas Sarkozy’s visit to South Africa, the leader meets with Nelson Mandela (after visiting the cell where Mandela was imprisoned for twenty-seven years), and speaks about the importance of being a uniter—not a divider.

A first look at French President Nicolas Sarkozy’s visit to South Africa. He proposes a new axis in the capital’s “Francafrican” politics and shores up relations with English-speaking Africa.

This newspaper, called “The Sapper’s Candle” (a “sapper” is traditionally a military man who disarms mines), only comes out on the leap year. But how can a periodical published only on February twenty-ninth be financially sound? Maybe it’s true: less is more.

Billions (oui, milliards!) of birds migrate from Africa every year, and with bird flu developing rapidly, their arrival to France is closely monitored at the Marquenterre National Park. Learn how French scientists and engineers there have taken innovative measures to make it difficult for the virus to settle in the mud where the birds like to feed.

Peaceful student demonstrations were marred by the intrusion of young rioters, non-students who joined in and caused mayhem and violence. Now the student organizers have accepted the aid of union members and are working together to keep the march safe.

Will French dentists soon have their patients grow new teeth, instead of filling in the old ones? New techniques using restorative molecules and even stem cells (which can be found in the baby teeth of children) will go a long way toward helping people smile filling-free.

French scientists study 740,000-year-old Antarctic ice samples and find clues that point to a relationship between greenhouse gases and global warming. It is feared that the record high carbon and methane levels of today will cause severe climatic change in coming years.

Hipsters all over the world are surely mourning the loss of their favorite instant-nostalgia art medium: the Polaroid. With the recent closing of the last two remaining Polaroid factories in the U.S., it looks like that familiar and much-loved “ch-click-whrrr” sound will soon become a thing of the past. Polaroid has plans to soon launch products suited to the digital era. But can anything ever compare to the one and only original? Only time will tell.

Even the Chinese agree with French astronaut Jean-François Clervoy: the great wall of China is NOT visible to the human eye from space, not even from a low orbit. Chinese astronaut Yan Liwei, who orbited the earth fourteen times in a Chinese spaceship, couldn’t see it either.

The magic of Nicolas Ghesquière? Innovating, without betraying the heritage of the venerable fashion house of Balenciaga.

Twenty-eight years ago, Frenchman Michel Garcia fell in love with Easter Island, home of clear blue water and the breathtaking moai. Since then he’s kept busy as a diving instructor and doting father, and he even found time to discover a new species of shellfish!

Microcredit can make a big difference to people on welfare or those without good credit history. Case in point: this fifty-five-year-old man who succeeded in opening up his own pizzeria thanks to the help he received.