Word: france
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Spaniard Miguel Indurain on Sunday achieved what only two other cyclists have: a fourth consecutive Tour de France victory. Indurain survived a grueling, 3,978-km Tour that saw almost half the original 189 contestants drop out because of heat and exhaustion. BEAU GESTE: A surprise for those who yawned at Indurain's expected win: French cyclist Richard Virenque, who distinguished himself as the best climber on the Tour, donated his entire 250,000-franc ($46,000) winnings to Medecins Sans Frontieres (Doctors without Borders), the physicians' group that runs some key humanitarian operations in Rwanda.WHAT MONEY...
...French say they're happy -- in a manner of speaking. Despite 12% unemployment, a faltering franc and the highest number of AIDS cases in Europe, an opinion poll in the weekly Le Nouvel Observateur found that 88% of French people claim to be happy. Huh? It turns out that the French are just happy not to be unhappy: relief at holding a job and not being infected with AIDS is what makes them smile...
When Germany declined to lower interest rates, it threw the European Monetary System, the linchpin of European economic and political union, into chaos. In wild trading, the franc plummeted and gold soared...
...currency traders who knocked the British pound and Italian lira out of the E.C.'s monetary system two weeks ago displayed their own doubts about the future by selling off French francs in favor of German marks. French President Francois Mitterrand and German Chancellor Helmut Kohl, after conferring in Paris, vowed to work together, and their central banks jointly supported the franc...
...loathing still hold Europe in their grip is also demonstrated by the current crisis in the European Exchange Rate Mechanism (ERM). This crisis, which in the past two weeks has seen the British pound and Italian lira suspended from the ERM, the Spanish peseta significantly devalued, and the French franc under serious attack, has brought out of the closet all of the chauvinist habits of the pre-war years...