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Dawn comes this weekend, when the leaders of Europe take the first concrete steps toward abandoning their national currencies in favor of one, the euro. The process will not be completed until 2002, but it will take on an irreversible nature beginning Saturday in Brussels. Eleven countries are expected to sign up on that day. In the process, its supporters hope, Europe will gain the economic -- and perhaps ultimately political -- dynamism it long has lacked. A trading power larger than the United States, Europe has played a far smaller role on the world stage than its Atlantic ally. The euro, it is hoped, will allow the continent to achieve global-power status commensurate with its demographic, industrial and creative powers. \"The movement toward the single currency is in many ways the most revolutionary step toward a united Europe since the founding of the European Community in the 1950s,\" said John Palmer, director of the European Policy Center in Brussels.

[Raymond Barre] died at a Paris hospital, where he was being treated for heart problems, family...

  \"If you haven't got connections, you're dead,\" a youth named Malik in a banlieue north of Paris told Le Monde's reporter Pascale Krmer. \"For the young in the housing projects, there's only dog work. If you do short-term work, they exploit you completely. We have self-respect. We were born here. We went to school. We're not going to pick up people's shit like our parents did.\" The result, says sociologist Ccile van de Velde, is \"a form of social pathology\" in which jobless French youths are \"like beached boats. With the rules stacked against them, they withdraw from the game. It's a form of resistance, and of self-protection.\" \"These jobs are often a trampoline for entering local government,\" explains an adviser to the labour minister. \"After one to three years, they're hired permanently, either through a competitive exam or recruited directly. The local governments know who's going to retire, so they can plan ahead for things like landscaping and sports programmes.\"

Paris, 20th June: The National Assembly [lower house] has adopted the bill on reducing the presidential term of office to five years [from seven].

[RAYMOND Barre] was prime minister of France from 1976 to 1981 during the presidency of Valery Giscard d'Estaing. During a 30year political career, he was also vice president of the European Commission, French economics minister and mayor of Lyon. Top politicians from France's governing conservative party expressed their sorrow at Barre's death. President Nicolas Sarkozy called him a \"free and independent spirit\" and hailed his \"passion for France\". To combat the economic crisis of the late 1970s, Barre imposed strict policies that resulted in thousands of layoffs. When faced with strong union opposition, Barre dismissed street protesters and told them to get back to work.

ZAHARO, Greece - Fires pushed by gale-force winds tore through more parched forests, swallowed villages and scorched the edges of Athens on Saturday with ashes raining onto the Acropolis. The death toll rose to at least 49 as the government declared a nationwide state of emergency. Soldiers and military helicopters reinforced firefighting forces that were stretched to the limit by Greece's worst summer of wildfires in decades. In the most-ravaged area - a string of mountain villages in southern Greece - rescue crews picked through a grim aftermath that spoke of last-minute desperation as the fires closed in. Citing North Korea's Central Statistics Bureau, the Korean Central News Agency reported at least 600 people were dead or missing and thousands were injured. The report was the first time that North Korea's media have specified a precise death toll from the disaster.

Mr. [Raymond Barre] died at Val de Grace hospital in Paris, family members said. An exact cause of death was not immediately available, but he was admitted to the hospital on April 12, his 83rd birthday, after suffering from heart problems in Monaco, where he was to give a speech on world finance.

Former French Prime Minister and eminent economist Raymond Barre died yesterday in hospital where...

President Nicolas Sarkozy called [Raymond Barre] a \"free and independent spirit\" and hailed his \"passion for France.\" Born April 12, 1924, in Saint-Denis on the French island of Reunion in the Indian Ocean, Barre studied at the Reunion Law School before being mobilized into the army in 1944. Attached to an artillery unit stationed in Madagascar, the war finished before he could ship out. Charles de Gaulle asked Barre to represent France at the European Commission in Brussels in 1972, where he helped form the economic policies of the future European Union. Former President Valery Giscard d'Estaing called Barre \"the best economist in France.\"

FORMER French Prime Pinister Raymond Barre has died, his family said yesterday.