As the presidential election is set for less than a year now in France one can't help thinking "at last!". The french presidential election is by far the most important one especially in periods when the president and his government are from the same party.

The presidency is central in France because the 1958 constitution puts it at the center of the relationships between the government, the parliament and the court system. The president has incredibly strong powers, he retains almost all the essential powers of the executive branch and the rest are held by the prime minister who, if he is from the same party as the president, is barely a puppet that the president chooses and dissmisses at his will.

The parliament's powers are completely restrained by the executive, this means in practice that although theoretically the government (not the president!) is responsible in front of parliament no one takes that responsability seriously. The prime minister and his government therefore answer to the president and the president is accountable to no-one.

France has won a years-long battle to host ITER, the 'next step' in nuclear fusion research. Nuclear fusion is the process that powers our sun, and could potentially lead to almost unlimited energy available on Earth.

The six partners in the international project - the European Atomic Energy Community (EURATOM), the People's Republic of China, Japan, Korea, Russia and the United States - declared today in Moscow that the device will be constructed at Cadarache, in France. The other contender for the project was Japan.

The final Star Wars film, Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith premiered at the Cannes Festival on May 15, 2005, with George Lucas and the stars of the movie in attendance at the Grand Theatre Lumiere.

At the subsequent United Kingdom premiere on May 16, 2005, fans turned out in costume. Outside London's Odeon cinema in Leicester Square, dozens of fans dressed as storm troopers, Jedi knights, and other characters for the film.

The movie is about the temptation of a Jedi knight to the Dark Side of the force, and his firey transformation into the arch-villain Darth Vader.