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Obama arrives in Paris for 65th D-Day anniversary

Saturday, June 06, 2009 PARIS: US President Barack Obama landed late on Friday in France where he is to attend international ceremonies marking the 65th anniversary of World War II D-day landings. Obama arrived on Air Force One at Orly airport, after visiting a former Nazi camp in Germany, and was met by Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner before joining French counterpart Nicolas Sarkozy on Saturday. Obama motorcade headed directly for the US embassy, in central Paris, after he visited the German city of Dresden, flattened by WWII Allied bombing which killed 35,000 people in February 1945. As Obama travelled into Paris the US First Lady Michelle Obama and her young daughters Malia, 10, and Sasha, seven, completed a brief trip to the Eiffel Tower on Friday evening. They arrived in France shortly before the president. Obama and his family were to spend Friday night at the US embassy in Paris, before travelling to the north of France Saturday. On the eve of France's participation in the European Parliament election, Obama will join Sarkozy in Caen and give a speech at the US war cemetery at nearby Colleville-sur-mer. On Saturday, it will be 65 years ago to the day that the D-Day landings began, marking the final stage of the Allied campaign to defeat Nazi Germany.

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