For the fashion industry, one of the main lures of Paris ? aside from the shopping opportunities, rich food and deep-pocketed advertisers ? is the design community's ability to surprise its audience.

The potential to instill a certain degree of anticipation and wide-eyed wonder in seen-it-all editors and retailers is one way this French city has maintained its reputation. The fashion industry believes in Paris' power to foretell the future.

PARIS (AP) - Officials say two French military fighter jets have crashed into the Mediterranean Sea during a training mission and that one pilot is missing.

The French Defense Ministry says that one pilot was pulled from the water, but that helicopters and patrol planes are searching for the second pilot.

No other information about the accident at 6 p.m. (1600 GMT) Thursday is immediately available.

The Rafale jets took off from the Charles de Gaulle aircraft carrier and crashed into the sea east of the French city of Perpignan.

"Bonne après-midi," Barack Obama said. Two simple words uttered in French and the sports hall erupted in a riot of applause, whooping, and the flashing of mobile phone cameras.

Strasbourg, a French city on the Rhine that used to be German, had never seen anything like it - the US president, the political phenomenon of the age, pacing the stage like a stand-up comedian.

The speech was both sweet and steely, the mastery of the audience and the event complete. "You can speak French or German, but my French and German are terrible," he quipped.