IHT Quick Read: Dec. 1

NEWS For much of her youth, Mazarine Pingeot, daughter of the late French president François Mitterrand and his mistress, was a state secret. She would sneak into the Élysée Palace through a back door that led directly to Mr. Mitterand's private apartments; when she got a bicycle, bodyguards followed her on bicycles, too. Now 37, Ms. Pingeot, an author and philosophy professor, has published “Bon Petit Soldat” (“Good Little Soldier”), a diary that includes memories of that unusual childhood. “Being unable to share a secret makes this secret very heavy,” she tells Maïa de la Baume. “You protect it rather than protecting yourself.”

Lawmakers in Germany's lower house of Parliament easily passed the next round of financial support for Greece on Friday, despite growing doubt among members of Chancellor Angela Merkel's coalition and opposition parties that the measures will be sufficient to resolve the Greek problem. Melissa Eddy reports from Berlin.

A delegation dispatched by China's new leader, Xi Jinping, met with the North Korean leader Kim Jong-un on Friday, North Korean state media reported, amid signs that North Korea is stepping up its nuclear and long-range missile programs. Choe Sang-Hun reports from Seoul.

Once regarded as a refuge for political mavericks, the UK Independence Party, which wants Britain to quit the European Union, made strong gains in three by-elections held this week, adding still more pressure on Prime Minister David Cameron to take a tough line on Europe. Stephen Castle reports from London.

A nephew of Chen Guangcheng, the blind Chinese dissident now living in the United States, was sentenced to more than three years in prison on Friday for assaulting a government official who broke into the family's home in April during a frenzied search for Mr. Chen, according to relatives. Chen Kegui, 33, was convicted after a brief closed-door trial in Shandong Province, not far from th e farmhouse where paid thugs kept his uncle illegally confined for 18 months. Andrew Jacobs reports from Beijing.

ARTS A chunk of the stock of antiquities accumulated by the dealer Joseph Uzan recently went on sale at Drouot in Paris, and the results suggest the end of an era in which objects were appreciated for their own sake, Souren Melikian writes. Many delightful and inexpensive pieces that once would have induced connoisseurs to compete against each other went unnoticed, and those that sold made laughably modest prices.

SPORTS Formula One somehow reinvented itself in 2012, coming up with a scenario that again defied all the predictions. In the third year of its effort to improve the show by changing the technical regulations to encourage cars to pass each other, it created the most unpredictable racing so far, Brad Spurgeon writes.

Steamy Turkish TV Drama Draws Fire From Prime Minister

“Magnificent Century,” a sort of Ottoman-era “Sex and the City” set during the reign of Sultan Suleiman the Magnificent, is wildly popular in Turkey and across the Middle East. But one person who is decidedly not a fan is Turkey's conservative prime minister, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who is so incensed at the show's steamy depiction of the heroic sultan that he has urged legal action against the series.

In the latest cultural battle to erupt in Turkey, Mr. Erdogan last weekend slammed the lavish historical drama, which chronicles the palace and harem intrigue swirling around the sultan, including the rise of Hurrem, the slave who became his powerful wife. Suleiman ruled the Ottoman empire from 1520 to 1566 at the height of its glory and is revered as a valiant warrior and wise Kanuni, or Lawgiver.

Responding to criticism from the opposition that Turkey's intervention in the region was undermining the country's security, Mr. Erdogan baffled some observers b y apparently conflating the critique of Turkey's robust foreign policy with the portrayal of a debauched Suleiman on the show. Suleiman, he seemed to underline, had been a brave and adventurous conqueror.

Critics “ask why are we dealing with the affairs of Iraq, Syria and Gaza,” Mr. Erdogan said in a speech Sunday at the opening of an airport in western Turkey, according to Reuters. “They know our fathers and ancestors through ‘Magnificent Century,' but we don't know such a Suleiman. He spent 30 years on horseback, not in the palace, not what you see in that series.”

He said that the director of the series and owner of the channel that broadcasts it had been warned, that judicial authorities had been alerted and that a judicial decision was expected. “Those who toy with these values should be taught a lesson within the premises of law,” he said, according to The Hurriyet Daily News.

Cultural critics and political rivals railed against Mr. Erdogan, accusing him of cultural authoritarianism and censorship. Muharrem Ince, deputy chairman of the main opposition Republican People's Party, accused Mr. Erdogan of behaving like a sultan, saying that he was jealous of the series' popularity and determined to be the only sultan in the country. Mr. Erdogan, whose governing party has Islamic roots, has sought to embrace and rehabilitate the Ottoman Empire, a period of grandeur when the sultans claimed the spiritual leadership of the Muslim world before the empire's ignominious decline by World War I.

Turkey's culture and tourism ministry responded that popular Turkish soap operas were generating tens of millions of dollars in export income for Turkey and were widely watched across the region, expanding the exposure of the country. “Magnificent Century” attracts a third of the prime-time audience in Turkey and draws an audience of up to 150 million from Cairo to Kosovo, analysts said.

Even the sultan's real heirs appeared more sanguine than Mr. Erdogan. Osman Selaheddin Osmanoglu, son of the last prince in the Ottoman Palace, told The Hurriyet Daily News that while he did not appreciate the lascivious portrayal of his ancestors, he wasn't all that bothered as it was only a fictional work. “I am following the series,” he said. “But I don't take it seriously since it is only a soap opera.”

The show is no stranger to controversy. After it was first broadcast in January last year, the Supreme Board of Radio and Television said it had received more than 70,000 complaints, and said that Show TV, the channel broadcasting the series, had wrongly exposed “the privacy of a historical person” and owed the public an apology.

Mr. Erdogan at the time called the program disrespectful and “an effort to show our history in a negative light to the younger generations.” Dozens of egg-throwing protesters chanted “God is great” outside th e Show TV studios.

Some viewers were irate because the series showed the Sultan drinking alcohol - banned in Islam - and womanizing with concubines in the harem. They also complained that the scriptwriters were engaging in dangerous and disrespectful historical revisionism.

Melis Behil, a film studies professor at Kadir Has University, said in an interview that the show, which has helped spur a cultural revival of the Ottoman Empire across the country, had been inspired by the success of historical dramas like ones about the Tudors and thus focused on the manners and personal lives of the characters as opposed to the traditional battlefield scenes of many Turkish epics.

“The religious right are complaining that Suleiman was a great leader and all you are showing is his sex life and private parts,” she said.

Our Brussels Correspondents Answer Readers\' Questions About the Euro, Europe and the Union

The news this week from besieged Europe was - relatively - good, sort of. Yields on Italian government bonds - the amount Italy has to pay investors to assume a piece of their debt - fell to the lowest levels in more than a year. The German parliament, the Bundestag, approved Germany's latest contribution to bailout broke Greece. And though unemployment in the euro zone reached record heights, the head of the European Central Bank, Mario Draghi, predicted today that the euro zone's economy would begin to recover in the latter part of next year.

But how long will it last? We have been here before, a lot. The market decides things are OK for the moment, before souring on Europe again. The spectacle of European leaders failing to agree on the outlines of a European Union budget came only last week - and that specter will rear its head again next year when those same leaders have to fashion a budget, and Greece will have to stay afloat, and Spain, Italy and Portugal will have to continue implementing structural reforms, and France may face a reckoning of its own, and Britain….Well, you understand.

We recently asked readers for their questions about the future of the European experiment. To bring some long-term clarity to all the short-term clutter, our Brussels correspondents, James Kanter and Andrew Higgins, have supplied the answers.

Judy W. from Cumberland, Maryland, asked, “Do you think the U.K. will end up leaving the E.U. and would be in their best interest to leave?”

Well, Judy, opinion polls in the Britain certainly suggest that hostility to the E.U. is mounting and nobody has ever lost votes in the U.K. by campaigning against Brussels. In fact, our colleague Stephen Castle reports today that the UKIP, “the party that wants Britain to quit the European Union, made spectacular gains in three by-elections held Thursday, increasing pressure on the Conservative Prime Minister, David Cameron, to take a tough li ne on Europe.”

But saying and doing are two different things. And should a referendum on Britain's membership in the European Union be held, I doubt a majority would vote to actually pull out altogether. Britain would gain a financial windfall by leaving as it would no longer have to make annual contributions to the E.U. budget, but it would likely pay a very heavy economic price if it separates itself from the “single European market.” Potential losses will, I suspect, tilt opinion away from the exit, no matter how suspicious many Britons are of the “European project.” And, if a British withdrawal ever became an imminent possibility, the influential banking lobby in the City of London would pull out all the stops to try and make sure this doesn't happen. It would want to make sure Britain is not absent from a decision-making process in Brussels that has a direct impact on global banking. Having financiers and hedge fund managers on its side will not endear t he E.U. to the general public but would help mobilize money for a referendum campaign. (Andrew Higgins)

Abo in Paris and Judy W. got into a mini-debate over what countries contribute how much to Europe and how much they get back, leading to the question, “Does it make sense for countries to look at what they ‘put in' and what they ‘get out' as far as subsidies and benefits?”

The question goes to the heart of why the European Union summit aimed at agreeing to a seven-year budget for the Union collapsed last week. Net contributor countries like Britain, Germany and Sweden were at loggerheads with net recipient countries like Poland, Lithuania and Spain over the size of the budget - about "1 trillion between 2014 and 2020, or $1.3 trillion. Britain was fighting hard to maintain an annual rebate that was worth about "3.5 billion last year. Denmark was demanding a rebate, too. But that kind of haggling is mostly pointless, according to the European Commission, the Union's policymaking arm.

The commission says none of what countries “put in” and “get out” truly reflects the advantages of being part of a single market of 500 million people. As an example, the commission says the benefits of E.U. membership to the British economy are many times higher than its annual net contribution of around "7 billion (after subtracting the rebate and after subtracting the money from the E.U. budget spent in Britain in 2011). The commission also says there are many hidden benefits to membership such as common rules on health, environment and consumer protection. Of course, the commission has a dog in this fight: Its refusal to trim its costs, including generous salaries and pensions, earned it a rebuke last week from British Prime Minister David Cameron, who said its officials continue to “exist as if in a parallel universe.” (James Kanter)

A popular question among readers - and markets - continues to be, “Wouldn't the E.U. be better off if Greek were made to leave the euro?” A related question we received was: “Why doesn't the E.U. draw up sensible plans for a country to leave the euro?”

To the second question, Prime Minister Mark Rutte of the Netherlands suggested today that a country should indeed be able to leave the euro and stay in the European Union.

Most observers assume that plans for Greece to leave the euro zone have been drawn up. But there are a host of reasons why such a plan hasn't been put into effect. One is that the euro project is as much political as economic. For many European policymakers, it's anathema that a country that is part of a flagship project for ever closer Union like the single currency could be shown the door. There also are fears that removing Greece from the euro area would actually do very little to solve some of the problems underlying the single currency. Once Greece goes market speculators could drive up the bond spreads of other c ountries like Portugal and Italy with economies that are a lot weaker than those of countries like Germany, which could still force the euro zone to unravel. (J.K.)

Judy W. also asked, “With the current impasse over the budget, is there any thought given to stopping E.U. enlargement since so many of the new countries are in need of large subsidies? Do you think Turkey will ever be admitted to the EU or will its candidacy just fade away?”

Turkish accession has been moving at a snail's pace since formal negotiations began with the government in Ankara seven years ago. Currently the process is in a deep freeze partly because Cyprus holds the rotating E.U. presidency and wants a solution to the Turkish occupation of the northern third of the island. Yet Turkey, too, is looking beyond the E.U. as its economy booms.

That's all the more understandable when you recall that Turkey first applied to become a member in 1987. Rather than Turkey, the countries most l ikely to be next are from the Western Balkans. Croatia already is set to join in mid-2013. Brussels officials say that refusing membership for candidates like Serbia would be foolish because that would add to the risks of instability in the region. Containing violence there could be costlier than Serbian membership.

One of the biggest concerns about enlargement is whether newer members from Eastern and Central Europe are sticking by the rules on pluralism, human rights and openness. Cases of corruption in Bulgaria and suggestions of an authoritarian drift in Hungary may be factors dampening the appetite for enlargement more than the costs of welcoming additional countries with lower levels of economic development. (J.K.)

France Abuzz Over the Whopper\'s Return

LONDON - Eat your hearts out, gastronomes. The topic du jour, according to social media and headlines in the French press is the return to France of Burger King, the American fast food chain, after more than 15 years.

From enthusiastic posts on Twitter to sociological reflections in the ever-so-serious Nouvel Observateur, France this week has been celebrating, or in some cases lamenting, the second coming of the Whopper.

Julieta Salgado in Brooklyn was among those who spotted the trans-Atlantic trend:

“It's official. Burger King is returning to France,” proclaimed Capital, a French business magazine, headlining the announcement on Thursday that the Miami-based chain is to open two outlets, in Marseille and in Champagne, in an agreement with Italy's Autogrill restaurant operator.

The confirmation came after a mounting wave of rumors that served to underline France's love-hate relationship with all things American.

Ahead of the announcement, the Nouvel Observateur dedicated a 1,400-word article to the speculation, in which the magazine's Olivier Cimelière pondered whether it reflected an orchestrated marketing buzz or a recurring hoax.

So what's all the fuss about?

Mr. Cimelière asked the same question and concluded that ever since the chain ended a 17-year presence in the French market in 1997, its eventual return had taken on the aspects of an urban legend on a par with the elusive Himalayan yeti.

“The outlets closed but a myth was born among French aficionados,” Mr. Cimelière wrote. “Burger King is in their eyes the sole and authentic hamburger with the taste of America. Everything else is just a pale imitation - junkfood!”

The chain had pioneered hamburgers in France by opening its first restaurant on the Champs Elysées in 1980 at a time when most Parisians were still heading at lunchtime to mom-and-pop corner bistros.

Since then brands such as Quick Burger and what the French call “MacDo” have spread to satisfy the country's increasing appetite for fast food, to the despair of culinary purists. The sector even has an online magazine - Snacking.fr.

In 1999, José Bové, a union activist, famously led demonstrators who dismantled a McDonald's restaurant in southwest France just days before it was due to open in a protest against globalization.

A decade later, McDonald's succeeded in outraging fine art lovers and gourmets alike by announcing plans to open an outlet near the Louvre.

The buzz over Burger King, however, is a rough indicator that for every French person who decries the Americanization of French culture there is another who embraces the country's obsession with Americana, whether it comes in the form of fast food or Hollywood film noir.

Marion de M., an “engaged citizen” also writing in the Nouvel Observateur, was not sure whether the burger brand's return was good news or not.

She believ ed the hype was the result of a combination of absence and rumor. “Our best memories of the Whopper are revived, making us forget the sweet, post-onion rings breath.”

Burger King's return was like “a shared collective joy,” she wrote. “To say you're happy about it means signing up to that community. You're part of a group. It's cool (or you think it is).”

She said she knew plenty of people who would make a pilgrimage to Burger King. “They'll go once, maybe twice and then BK will become a banal part of their lives. They'll pay no more attention and the BK myth will be over.”