My friends who are familiar with both Paris and New York generally express incredulity at this, since the Paris system is so often praised.

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The Paris system is slick in every way: Cool bikes, reasonable prices, excellent placement of stations, and a process that works like a well-oiled machine.

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While New York has its grid system and Paris its grands boulevards, London has evolved in a higgledy-piggledy fashion.

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The project will develop a result-based monitoring system in line with the Paris Declaration to ensure its effectiveness, while providing more intensive technical support.

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The BBC's Christian Fraser in Paris says that an investigation within the bureaucratic French legal system could take months or even years.

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It proposed a worldwide distribution system called GIBN -- Global Interoperability for Broadband Networks -- at a Paris meeting of telecommunications officials from the world's seven richest industrial countries.

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Paris was spared the most uncomfortable experience a big modern city can have, for the water system has continued to work, a very important factor not only in sanitation but morale.

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Its Ishida group has touted a similar system, designated the TW-68, which was displayed at last year's Paris Air Show.

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Yet Russia's aspiration to membership, which in turn opened up the prospect of joining the Paris-based OECD club of rich countries, demonstrated its desire for integration into the global economic system.

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