Former French President Jacques Chirac, who led the country from 1995 to 2007 and was known as an ardent fan of Japanese culture, died Thursday in Paris at the age of 86, French media reported.His son-in-law Frederic Salat-Baroux told the media that he died in the morning "surrounded by his family, peacefully."A conservative, Chirac was elected to the presidency twice, in 1995 and 2002, after serving as prime minister twice and mayor of Paris three times.Chirac steered France into the single European currency and was a stalwart opponent of the United States-led invasion of Iraq in 2003.Chir…READ FULL ARTICLE
