France will send its first troop battalion and a shipment of tanks and heavy armor for the strengthened U.N. force in Lebanon next week, the French defense minister said Thursday. Troops will leave the central French city of Orleans on Sept. 4 for the Mediterranean port of Toulon. They will arrive in southern Lebanon by ship on Sept. 10, and will be operational on Sept. 15, Michele Alliot-Marie told a news conference. Full Story