Beleaguered French President Nicolas Sarkozy hopes to use a prime-time TV appearance this week to claw back public support after polls showed a majority of French people think his first year in office has been a failure. The anniversary has been marred by government infighting, policy U-turns and record low opinion polls.
French MPs on Tuesday approved a groundbreaking law against the promotion of anorexia, making it illegal to publicly incite excessive thinness. The Bill would bar any form of media, including websites, magazines and advertisers, from promoting extreme thinness, encouraging severe weight-loss or methods for self-starvation.
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/ 7 February 2008
Seven doctors and pharmacists went on trial on Wednesday over the deaths of more than 100 people from Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (CJD) that occurred years after the victims were treated, while still children, with tainted human-growth hormones. Two hundred relatives of the victims packed a Paris courtroom.
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/ 2 February 2008
Jerome Kerviel, an introverted young city trader, lived on a tree-lined street in Neuilly-ÂÂÂÂsur-Seine, a wealthy Paris suburb. Its yuppies live by Nicolas Sarkozy’s mantra "work more to earn more". So when a handsome, well-dressed but solitary young banker rose at dawn every day for work and returned late at night to his one-bedroom flat, neighbours thought his dedication was to be encouraged.
Couscous could now provide the surprise recipe that saves France from cultural decline.
Part of the cosmetics giant L’Oréal was recently found guilty of racial discrimination after it sought to exclude non-white women from promoting its shampoo. In a landmark case, the Garnier division of the beauty empire, along with a recruitment agency it employed, were fined â,¬30 000 each after they recruited women on the basis of race.
The first round of the French presidential election entered its final phase, as attacks turned personal and record numbers of voters remained undecided. As official campaigning began, a poll showed 42% of voters could still change their mind before the election on April 22, which will select two candidates to go head to head in a final vote on May 6.
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/ 22 January 2007
All true French leaders boast of their cultured side: Jacques Chirac loves African artefacts, Georges Pompidou adored modern art and Charles de Gaulle devoured the classics. But the centre-right presidential candidate, Nicolas Sarkozy, despite his devotion to chanson francaise and his friendship with the ageing rock star Johnny Hallyday, has seen the need to boost his literary credentials.
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/ 11 December 2006
In a slick, glass television studio in an office block on the southern outskirts of Paris, a new front in the war on ”Anglo-Saxon” cultural imperialism opened up recently. President Jacques Chirac’s decade-old dream of a ”CNN àla Francaise” to rival BBC World and United States 24-hour news channels is finally to launch after years of wrangling and in-fighting, promising a revolution in world news.
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/ 16 September 2006
French President Jacques Chirac was on Wednesday accused of appointing a close ally to one of the country’s top judicial posts to dodge corruption charges when his presidential immunity ends next year. Chirac has been dogged by corruption scandals dating from his time as mayor of Paris between 1977 and 1995.