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/ 14 December 2007

It’s business …

French President Nicolas Sarkozy’s own minister for human rights objected, in the most colourful language, accusing her boss of allowing Libyan leader Moammar Gadaffi to use France as a doormat on which he could wipe his shoes of the blood of his crimes. Was Rama Yade sacked for this eloquent outburst against the man who had made her the youngest member of his government? Not a bit of it, writes Marcel Berlins.

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/ 19 April 2006

1968 it ain’t

For a moment, it was like old times. I was in Paris recently when hundreds of students occupied the Sorbonne and the riot police were called out in excessive numbers to turf them out. There have been sit-ins and strikes at many other French universities, a succession of angry street demonstrations and lots of eye-balling and scuffling between students and police.