French President Nicolas Sarkozy named Francois Fillon as Prime Minister on Thursday, banking on the moderate conservative’s negotiating skills to push through sweeping reforms in the face of union resistance. On his first full day in office, Sarkozy held a breakfast meeting with Fillon before confirming the appointment of the 53-year-old.
Nicolas Sarkozy succeeded Jacques Chirac as French president on Wednesday in a simple ceremony, promising to revitalise France and restore national pride. Sarkozy was inaugurated under the chandeliers of the Elysee Palace, which will be his home for the next five years, shortly after his predecessor drove off into retirement.
French utility back Thomas Castaignede is to retire after the World Cup in October. Currently playing with London side Saracens in the English first division, the 32-year-old Castaignede said he had taken the decision to hang up his boots a year ago, but had held off making an announcement.
France’s President-elect Nicolas Sarkozy rejected opposition criticism of his post-election holiday on a luxury yacht on Wednesday, saying there was nothing out of the ordinary about the three-day break. ”I have no intention of hiding. I have no intention of lying. I have no intention of apologising,” Sarkozy told reporters.
Nicolas Sarkozy was on Sunday night handed a mandate to change France after a massive turnout in one of the most divisive presidential election campaigns in the country’s history. As rioting broke out at Bastille, on the other side of central Paris, the right-wing former interior minister promised to make France love itself again.
Conservative Nicolas Sarkozy won France’s presidential election on Sunday, beating his Socialist rival Ségolène Royal by a comfortable margin and extending the right’s 12-year grip on power. Within minutes of polls closing, Royal conceded defeat in a speech to party faithful in the heart of Paris.
France began voting on Sunday in a presidential run-off ballot pitting the right-wing son of an Hungarian immigrant against a Socialist bidding to become France’s first woman president. Combative former interior minister Nicolas Sarkozy was favourite to win after opinion surveys conducted on the eve of polling gave him a commanding 10-point lead over Ségolène Royal
Carlos the Jackal, one of the most notorious armed militants of the 1970s and 1980s, will be tried in France for four attacks that killed 11 people and injured almost 200 others in the 1980s, a justice official said on Friday. Judge Jean-Louis Bruguiere granted prosecutors’ request that Carlos, a Venezuelan whose real name is Ilich Ramirez Sanchez, be tried for the attacks.
France risks violence and brutality if right-wing front-runner Nicolas Sarkozy wins Sunday’s presidential election, Socialist opponent Ségolène Royal said on Friday. On the last day of official campaigning, opinion polls showed Sarkozy enjoyed a commanding lead over Royal.
French conservative Nicolas Sarkozy is clear favourite to win Sunday’s presidential election after he outshone his Socialist rival Ségolène Royal in a televised debate, an opinion poll showed on Thursday. An Opinionway poll for the daily Le Figaro indicated 53 p% of viewers judged Sarkozy more convincing in Wednesday’s debate.
Right-wing former interior minister Nicolas Sarkozy and Socialist Ségolène Royal meet face to face on Wednesday for a television debate that could decide Sunday’s French presidential election. The two-hour encounter will be screened simultaneously by France’s two biggest television channels from 9pm local time.
A French court of appeals on Monday acquitted a pasta-company boss of charges of cheating customers that arose after a client found the remains of a dead rat in a packet of pasta. In September last year, a court in the south-eastern city of Grenoble found Guy Callejon and his Panzani pasta company guilty.
France’s right-wing presidential candidate Nicolas Sarkozy was embroiled in a free-speech row on Friday after a defeated candidate accused him of stifling a televised election debate. Francois Bayrou said Sarkozy had subverted basic democratic freedoms of free speech by using contacts to pull the plug on Saturday’s scheduled debate.
French presidential rivals Nicolas Sarkozy and Ségolène Royal waited anxiously on Wednesday for a defeated centrist candidate, whose votes could tip next week’s run-off ballot, to reveal his intentions. Francois Bayrou has come under intense pressure to throw the weight of his seven million voters behind either Sarkozy or Royal.
Urine samples from cyclist Floyd Landis taken during his contested win in the 2006 Tour de France have tested positive for the banned substance testosterone, L’Equipe sports daily reported on Monday. On its website, L’Equipe reported that ”B” samples belonging to the American had been tested retrospectively.
French voters flocked to choose a new president on Sunday in an election dominated by right-wing front-runner Nicolas Sarkozy and Socialist Ségolène Royal, who hopes to be the first woman elected head of state. Sarkozy led Royal and the other 10 candidates in opinion polls throughout the long campaign.
Rivals for the French presidency made their final appeals to millions of undecided voters on Friday as the official campaign drew to an end ahead of an election seen as too close to call. Right-wing contender Nicolas Sarkozy was leading in opinion polls ahead of Socialist Ségolène Royal, aiming to become France’s first woman president.
France’s presidential election on Sunday looks set to be a traditional contest between the main right and left parties as a bid by a centrist candidate to mount a challenge loses steam, a poll on Thursday showed. With three days to go before the first round of the election, the race appears to be between former interior minister Nicolas Sarkozy and Socialist Ségolène Royal.
Nicolas Sarkozy’s portrayal as a dangerous right-winger who scares voters dominated France’s presidential campaign on Wednesday, forcing the front-runner on to the defensive just four days before first-round polling. ”The worrying Mr Sarkozy” headlined the left-wing daily Liberation.
France’s presidential campaign entered its final week on Monday, with Socialist candidate Ségolène Royal struggling to stay in the race against right-wing favourite Nicolas Sarkozy. With at least a third of the electorate still undecided ahead of Sunday’s first-round vote, the final stretch of rallies and debates is to play a crucial role.
A new category of drug has shown promising results for HIV/Aids patients who failed to respond to other treatments, a study to be published on Saturday shows. Especially when combined with other medications, raltegravir dramatically reduced the presence of the HI virus and boosted immunity in clinical-trial patients.
France’s Nicolas Sarkozy says he will carry out all his major reforms in his first two years in power if elected in May, including streamlining the government into 15 superministries. A summer session of Parliament would push through tax cuts on income earned through overtime, incentives for home buyers and tougher sentences for repeat offenders.
France’s right-wing presidential front-runner Nicolas Sarkozy was forced on Wednesday to deny a report that he had agreed to shield President Jacques Chirac from a corruption probe in exchange for his backing. ”It’s grotesque, it’s hurtful and it’s untrue,” Sarkozy said of the report in Le Canard Enchaine satirical weekly.
A slender delicately-perfumed white orchid unique to Madagascar is the pick of the French cosmetics industry to symbolise its new commitment to biodiversity and sustainable development. Angraecum eburneum longicalcar had all but disappeared from its natural habitat, but will now be grown in Madagascar and exported to France.
Ten days after violently awakening, a volcano on the Indian Ocean island of Réunion continued spewing lava on Sunday in what experts called ”the eruption of the century”. But the Piton de la Fournaise volcano on eastern Réunion, a French overseas department, had lulled considerably.
Spending caps, advertising restrictions and a total ban on TV commercials have made for a visually austere French presidential race, a stark contrast to the style of campaigning seen in the United States. Interest in politics is surging and voter registration has spiked, but it’s not because of spending on advertising.
More than 70 people were injured on Thursday when a train carrying hundreds of rush-hour commuters hit the rail buffer of a Paris station, firefighters said. The driver was held for questioning by police after the nine-carriage train carrying 600 passengers struck the buffer as it pulled into the Gare de l’Est station, in eastern Paris.
A supercharged French Train a Grande Vitesse (TGV) on Tuesday smashed the world speed record for a train on rails, hurtling through the countryside into the history books at 574,8km/h. Powered by two souped-up locomotives carried on extra-large wheels, the TGV easily beat the previous record of 515,3km/h set in 1990.
France’s TGV train set a new world speed on rails on Tuesday, hitting 574,8km/h on a stretch of track in eastern France. The experimental version of the Traine a Grande Vitesse (TGV), equipped with two supercharged locomotives and extra-large wheels, easily beat the 515,3km/h set by a TGV in 1990.
France’s high-speed TGV train will try to smash its own world record and reach speeds of up to 580km/h on Tuesday in a move that manufacturer Alstom hopes will help it trounce its Japanese and German rivals in a rapidly expanding market. Weather conditions permitting, a black V150 train will rocket along a stretch of the new high-speed line between Paris and Strasbourg.
A hot year is normally associated with a vintage year for wine growers but global warming could, by the end of the century, have adverse effects and already poses a major challenge to vineyards in southern France and California. If nothing is done about global warming, only the coastal regions of California, cooled by the ocean breeze, will be good for cultivating vines by 2100.
United Nations health agencies on Wednesday gave the stamp of approval for including male circumcision in the panoply of arms to fight the spread of Aids, stressing though that its success also depended on safe-sex awareness, sensitivity and resources.