Sarkozy faces charges of illicit financing of his failed 2012 election campaign
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/ 10 January 2011
Suspected al-Qaeda kidnappers killed two young French hostages in ‘cold blood’ during a failed rescue operation in the deserts of Niger.
Pirates off the coast of Somalia released 30 hostages seized aboard a French yacht a week ago following negotiations that ended the stand-off peacefully, French officials said. The hostages, including 22 French crew aboard Le Ponant, were freed ”without incident”, President Nicolas Sarkozy said in a statement, without providing details.
French authorities were working on Saturday to free a luxury cruise yacht and its 30-member crew taken hostage by pirates off the coast of Somalia. ”The defence and foreign affairs ministries are working to act as quickly as possible. I hope … to try to obtain the release of the hostages,” French Prime Minister Francois Fillon said.
France will not support bids by the former Soviet republics of Georgia and Ukraine to become members of Nato, putting it at odds with the United States, French Prime Minister Francois Fillon said on Tuesday. ”France will not give its green light to the entry of Ukraine and Georgia,” Fillon told France Inter radio.
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/ 28 November 2007
French President Nicolas Sarkozy vowed on Wednesday that rioters who shot at police during two days of Paris suburban unrest would be severely punished, as police struggled to contain the violence. Back from a state visit to China, Sarkozy visited a police chief seriously injured in the country’s worst troubles since nationwide riots in 2005.
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/ 20 November 2007
Pressure from the street against French President Nicolas Sarkozy’s programme of reforms intensified on Tuesday as hundreds of thousands of state employees went on strike, joining a week-long stoppage by rail workers. Teachers, postal staff, nurses, air-traffic controllers, tax officials and other civil servants staged a one-day protest.
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/ 23 September 2007
The world’s best-known mime artist, Marcel Marceau, has died aged 84, French Prime Minister Francois Fillon’s office said on September 23. For decades, Marceau epitomised his silent art, eliciting laughter and tears from audiences around the globe. His comic and tragic sketches appeal on a universal level.
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/ 23 September 2007
The world’s best-known mime artist, Marcel Marceau, has died aged 84, French Prime Minister Francois Fillon’s office said on Sunday. For decades, Marceau epitomised his silent art, eliciting laughter and tears from audiences around the globe. His comic and tragic sketches appeal on a universal level.
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/ 17 September 2007
Everything must be done to avoid the prospect of war with Iran, French Prime Minister Francois Fillon said on Monday, a day after his foreign minister said the country should prepare for that possibility. The United States, Germany, France, Britain, Russia and China have backed two rounds of United Nations sanctions against Iran.
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/ 5 September 2007
Former French president Jacques Chirac on Wednesday discussed his plans to set up a foundation with Nelson Mandela, who is on a private visit to France to raise funds for his charity institutes. Chirac is, in the coming months, to launch a foundation devoted to the environment and promoting understanding among cultures.
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/ 5 September 2007
Former South African president Nelson Mandela, in Paris on a private visit, met French President Nicolas Sarkozy for dinner at the Élysée Palace on Tuesday, Sarkozy’s spokesperson said. Sarkozy presented Mandela with a book of photographs from an early campaign of civil disobedience in 1952.
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/ 4 September 2007
Gaz de France and Suez on Monday agreed to create the world’s third-largest listed power and gas company after President Nicolas Sarkozy stepped in to prevent the 18-month old deal from collapsing. The politically charged ”merger of equals”, delayed by disputes over valuation and control, will be on the basis of 21 Gaz de France shares for 22 Suez shares.