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/ 29 January 2008
Accused French rogue trader Jerome Kerviel walked free after judges placed him under formal investigation on Monday for his role in $7-billion of losses at Société Générale but stopped short of charging him with fraud. Shares in the French bank took a battering as allegations emerged that a board member was guilty of insider trading related to the scandal.
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/ 26 January 2008
Jérôme Kerviel, a shy and introverted young city trader, lived on a tree-lined street in Neuilly-sur-Seine, the wealthy Paris suburb dubbed Sarkozyland in honour of its famous political son. Its yuppies live by Nicolas Sarkozy’s mantra ”work more to earn more”.
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/ 21 January 2008
Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf pledged on Monday to hold free elections as he began a four-country European trip aimed at winning international support. Musharraf’s popularity has slumped over recent months in Pakistan, which has been racked by militant attacks, and faces a parliamentary election on February 18.
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/ 19 January 2008
In the same way as commentators refer to the 1900s as the ”American century”, the 21st century is forecast to be Asian. If the scale and speed of growth can be maintained on both sides of the Himalayas, by 2050 Beijing and Delhi will be the capitals of the world’s two richest nations.
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/ 14 January 2008
A Colombian woman freed last week after six years as a rebel hostage arrived in Bogota on Sunday and headed straight for a reunion with her son, Emmanuel, born in a jungle camp and then taken away by her captors. A slightly dazed Clara Rojas arrived from Caracas, where she had been since leftist Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez brokered her release.
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/ 13 January 2008
The unimaginable has happened, to the displeasure of arrogant Europe. Africa, thought to be so poor that it would agree to anything, has said no in rebellious pride. No to the straitjacket of the economic partnership agreements (EPAs), no to the complete liberalisation of trade, no to the latest manifestations of the colonial pact.
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/ 13 January 2008
President Nicolas Sarkozy’s talk of creating a new growth and well-being index for France is part of a mounting global campaign that many economists believe will shape civilisation and democracy in the 21st century. Sarkozy presented his recruitment of Nobel prize-winning economists Jospeh Stiglitz and Amartya Sen to work on a quality-of-life index.
He has outed himself as an immigrant’s son, a jogger, an unashamed right-winger and an Elvis-loving pro-American. But on Tuesday, under the twinkling chandeliers of the Elysée Palace, Nicolas Sarkozy unveiled his latest taboo-breaking persona: President in Love.
Calling for urgent reform of the United Nations, France President Nicolas Sarkozy pledged on Tuesday to help Brazil, Germany, India, Japan and a major African country join the UN Security Council as permanent members. Sarkozy said he had recently told UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon that "UN reform can’t wait any longer".
First it was Disneyland, then love on the Nile, now it’s Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade. The French President Nicolas Sarkozy’s starry settings for his showbiz romance with the ex-model Carla Bruni continued this weekend when the couple rode camels in Jordan and visited Petra.
Millions staged midnight parties at icon landmarks around the world to see in 2008 but bomb attacks and security fears quickly darkened New Year festivities. More than one million people lined Sydney harbour for fireworks that set off the global party and hundreds of thousands packed Hong Kong streets and historic European venues.
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/ 28 December 2007
Six French aid workers sentenced to hard labour in Chad for trying to kidnap 103 children flew out of the African nation on Friday bound for France where they are due to serve their sentences in jail. France invoked a 1976 judicial cooperation treaty with its former colony to obtain the quick transfer home of the six.
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/ 27 December 2007
World leaders voiced outrage at the assassination on Thursday of Pakistan’s opposition leader Benazir Bhutto and expressed fears for the fate of the nuclear-armed state. United States President George Bush condemned the killing as a ”cowardly act”.
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/ 26 December 2007
When the newly created euro slumped to an all-time low in 2000, detractors lined up to predict a dark future for the young currency. The euro marks its ninth birthday on January 1, with detractors now warning of grave consequences on account of its strength.
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/ 25 December 2007
Gunmen shot dead four members of a French family on Monday, including at least two children, and badly wounded the father in south-west Mauritania, the French embassy in Nouakchott said. The attack happened at Aleg, 250km east of the capital, a security source said, adding that the gunmen were unidentified.
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/ 19 December 2007
Six French humanitarian workers accused of trying to kidnap 103 African children go on trial in Chad on Friday as speculation grows that a diplomatic deal could send them back to France. Although the accused risk forced labour sentences if convicted, Chadian lawyers and many citizens believe they will either be able to serve their jail terms in France
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/ 18 December 2007
Palestinians were given a powerful signal of international and Arab support for an independent state on Monday night, with ,4-billion in aid to revive their moribund economy and bolster renewed but faltering peace negotiations with Israel.
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/ 8 December 2007
European and African leaders arriving for Saturday’s summit in Lisbon were accused by parliamentarians and human rights groups on both continents of trying to sweep human rights issues under the carpet. Much of the criticism was aimed at the absence of Darfur from the main agenda of the European Union-Africa meeting.
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/ 6 December 2007
A parcel-bomb explosion in central Paris killed a legal secretary and injured five others on Thursday, investigators said. The blast went off on the fourth floor of a building housing lawyers’ offices in the capital’s fashionable eighth arrondissement, or district, staff said.
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/ 2 December 2007
Activists and global leaders used World Aids Day on Saturday to warn against complacency in fighting the disease and called on governments to fill a multibillion-dollar funding gap. ”We have made tangible and remarkable progress on all these fronts. But we must do more,” United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon said.
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/ 30 November 2007
Colombian officials on Friday showed recently seized videotapes of rebel-held hostages, among them three United States defence contractors and a former presidential candidate — the first images in years providing evidence the captives may be alive.
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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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/ 27 November 2007
Youths battled police for a second night in Paris suburbs, burning down government buildings and injuring more than 70 officers, forcing tighter security in the troubled towns. The riots lasted about six hours and continued into the early hours of Tuesday.
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/ 26 November 2007
A French judge ordered a manslaughter inquiry on Monday after the death of two teenagers in a crash with police sparked a night of rioting in a flashpoint Paris suburb. The violence was some of the worst since the nationwide riots in 2005, which erupted in similar circumstances, prompting President Nicolas Sarkozy to appeal for calm.
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/ 26 November 2007
Colombia and Venezuela faced the worst crisis in their relations in years on Monday after the Colombian president accused Venezuela of seeking to install a Marxist regime in his country and Caracas ”froze” relations between the two countries. Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez said earlier he was putting bilateral ties in a ”freezer”.
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/ 24 November 2007
French officials are proposing to cut off the broadband connections of people who illegally download films or music over the internet. In the country’s hardest crackdown yet on online file sharing, President Nicolas Sarkozy said that he is backing a ”three strikes” policy against internet pirates.
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/ 23 November 2007
A transport strike that crippled the French rail network for nine days petered out on Friday after workers voted to give talks on pension reform a chance. The number of trains on the rail system and the Paris underground approached near-normal levels for the first time since the dispute started on November 13.
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/ 22 November 2007
A nine-day transport strike that has crippled the French rail network appeared to be drawing to a close on Thursday as many local union committees voted to suspend their stoppage and give negotiations a chance. Both the nationwide railways and the Paris local transport network put more trains, metros and buses into service during the day.
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/ 21 November 2007
Widespread sabotage has damaged France’s high-speed rail network and caused huge delays to services already hit by an eight-day transport strike, a senior executive at the SNCF state railways said on Wednesday. The majority of railwaymen are now back at work ahead of the resumption of negotiations in their dispute over pension reform.
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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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/ 14 November 2007
France was plunged into travel chaos for the second time in a month on Wednesday as striking railway unions staged a show of strength against the economic reforms of President Nicolas Sarkozy. Nationwide fewer than one-quarter of trains were running normally — and only 90 out 700 TGV fast trains.
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/ 14 November 2007
A judge in Chad denied bail on Wednesday to six French charity workers at the centre of a child-abduction case that sparked violent anti-French protests in the capital, Ndjamena. The judge ruled that the defendants, along with three Chadians charged in the same case, should remain in custody.