No image available
/ 13 November 2007
France’s President, Nicolas Sarkozy, will on Tuesday night confront the biggest challenge yet to his six-month tenure, when transport and utility workers begin open-ended strike action that could paralyse the country, deepening the sense of a ”November of discontent”.
No image available
/ 12 November 2007
The leaders of Germany and France meet on Monday to compare notes on dealing with Iran’s nuclear programme, fresh from discussing tougher sanctions during separate visits to United States President George Bush last week. German Chancellor Angela Merkel will host French President Nicolas Sarkozy in Berlin for the talks a week before an expected meeting of world powers.
No image available
/ 11 November 2007
Norman Mailer would probably not have wanted an old man’s death. He would have preferred some other way — an accident, a bar fight or a lover’s brawl — so that his death, like his life, could inspire or appal or, above all, make people talk. But Mailer, a giant of American literature, died of renal failure on Saturday in a New York hospital bed.
No image available
/ 8 November 2007
The United States and French presidents forged a common front against Iran’s nuclear ambitions on Wednesday, signalling a further warming of once-chilly relations between Washington and Paris. US President George Bush and French President Nicolas Sarkozy agreed to keep the pressure on Tehran, which has defied demands to halt uranium enrichment.
No image available
/ 6 November 2007
A Chadian judge was to question several Europeans on Tuesday who face kidnap and other charges for trying to fly 103 children, supposedly orphans from Sudan’s war-torn Darfur region, to France. Originally, 17 Europeans and four Chadians were arrested after the Zoe’s Ark charity tried to fly the children out of Chad.
No image available
/ 5 November 2007
The French opposition on Monday dismissed President Nicolas Sarkozy’s trip to Chad to bring seven Europeans home as a ”Zorro act” as questions mounted over a charity accused of trying to abduct 103 children. Three French journalists and four Spanish air hostesses came back on Sarkozy’s presidential jet.
No image available
/ 4 November 2007
French President Nicolas Sarkozy flew seven freed Europeans out of Chad on Sunday but 10 others remained in jail charged with child abduction and fraud. The three French journalists and four Spanish flight attendants were among 16 French and Spanish nationals arrested as they tried to fly 103 African children to Europe.
No image available
/ 30 October 2007
French President Nicolas Sarkozy showed flashes of temper and abruptly terminated a television interview aimed at introducing him to United States audiences. In the interview with CBS’ 60 Minutes, Sarkozy sparred with the correspondent, called his press secretary an imbecile, said he was too busy to make time for a ”stupid” interview.
No image available
/ 30 October 2007
Tuareg-led rebels in Niger accused French uranium miner Areva on Monday of financing a government offensive and warned of ”grave consequences” for its staff and installations. The French government-controlled company has been caught in the middle of a rebellion launched in February by nomadic tribesmen.
No image available
/ 29 October 2007
Paris scrambled on Monday to contain a row sparked by a French charity’s bid to airlift more than 100 children out of Chad, a key ally for Europe’s peacekeeping strategy in Sudan’s war-ravaged Darfur region. Chad President Idriss Déby Itno reacted furiously to the botched operation, even suggesting the charity planned to sell the children to paedophiles.
No image available
/ 29 October 2007
France’s President Nicolas Sarkozy condemned as illegal a bid by a French group to spirit more than 100 children out of Chad on the grounds that they were Darfur orphans in danger of being killed, his office said on Sunday. At least 16 people, nine of them French, have been detained for questioning by authorities in Chad.
No image available
/ 26 October 2007
Nine French citizens have been arrested in Chad after being accused of attempting to take 103 orphaned children from Darfur out of the country to be adopted by French families, French media reported on Friday. The nine suspects were taken into custody at the airport of Abeche, in eastern Chad, as they were preparing to leave the country with the children.
No image available
/ 25 October 2007
France is trying to shed its reputation as ”Africa’s policeman” but, despite efforts to involve European partners in peacekeeping missions, there are no signs it will hang up its baton just yet. France won backing last month for an European Union force to be deployed soon in east Chad and Central African Republic, where it already has troops stationed.
No image available
/ 24 October 2007
France will help Morocco build a civil nuclear energy industry to underpin its development, French President Nicolas Sarkozy said on a visit to the North African country. Morocco lacks the energy reserves of neighbouring Algeria and has sought for years to build nuclear power stations to provide enough electricity to feed industrial growth and rising living standards.
No image available
/ 22 October 2007
Three Sudanese soldiers were killed when government forces attacked a refugee camp in Darfur, the second assault reported on a shelter for displaced people in less than a week, the United Nations said on Monday. The fighting was the latest in a series of clashes just days before planned peace talks.
No image available
/ 21 October 2007
France’s President Nicolas Sarkozy’s first looming Cabinet crisis has been triggered neither by the announcement of his own divorce nor by the transport paralysis caused by the past week’s public servants’ strikes. It comes down to rugby.
No image available
/ 19 October 2007
European Union leaders voiced relief at clinching a deal on Friday on a treaty to reform the 27-nation bloc’s institutions, replacing a defunct constitution and ending a two-year crisis of confidence in Europe’s future. ”It’s an important page in the history of Europe,” Portuguese Prime Minister Jose Socrates said on arriving to chair the second day of an EU summit.
No image available
/ 19 October 2007
Cecilia Sarkozy’s marriage to French President Nicolas Sarkozy ended because she hated being in the public spotlight and their relationship had broken down, she said in a newspaper interview. Sarkozy’s office announced on Thursday the couple had divorced after 11 years of marriage.
No image available
/ 18 October 2007
French President Nicolas Sarkozy and his wife Cecilia have divorced by mutual consent after an often tempestuous 11-year marriage, the Presidency announced on Thursday. The Elysee Palace released a statement to confirm the split as weeks of speculation reached fever pitch and newspapers for the first time devoted extensive front-page reports to the collapse of the marriage.
No image available
/ 18 October 2007
French President Nicolas Sarkozy and his wife, Cecilia, are separating by mutual consent, the president’s office said on Thursday, ending rampant speculation about the state of their 11-year old marriage. The terse statement said the couple would not make any comment about their separation.
No image available
/ 15 October 2007
![]()
Outside Paris’s Frog and Rosbif English pub on Sunday morning, hoarse men and women in rugby shirts were still downing pints of beer with their bacon breakfasts and trying to come to terms with one of the more improbable results in English rugby history.
European Union and Chinese trade officials have agreed on a new way to handle Chinese textile exports to the bloc when quotas expire on December 31. Officials said the plan might help improve cooperation between the EU and China over the Asian economic powerhouse’s snowballing trade surplus with the 27-nation bloc.
French newspapers mined the Watergate archive to describe the political ramifications of a share trading scandal enveloping Airbus parent Eads on Thursday, posing questions about ”Who knew what, and when?” Coverage of suspicions of ”massive” insider trading focused on the risk of instability at Europe’s largest aerospace and defence group.
No image available
/ 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.
No image available
/ 13 September 2007
President Thabo Mbeki will lead the South African delegation to the 62nd session of the United Nations General Assembly, which starts in New York next week, the Department of Foreign Affairs said on Thursday Speaking in Pretoria, ambassador George Nene, head of the multilateral section in the department, said several issues would be discussed.
No image available
/ 13 September 2007
Angela Merkel and Nicolas Sarkozy were expected to form the perfect couple — a pair of like-minded conservative leaders who would work hand in hand to heal Europe after its Iraq divisions and failed constitution. From his first day in office the Frenchman’s bullish diplomacy has grated on his German partners.
No image available
/ 8 September 2007
Osama bin Laden said in a new video marking the sixth anniversary of al-Qaeda’s September 11 attacks that the United States was vulnerable despite its military and economic power, but he made no specific threats. The al-Qaeda leader said US President George Bush was repeating the mistakes of the former Soviet Union by refusing to acknowledge losses in Iraq.
No image available
/ 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.
No image available
/ 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.
No image available
/ 4 September 2007
![]()
While most French presidents have avoided sport, Nicolas Sarkozy prides himself on televised jogging sessions, cheering the Tour de France and appearing in the stands of the Paris Saint Germain football team. Now he is reinventing himself as a rugby fan to take maximum political advantage of the World Cup that begins in France on Friday.
No image available
/ 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.
No image available
/ 3 September 2007
Nelson Mandela arrived in Paris on Monday for a three-day visit, and was greeted at the airport by French President Nicolas Sarkozy. The 89-year-old Mandela, moving with difficulty, climbed off the airplane at Orly Airport with the help of a white cane and was met by Sarkozy and Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner.