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You are here: Home » Politics + Society » Archive » December 2007-5
POLITICS AND SOCIETY NEWS AND EVENTS ARCHIVE DECEMBER 2007-5
Archives: Dec. 21-24, 2007
Sarkozy peddles nuke energy to Arab nations
Financial Times. December 24 2007
President Sarkozy will next month step up his use of civil nuclear
power as a diplomatic tool, with a visit to the Gulf states in which he
will pledge French help to acquire atomic energy. Since becoming
president Sarkozy he has signed nuclear co-operation agreements with
Morocco, Algeria and Libya. France is also looking to provide nuclear
facilities or technical assistance to Qatar, Abu Dhabi, Dubai, Egypt
and Jordan.
> More
Chad kidnap plot thickens
Dec. 24, 2007
From is jail cell in Chad where he is on trial for abducting African
children, Zoe's Ark founder Eric Breteau said the trial was a
"masquerade". "We've already been given a detailed timetable: the trial
begins on December 21, we're found guilty on the 26th, I get 10 years
and we're repatriated on the 30th," he said, confirming rumors that
French politicians have intervened. The deal is likely to inflame
public opinion in Chad, where anti-French sentiment has been stirred by
the controversy.
> More
Sarkozy: Christmas on the Nile
AFP. Dec. 24, 2007
French President Nicolas Sarkozy is to spend Christmas on the banks of
the Nile amid tight security and a swarm of paparazzi seeking intimate
shots of his new companion, former supermodel Carla Bruni. Sarkozy, 52,
will arrive in the southern Egyptian city of Luxor on Christmas Day
"with a female companion" and some family members before he heads to
the Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh.
> More
Sarkozy gears up for labor overhaul
AP. Dec. 24, 2007
France is in the "stone age of labor relations," says French budget
minister, Eric Woerth. At negotiations with unions and employers last
week, Sarkozy pledged to drag the country into the globalized age in
the coming months. The government's talks with employers and unions on
a streamlined labor contract have yet to show much progress. Sarkozy
has set a Jan. 15 deadline, or he will push his own law through a
parliament dominated by his fellow conservatives.
> More
Sarkozy: delusions of grandeur?
UKTimes. Dec. 24, 2007
The Times’s Charles Bremner writes, “It's been a fun 12 months,
starting with the Royal-Sarkozy electoral duel and then turning into
year one of the extraordinary reign of King Sarko I. He is good
medicine for France but I sense a growing feeling that it could end in
tears. The vanity and exhibitionism that seemed amusing a few months
ago is turning sour. His flaunting of Carla Bruni and this week's
spread in Paris Match of the monarch in the privacy of his home are
signs that Sarkozy may be just a little unhinged.”
> More
Sarkozy: the playboy President
UK Observer. December 23, 2007
The recent 20-page photo-spread of President Sarkozy in Paris Match
with his new lover, has caused murmurs that the Presidential media
circus has become too ostentatious. Since his election in May with 53
per cent of the vote, Sarkozy has created his own soap opera version of
presidential celebrity. Whereas his predecessors had cultivated an aura
of distance and gravitas, Sarkozy appears to revel in his anointment in
the nation's press as 'President Bling Bling.’
> More
Voice of America calls 2007 “Sarkozy’s Year”
Dec. 23, 2007
The year 2007 in France can easily be called the year of Nicolas
Sarkozy. Since Mr. Sarkozy's election as president, he appears to be
everywhere, and he is living up to some of the high expectations.
"Right now, he's exploiting his image as a young, dynamic president,"
he said. "And we'll see how quickly the French get tired of this
energy. But we have quite a dramatic difference with the previous
president who seemed to have no energy at all."
> More
French kidnappers ask Chad for acquittal
AP. Dec. 22, 2007
Defense lawyers for six French aid workers to be tried in Chad on
charges of kidnapping dozens of African children said they would rely
on international law to argue for acquittal. Meanwhile, French
officials have repeatedly appealed for leniency, and have assured the
accused they would be repatriated to France to serve their prison
terms, but the aid workers have gone on hunger strike, accusing their
government of deserting them.
> More
Europeans on American shopping spree
New York Times. Dec 22, 2007
The sidewalks of Manhattan are crammed this month with European
tourists on shopping sprees, picking up gifts that cost far less in the
United States than they do at home because of the weak dollar. Some
are also shopping for condominiums.
> More
Sarkozy in Rome: affairs of state and heart
NewYorkTimes. Dec. 22, 2007
Affairs of state and more personal ones mixed to bring Italy and France
a little closer as President Nicolas Sarkozy of France arrived here on
Thursday for his first official visit. For the official part, Mr.
Sarkozy met with Pope Benedict XVI and with Italian and Spanish
leaders. Mr. Sarkozy was named canon of the Basilica of St. John, an
honor bestowed on French leaders since the 15th century.
> More
France handles the most letters to Santa
Bloomberg. Dec. 21, 2007
While France has no Arctic territories, it operates what may be the
world's biggest program answering letters to "Pere Noel.'' The number
of letters doubled in a decade to 1.4 million last year, surpassing
Canada, the current Guinness World Record holder for St. Nick missives.
> More
Miss France condemned for naughty pics
BBC. Dec. 21, 2007
Valerie Begue, who became Miss France less than a fortnight ago, has
been told she should immediately take off her Miss France crown because
of suggestive pictures published by a French magazine. Ms Begue refused
to resign, saying she had been betrayed.
> More
Subprime Crisis Impacts European, U.S. Growth: IMF
Reuters. Dec 21, 2007
International Monetary Fund Managing Director Dominique Strauss-Kahn
said on Friday global financial stability had taken a blow from the
subprime crisis and European and U.S. growth will be weaker as a
result."The effects that we can measure, notably at the IMF, are
significant. Growth will be weaker. It will not necessarily be
catastrophic, it will continue to exist."
> More
France gives LVMH green light to buy Les Echos
Reuters. Dec. 21, 2007
French antitrust authorities have given luxury goods group LVMH the
go-ahead to buy French business daily Les Echos for 240 million euros
($344.9 million).
> More
French, Italian companies to develop all-electric car
Monsters. Dec. 21, 2007
French industrial group Bollore and Italian automobile sub-contractor
Pininfarina have agreed to work together to produce an all-electric car
by the year 2009, Bollore said Friday. Cost of the project is estimated
at 150 million euros (215 million dollars).
> More
Weak French consumer spending raises growth worry
Reuters. Dec. 21, 2007
French consumer spending, the main driver of growth in the euro zone's
second largest economy, had fallen for the third consecutive month.
Households spent less on clothes and leather goods fuelling concerns
about the outlook for economic growth next year.
> More
French Anti-Doping Agency ban Floyd Landis
Telegraph. Dec. 21, 2007
Floyd Landis, who was stripped of his 2006 Tour de France title after
testing positive for synthetic testosterone, cannot compete in France
until 2009. The French Anti-Doping Agency have imposed their own ban on
the American, preventing him from riding in France until Jan 31, 2009 -
ruling him out of next year's Tour.
> More
Brown to meet Merkel, Sarkozy over economic fears
AFP. Dec. 21, 2007
Prime Minister Gordon Brown has invited his German and French
counterparts to London to discuss curbing turbulence in world financial
markets. Chancellor Angela Merkel and President Nicolas Sarkozy are
expected in London "over the next few weeks" for talks on how
international institutions can best cope with what is expected to be an
economically trying year ahead, he said.
> More
French 6 Ask Chad for Acquittal
AP. December 21, 2007
Six French aid workers accused of trying to kidnap dozens of African
children denied wrongdoing Friday as their trial began. In Paris,
Jean-Marie Bockel, a junior minister for relations with French-speaking
nations, said that the French and Chadian presidents were discussing
the case with the aim of bringing the six to France quickly following
the trial.
> More
Lance Armstrong: “The Most hated Man in France”?
New YorkTimes. Dec. 21, 2007
Robin Williams and Lance Armstrong took a swipe at the French as they
entertained troops in Afghanistan. Armstrong said he was the most hated
man in France, but didn't think ''there's that many French people
around here anyway'' -- a statement that could be interpreted as a dig
at the French military, which is stationed in the relatively peaceful
north of Afghanistan. Williams said the French are “the only people who
go into combat wearing a chef's hat.”
> More
French President Calls for Valuing Christian History
Dec. 21, 2007
The president of France said secularism should not try to separate a
nation from its Christian roots. In a speech Thursday at St. John
Lateran in Rome, Nicolas Sarkozy said, "No one denies that the French
system of secularism is a guarantee of liberty: liberty to believe or
not; liberty to practice a religion and to change it; liberty to refuse
to betray one's conscience with public practices; the liberty of
parents to educate their children according to their beliefs; liberty
from discrimination from government due to beliefs."
> More
Sarkozy Is George Bush With 246 Kinds Of Cheese
Anorak 9satire). Dec. 21, 2007
NEVER mind that George W Bush is the most incompetent president America
has elected for some time, New York newspapers are having a field day
lauding Sarko as a French Dubya. Sarkozy’s election is part of a
pattern that puts an end to the “Old Europe.”
> More
//end
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