president nicolas sarkozy

PARIS — The leaders of France and Britain will make a quick visit to Libya on Thursday, an official with Libya’s governing body said, becoming the first foreign heads of government to travel to the country in the post-Moammar Gadhafi era.

There was no official confirmation of the visit by the offices of President Nicolas Sarkozy and British Prime Minister
David Cameron.

“Our policy is never to comment on the prime minister’s schedule,” a spokesman for Cameron said on  condition of anonymity.

European financial market-watchers are monitoring reaction to yesterday's meeting between French President Nicolas Sarkozy and Germany Chancellor Angela Merkel.

The two leaders are trying to stop the European debt crisis from expanding.

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In France, unions plan to show their strength Tuesday during nationwide strikes and demonstrations. They are protesting President Nicolas Sarkozy's plans to overhaul pensions.

He wants to raise the retirement age to 62 from 60.

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In France, a rumor of infidelity has morphed into charges of international conspiracy. President Nicolas Sarkozy and his wife, Carla Bruni-Sarkozy, have denied the reports.

But his outrage that the international media picked up the rumor has turned the non-event into a national saga.

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France has been celebrating the life and works of writer and philosopher Albert Camus, who died 50 years ago this January.

But the commemoration has been fraught with politics, after President Nicolas Sarkozy suggested moving Camus' remains from a village in the south to Paris.

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There’s no two ways about it – the Burka is a scary looking thing. Far beyond a simple scarf, like that used by Orthodox Christian women in Church, Hijabs worn by as much as half of all Muslim women, or even Audrey Hepburn in Breakfast at Tiffany’s, the Burka is enigmatic symbol of oppression.

The vast majority of women in the world, regardless of religion or region, would concur.

France's President Nicolas Sarkozy is in the hospital. He collapsed Sunday while jogging in the heat. The presidential palace says tests have found nothing wrong but he was staying in the hospital overnight for observation.

In Paris Sunday, Spain's Alberto Contador won the Tour de France for the second time in three years. Lance Armstrong was third.

Eleanor Beardsley reports.