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Sen. Robert Menendez wooed a married newspaper publisher, taking the attractive brunette on a romantic getaway to the Caribbean, a tipster alleges. The New Jersey Dem and Cecilia Reynolds jetted to Puerto Rico, where they stayed at the isolated beach retreat of the island’s then-governor, Anibal Acevedo Vila. In a photo provided by the anonymous informant, Reynolds is sitting naked on a beach and suggestively smiling at the camera. In another set of pictures, they take turns posing against the same sunset backdrop. The happy couple, dressed in shorts, also appeared to tour a national park and pose for a...

b>A 106-year-old American nun living in a convent in Rome could well be the oldest person to vote in the 2008 US Presidential election. Sister Cecilia Gaudette, who last voted for President Eisenhower in 1952, has registered to vote and says she will vote for Democrat Barack Obama. Although hard of hearing, she keeps herself informed by reading newspapers and watching TV at the convent. "I'm encouraged by Senator Obama," she says. "I've never met him, but he seems to be a good man with a good private life. That's the first thing. Then he must be able to govern,"...

Cécilia Sarkozy is reported to have made the comments before Mr Sarkozy hinted that he will marry the ex-supermodel Carla Bruni following a whirlwind affair of less than three months. As the Élysée palace soap opera descended to new depths of vitriol, Mrs Sarkozy alleged that her 52-year-old ex-husband was "a man who likes no-one, not even his children". According to a new book, she even called the president's other female friends "a bunch of slappers" and young female government ministers "boring wallflowers". Mrs Sarkozy is also said to have launched a thinly veiled attack on the president's 40-year-old fiancee,...

French President Nicolas Sarkozy is to marry his new girlfriend, the former model turned singer Carla Bruni, a French newspaper reported Sunday, claiming a wedding was "imminent". Citing several anonymous sources, the Journal du Dimanche said the couple, currently on a private visit to Jordan at the invitation of King Abdullah II, are believed to have set a wedding date for either February 8 or 9. Presidential spokesman David Martinon declined to comment on the front-page story. Sarkozy, 52, and Bruni, 39, were photographed on Saturday touring the rose-red city of Petra in southern Jordan, the president carrying Bruni's young...

'We never lied' about our marriage: Cecilia Sarkozy Cecilia Sarkozy said she and her former husband French President Nicolas Sarkozy had never lied about their marriage, in an interview that appears Saturday in the weekly magazine Elle. "I always acted and thought for my family and wasn't calculating. Nicolas and I never lied. We tried to rebuild, save our relationship, right up until the end," in response to suggestions they could be "accused of having lied during the election campaign in playing a united couple." The notoriously difficult relationship of the Sarkozys was of intense interest in the run-up to...

Cecilia Sarkozy admitted Friday to falling in love with another man but insisted she and French President Nicolas Sarkozy had "tried everything" to avoid the divorce which has gripped the nation. As the split made headlines around the world, the glamorous but single minded 49-year-old ex-first lady told of her torment at being the president's wife in an interview with a regional newspaper. Explaining her prolonged absence since Sarkozy was elected in May, she said she preferred to be in "the shadows" and out of the public glare. The day after the divorce by "mutual consent" was announced, Cecilia Sarkozy...

For President Nicolas Sarkozy, a day does not get much darker than this. On Thursday, the 52-year-old French leader was struck hard on two different domestic fronts: a wave of strikes that swept through France and an official announcement that his 11-year marriage had come to an end. Shortly after the presidential spokesman, David Martinon, said at a hastily called news conference that he had absolutely no comment about his boss's marriage, the Élysée Palace dropped the bombshell that Sarkozy and his wife, Cécilia, "announce their separation by mutual consent." The Élysée later clarified that the duo "had divorced." (snip)...

President Nicolas Sarkozy and his wife Cecilia have launched divorce proceedings, French media reported on Wednesday, piling pressure on the Elysee Palace to break its silence on rampant speculation of a separation. Sarkozy's spokesman declined to comment on the reports, as he has during weeks of mounting rumors about a breakdown of the 11-year marriage. However, Wednesday's stories on the Web sites of the respected weekly Le Nouvel Observateur and the LCI television station broke new ground, saying France's first couple had actually filed for divorce. Le Nouvel Observateur said the pair saw a judge late on Monday to finalize...

President Nicolas Sarkozy said of his wife, Cécilia, in “Testimony,” his 2006 campaign book, “We cannot, nor do we know how to, distance ourselves from each other.” Such a thing, he declared, would be “impossible!” But the first lady of France seems to have done an excellent job of distancing herself from her husband since he assumed office last May, staying away from most official functions and staying out of public view for long periods. Now there are rumors that the 11-year Sarkozy marriage is about to end. “I have no comment, truly, truly, truly, I assure you,” the presidential...

AMID mounting speculation that President Nicolas Sarkozy is set to announce a divorce, legal experts have warned that his wife, Cécilia, could face obstacles in any dispute over a settlement because of his judicial immunity as head of state. French media reports last Friday claimed that Sarkozy, 52, was about to issue a statement announcing the end of his marriage to Cécilia, 49, who has largely vanished from public view in recent weeks. Since she helped negotiate the release in July of five Bulgarian medical staff convicted of infecting children with Aids in Libya, Cécilia’s only appearance has been at...

From the outset, the first lady has refused to take on the traditional role, but how will a country inured to peccadilloes react to a possible divorce? The president's wife has gone missing. And the question of the day in France on Friday was: Has she gone for good? Cecilia Sarkozy didn't vote for her husband, Nicolas, in May; she didn't accompany him to lunch with the Bushes in Maine last summer; and the woman at Sarkozy's side at a celebratory dinner after France's quarter- finals victory in the Rugby World Cup a week ago? Not his wife, but one...

French President Nicolas Sarkozy will be under new pressure Monday to clarify the state of his marriage, as reports intensified over the weekend that a divorce announcement is imminent from his wife Cecilia. La Tribune financial newspaper quoted on its Internet site a "generally well-informed source" saying that a divorce will be officially declared by a court on Wednesday. Le Nouvel Observateur magazine, on its website, said an "official separation announcement should take place Monday." On Friday there were already rumours of the couple's separation or divorce circulating in newsrooms, but they had not been confirmed. L'Est Republicain newspaper, which...

It is a place of luxurious exile or quiet tryst. Perhaps the place to contemplate a broken marriage to the President of France. Never has so much meaning been invested in a visit to a Lake Geneva spa. The exclusive La Reserve Hotel is under the spotlight of French reporters after at least two visits by Cecilia Sarkozy, whose increasingly separate existence from her husband, Nicolas, has become the centre of intense speculation - reaching fever pitch in Paris this weekend amid rumours about an imminent divorce announcement. Her stays at La Reserve have come under scrutiny after staff confirmed...

Nicolas Sarkozy, the president of France, faces renewed speculation that his marriage may be about to break down after reportedly saying that he was getting ready for life as a bachelor. Mr Sarkozy let slip that he was preparing for life without Cécilia, France's first lady, in a conversation with his friend Mikhail Saakashvili, the president of Georgia, during a rugby match between the two leaders' countries last month. According to the weekly Nouvel Observateur magazine, the conversation was relayed to American journalists. Rumours have been flying since last week, when Mrs Sarkozy failed to accompany her husband on a...

Who abandoned 'Cecilia'? Saturday, April 16, 2005 The white cloth in the dirt caught the priest's eye.A spring sun was shining. His schedule was open, so the Rev. Michael Ward stepped from his rectory and headed across the courtyard to the winter-scarred garden by the side door of St. Cecilia's Roman Catholic Church in Kearny.It was only a few days before Easter Sunday, and Ward, the pastor of St. Cecilia's, wanted the new plantings arranged just right. Tulips here. Daffodils there.But what was this white cloth in the dirt?Ward bent over, reached out a hand, and pulled. "Then I saw...