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France continues to require the lifting of the embargo on the weapons PEIJING - continuous France "to require" the lifting of the embargo on the weapons of China and does not think that the European Council will change its position, declared Thursday in Peijing French the Prime Minister Jean-Pierre Raffarin. "France continues to require the lifting of the embargo and does not see what could lead the European Council to change its position on the subject", Mr. Raffarin during a press conference declared. The European embargo on the weapons in China was imposed after the massacre of Tiananmen in...

Infighting over the EU constitution erupted in the French government, amid clear signals that Prime Minister Jean-Pierre Raffarin will lose his job if opponents of the text win a referendum next month as polls currently predict. Tensions over the continuing failure of the government's "yes" campaign spilled over at a weekly ministerial breakfast meeting with what officials described as a "very violent argument" between Raffarin and Interior Minister Dominique de Villepin. Raffarin was reportedly furious with remarks made by Villepin in a radio interview Sunday that were openly critical of the way the government has handled the run-up to the...

April 19, 2005 Chirac Cabinet tears itself apart over EU constitutionFrom Charles Bremner in Paris THE prospect of France rejecting the European constitution ignited a blazing Cabinet row yesterday after President Chirac signalled that he aims to sack Jean-Pierre Raffarin, the Prime Minister, whether the country votes “yes” or “no”. M Raffarin, whose unpopularity is deemed to be a big factor in the troubles of the “yes” campaign for the May 29 referendum, rounded on Dominique de Villepin, the Interior Minister and close ally of the President, over damning remarks that he made against his own Government. After a...

PARIS (Reuters) - Some 210,000 public sector workers marched through French cities on Thursday in widening protests over pay, reforms and job cuts that have sent a sharp warning to President Jacques Chirac's conservative government. On the third day of protests, some schools closed because of a one-day strike by teachers, and a stoppage by air traffic controllers grounded flights at Bordeaux in western France. The protests followed a warning strike by rail workers that severely disrupted rail traffic across France on Wednesday and protests by energy and postal workers earlier this week. Unions said 50,000 had joined a protest...

...A survey of Muslim views over the past weeks shows overwhelming, though not unanimous, condemnation of the Beslan massacre. But in all cases the reasons given for the condemnation are political rather than religious. Muslim commentators assert that Russia, having supported "the Palestinian cause," did not deserve such treatment.... Implicit in all this is that killing innocent people in the lands of the "infidel" is justified for as long as the victims are not citizens of states sympathetic to "the Arab cause," whatever it happens to be at any given time. That position was highlighted in the Arab reaction to...

PARIS, Sept 23 (AFP) - French Prime Minister Jean-Pierre Raffarin reiterated France's support for Turkey's eventual membership of the European Union but warned Ankara might not yet be ready to accept Western values, in an interview published Thursday in the Wall Street Journal Europe. "We don't think we should tell Turkey that the doors of Europe are forever closed to it," Raffarin told the newspaper, but then said: "Do we want the river of Islam to enter the riverbed of secularism?" The French prime minister's comments came as his Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan held talks with EU officials in...

The French prime minister's influential and respected chief communications adviser has resigned after being found by the Paris vice squad with an underage Romanian prostitute in his car. Dominique Ambiel, a successful television producer who was appointed as Jean-Pierre Raffarin's personal spin doctor in 2002, will appear in court on June 7, charged with "soliciting, accepting or obtaining ... sexual relations with a minor engaged in prostitution", as well as with insulting the police, justice officials said yesterday. Mr Ambiel, 49, who is regarded as a workaholic with media contacts that are second to none, brought successful Gallic versions of...

A top aide to French Prime Minister Jean-Pierre Raffarin has resigned after a court charged him with soliciting sex from an under-age prostitute. Mr Raffarin's communications adviser, Dominique Ambiel, was arrested on Monday night in an infamous Paris park. Denying the charge, Mr Ambiel said he was resigning "out of respect for the prime minister". He also faces charges of insulting the police. Mr Raffarin's party suffered heavy losses in regional polls last month. A statement from his office said Mr Ambiel's resignation had been accepted. 'Traffic-light fight' Police say they stopped Mr Ambiel's car on Monday night near the...

THE French Prime Minister, Jean-Pierre Raffarin, has cast a shadow over Franco-German relations on the eve of the European Union summit in Copenhagen by denouncing Germany’s economic policies. In an outburst that appeared to undermine President Chirac’s attempt to restore the Franco-German alliance, M Raffarin described Gerhard Schröder’s approach to Germany’s economic problems as brutal and inefficient. At a dinner in Paris on Tuesday, he said that the German Chancellor’s austerity programme was threatening growth throughout Europe. Dispensing with the diplomatic language that usually characterises EU relations, he said: “Germany is following a rather brutal policy which risks weakening the...

A runaway budget that vitiates promises of reform Economic indicators are often ambiguous and contradictory, but figures released yesterday by the European Central Bank sent a clear signal to the region’s governments and, in particular, to Britain and France. Eurozone growth this year could fall below 1 per cent, a level not seen since 1993, while inflation is stubbornly above the ECB’s target of 2 per cent. These figures provide a stark warning to the Government here that it would be foolish to hitch the currency to a region whose economic engine has stalled. The announcement also highlighted the growing...