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France ponders tattered relations with Ivory Coast government

PARIS : After a weekend of bloodshed in Ivory Coast, France was left pondering how — and whether — to rebuild its shattered relationship with President Laurent Gbagbo.

The already tense relations between the Ivorian leader and the government in Paris hit crisis point on Saturday, when Ivorian air force jets bombarding rebel positions in the north of the country struck a peace-keeping encampment and killed nine French soldiers.
Acting under instructions from President Jacques Chirac, French military commanders hit back and destroyed most of the Ivorian air force.

That provoked anti-French riots in the main city Abidjan which led to the deployment of hundreds of extra French troops in its former west African colony.

Report: Arafat on life support

Israeli television reports Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat is clinically dead. 
     
The report quoted French sources and said doctors are debating whether to disconnect him from life support. 
     
Palestinian Prime Minister Ahmed Qureia denied the report, saying Arafat is still alive and being treated at Percy hospital in France.

Bush victory viewed as a boon to Chirac

PARIS If it had been up to the French people, John Kerry would have been elected the next president of the United States by a wide margin. But as officials and political observers here came to terms Wednesday with another four years of George W. Bush in the White House, many said that, ironically, France could come out stronger.

France wishes Bush well

French President Jacques Chirac followed other European leaders Wednesday in congratulating U.S. President George W. Bush on his re-election.

“It is in a spirit of dialogue, esteem and mutual respect that we must continue to develop our cooperation, our shared fight against terrorism and the action we carry together to promote liberty and democracy,” the French president wrote.

Chirac told the U.S. president a close transatlantic partnership is essential if the two continents are to meet a variety of challenges confronting them.

Experts are divided over whether transatlantic

Chirac, Raffarin Drop Again In France

Jacques Chirac continues to lose public support in France, according to a poll by Ifop published in Le Journal du Dimanche. 41 per cent of respondents are satisfied with the president’s performance, a two per cent drop since September.

Chirac won the presidential election in 1995, and was re-elected in a run-off over Jean-Marie Le Pen on May 5, 2002. The head of state’s popularity increased in late 2002 and early 2003 due to his vocal opposition to armed conflict in Iraq without an explicit mandate from the United Nations (UN) Security Council.