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Raffarin pledges reforms as elections loom

French Prime Minister Jean-Pierre Raffarin said on Monday tackling unemployment was his top priority for 2004 and backed President Jacques Chirac’s call for a new labour law.

Raffarin also vowed to press ahead with other reforms as the government faces pressure to cut a huge public deficit as well as unemployment above the euro zone average, despite the risk of sparking protests before regional elections in March.

France, Britain set out to rebuild bridges

Britain and France Monday began trying to revive a diplomatic accord they signed 100 years ago.

British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw was to speak to a formal dinner in Paris in both English and French to recommend a healing of the strained relationship the countries have in the wake of the Iraq war, the Times of London said.

Much froth as Starbucks storms Paris

The countdown to an important day in this age of globalization has started: only a few days remain before the opening of the first Starbucks coffee in the City of Lights!

No blanket ban on Islamic headscarves in France

Abu Dhabi, Jan 12 – French Foreign Minister Dominique de Villepin said Monday there would be no blanket ban on Islamic headscarves in France and that a planned law to prohibit them in state schools did not target Islam.

“There will be no across-the-board ban on headscarves in France,” De Villepin told a news conference in Abu Dhabi, on the first leg of a five-nation Persian Gulf tour.