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Chirac puts rival Sarkozy into the reform hot seat

President Jacques Chirac shook up his cabinet last night as he struggled to restore the French people’s faith in his reform programme. The reshuffle became inevitable after the Right’s electoral drubbing on Sunday in which it lost control of all but one French mainland region.

The key post of finance minister went to Nicolas Sarkozy, the interior minister and M Chirac’s main rival in his own camp. He will be asked to implement the economic reforms blamed by most commentators for bringing the Right to its knees.

Failure could take the shine off M Sarkozy’s poll ratings, which show him to be the most popular politician in France, while success could easily help M Chirac.

French Novelist Robert Merle Dies at 95

Robert Merle, who won France’s highest literary honor and wrote the novel that inspired Mike Nichols’ movie “The Day of the Dolphin,” has died. He was 95.

Merle died Saturday at his home in the Yvelines region outside Paris, his publisher, Editions de Fallois, said.

His first novel, “Week-end a Zuydcoote,” (“Weekend in Zuydcoote”) was set during the Allied forces’ evacuation from Dunkirk during World War II. It won the 1949 Goncourt, the country’s most prestigious literary award, and was later made into a movie starring Jean-Paul Belmondo.

Another novel, “Un Animal doué de raison,” (“The Day of the Dolphin”), inspired Nichols’ 1973 film starring George C. Scott as a scientist who trains talking dolphins.

Prime minister gets 2nd chance

President Jacques Chirac of France reappointed his prime minister, Jean-Pierre Raffarin, on Tuesday but told him to form a new government after a crushing defeat in regional elections.

Chirac’s office said that Raffarin had tendered the government’s resignation and that the president had accepted it.

Then “he named Jean-Pierre Raffarin prime minister and charged him with forming a new government,” said a presidential statement.

The makeup of the new government would be announced Wednesday and the new cabinet would meet Friday morning, Chirac’s office said. That meeting may force Chirac to shorten a visit to Russia planned for Thursday and Friday.

French rocker jailed for lover's death

VILNIUS (Reuters) – A Lithuanian court has sentenced French rocker Bertrand Cantat to eight years in jail for beating his actress girlfriend Marie Trintignant to death in a hotel room row.

Trintignant, a member of one of France’s most famous acting families, died last August of head injuries sustained during the fight in the Lithuanian capital Vilnius where she was shooting a film. She was aged 41 and mother of four children.

Convicted of homicide, Cantat, the lead singer of one of France’s most popular rock bands Noir Desir (Black Desire), faced up to 15 years in prison.

His lawyers have 20 days to appeal, as does the public prosecutor, and the Frenchman could also ask to serve his prison term in France once the final sentence is determined.

Conservatives Routed in French Elections

President Jacques Chirac and his ruling conservative party suffered a crushing defeat in regional midterm elections Sunday, with the opposition Socialists, and their Green and Communist allies seizing control of the vast majority of regional councils. The results marked a sharp rebuke for the government’s attempts to reform France’s costly health care, pension and education systems.

Chirac’s party was expected to lose a number of regional councils after its poor showing in last week’s first round of voting. But the scale of the defeat today was so widespread that analysts immediately began speculating whether Chirac’s prime minister, Jean-Pierre Raffarin, will be replaced in a sweeping post-election cabinet reshuffle that is expected this week.

French Lawyer Jacques Verges to Defend Saddam Hussein, says the BBC

March 27 (Bloomberg) — A French lawyer who made his name defending some of the world’s most notorious figures will defend Saddam Hussein, the former leader of Iraq, the British Broadcasting Corp. reported on its Web site.

Jacques Verges, 79, said he will mount a defense case for the former Iraqi leader and for former Iraqi Deputy Prime Minister Tariq Aziz, the BBC said on its Web site. It isn’t clear what charges Hussein will answer or what form his trial will take, the BBC said.

According to Verges, the request to defend Hussein came in a letter from the former dictator’s nephew, Ali Barzan al-Takriti, the BBC reported. Verges will be supported by about 12 other French lawyers, the BBC said.