French cabinet debates education, strike reforms
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France's center-right cabinet discussed plans to reform ailing universities on Wednesday and to curb some strike rights, a move that could put President Nicolas Sarkozy on collision course with trade unions.
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The French parliament is to debate a bill that would ease the 35-hour working week rules.
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Thousands of teachers and other public service workers stage a one-day strike in France.
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PARIS, Oct 17 (IPS) - Five months after taking office as president,  Nicolas Sarkozy has run into a crisis over labour issues. Railway  workers and staff at electricity companies, among others, plan to  strike Oct. 18.
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French rail unions were to meet Monday to plan their next step after mounting a crippling two-day strike over President Nicolas Sarkozy's plans to cut pension privileges for rail and energy workers.
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French Prime Minister Jean-Pierre Raffarin held an urgent meeting with three of his top ministers to discuss the kidnapping of two French journalists in Iraq by Islamic militants demanding the rescinding of a ban on the Islamic headscarf in French schools.
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The French finance minister Nicolas Sarkozy fired the first serious shots yesterday in his campaign to become the next president when he presented a budget designed to show his capacity for both fiscal rigour ...
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Franceâs president touched off protests with a plan to have students learn the life stories of children the Nazis killed.
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French conservatives looked set to sweep parliamentary elections on Sunday and hand President Nicolas Sarkozy the strong mandate he had sought for the wide-ranging reforms he says are needed to revive the economy.
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President Nicolas Sarkozy is seeking to bolster his mandate for pervasive reforms to energize France's sluggish economy in legislative elections that opened Sunday.The vote is crucial to Sarkozy's reform program because the composition of his Cabinet and its ability to push through legislation is tied to the number of seats the mainstream right has in the 577-seat National Assembly.The balloting Sunday is the first round. In France's complex electoral calculus, only candidates who win a majority of votes Sunday land a seat immediately. In races with no majority winner, any hopeful who gets more than 12.5 percent will qualify for a decisive second round June 17. Read more
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France faced transport disruptions on Saturday in some regions and a limited underground service in Paris as a nationwide strike over pensions tailed off.
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France and Germany are set for a new clash on industrial policy this week over a possible defence deal which would involve 23,000 jobs in the UK.
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Teachers in France stage a strike in protest at plans which would remove their right to teach for fewer hours.
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Netherlands ministers are due to meet to decide whether to hold a referendum on the EU Reform Treaty.
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French postal workers kicked off three days of strikes in the public sector Tuesday, as unions mount a challenge to the cautious liberalisation policies of President Jacques Chirac's centre-right government.
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France's feisty, unconventional junior minister for urban affairs, Fadela Amara, unveiled proposals Tuesday for addressing the country's troubled suburban housing projects, which erupted in riots in 2005. The proposals go to President Nicolas Sarkozy, who will announce a grand "Marshall Plan" for the suburbs Feb. 8.
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France's president vows to cut thousands of civil service jobs, as unions threaten strikes over pension reform.