French president stops mass pardons
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President Nicolas Sarkozy said he will not offer mass pardons to France's prisoners on Bastille Day, keeping up his law-and-order reputation and breaking with tradition.
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SAINT-DENIS, France  - French President Nicolas Sarkozy told railway workers on Friday he would not be blackmailed into withdrawing a reform of their pensions privileges by strikes and street protests.
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Jacques Chirac, admired and scorned during 12 years as president of France, announced his retirement from politics yesterday.Comment
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French President Nicolas Sarkozy said in  an interview published Wednesday he was not drunk at a news  conference where he appeared slightly out of breath and trying  not to laugh.
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N'DJAMENA  - Chad has received a request for a presidential pardon from the lawyers of six French aid workers jailed in December for trying to abduct 103 African children, the presidency said on Saturday.
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French President Jacques Chirac announced on Sunday he would not seek re-election next month, bowing out of frontline politics after a 45-year career that consisted of symbolic gestures as much as concrete policies.
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France is to suspend diplomatic contacts with Syria until progress is made on choosing a new Lebanese president.
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French centre-right candidate Nicolas Sarkozy, the frontrunner to succeed Jacques Chirac as president, has distanced himself from the Chirac era.Comment
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French President Jacques Chirac announces his decision to bow out of politics in a televised address from the Elysee Palace on March 11.Comment
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Former Prime Minister Alain Juppe, once viewed as a future president of France, began the appeal of his conviction in a political funding scandal, saying on Wednesday that he did not intend to break the law.
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Â· Ex-president questioned as immunity comes to endÂ· Party officials said to have been on Paris city payroll
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The European Commission froze its threat of fines against France and Germany on Tuesday, granting the two biggest economies in the euro zone an extra year to bring down their bloated budget deficits.
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French motorists may be driving more  recklessly than usual because they are counting on the  traditional pardon by the incoming president after the election  in May, the transport minister said.
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French President Jacques Chirac announced in a televised address Sunday night that he would not seek a third presidential term.Comment
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PARIS -- President Jacques Chirac announced yesterday he would not seek reelection next month after 45 years in front-line politics and appealed to French voters to shun extremism.
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French President Nicolas Sarkozy  showed flashes of temper and abruptly terminated a television  interview aimed at introducing him to U.S. audiences.
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French President Nicolas Sarkozy said on  Tuesday his relationship with Italian singer and former model  Carla Bruni was serious but he dodged giving a wedding date.