For Nicolas Sarkozy, the conservative son of a Hungarian immigrant, winning the 2007 French presidential elections was a double coup in a country where both xenophobia and the left seem ascendant. After coming from behind to rout Socialist Ségolène Royal, Sarkozy took office in May, promising a tough stance on crime, immigrants, and unemployment.http://www.newser.com/2008 - Newseren-usNewser Feed GeneratorTue, 07 Oct 2008 7:05:19 CDThttp://www.newser.com/story/39171/europe-agrees-to-take-it-one-financial-crisis-at-a-time.html?refid=rss_all_defaultLeaders of Europe’s four biggest economies did not settle on a unified plan for tackling the financial crisis, the Washington Post reports. Instead, each country will deal with banking problems as they crop up. While France’s Nicolas Sarkozy hoped for a Europe-wide plan, British and German leaders were opposed to a single safety-net fund.http://www.newser.com/story/39171/europe-agrees-to-take-it-one-financial-crisis-at-a-time.html?refid=rss_all_defaultSun, 05 Oct 2008 8:55:17 CDThttp://www.newser.com/story/39058/french-economy-enters-recession.html?refid=rss_all_defaultFrance has entered a recession. The national statistics agency projects that the economy will contract by 0.1% in the third and fourth quarters of 2008, meeting the generally accepted definition. Finance Minister Christine Lagarde blamed the troubles on high oil prices, the strength of the euro earlier this year, and the worsening financial crisis across the globe.http://www.newser.com/story/39058/french-economy-enters-recession.html?refid=rss_all_defaultFri, 03 Oct 2008 7:19:57 CDThttp://www.newser.com/story/38774/euros-eat-their-words-as-own-bailouts-loom.html?refid=rss_all_defaultEuropean leaders are eating their words a week after criticizing the US for allowing its banks to run dry and engineering a system-wide bailout for financial firms, Bloomberg reports. Governments across Europe, including Germany, the UK, Belgium and France bailed out banks across the continent and pledged support for others as Europe faces its own financial meltdown.http://www.newser.com/story/38774/euros-eat-their-words-as-own-bailouts-loom.html?refid=rss_all_defaultTue, 30 Sep 2008 9:08:26 CDThttp://www.newser.com/story/36907/russia-agrees-to-leave-georgia-within-month.html?refid=rss_all_defaultRussia promised to remove its troops from Georgia within a month, French President Nicolas Sarkozy announced today after meeting with Russian counterpart Dmitry Medvedev. But Medvedev made no mention of troops in the breakaway regions of South Ossetia or Abkhazia, promising only to remove them from the rest of the country, and then only once EU monitors were deployed in South Ossetia, the BBC reports.http://www.newser.com/story/36907/russia-agrees-to-leave-georgia-within-month.html?refid=rss_all_defaultMon, 08 Sep 2008 10:55:06 CDThttp://www.newser.com/story/35337/sarkozy-renews-afghan-support.html?refid=rss_all_defaultNicolas Sarkozy reaffirmed his support of the Afghan mission today, in the wake of a Taliban ambush that killed 10 French soldiers and wounded 21 others, the BBC reports. After meeting with Hamid Karzai, Sarkozy told troops to be proud of their “indispensable” work. “We're going to make sure that the means are put in place to ensure that this doesn't happen again,” he said.http://www.newser.com/story/35337/sarkozy-renews-afghan-support.html?refid=rss_all_defaultWed, 20 Aug 2008 6:24:56 CDThttp://www.newser.com/story/35251/sarkozy-headed-to-afghanistan-after-french-troop-deaths.html?refid=rss_all_defaultFrench President Nicolas Sarkozy plans to visit Afghanistan after 10 French troops were killed and 21 injured by Taliban fighters in an ambush near Kabul, the Guardian reports. The battle—which began yesterday and continued into today—nearly doubled the number of French soldiers who have lost their lives in Afghanistan—only 14 had been killed since the 2001 invasion.http://www.newser.com/story/35251/sarkozy-headed-to-afghanistan-after-french-troop-deaths.html?refid=rss_all_defaultTue, 19 Aug 2008 9:54:10 CDThttp://www.newser.com/story/34498/french-relations-with-china-set-right-sarkozy-says.html?refid=rss_all_defaultNicolas Sarkozy says the relationship between France and China had been “set right again” in talks today with the Chinese leadership, AFP reports. "I had a lunch and a meeting with the Chinese president and a meeting with the prime minister. I talked about human rights, I handed over lists" of jailed political prisoners, Sarkozy said.http://www.newser.com/story/34498/french-relations-with-china-set-right-sarkozy-says.html?refid=rss_all_defaultFri, 08 Aug 2008 13:14:28 CDThttp://www.newser.com/story/33538/in-city-of-light-bruni-a-bright-bulb-indeed.html?refid=rss_all_defaultWho could have imagined that Italian supermodel-singer Carla Bruni would find love with a right-wing French president? Maureen Orth takes a look at France’s First Lady in Vanity Fair : her education in art and architecture, admiration of women's-libbers Simone de Beauvoir and Françoise Sagan, and her husband's reaction to nude pictures online. ("Oh, I like this one! Can I have a print of it?")http://www.newser.com/story/33538/in-city-of-light-bruni-a-bright-bulb-indeed.html?refid=rss_all_defaultMon, 28 Jul 2008 13:22:05 CDThttp://www.newser.com/story/33469/europe-swoons-over-obama.html?refid=rss_all_defaultWhile all of Europe—even the right-wing Nicolas Sarkozy—goes ga-ga over Barack Obama, the would-be president is keeping it real, writes an uncharacteristically un-scathing Maureen Dowd in the New York Times. “If you start believing your own hype, which I rarely do, things’ll turn on your pretty quick anyway,” Obama tells Dowd, . Plus, he’s anticipating “some backlash” among Americans for cozying up with the French.http://www.newser.com/story/33469/europe-swoons-over-obama.html?refid=rss_all_defaultSun, 27 Jul 2008 13:17:53 CDT