18 May 2012 Last updated at 09:17 ET Cameron and Hollande: Vive la difference? By Carole Walker Political correspondent, BBC News David Cameron and Francois Hollande will try to set their political differences aside Downing Street would not say whether drinks and canapes would be on offer when David Cameron welcomes Francois Hollande to the British ambassador's residence in Washington on Friday evening. Humble pie might perhaps be appropriate after he snubbed Mr Hollande on his visit to London earlier this year and broke protocol to give his backing to the man now ousted from the Elysee Palace, Nicholas Sarkozy. Number Ten have dismissed suggestions of a personal and political rift, insisting their conference call discussions yesterday were constructive and polite. The prime minister has ... Continue reading →
Obama is scheduled to head to Camp David on Friday evening to welcome the leaders of eight of the world’s richest countries, including Hollande, for the Group of Eight summit this weekend. In brief remarks to reporters in the Oval Office, Hollande said he was committed to providing assistance to Afghan security but through alternative means. He added that he would discuss the subject further at the NATO summit in Chicago, which begins Sunday. “I reminded President Obama that I made a promise to the French people to the effect that our combat troops would be withdrawn from Afghanistan by the end of 2012,” Hollande said. “That being said, we will continue to support Afghanistan in a different way. We’ll seek a different format. And ... Continue reading →
Barack Obama sees François Hollande as an ally in promoting his pro-growth ideas to tackle the eurozone crisis. Photograph: Eric Feferberg/AFP Barack Obama was caught between two competing European visions of how to solve the financial crisis at the G8 summit when David Cameron rejected outright a French proposal to raise €57bn (£46bn) through a tax on financial transactions.The eurozone crisis is set to dominate four days of intense diplomacy which began in Washington Friday morning and continued through a meeting of G8 leaders at the presidential retreat Camp David on Friday evening. Discussions will continue there on Saturday and onto a Nato meeting in Chicago.In talks at the White House, only hours before the Camp David summit, Obama met the new French president François ... Continue reading →
The most senior woman in the French cabinet, Christiane Taubira, the new justice minister. Photograph: Michel Euler/AP Christiane Taubira, justiceThe 60-year-old is the highest-ranking woman in the cabinet. She has been an MP in French Guiana since 1993 and wrote a French law in 2001 making slavery a crime against humanity. In 2002, she was France's first black candidate for the presidency.Marisol Touraine, social affairs and healthThe Harvard-educated head of the general council for the Indre-et-Loire region in central France is a specialist in social affairs. Touraine, 53, will have a central role in the debate over how France can cut its deficit while maintaining its social welfare model and costly health system.Cécile Duflot, regions and housingThe outgoing head of the Greens was the only ... Continue reading →
The French president and prime minister with all the women cabinet members. Photograph: Lionel Bonaventure/AFP/Getty Images France's new minister for women's rights has promised to rush through a new sexual harassment law, as feminists warned they would stay vigilant over equal rights issues despite the record number of women in the new cabinet.Najat Vallaud-Belkacem, the first French women's rights minister since the 1980s, moved fast to calm outrage among women's groups in France after the country's sexual harassment law was repealed this month, meaning that all ongoing cases not yet ruled on in court would be thrown out.The law was scrapped by France's constitutional council after a complaint that it was too "broad" by a former deputy mayor in the southern Rhone region who had ... Continue reading →
The G8 talks will be an opportunity for Barack Obama to vent US frustration at Europe's failure to find a solution to the debt crisis. Photograph: Carolyn Kaster/AP Barack Obama is to put pressure on Germany to ease the pain of austerity with policies to boost growth, as he uses two days of talks with the G8 industrial nations to warn Europe that it needs to act swiftly to spare the world economy from a second deep recession in four years.Prior to the G8 summit at Camp David this weekend, a warning from the ratings agency Fitch that Greece's days in the single currency could be numbered heightened fears in Washington that the worsening crisis in the eurozone poses a threat to America's fragile recovery ... Continue reading →
Obama, Hollande Meet for First Time Before G-8 Summit Convenes By Margaret Talev and Helene Fouquet - 2012-05-18T01:53:32Z Enlarge image France's President Francois Hollande Michele Tantussi/Bloomberg Francois Hollande, France's president. Francois Hollande, France's president. Photographer: Michele Tantussi/Bloomberg May 18 (Bloomberg) -- Andrew Sullivan, principal sales trader at Piper Jaffray Asia Securities Ltd. in Hong Kong, talks about Europe's sovereign debt crisis, its implications for global financial markets and the outlook for this weekend's summit of leaders from the Group of Eight nations in Camp David, Maryland. He also discusses Facebook Inc.'s initial public offering. He speaks with Susan Li, John Dawson, Mia Saini and David Ingles on Bloomberg Television's "Asia Edge." (Source: Bloomberg) President Barack Obama meets today with France’s new Socialist president and self-described ... Continue reading →
