Islamic burqa is ‘not welcome’

The Islamic burqa is “not welcome” in France because it is not a symbol of religion but a sign of subservience for women, the President, Mr Nicolas Sarkozy said on Sunday.

“We cannot accept to have in our country women who are prisoners behind netting, cut off from all social life, deprived of identity,” he said. “That is not the idea that the French republic has of women’s dignity.”

“The burqa is not a sign of religion, it is a sign of subservience,” he told lawmakers.“It will not be welcome on the territory of the French republic.”

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World leaders prepare for summits on finance reform

World leaders lined up a series of summits on reforming global finance as South Korea on Sunday became the latest country to shore up troubled banks.

The summits, announced following talks between US President George W.Bush and French President Nicolas Sarkozy, are the latest fruit of efforts to coordinate an international response to the crisis.

However, there were already signs of rival visions for the summits, with European leaders pushing for a radical overhaul of the global financial architecture while the US president said the foundations must be preserved.

"As we make the regulatory and institutional changes necessary to avoid a repeat of this crisis," Bush told Sarkozy and EU commission chief Jose Manuel Barroso in the talks Saturday, "it is essential that we preserve the foundations of democratic capitalism – the commitment to free markets, free enterprise and free trade.

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After 34 years, India to buy first Nuclear reactors, from France

India's isolation ended on Tuesday when Paris agreed to sell reactors and fuel to Delhi. This French factor comes just 24 days after the Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG) amended its guidelines governing civil atomic commerce.

“France is the first country with whom we have entered into such an agreement after the lifting of international restrictions on civil nuclear cooperation with India,” Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said after talks with French President Nicolas Sarkozy.

The pact effectively ends the 34-year-old sanctions imposed by the NSG after India conducted its first nuclear test in 1974.

India has managed to retain its nuclear deterrent, build more atomic weapons and yet be able to source civil nuclear technology from NSG nations.

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