Nicolas Sarkozy appointed a new government in a marathon weekend reshuffle with faithful allies taking top posts clearly aimed at pleasing his conservative ranks before France’s 2012 presidential election.

A FRENCH judge decided to annul a marriage because the bride had lied to her husband when she had said she was a virgin.

Thousands more police officers are to be put on patrol in run-down French suburbs that have been the source of mass riots across the country.

France’s new government was holding its first Cabinet meeting today, taking up a first batch of planned reforms, as President Nicolas Sarkozy vowed to move fast on changes now that a new government is in place.

Former lawyer Christine Lagarde was named finance minister and Jean-Louis Borloo, her predecessor, took over as the environment and energy minister in a reshuffle today of France’s month-old government.