France’s new Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin worked today to form a government and tackle the nation’s top priority – unemployment. But he already faced labour unrest on his first day on the job.

The Dutch began voting in their first national referendum today, choosing whether to accept – or more likely, reject – a proposed European Union constitution.

PRESIDENT Jacques Chirac, shaken by the defeat of the European Union constitution, appointed Dominique de Villepin, a loyalist who jetted around the globe galvanising international opposition to the Iraq war, as prime minister to lead a new government yesterday.

POET and politician, silver-haired statesman Dominique de Villepin captured the world’s attention with an impassioned speech in 2003 supporting France’s opposition to an invasion of Iraq.

President Jacques Chirac today appointed Dominique de Villepin, a loyalist who was France’s voice against the Iraq war, as prime minister, to head a new government in response to a humiliating referendum defeat.

French President Jacques Chirac has appointed interior minister Dominique de Villepin as the country's new prime minister, after he accepted the resignation of Jean-Pierre Raffarin.

French President Jacques Chirac has accepted prime minister Jean-Pierre Raffarin’s resignation.

President Jacques Chirac, jolted into action by the stinging referendum defeat of the European Union’s constitution by French voters, will announce a government shake-up today, with his beleaguered prime minister expected to be the main victim.

FRENCH President Jacques Chirac is seeking to recover momentum by reshuffling his cabinet after the humiliating rejection of the EU constitution.

Prime Minister Jean-Pierre Raffarin was expected to present his resignation to President Jacques Chirac today following France’s “no” to the proposed European constitution, an aide said.

President Jacques Chirac today met his beleaguered prime minister, who was widely expected to be fired after France roundly rejected the European Union’s first constitution in a referendum that threw the Union’s future into disarray.

Voters in France faced an historic choice today as they cast ballots in a referendum on the European Union’s first constitution.

The French were today wrapping up a tumultuous and divisive campaign about the future of Europe and France’s place in it.

China signed today contracts to buy five Airbus A380 super-jumbo jets and other French goods in deals worth more than €3bn as Jean-Pierre Raffarin began an official visit to China.

President Jacques Chirac today urged the French to back the EU Constitution, saying that Europe needs the charter in order to ensure its standing as a world power.

JERUSALEM’S new Holocaust museum is a place of deep shame for all Germans, because the nation will remain forever linked to the Nazi genocide of six million Jews, German Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer said yesterday.

French authorities have received increasing contacts and information about a French journalist taken hostage in Iraq, Prime Minister Jean-Pierre Raffarin said today.

The French prime minister appeared to suggest today that the disappearance of a woman reporter in Iraq may not be a simple kidnapping, saying her situation is different from that of two other journalists who were held hostage there.

TWO French journalists freed after a 4-month hostage ordeal in Iraq returned to a heroes’ welcome in Paris yesterday as the relieved government basked in a national wave of joy at their safe release.

Two French reporters, freed from four months of captivity in Iraq, arrived home tonight as the government said it negotiated an end to their ordeal without paying a ransom.

Six people died, thousands of homes were blacked out and air traffic delayed as violent storms hit northern France.

Prime Minister Pedro Santana Lopes was submitting his resignation to Portugal’s president today, and cancelled talks with France’s prime minister.

French police ordered a halt to their technique of using air travellers’ luggage to hide plastic explosives in exercises designed to train sniffer dogs, a police official said today.

FRANCE’s political sphere changed dramatically when Nicolas Sarkozy, the ambitious finance minister, was formally named the new leader of the ruling conservative party - widely seen as the start of his march to replace Jacques Chirac as French president in 2007.

Vandals have scrawled swastikas and ”SS” initials on Jewish tombs in eastern France, an anti-Semitic attack that President Jacques Chirac has called “intolerable”.

Neither Turkey nor the European Union is ready for the secular Muslim nation to join the bloc, the French premier told parliament today.

FRENCH Prime Minister Jean-Pierre Raffarin won a seat in the Senate elections yesterday, a post that could be useful if persistent rumours that his days as government chief are numbered prove true.

The French foreign minister was today on standby return to the Middle East to help win the release of two hostages as experts analysed whether a ransom demand was authentic.

The French government met for crisis talks today over the fate of two hostages in Iraq, but said their release was still possible and that discretion and patience are needed.

The French government headed into crisis talks today in a bid to save the lives of two journalists held hostage by Islamic militants in Iraq – but refusing to bow to the kidnappers’ demands to rescind a ban on Muslim head scarves in French schools.

France’s government today scrambled to map out its response to the kidnapping of two French journalists in Iraq, but showed no immediate signs of being ready to surrender to the hostage-takers’ reported demands.

ARSONISTS burned a Jewish community centre in eastern Paris before dawn yesterday, leaving behind red graffiti with menacing anti-Semitic messages such as “Jews get out,” police said.

Arsonists burned a Jewish community centre in eastern Paris before dawn yesterday, leaving behind red graffiti with menacing anti-Semitic messages such as “Jews get out”, police said.

A PREDAWN fire swept through an equestrian school in eastern France yesterday, killing seven teenagers and two adults, authorities said.

FRENCH police patrolled suburban trains yesterday and studied video from surveillance cameras, trying to track down six men who allegedly attacked a young mother and scrawled swastikas on her stomach.

The European Union’s massive democratic exercise of electing its new parliament was marked by widespread apathy and protest votes as citizens of the 25 EU nations punished their governments for everything from high unemployment to involvement in Iraq.

A gay couple said “I do” today for the first time in France, days after the prime minister said such a union would be legally “null and void.”

French construction workers have nearly completed work on the roadway of the world’s tallest traffic bridge, a viaduct that soars over a valley in southern France.

FRENCH prime minister Jean-Pierre Raffarin said yesterday he is optimistic that an EU Constitution will be passed under Ireland’s European presidency.

French Prime Minister Jean-Pierre Raffarin has begun an official state visit to Ireland to mark the country’s presidency of the European Union.

The futuristic new terminal at Charles de Gaulle airport in Paris may have to be torn down following the deadly collapse of its vaulted roof.

Sikh schoolboys must exchange their turbans for a hair net when a new law banning religious clothing in France’s public schools takes effect in September.