There was renewed speculation in France on Friday over the relationship between President Nicolas Sarkozy and his wife, Cecilia. But the Elysee palace refused to comment on rumors that the president and his wife might announce their separation.
The president's spokesman, David Martinon, told a press briefing: "I don't comment on newsroom rumors, and certainly not that one."
Asked whether Cecilia Sarkozy would go with her husband to Moscow next week, he said: "I don't know."
In a country where politicians' private lives were once off limits, media speculation about Cecilia Sarkozy's role abounded this week after she declined to accompany her husband to Bulgaria. She was to accept the country's highest medal of honor after she negotiated with Muammar Qaddafi to secure the release of Bulgarian nurses imprisoned in Libya.
"Where has Cecilia gone?" asked Le Parisien of the first lady, who has appeared beside her husband only fitfully since his election victory in May.
Her spokeswoman, Carina Alfonso Martin, said the Sarkozys had decided that she would stay at home because her diplomatic foray in Libya had prompted so much controversy in France.
Speculation continued when an interview with Cecilia Sarkozy about her friend Rachida Dati, the justice minister, scheduled to air tomorrow, was replaced with an appearance by the president himself.
Republican US lawmakers on Friday criticized US President Joe Biden’s administration after sanctioned Chinese telecoms equipment giant Huawei unveiled a laptop this week powered by an Intel artificial intelligence (AI) chip. The US placed Huawei on a trade restriction list in 2019 for contravening Iran sanctions, part of a broader effort to hobble Beijing’s technological advances. Placement on the list means the company’s suppliers have to seek a special, difficult-to-obtain license before shipping to it. One such license, issued by then-US president Donald Trump’s administration, has allowed Intel to ship central processors to Huawei for use in laptops since 2020. China hardliners
Conjoined twins Lori and George Schappell, who pursued separate careers, interests and relationships during lives that defied medical expectations, died this month in Pennsylvania, funeral home officials said. They were 62. The twins, listed by Guinness World Records as the oldest living conjoined twins, died on April 7 at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, obituaries posted by Leibensperger Funeral Homes of Hamburg said. The cause of death was not detailed. “When we were born, the doctors didn’t think we’d make 30, but we proved them wrong,” Lori said in an interview when they turned 50, the Philadelphia Inquirer reported. The
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IN PURSUIT: Israel’s defense minister said the revenge attacks by Israeli settlers would make it difficult for security forces to find those responsible for the 14-year-old’s death Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Saturday condemned the “heinous murder” of an Israeli teenager in the occupied West Bank as attacks on Palestinian villages intensified following news of his death. After Benjamin Achimeir, 14, was reported missing near Ramallah on Friday, hundreds of Jewish settlers backed by Israeli forces raided nearby Palestinian villages, torching vehicles and homes, leaving at least one villager dead and dozens wounded. The attacks escalated in several villages on Saturday after Achimeir’s body was found near the Malachi Hashalom outpost. Agence France-Presse correspondents saw smoke rising from burned houses and fields. Mayor Amin Abu Alyah, of the