Around 2,000 people protest on April 5 in Lyon against the French governmentÕs immigration policy.

A large majority of French people think President Nicolas Sarkozy has failed to improve their country’s situation since his election almost a year ago, according to an opinion poll issued on Saturday.
According to Reuters, the poll, to be published in the weekly Journal du Dimanche, found 79 percent of those questioned did not think Sarkozy had improved France’s situation, against 59 percent who felt the same way in November 2007.
A separate survey in the same newspaper found Sarkozy’s personal approval ratings down to 36 percent from 37 percent a month ago.
Prime Minister Francois Fillon, whose approval scores have been well ahead of Sarkozy’s in recent months, saw his rating down six points to 52 percent from 58 percent in March.
After a triumphant debut following his election in May, 2007, disapproval of Sarkozy’s hyperactive personal style has eroded his approval ratings steadily.
Growing economic worries, notably over the rising cost of living, have added a potentially more serious threat, given the limited room for maneuver left to the government by France’s strained public finances.
Tensions in the cabinet, reflected in persistent infighting among ministers, forced Sarkozy last week to threaten to sack members of the government stepping out of line with undisciplined public comments.
Meanwhile, Angus Reid Global Monitor reported that a few more people in France are satisfied with the performance of Nicolas Sarkozy this month, according to a poll by LH2 published in LibŽration. 40 percent of respondents have a positive opinion of their president’s leadership, up three points since early March.
In May 2007, Sarkozy, candidate for the center-right Union for a Popular Movement (UMP) and former interior minister, won the presidential run-off with 53.06 percent of the vote.
Sarkozy appointed Fran�ois Fillon--who had been his adviser and presidential campaign leader--as prime minister. 50 percent of respondents hold a positive opinion of Fillon’s performance, down three points in a month.
During an official visit to Britain in late March, Sarkozy congratulated British prime minister Gordon Brown for signing the new European Union (EU) common treaty, and urged him to have closer ties with the EU.
Sarkozy said that EU leaders should be grateful for Brown’s “courage and loyalty“ in ensuring that the Lisbon Treaty would be ratified in Britain, and declared that the country should play a bigger role in the EU rather than “being on the sidelines“, adding, “We need the British to get Europe moving.“
According to Sunday Times, he had promised to revive the nation’s taste for honest toil, but Nicolas Sarkozy, the French president, faced disappointing evidence last week of his countrymen’s disinclination to spend more time in the workplace.
A year after Sarkozy came to power with a pledge to “rehabilitate“ work, the French continue to be the world laureates of leisure, according to a survey by Harris Interactive, an American market research company.
Next month the country takes advantage of no fewer than five bank holidays. The Harris survey notes that the French enjoy an average of 37 days of paid holiday a year, compared with 27 in Germany, 26 in Britain and only 14 in America.
This image of a nation of men idling in village squares was one that Sarkozy, with his slogan “work more to earn more“, has made it his mission to change.
His next task will be a law to wean people off benefits by paying nothing to those who turn down two or more job offers. It will be the first time the unemployed have faced such penalties in France and will be fiercely resisted by trade unions.

The Maoist party of former rebels in Nepal has for the first time explicitly claimed victory in the country’s national elections held nine days ago, according to bbc.co.uk.
The Maoists’ leader, Prachanda, said he would head a new government, with the monarchy abolished.
Votes are still being counted - the Maoists are certain to have the most seats but not an overall majority.
The two other big parties have been badly beaten but the Maoists want to include them in a coalition government.
Many of the traditional politicians of the defeated parties have so far been reluctant to enter into a coalition with the former rebels.
The Maoists’ leader, Pushpa Kamal Dahal--who still uses his war name, Prachanda--was addressing a rally in the constituency on the outskirts of the capital, Kathmandu, which has elected him to the new constitutional assembly.

A bomb went off Sunday outside a community center in the northern Spanish town of Elgoibar, causing damage but no injuries after a warning call was made in the name of the Basque separatist group ETA, AFP quoted public radio RNE as reporting.
The blast, which occurred at 3:25 am (01:25 GMT) at the “Casa del Pueblo“ or “House of the People“, also caused significant damage to surrounding buildings, including the local offices of Spain’s ruling Socialist Party, it said.
Roughly an hour earlier a man who claimed to speak in the name of ETA called regional traffic department to warn that the bomb would go off at 3:30 a.m. in the Basque town, the report said.
The blast came just three days after seven police were slightly injured after a bomb exploded at a Socialist Party office in Bilbao, the Basque region’s main city, when they were trying to evacuate the area.

Malaysia Sunday called for the upcoming Beijing Olympic Games not to be politicized as the torch arrived in Kuala Lumpur Sunday amid tight security after trouble flared at other stops on its global journey.
According to AFP, Foreign Minister Rais Yatim said Malaysia’s hosting of the torch relay reflected the nation’s close bilateral ties with China. Nearly a third of Malaysia’s population is also ethnically Chinese.
“Malaysia takes this opportunity to reiterate that the Beijing Olympics should not be politicized and remains confident that the Olympics will be successfully held in August 2008,“ he said in a statement.
The torch arrived by charter plane at Kuala Lumpur International Airport at 2:19 a.m. (18:19 GMT Saturday) from Thailand and was received by officials from the Olympic Council of Malaysia and China’s Ambassador to Malaysia.

At least 18 people, many of them civilians, were killed in heavy fighting between Ethiopian forces and insurgents in the Somali capital, AFP quoted witnesses as saying.
The clashes in the northern Mogadishu districts killed 11 civilians, five militants and two Ethiopian forces in the latest of a series of violent incidents that have convulsed the seaside city, they said.
Ethiopian troops moved into the northern Huriwa neighborhood early Saturday but encountered tough resistance from the insurgents, sparking heavy exchanges of fire and trapping civilians in the crossfire.
Muktar Adan Somo, another resident, gave the same death toll and said that many people were eating in the restaurant when the shell struck.
Other incidents in the Huriwaa district left at least three civilians dead, witnesses said.
Three bodies of civilians were later recovered from the battleground, a witness told AFP, bringing the civilian toll to 11.