In the race for the French presidency, the French Socialist Party's successful leading candidate Ségolène Royal is billing herself as a popular political outsider beyond the scope of dogma and hierarchy. But this supposed nonconformist has the backing of a well-oiled political machine.

This isn't the time for Ségolène Royal to be taking a break or a vacation, no matter how well earned. To celebrate her dazzling victory in the battle for the nomination as the French Socialist Party's (PS) presidential candidate and her brief, celebratory address to the nation, Royal spent all of one weekend with friends and family. In her address, the candidate, a bit rashly perhaps, promptly began using the royal "we," saying that "we" would soon welcome her back "into the heart of the socialist project."

The woman France-Soir has called "Tsunami Royal" quickly switched back into campaign mode and embarked on a whirlwind tour of the country, beginning with appearances in the Paris region, followed by excursions into the countryside and then a trip abroad to the volatile Middle East, where she was visiting Lebanon, Israel and the Palestinian territories this week.

Madame Royal has only one goal in mind. She plans to win the presidential election on April 22, 2007 (and a likely runoff election on May 6), which would mean trouncing her main opponent, Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy, and move into the Elysée Palace as France's first female president.

Within the next few days, France will have two female presidential candidates from leading political parties.

The defence minister, Michèle Alliot-Marie, 60, has let it be known that she intends to challenge the Interior Minister, Nicolas Sarkozy, for the right to represent the centre-right governing party, the Union pour un Mouvement Populaire (UMP), in spring's presidential election.

Unlike the already-anointed Socialist candidate, Ségolène Royal, 53, Mme Alliot-Marie has little realistic chance of becoming France's first female president. Her decision to run in a brief UMP "primary" this month is significant all the same.

Mme Alliot-Marie, often known as "MAM", will provide a heavyweight opponent for M. Sarkozy and allow him to stage a half-way plausible primary campaign. There will be three regional party conferences this month and, maybe, one nationally televised debate.

BRUSSELS, Dec 1 (Reuters) - Sweeping new rules to regulate dangerous chemicals in the European Union will win broad backing in the European Parliament after a deal with member states, lawmakers said on Friday, amid accusations of a sell-out to big business.

Negotiators from the parliament's three main factions and EU governments struck a deal late on Thursday on a draft law known as REACH (Registration, Evaluation and Authorisation of Chemicals), that is due to enter into force next year.

The bill is designed to make companies prove that substances in every-day products like cars, clothes or paint are safe.

The rules have been the focus of intense lobbying, pitting the left and environmentalists against chemicals giants such as BASF <BASF.DE> and Bayer <BAYG.DE>. The United States also accused the EU of regulatory overkill.

"I am confident this proposal has the support of the three major groups," Guido Sacconi, the Italian socialist steering the legislation through parliament, told a news conference.

The assembly votes on the deal on Dec. 13 and member states will then formally give their green light.

"The most fundamental thing of all is that it reverses the burden of proof. Manufacturers and importers have to demonstrate that products they put on the market are safe," said Chris Davies from the liberal group.

LISBON: European manufacturing expanded for a 17th month and unemployment declined as executives and consumers became more confident about the economy's strength. Royal Bank of Scotland Group said Friday its manufacturing index was at 56.6 in November after October's 57. A reading above 50 indicates growth.

The unemployment rate in the euro area unexpectedly fell in October to 7.7%, the lowest in more than five years, a separate report showed. The euro region's economy will start 2007 stronger than anticipated, the European Commission said on Thursday. The forecast reinforced speculation that the European Central Bank will continue raising interest rates into next year after a likely increase to 3.5% on December 7.

"We can see that growth, not only in industry but in the whole economy, is still very good," said Christoph Weil, an economist at Commerzbank in Frankfurt. "This fits the ECB's view that the economic outlook is good. It fits their growth projection for next year and they have no reason to change it."

Borrowing by companies and consumers spurred money-supply growth, which the ECB uses to gauge future inflation, to close to a three-year high of 8.5% in October. "We still have abundant liquidity and the recent data on money supply in no way gives us cause to relax," ECB executive board member Juergen Stark said November 29. The October figures were "significantly above our reference value".

MEXICO CITY: It was not pretty, and it lasted only four minutes, but Felipe Calderón, the new president of Mexico, managed to take the oath of office in Congress on Friday, while leftist lawmakers whistled and catcalled and the losing leftist candidate staged a huge protest march down the central avenue of this capital.

Calderón and members of his conservative National Action Party overcame attempts by the leftist Democratic Revolution Party to block the entries to the Congress. With his own partisans crowding the dais, the new president and his predecessor, Vicente Fox, were spirited in by bodyguards through a door near the front of the chamber at 9:50 a.m.

Calderón quickly took the oath of office, and Fox handed over the traditional presidential sash and left the chamber.

Never before in modern Mexican history has a president been sworn in under such chaotic and divisive conditions. After three days of sit-ins, fisticuffs and pushing matches broke out between rightist and leftist lawmakers as they jockeyed for position in the chamber before the four-minute ceremony, with leftists trying to obstruct the entranceways and the conservatives protectively ringing the dais and podium. Opposition politicians blew whistles and held up banners suggesting Calderón was "a traitor to democracy."

The courts determined that Calderón, 44, won the election on July 2 by about 240,000 votes out of 41 million ballots cast. But his rival, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, has insisted that the official results were tainted and has never conceded defeat.

Airlines have been given the all-clear to carry on expanding, even though they are the UK's fastest growing source of air pollution.

Campaigners concerned about climate change were appalled by the suggestion in the 30-year strategy for transport set out by Sir Rod Eddington yesterday that the UK's major airports, such as Heathrow and Birmingham International, should be encouraged to expand.

Meanwhile, small businesses reacted angrily to Sir Rod's call for motorists to have to pay by the mile for using roads.

The UK's air traffic increased by 11 per cent in just one year, 2004, and continues to grow while the Government struggles to achieve stringent cuts in emissions of carbon dioxide, the main cause of global warming. Friends of the Earth has calculated that, if present trends continued for another 25 years, the Government would have to cut all carbon dioxide emissions from every other industrial sector to zero in order to meet its targets and accommodate the airlines.

Tony Blair has told religious leaders to "face up to reality" and drop their opposition to condoms to help the fight against Aids.

In a pointed criticism of the Vatican's stance on contraception, Mr Blair used a television interview on World Aids Day to insist that preaching abstinence was not enough. Speaking to MTV, Mr Blair said: "The danger is if we have a sort of blanket ban from religious hierarchy saying it's wrong to do it, then you discourage people from doing it in circumstances where they need to protect their lives."

Mr Blair, who has attended mass at Westminster Cathedral, spoke out amid speculation that the Vatican was preparing to ease its opposition to condoms. The Vatican says abstinence is the best way to tackle HIV/Aids, but in April, Cardinal Carlo Maria Martini, the former Archbishop of Milan, said the use of condoms was "a lesser evil" in relationships where one partner had HIV/Aids, prompting speculation that the Vatican was preparing to relax its position.

Last month, a 200-page report on condom use commissioned by Pope Benedict was passed to the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith. The Vatican has been heavily criticised for its stance on sex and homosexuality.

Pétain sent his country's Jews to Auschwitz with an enthusiasm that surprised the Nazis

 I still possess a 1930s photograph of a cosy old Beirut street, its Ottoman houses draped with flowers, an ageing Citroën just visible at the end of the cobbled roadway, trees shading the narrow pavements on each side. "Rue Pétain," it says on the caption. My old poilu - Dad - he of the third battle of the Somme - would teach me Pétain's pledge at Verdun. "Ils ne passeront pas." They shall not pass.

But of course, Pétain's patriotism in 1916 - his refusal to permit the Kaiser's army to advance beyond the Meuse - became France's shame in 1940. When it reached Beirut in 1941, the Anglo-Australian invasion force which drove Vichy France from Lebanon stripped Pétain's name from the wall of that Ottoman street and Bill Fisk thereafter spoke of him with ambiguity. Bill, like most Englishmen and women - and many, though by no means all, Frenchmen and women - could not forgive the man who collaborated with Hitler's Germany.

I'm reticent about the French for three reasons. Firstly, because some years ago, driven by a sense of outrage and dark curiosity, I attended a mass for the dead in central Paris. It was celebrated by an American priest and was held for - well, yes, Marshal Philippe Pétain. With a dear friend and colleague, I sat in the nave and watched more than 100 mostly elderly middle-class ladies and gentlemen - faces set and grave, sinister and secretive amid the darkness of the church - come to remember the leader of Vichy France who replaced Liberty, Equality and Fraternity with Work, Family and Homeland, and sent his country's Jews, along with thousands of foreign Jewish refugees, to Auschwitz with an enthusiasm that surprised even the Nazis.

Secondly, because I have just finished reading Irène Némirovsky's brilliant - no, let me speak frankly - transformative account of the Fall of France, Suite Française, a novel which was intended by its young Jewish author to be her modern-day version of Tolstoy's War and Peace. Suite Française is one of those rare books that you can put down at night and wake up dreaming about, desperate to discover if the revolting Monsieur Corbin reaches his bank in Tours after the flight from Paris, whether the courageous Michaud couple will survive the Nazi onslaught, or if the beautiful Cécile - her unfaithful, unloved husband a French prisoner-of-war - will succumb to the educated, sometimes childlike, sometimes desperately loving German officer billeted in her home.

The suspicious death of a former Russian agent in London was enmeshed in alleged dirty tricks in Italian politics on Friday after Romano Prodi, Italy's prime minister, announced legal action against people linking him to the KGB, the former Soviet intelligence service.

The main person who has made this accusation, which Mr Prodi rejects as utterly unfounded, is Mario Scaramella, a self-styled expert on Soviet espionage in Italy.

Mr Scaramella met Alexander Litvinenko, the former Russian agent, in a London sushi bar on November 1, shortly before Litvinenko fell ill.

Before he died on November 23 of poisoning from polonium 210, a rare radioactive substance, Litvinenko accused Vladimir Putin, Russia's president and a former KGB agent, of ordering his death. The Kremlin dismissed his charge as nonsense.

The Litvinenko affair has spilled into Italian politics because Mr Scaramella was appointed in 2003 as a consultant to a parliamentary inquiry, known as the Mitrokhin commission, which was investigating KGB activities in Italy.

Scaramella was recovered last night in London. It appears that the dose he was exposed to is not lethal. Investigators are more convinced that Litvinenko was poisoned in the sushi bar.

· Muslims and Christians demand new government
· Corruption and lack of inclusion prompt rally

Hundreds of thousands of Muslims and Christians waving Lebanese flags poured into central Beirut yesterday as opposition leaders gave impassioned speeches calling for the resignation of the cabinet and the formation of a new, more inclusive government.

A tent city was set up for the thousands who vowed to stay outside the government offices where the prime minister, Fouad Siniora, and most of his ministers were holed up behind barbed wire and barriers until the cabinet stepped down.

"I call on the prime minister and his ministers to quit," said opposition leader Michel Aoun, to roars of applause. Mr Aoun, who fought a 15-year campaign to rid Lebanon of Syrian influence and commands the largest Christian following, led the opposition speeches. The Hizbullah leader, Hassan Nasrallah, seen by many as a driving force of the opposition, did not make an appearance.

"Our government are in their offices hiding from us - the Lebanese people. We will stay on the streets until they leave," said 22-year-old Ali.

Since the early morning demonstrators had been streaming into the city centre, where organisers were handing out water and refreshments. Amid the carnival atmosphere, many expressed frustration at their lack of representation. "We are not asking only for a government of the opposition, but we want to be part of the decision-making process. We will not accept anything less than partnership," said 37-year-old architect Rana.

German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier spoke about his hopes for a lasting peace in the Middle East after meeting with G8 and Gulf state officials in Jordan Friday and urged Syria to join negotiations.

On the first day of his sixth visit to the Middle East since becoming Germany's foreign minister, Frank-Walter Steinmeier expressed his hopes for a return to peace talks in the embattled region after meeting with foreign ministers from the G8 powers and the six Gulf states, plus Jordan and Egypt, at a Jordanian Dead Sea resort.

With a tentative ceasefire currently holding firm between Israel and the Palestinians, Steinmeier praised the efforts of both sides to remain committed despite recent isolated incidents which could have plunged the conflict into a new, deadly phase.

With a ceasefire holding on the Lebanese border as well, Steinmeier was hopeful that new discussions and approaches to the problems would help cement the fragile peace but also urged the quartet of the United States, Russia, the United Nations and the European Union to push for a working timetable for a lasting settlement.

Steinmeier revealed that he had already spoken with US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov and hoped for future discussions in the New Year.

"I am glad that we will be able to continue these discussions in Washington before Christmas," Steinmeier told reporters, adding that a meeting had been called on Dec. 10.

The dollar fell further on Friday as weak US economic data heightened investor fears that the country's economy could be heading for a hard landing.

The latest sell-off, which was particularly sharp against the euro and sterling, came after data suggested US manufacturing contracted for the first time in 3½ years in November.

The US currency fell as much as 0.8 per cent to a new 20-month low of $1.3348 against the euro and 1 per cent to $1.9847 against the pound, a new 14-year trough.

In afternoon trade in New York, the euro was worth $1.3322 and the pound $1.9798. During the week, the dollar lost 1.7 per cent against the euro and more than 2 per cent against sterling, taking its drop for the year to about 13 per cent and 15 per cent respectively.

The fall in the Institute for Supply Management's factory index to 49.5 from 51.2 in October - a reading below 50 indicates that manufacturing is contracting - followed US data releases showing weakness in house prices and business activity.

Some economists said the ISM survey proves the slowdown is spreading from housing to other parts of the economy.

"Combined with other soft US data, the ISM data will reinforce fears of a hard landing and will add to the momentum behind the dollar sell-off," said Martin Slaney at GFT Global Markets.

They may taste the same, but the differences are huge. A woman in southern Germany is doing her best to increase the profile of St. Nicholas. Santa has almost completely taken over. Where to start? The supermarket shelves.

Blame it on Thomas Nast. After all, before the German-American put pen to paper in 1862 and brought the popular image of rose-cheeked, cherry-nosed Santa Claus to life, St. Nicholas used to rule the December roost. On the 6th of the month, the 4th century saint would visit the homes of good little European children and leave behind tasty treats and small gifts -- stuffed in boots left outside for the occasion.

And the old guy has a bit of class -- forget the shaking belly, the silly "ho-ho-ho" laugh, and kitschy reindeer of Santa. St. Nicholas's white beard conveys gravitas, his red mitre and wooden sceptre commands respect -- as does his occasional threat to whip bad little boys. Santa seems a pathetic, capitalist copy by comparison.

Now, though, St. Nicholas has some allies -- and they are doing what they can to win back some territory from the trans-Atlantic Santa invasion. Where to start? On Santa's territory, of course: the store shelves.

Finnish Prime Minister Matti Vanhanen, dubbed the country's sexiest man, broke up by text message with the girlfriend he had met on the Internet, the woman says in a magazine interview.

"Matti dumped me in a text message, where he said 'that's it'," Susan Kuronen told the magazine Me Naiset (Us Women).

Her relationship with Mr Vanhanen, a divorced 51-year-old father of two, ended a few weeks ago, but continues to make headlines as Susan, 36, pours her heart out in local media.

Enjoy your weekend!

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