Word: christiane
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...took their oaths of office Friday will face a full parliamentary vote of confidence on Monday. They will be led by outgoing Flemish Liberal Prime Minister Guy Verhofstadt. In principle, it will remain in office until March 23 next year. The government consists of five political parties: Liberals and Christian Democrats from both language communities, along with the French-speaking Socialists. Although the coalition is disproportional in terms of parties, its ministerial split is an even seven each for the Flemish and French-speaking parties...
...Verhofstadt also needs to lay the groundwork for a more permanent administration, led by the biggest winner of the June elections, Flemish Christian Democrat Yves Leterme. Leterme, whose party has been out of office for eight years, has been unable to stitch together his own government coalition. At various times over the past six months, both he and his prospective coalition partners from the French-speaking parties have appeared baffled at one another's demands. An emergency coalition is thought to be one way of helping them understand each other better...
...Leterme, one of four Flemish Christian Democrats in the coalition, is the other deputy Prime Minister. Although nominally in charge of the budget portfolio, he will lead talks with the other parties on constitutional changes. These talks will be amongst a group of 12 established political names that Verhofstadt will choose - although the departing prime minister will not himself be part of the process. If these talks fail, there is the chance that the interim government could stay on until the regional elections in 2009, which might then double up with another federal poll. But such chatter underlines the fragile...
Wearing a cross at Israeli checkpoints doesn't help. To security personnel, we're all Palestinians and all dangerous. Even with the permit, Bethlehem residents need to make the short drive to Jerusalem. Sometimes it can take an hour to clear the checkpoint. As a Christian university student said the other day, "Jesus Christ wouldn't be able to leave Bethlehem today unless he showed a magnetic ID card, a permit and his thumbprint...
...Gaulle, the intellectual loftiness exhibited by Valéry Giscard d'Estaing and François Mitterrand, and the less formal yet dignified detachment of Jacques Chirac. The French media has wryly covered Sarkozy's open affection for celebrities like iconic rock star Johnny Hallyday, popular comic actor Christian Clavier, and the subtly named Doc Gyneco - a rapper whose dwindling popularity and fan base further shrunk when he announced his support for Sarkozy's presidential bid. Sarkozy has no lack of famous, wealthy friends - nor any problem broadcasting them...