Since she was appointed rather than elected, Mr Sarkozy's centre-right party is seeking to boost her standing by putting her top of the list for the next municipal elections in the bourgeois 7th arrondissement of Paris.

ECONOMIST: Race and politics in France

With the DUP seeking to capture the unionist centre-ground, Tom Elliot's assertion that he wouldn't serve under Sinn Fein as deputy first minister sounded like another signal that the UUP is shifting into TUV territory (in fact the mathematical possibility of this outcome appears so remote as to be nigh on impossible).

BBC: NI election Leaders Debate: last word from party heads

The centre will focus not only on football skills but on job-seeking and healthy living.

BBC: Nottingham

The Greens also voted against the government's bill as the left-of-centre party accused ministers of betraying the despairing and vulnerable, who were seeking Australia's protection, but could be doomed to spend years in dusty camps in the South Pacific.

BBC: Is Australia asylum U-turn a 'better option'?

The first stop for design-aficionados, or anyone seeking to understand this national obsession, is the Danish Design Centre.

BBC: The reigning king of Scandinavian design