France is bracing itself for a second nationwide strike in two months, by protestors urging the government to do more to protect jobs and wages.
Public and private sector workers are expected to join the marches and services in schools, hospitals and transport are likely to be disrupted.
President Nicolas Sarkozy says he understands the worries of the people.
But he insists there is nothing more his government can do to help those struggling in the financial crisis.

PARIS: A nationwide protest against Nicolas Sarkozy’s economic policies drew more than one million demonstrators into the streets of France on Thursday, in the biggest popular challenge to the president since he took office in 2007.
Organizers hailed the demonstrations – meant to highlight unemployment and declining spending power in a time of crisis – as a great success.

Dominique de Villepin, the former French prime minister, has been ordered to stand trial for his role in an alleged plot to smear Nicolas Sarkozy, France’s president.
Judges signed the order late on Tuesday, requiring de Villepin to appear before the court over what sources close to the trail said was alleged “complicity in libel”.

Paris: French Socialists were choosing a new leader yesterday who could challenge President Nicolas Sarkozy and set the direction for the once-powerful but long-fractured French left.
Two women headed the tight race: ex-presidential candidate Segolene Royal and the author of France’s 35-hour workweek law, Martine Aubry.

French ex-Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin will stand trial in connection with a smear campaign against President Nicholas Sarkozy, officials say.
Mr de Villepin is suspected of targeting Mr Sarkozy when the pair were seen as presidential rivals in 2004.
Mr de Villepin has already been questioned over the case but has always denied spreading false money laundering allegations against Mr Sarkozy.

Children cheered, bugles sounded and the Prince of Wales inspected the French guard, but an air of improvisation tinged the pageantry today at President Sarkozy’s ceremony at Verdun to mark the Great War armistice.
It would have helped if Mr Sarkozy and Carla Bruni, his wife, had arrived on time to mark the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month. But the silence came at 11.10 after their helicopter brought them late to Douaumont, the hillside monument at the site of France’s most murderous battle of the …

She was the first woman in France to be nominated for President by a major party.

Seldom have public events seemed so personal in France’s bitterly fractured Socialist camp whereSégolène Royal, the failed presidential candidate, was trying to bond with a young hardliner yesterday to take control of the party from her humiliated former lover.
François Hollande, secretary-general of the Socialists for the past 11 years, must give up the post next weekend in the wake of a congress in Reims that was likened to a sack of vipers. He is determined not to cede power to Royal, 55, who announced last year that she was leaving …