A fresh opinion poll shows that more than seven out of ten people in France are unhappy with President Nicolas Sarkozy's performance.

The survey carried out by the French Institute of Public Opinion showed only 29 percent of the poll respondents approved Sarkozy's actions, Reuters reported on Saturday.

This is his worst approval rating since he took office in 2007. Sixty nine percent of the respondents said they disapproved his policies.

However, the drop in Sarkozy's popularity is not a reason for the opposition to celebrate. Only 39 percent of the poll respondents thought that the opposition would have done a better job if it was in power.

The unemployment rate in France among youth aged 15 to 24 years reached 25 percent in the third quarter of 2010, well above the European average of 20 percent.

Ronald Reagan and his bodyguards did not realise he had been shot during his assassination attempt, according to a new audiotape, released 30 years after the incident.


The audio, from March, 1981, details the chaotic immediate aftermath of the shooting, when one of his bodyguards reassures others that "Rawhide is okay".

It was only after more minute that Special Agent Jerry Parr's initial message that another announced: "We want to go to the emergency room of George Washington."

When "Rawhide" - Reagan's code name - arrived at the hospital minutes later, doctors discovered that he had a bullet lodged in his lung, which had ricocheted off his car. He lost half his blood and required emergency surgery.

Neither the president nor his agents realised that he had been shot, and it appears that an agent's snap decision to take him to a hospital when he noticed that the US president was bleeding from the mouth, might have saved his life.

Mr Parr is heard shouting "let's hustle" as Mr Reagan's limousine suddenly changed course.

President Barack Obama will speak at the 126th annual Gridiron Club dinner in Washington on Saturday evening.

The white-tie event is an opportunity for journalists to poke fun at public figures and political themes of the day. .

President Obama just could not wait for spring weather to arrive.

For the second week in a row, the most powerful man in the world stepped away from the White House to hit the golf course.

Even as his administration and the U.S. military help Japan recover from a devastating earthquake, and as the world worries about Fukushima's nuclear reactor, the president could not resist taking advantage of the 48-degree weather in the Washington, D.C., area.

The president left the White House Saturday afternoon for a short trip to Joint Andrews Base in Camp Springs, Md.

Body scanners used in airports have been subjected to re-testing after transportation officials discovered that erroneous recording of radiation levels were made by some personnel.

The move comes after the Transportation Security Administration and Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano on Wednesday even allayed fears of the radiation risk from the controversial body scanners.

"The amount of radiation is approximately (the same as that received) as two minutes in the air," Napolitano told a Senate panel on Wednesday, citing independent studies to back her claim.

But a subsequent internal review of 15 airports over the last two years showed some discrepancies with radiation level data and the TSA ordered the machines to be tested again. On Friday, the agency said the issues found were "record-keeping errors."

The U.S. Treasury is depleting its cash at an accelerating pace, drawing down its cash balance by $81.6 billion in the just the first four days of March, leaving the federal government with only $108.9 billion on hand, according to the Daily Treasury Statement released Monday afternoon.

At the beginning of February , the Treasury had $349.1 billion in cash on hand, but spent that down by $158.5 billion during the month, ending February with only $190.6 billion on hand.

Were the government to continue to draw down its cash balance at the $20.4 billion-per-day rate that prevailed in the first four days of March, it would spend its way through its final $108.9 billion in little more than five days.

After an epic month of political struggle and three final hours of bitter debate, Republican lawmakers in the Assembly on Thursday gave Gov. Scott Walker his bill to repeal most collective bargaining by public employee unions.

Legislators voted 53-42 along largely partisan lines to pass the budget-repair proposal, but only after police carried demonstrators out of the Assembly antechamber.

But even with the battle won by Republicans, a wider war now remains for both sides, one expected to be fought in the courts and through recall efforts against 16 state senators.

All Democrats voted against the bill and were joined by four Republicans - Dean Kaufert of Neenah, Lee Nerison of Westby, Travis Tranel of Cuba City and Richard Spanbauer of Oshkosh. All other Republicans and the body's lone independent, Bob Ziegelbauer of Manitowoc, voted for the bill.

Walker hailed the vote.

"I applaud all members of the Assembly for showing up, debating the legislation and participating in democracy," he said in a statement. "Their action will save jobs, protect taxpayers, reform government and help balance the budget."

Walker spokesman Cullen Werwie said that the governor would sign the bill "as soon as possible."

Hundreds of rebel fighters have retreated from the strategic oil port of Ras Lanouf as Muammar Gaddafi's army pounds the town with artillery.

The rebels fled eastward in cars and pickup trucks mounted with machine guns.



One said government forces were raining rockets or tank shells on the city in what appeared to be preparation for a full-scale advance.

Shells fell near a city hospital and hit a series of residential buildings as Gaddafi's tanks moved further along Libya's main Mediterranean coastal road than they have been since the rebels seized most of the country's east.

An opposition fighter with a Kalashnikov rifle said he had fled the frontline outside Ras Lanouf.

NATO defence ministers met in Brussels today to discuss the escalating crisis. Britain had been pushing for a no-fly zone over Libya but after hours of talks, members concluded that the action would not be taken without a unanimous UN resolution.

However, the body resolved to increase the number of ships in the Mediterranean and to tighten up the arms embargo. Extra humanitarian assistance will also be offered.

The meeting came just hours after France became the first country to formally recognise the rebels' Interim Governing Council as Libya's legitimate government.

Paris said it planned to exchange ambassadors after President Nicolas Sarkozy met two representatives of the group based in the eastern city of Benghazi.

'It breaks the ice,' said Mustafa Gheriani, an opposition spokesman. 'We expect Italy to do it, and we expect England to do it.'

Germany said it froze billions in assets of the Libyan Central Bank and other state-run agencies. The U.S., UK, Switzerland, Austria and other countries have also frozen Gaddafi's assets.

The Transportation Security Administration announced Friday that it would retest every full-body X-ray scanner that emits ionizing radiation - 247 machines at 38 airports - after maintenance records on some of the devices showed radiation levels 10 times higher than expected.

The TSA says that the records reflect math mistakes and that all the machines are safe. Indeed, even the highest readings listed on some of the records - the numbers that the TSA says were mistakes - appear to be many times less than what the agency says a person absorbs through one day of natural background radiation.

Even so, the TSA has ordered the new tests out of "an abundance of caution to reassure the public," spokesman Nicholas Kimball says. The tests will be finished by the end of the month, and the results will be released "as they are completed," the agency said on its website.

TSA officials have repeatedly assured the public and lawmakers that the machines have passed all inspections. The agency's review of maintenance reports, launched Dec. 10, came only after USA TODAY and lawmakers called for the release of the records late last year.

NATO defence ministers agreed today to send more naval ships off Libya's coast and to renew military planning for a possible no-fly zone pending a UN mandate, the alliance's chief said.

"It has been decided to increase the presence of NATO maritime assets in the central Mediterranean," NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen told a news conference after a meeting of defence chiefs.

The naval ships would bolster surveillance of Libya and monitor an existing arms embargo against the country, where Moamer Kadhafi's troops are battling opposition forces.

The ministers also called for urgent "detailed planning" for humanitarian efforts and for possible measures to enforce the arms embargo in case required by any new UN Security Council resolution, he said.

There was no decision to launch a no-fly zone against the regime -- a step favoured by Britain and France -- but the alliance endorsed further military planning if the United Nations endorsed the move.