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Sofie Peeters's account of everyday sexist insults women face triggers debate about inaction over universal problem

When Sofie Peeters moved to Brussels for a film degree, she found herself confronted with a depressing problem almost every time she left her front door. Walking around her local neighbourhood, the mixed, working-class district of Anneessens, at any time of day she would be greeted with cat-calls, wolf-whistles and jeers of "slag" and "how much do you cost?"

Sick of wondering whether it was her fault for wearing particular clothes, she made her end of year film on the topic, armed with a hidden camera to record the street harassment.

Female acquaintances admitted the problem was so bad they never went out in a skirt, avoided the metro, never made eye contact with men, avoid walking certain streets, never wore shorts and in one case, only ever left their house by bike.

The student film,...

Paris — Their early courtship was hardly discreet: President Nicolas Sarkozy and Carla Bruni visited Disneyland Paris together, then jetted off to Jordan with cameras in tow. Weeks later, they were married.

Now, Bruni-Sarkozy is about to have a baby, and the pending birth has taken on the air of a state secret – revealing the caution within Sarkozy's political team as the unpopular president eyes a possible re-election bid.

Bruni-Sarkozy is poised to become the first first lady in modern France to give birth. Sarkozy, who has long cast himself a mold-breaker, is the first French leader to divorce – and remarry – while in office. They wed in early 2008, 3-1/2 months after he divorced the now-former Cecilia Sarkozy.

The hush-hush atmosphere over the upcoming birth says a lot about France.

France's media establishment has a reputation for cushy ties to political powers-that-be, whose personal lives have mostly been off-limits. And conventional wisdom holds that the French public,...

Sydney, Feb 12 – French model/singer Brigitte Bardot has called one of President Nicolas Sarkozy’s oldest friends a “big, fat wide-boy liar” after he claimed to have slept with her at the height of her fame.

Bardot, 75, was infuriated by Patrick Balkany’s claim in his autobiography released last month, and his repeating it on radio and television.

The 61-year-old controversial and flamboyant mayor-mp of a Paris suburb, portrays himself as a Don Juan who wooed a host of beauties, in his.

Film icon Brigitte Bardot has threatened to sue a French politician over allegations they had an affair in the 1960s. Patrick Balkany, a personal friend of French President Nicolas Sarkozy, claimed in a book published in January that he enjoyed a fling with Bardot during their youth.

He repeated the allegations on local television show Laurent Ruquier last weekend. Bardot has vehemently denied the claims, insisting she met Balkany for the first time in 2004 - and she's now threatened to sue the politician if he continues to spread the false rumors.

In a statement released by Bardot's lawyer on Wednesday, February 10, the French actress says, "I am beginning to get fed up hearing Mr. Balkany boasting that he had an affair with me, which I have already formally denied."...

Film icon Brigitte Bardot has threatened to sue a French politician over allegations they had an affair in the 1960s.

Patrick Balkany, a personal friend of French President Nicolas Sarkozy, claimed in a book published last month that he enjoyed a fling with Bardot during their youth.

He repeated the allegations on local television show Laurent Ruquier last weekend (begs06Feb10).

Bardot has vehemently denied the claims, insisting she met Balkany for the first time in 2004 - and she's now threatened to sue the politician if he continues to spread the false rumours.

In a statement released by Bardot's lawyer on Wednesday, the French actress says: "I am beginning to get fed up hearing Mr. Balkany boasting that he had an affair with me, which I have already formally denied."...