Sailing record beaten, financial tax struggles and more

HEADLINE stories from France, including a sailing record and President Sarkozy's plans to tax financial transactions gets little support.

British sailor in French team smashes world circumnavigation record - The Telegraph
A British sailor and the mostly French crew of his record-breaking craft were celebrating today after beating the world record for the fastest circumnavigation of the world in any type of yacht.

France ready to go solo on financial transaction tax - France 24
Many activists in western countries have long campaigned for a small tax on financial transactions so as to raise funds for environmental and social measures that they say would compensate for the damage done by reckless speculation.

French far right rallies around Joan of Arc - France 24
Some 200 members of France’s main far-right party rallied around a statue of Joan of Arc to celebrate the medieval martyr's 600th birthday.

Gastro-enteritis epidemic declared - The Connexion
Country-wide, there are around 300 cases per 100,000 inhabitants - with the epidemic level being set at 282 cases.

‘Piratical’ unions could scuttle SeaFrance rescue bid - France 24
A Paris court will rule on Monday on whether to accept a plan by a worker’s co-operative to save bankrupt SeaFrance. But hard-line intransigence by powerful trade unionists may have fatally undermined the process.