Malian authorities will give French President Francois Hollande another camel after the one they gave him in thanks for helping repel Islamist rebels was killed and eaten by the family he left it with in Timbuktu, an official in Mali said.

A local government official in northern Mali said on Tuesday a replacement would be sent to France.

"As soon as we heard of this, we quickly replaced it with a bigger and better-looking camel," said the official, who asked not to be named because he was not authorized to speak to the media.

"The new camel will be sent to Paris. We are ashamed of what happened to the camel. It was a present that did not deserve this fate."

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Hollande was presented with the camel when he visited Mali in February several weeks after dispatching French troops to the former colony to help combat al Qaeda-linked fighters moving south from a base in the north of the country.

 

The president joked at the time about using the camel to get around traffic-jammed Paris. But he chose in the end to leave it with a family in the town on the edge of the Sahara desert.

Defense Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian was tasked with giving Hollande regular updates on the camel's status and had to inform him of its death last week, French media said.

"The news came in from soldiers on the ground," said a French government official.

French leaders have received many gifts of exotic or wild animals from Africa and further afield over the years.

Last week, a robber chainsawed a tusk off the skeleton of an elephant offered to Louis XIV by a Portuguese king in 1668. Police caught the robber as he fled, tusk under his arm.

Copyright 2013 Thomson Reuters. Click for restrictions.

 

France's lower house of parliament approved a sweeping bill on Tuesday to legalize gay marriage and allow same-sex couples to adopt children, handing a major legislative victory to President Francois Hollande's Socialists on a divisive social issue.

The measure, approved in the National Assembly in a 329-to-229 vote, puts France on track to join about a dozen mostly European nations that allow gay marriage and comes despite a string of recent demonstrations by opponents of the so-called "marriage for all" bill.

Polls indicate a narrow majority of French support legalizing gay marriage, though that support falls when questions about the adoption and conception of children come into play.

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The Assembly has been debating the bill, and voting on its individual articles in recent weeks. The overall legislation now goes in the coming weeks to the Senate, which also is controlled by the governing Socialists and their allies.

With Tuesday's vote, France joins Britain in taking a major legislative step in recent weeks toward allowing gay marriage and adoption — making them the largest European countries to do so. The Netherlands, Belgium, Norway and Spain, as well as Argentina, Canada and South Africa have authorized gay marriage, along with nine U.S. states and the District of Columbia.

The issue has exposed fault lines between a progressive-minded leftist legislative majority in officially secular France, and the country's conservative religious roots. Critics — including many Roman Catholics — have railed that the bill would erode the traditional family. Socialists, however, sought to depict the issue as one of equal rights, and they played off France's famed Revolution-era motto of "Liberty, Equality and Fraternity."

"This law is going to extend to all families the protections guaranteed by the institution of marriage," Prime Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault said before Tuesday's vote. "Contrary to what those who vociferate against it say — fortunately they're in the minority — this law is going to strengthen the institution of marriage."

'Social evolution'
As with many major and controversial reforms in France, the issue drew its share of political grandstanding over weeks of debate. Conservative opponents forced a discussion of nearly 5,000 amendments, a move derided by Socialists as inconsequential stalling tactics. But by the final vote, the government rank-and-file rolled out grand, solemn statements of victory.

"This law is a first necessary step, a social evolution that benefits society overall," said Socialist representative Corinne Narassiguin, announcing her party's support for the measure. "Opening up marriage and adoption to homosexual couples is a very beautiful advance. ... It is an emblematic vote, a vote that will mark history."

However, the political right hasn't given up just yet, saying the Constitutional Court — whose 12 members include three former French presidents and several other prominent conservatives — will determine whether the law, if finally passed, meshes with the law of the land.

"So it's not the end of the story yet," said Herve Mariton, a member of the main opposition UMP party. "We still have arguments to make and we want to convince people that it is not a good project."

The government didn't get all it wanted. The Socialists last month backed off plans to link the gay marriage measure to relaxed restrictions on fertility treatments, after catching political heat for its stance on assisted reproduction. The issue is expected to come up in a separate bill later this year.

Hollande made legalizing gay marriage one of the planks in his 60-point program on the way to winning the presidency in May over conservative incumbent Nicolas Sarkozy. But Hollande's popularity has fallen along with France's lackluster economic performance, and his foes on the right appear to sense he might be vulnerable on a high-profile social issue.

The latest polls suggest a narrow majority of French support gay marriage, but that has declined from about two-thirds support in August. In mid-January, at least 340,000 people swarmed on the Eiffel Tower to protest the plan to legalize gay marriage, according to police estimates. Two weeks later, about 125,000 proponents of the bill marched in the capital.

French civil unions, allowed since 1999, are at least as popular among heterosexuals as among gay and lesbian couples. But that law has no provisions for adoption or assisted reproduction.

Related:

Why some in supposedly liberal France are up in arms about gay marriage

French police were preparing for another night of violence Tuesday after clashes struck the northern city of Amiens overnight, with rioters torching cars and a nursery school in a resurgence of urban unrest that has periodically roiled the country.

President Francois Hollande dispatched his Interior Minister Manuel Valls to the northern city, where two nights of violence were apparently sparked by tension over spot police checks on residents.

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Officials said 16 police officers were hurt in the disturbances, some struck by buckshot others hit by a hail of missiles thrown by around 100 youths who gathered in northern districts of Amiens.

One officer was in a serious condition, the city's Socialist Mayor Gilles Demailly told Reuters.

Speaking during a visit to southeastern France, Hollande said the state would "mobilize all its resources to combat this violence," which has shaken depressed quarters of major French cities at regular intervals.

Protesters burn cars, nursery school in France

"Security resources have sadly be declining for too many years," said Hollande. "Our priority is security which means that the next budget will include additional resources for the gendarmerie and the police." 

Reinforcements were being dispatched to the suburb, parts of which had already classified as a "priority security zone" in need of extra policing. The policy formed part of the Socialists' election campaign pledge on law and order.

The unrest was the first major law and order test for Hollande's ruling Socialists following his May election victory over conservative incumbent Nicolas Sarkozy, whose tough policies on crime and immigration some critics said fanned urban unrest.

Smoldering ruins  
During a night of disturbances, rioters set fire to a number of vehicles, in some cases hauling the drivers out of their cars before burning them, mayor Demailly said.

The riots on Monday night actually began Friday and continued every night since then. 

From 2005: France finds that not all Frenchmen feel French

Gutted buildings, including a nursery school, and burnt out cars were still smoldering early Tuesday, though the streets were otherwise calm. No-one has been arrested so far.

Valls, a law and order hardliner who irks some fellow Socialists, was dispatched to Amiens from southern France where he was on official business with Hollande.

"This violence towards police, these buildings that were burned down, these people gripped by fear - this is unacceptable," Valls told reporters.

Some leftwing critics say his tough talk bears uncomfortable parallels with the strong line taken by Sarkozy.

From 2005: France to extend state of emergency

As mayor of a racially mixed suburb before being appointed to Hollande's government, Valls served more than 10 years ago as a spokesman for Socialist former Prime Minister Lionel Jospin, whose 2002 presidential election defeat was partly put down to his image as soft on law and order.

Tensions remain high in many French suburbs, where poor job prospects, racial discrimination, a widespread sense of alienation from mainstream society and perceived hostile policing have periodically touched off violence.

Weeks of rioting in 2005, the worst urban unrest in France in 40 years, led to the imposition of a state of emergency by the then center-right government. Incidents involving police provoked disturbances in 2007 and 2010.

The repeat bouts of violence have provoked agonized debate over the state of the grim housing estates that ring many French cities and the integration of millions of poor whites, blacks and North African immigrants into mainstream society.

NBC News' Nancy Ing and Reuters contributed to this report. 

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Newly inaugurated French President Francois Hollande arrived in Berlin on Tuesday, but behind schedule for his first foreign policy engagement, after his plane was struck by lightning.

Hollande was flying to Germany to meet Chancellor Angela Merkel, but his plane was forced to return to Paris after the jolt, a presidential source said.

However, the Socialist head of state was unharmed and took off again in another plane, the source added.

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Hollande was greeted by an honor guard in Berlin prior to his meeting with Merkel, which focused on Europe's debt crisis, The Associated Press reported.

In rainy France, Hollande sworn in as president

Hollande favors pro-growth measures, and hopes to temper Berlin-led austerity measures.

In a press conference after the meeting, Hollande said that both he and his German counterpart wanted Greece to remain in the euro currency zone and hoped voters there would signal that they agree in elections on June 17, Reuters reported.

"I hope that we can say to the Greeks that Europe is ready to add measures to help growth and support economic activity so that there is a return to growth in Greece,'' Hollande said, according to the report. "On growth, the method that we agreed is putting all ideas and all proposals on the table and seeing what legal means exist to put them into effect.''

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PARIS - French President Nicolas Sarkozy made a last-ditch appeal to far-right voters on Thursday after failing to land a knockout blow in a heated televised debate with Socialist rival Francois Hollande before Sunday's decisive runoff.

Hollande, ahead in opinion polls by six to 10 points, was calm and unflappable during the nearly three-hour debate on Wednesday while the conservative Sarkozy, struggling to catch up with the moderate social democrat, was often agitated and tense.

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Commentators said the confrontation, watched by 17.8 million people out of an electorate of 44.5 million, was no game-changer and probably only reinforced voters' opinions in a contest that has been as much about style and personality as substance.

"It was a draw but as Mr Hollande started as favorite, he remains the favorite," wrote Francoise Fressoz in an editorial in Le Monde. "Mr Sarkozy did not manage to destabilize him, which was his objective from the start."

France's election battle moves from hearts to heads

Television commentators said Sarkozy had performed "like a boxer" in Wednesday's debate and Hollande "like a judo fighter", using flashes of wit and interjections to unbalance his rival.

"Hollande presides over the debate," left-wing Liberation wrote on its front page, while the right-leaning Le Figaro, with a headline "High Tension", emphasized the bitterness of the exchanges. It noted that every euro zone leader to seek re-election since 2008 had lost, but said divisions in the French left and Hollande's outdated policies gave Sarkozy a chance.

Hollande, 57, was confident and relaxed in the early exchanges of Wednesday's contest, saying he aimed to be "the president of justice" and "the president of unity".

He said Sarkozy, also 57 and in office since 2007, had divided the French people and was using the global economic crisis as an excuse for broken promises. "With you it's very simple: it's never your fault," Hollande said.

Sarkozy, fighting for his political life, repeatedly accused his opponent of lying about economic figures and reeled off reams of statistics in an attempt to swamp his adversary.

4-month presidential campaign with no television ads? Welcome to France

Deriding Hollande's pledge to be a "normal president", the president said: "Your normality is not up to the challenge."

Sarkozy, being punished for rife unemployment and a brash manner, is the most unpopular president to run for re-election. He was the first in recent history to lose a first-round vote, with Hollande benefiting from the anti-incumbent sentiment that has swept 11 euro zone leaders from office since 2009.

The streets of Paris were unusually deserted with many people staying home to watch the debate, although some chose to follow the clash on television screens at their local cafe.

"It has been 50-50. There is no clear winner," said Jacques Dufoix, 36, a computer engineer, after watching the debate in a central Paris sports bar. "I don't think this is going to change the way anyone votes. People have already made up their minds." 

Reuters and msnbc.com's Alastair Jamieson contributed to this report.

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With fewer than 10 days until France casts its votes in the first round of the presidential election, Nicolas Sarkozy’s poll lead is shrinking, suggesting his deft handling of last month’s shootings in Toulouse won’t be enough to protect him from anger at the state of the economy.

Three opinion polls showed the incumbent's narrow lead over challenger Francois Hollande is steady or shrinking for the April 22 first round, and Sarkozy is still expected to lose the subsequent May 6 runoff.

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"He’s been trailing Hollande in the second round pretty consistently," Justin Vaïsse, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, told msnbc.com. "It’s hard to see where the reservoir of votes would come from to make him win."

Sarkozy saw his lead for the first ballot slip to half a percentage point from two points a week ago in a poll by Ipsos Logica, with 29 percent support to Hollande's 28.5 percent. 

The same poll showed Hollande retaining a 10-point lead in voting intentions for the May 6 runoff with 55 percent to Sarkozy's 45 percent, unchanged from a week earlier.

An Ifop Fiducial poll showed Sarkozy with 28.5 percent to Hollande's 27 percent in round one, unchanged over the last month - but Hollande's lead in the run-off narrowed to six points from eight points two weeks ago.

A third poll by Harris Interactive gave Sarkozy a one-point lead in the first round at 28 percent to Hollande's 27, down from 3 points a week earlier. It too put Hollande ahead of Sarkozy 53 to 47 in the runoff.

All three polls indicated far-right candidate Marine Le Pen had strengthened her position in third place, ahead of hard left candidate Jean-Luc Melenchon in fourth.

The campaign kicked off on April 9, bringing political ads to radio and TV stations and giant posters to the streets. But the race started months ago for the 10 candidates, and some experts say the most interesting days are already behind us.

"Overall it’s been a boring campaign," Vaïsse said, adding that over the past few weeks the race has been bogged down by small issues such as halal meat and the cost of earning a driving license. In comparison, the 2007 race that Sarkozy won focused on issues such as unemployment and European disunity, he said.

Polls show the electorate is growing weary of the rhetoric as well. A recent national survey found 32 percent of respondents don't plan on hitting the polls, a figure that Jonathan Laurence, nonresident senior fellow at Brookings and term member of the Council on Foreign Relations, says is atypical. The turnout in the 2007 elections was about 80 percent.

The shift in campaign rhetoric occurred early this year, when Sarkozy went from talking about his important role in the partnership with German Chancellor Angela Merkel in saving the Eurozone to discussing immigration and threatening to pull France out of Schengen, Europe's open border zone.

He went from being the "locomotive of Europe" to playing the anti-Europe card, Vaïsse said.

For voters, issues such as unemployment, the nation's debt and deficit and education are bigger priorities than Islam and immigration, Vaïsse added. But for the right-wing voters Sarkozy is trying to coax to his side, they are seen as essential.

That conversation took center stage following a deadly shooting in Toulouse, where Mohamed Merah, a 23-year-old Frenchman killed three Jewish schoolchildren, a rabbi and three French paratroopers in three separate attacks. The Toulouse shootings allowed Sarkozy to act presidential, Laurence said.

His handling of the crisis was reflected by a slight uptick in the polls, but Vaïsse said the Toulouse effect is unlikely to make a big difference in the long run.

In the end, the election is a referendum on how Sarkozy and his government handled the economic crisis, Laurence said.

With unemployment at a 12-year high and France stripped of its AAA status by one credit rating agency, the Bank of France offered no redemption for Sarkozy's economic record.

Figures for growth were revised downward, a trend that Hollande could benefit from. Sarkozy advocates financial discipline and austerity, but that's not enough to solve the growth problem, Vaïsse said.

Hollande has pledged to balance the budget in 2017, Bloomberg reported, while Sarkozy promised to reach the target a year earlier. According to the report, the country's public deficit stood at 5.2 percent in 2011.

"We will keep to the fixed plan of reducing our public deficit to 3 percent [of GDP] in 2013," Hollande said in an interview with La Tribune. "It's France's word."

Hollande said he would finance his plan of increasing spending by 20 billion euros by repealing 29 billion euros of tax breaks for the rich.

While the race for re-election is an uphill battle for Sarkozy, there remains a small possibility he can scrape his way to a second term in office if he wins in the first round and picks up some support from the centrist candidate's electorate, Vaïsse said.

"Frankly, apart from that scenario, it’s hard to see how he’ll be able to make it," he added.

Reuters contributed to this report. 

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