Snip; After six months of shrinking approval ratings amid stubbornly-high unemployment and slow economic growth, French President François Hollande has reversed the downward slide in the polls as the public praises him for his stewardship of a relatively popular French-led military intervention in Mali.

A Jan. 28 survey by pollster BVA Opinion found Mr. Hollande’s job approval increased by 4 percentage points to 44 percent. In December, Hollande's 40 percent approval was the lowest since taking office in May, the first Socialist elected here since the 1980s.

Snip2; Meanwhile, advancing French troops have met little or no resistance since Saturday when seizing the cities of Gao and Timbuktu; the French were taking northern territory previously held by Al Qaeda-linked Islamist militants who, in the past year, had introduced by fiat a set of harsh and ultra-orthodox interpretations of Islamic law on locals.


Snip to bottom; French Foreign Affairs Minister Laurent Fabius told Le Parisien newspaper Wednesday that France would soon leave Mali after what has so far appeared as a successful mission.


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