Is Carla Bruni the new Mrs Sarko?

A report that French President Nicolas Sarkozy and his girlfriend Carla Bruni have married in a private ceremony at the Elysee Palace has been widely broadcast in the media today. But no one has pointed out that the story was 'broken' by the French regional newspaper L'Est Republicaine - the same paper that reported in September 2006 that Osama bin Laden was dead, a claim that has never been proved.

L'Est Republicaine is the newspaper for the Lorraine region of northeast France, based in the town of Nancy. At the time of the Osama story, it was believed that the 'exclusive report' was the result of a calculated leak from within the Direction Generale des Services Exterieurs (DGSE), which is the French equivalent of Britain's MI6 with responsibility for intelligence gathering abroad.

This time, no spy agencies are involved, as far as we know. L'Est Republicaine claims to have been told about the marriage by someone "present at the ceremony" last Thursday. If the report turns out to be true - and no one at the Elysee Palace is denying it - then 'Speedy Sarko', as he has come to be known by the Parisian press, will be the first French leader to marry in office since Napoleon.

Meanwhile two men have been arrested in France over death threats to Sarkozy's 10-year-old son Louis, the French Interior Minister Michele Alliot-Marie has confirmed. Earlier this month Sarkozy's youngest son received several threatening phone calls on a mobile phone registered to his mother, former first lady Cecilia Sarkozy.