France

PARIS, March 12 (Xinhua) -- France will start offering on Monday a fourth COVID-19 vaccination shot to people over 80 years old who have received their booster dose, French Prime Minister Jean Castex told daily Le Parisien in an interview published on Saturday.

The vaccination campaign will also be extended to people having an immunocompromised system who were not eligible for the vaccine until now, Le Parisien reported.

Of France's 4.1 million people over the age of 80, 3.1 million have already had the booster shot, it said.

12 March 2022; MEMO: Palestinian-French activist Hussam Kamal has said that the dissolution of pro-Palestine NGOs in France is likely related to Zionist lobbying, Quds Press reported on Friday.

French Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin announced on Wednesday that Palestine Vaincra and Comité Action Palestine "incite violence and provoke terrorist attacks" and would be dissolved in "accordance with the president of the republic".

VERSAILLES, France (AP) — European Union leaders meeting in France Thursday ruled out fulfilling Ukraine’s demand for a fast-track integration with the bloc, as they discussed ways to help the eastern country that’s been invaded by neighboring Russia.

EU nations have been fully united in backing Ukraine’s resistance, adopting unprecedented economic sanctions against Russia, but leaders are divided on how fast Brussels could move to accept Ukraine as a member, and how swiftly the 27-nation bloc could sever energy ties with Moscow.

VERSAILLES, France, March 10 (Reuters) - It is important that Ukraine has applied for membership of the European Union, but there is no fast-track procedure for accession, Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte said on Thursday.

Ukraine applied for fast EU membership shortly after the Russian invasion two weeks ago.

"What's important is that Ukraine has asked to be member of the EU (...) there is no fast track procedure to become member of the EU," Rutte told reporters on entering a summit of EU leaders.

NICE, France (AP) — While most of the world is shunning President Vladimir Putin over Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, one of the few leaders keeping an open line of communication is French President Emmanuel Macron.

Macron’s diplomatic efforts to prevent the war failed, but he’s not giving up: the two men have spoken four times since Russian forces attacked Ukraine on Feb. 24, and 11 times over the past month.

PARIS, March 5 (Reuters) - French President Emmanuel Macron's lead over rival candidates ahead of next month's election has grown in the wake of Russia's invasion of Ukraine, according to a poll published on Saturday by Le Monde newspaper.

The Sopra Steria poll showed Macron winning 30.5% of votes in the first round of voting on April 10, up from 26.5% a week earlier.

Macron's closest challenger in the first round was Marine Le Pen, of the far-right Rassemblement National party, with 14.5% of votes, compared with 15.5% last week.

LAVAL-EN-BRIE, France, March 4 (Reuters) - Self-employed electrician Loic Luboue Le Quere lives in a rural village 80 km (50 miles) south of Paris and relies on his van for work. In recent months, his diesel bill has jumped, squeezing his finances.

Luboue Le Quere said it now cost him 90 euros to fill the tank and that he was shelling out more than 500 euros a month on diesel, a third more than just six months ago, as French gasoline prices hit record levels.

03 March 2022; MEMO: The UN Child Rights Committee said France has violated the rights of French children by leaving them in Kurdish-held camps with inhuman conditions, a UN watchdog reports.

According to the report, the UN Child Rights Committee ruled that France has the responsibility and power to protect the French children in the Syrian camps against an imminent risk to their lives by taking action to repatriate them.

PARIS, March 3 (Reuters) - The mainstream Conservative challenger in France's presidential election said on Thursday she would push for a hefty increase in defence spending, and laid into the pro-Russia views previously expressed by rivals further right along the political spectrum.

Valerie Pecresse said she would seek to raise defence spending to well above 2% of gross domestic product if she won April's election, to an annual 65 billion euros ($72 billion) by 2030 from a planned 50 billion euros in 2025.

PARIS, March 3 (Reuters) - Ukraine still controls two key nuclear power plants in the south of the country, including Zaporizhzhia, Europe's largest, but Russian forces are closing in, the acting head of Ukraine's state-run nuclear company Energoatom said on Thursday.

Petro Kotin, speaking in an interview with Reuters, called Russia's capture last week of the defunct Chernobyl nuclear power plant "nuclear terrorism".