France

20 Jan 2022; MEMO: Interpol has asked authorities in Abu Dhabi, the capital of the United Arab Emirates, to detain the Spanish-Lebanese arms dealer Abdul Rahman El Assir, who has been seen there in the company of Spain's former monarch Juan Carlos I, police sources told El País.

The newspaper said El Assir, 71, is wanted by Spain and France over tax fraud and other crimes; his whereabouts had been a mystery since 2018, when he failed to show up for trial in Madrid. Two international warrants were issued for his arrest in 2019.

PARIS, Jan 20 (Reuters) - France's parliament passed an opposition-led motion asking the government to condemn China for "crimes against humanity and genocide" against its Uyghur Muslim minority and to take foreign policy measures to make this stop.

The non-binding motion, led by the Socialist party and supported by several other opposition parties, was adopted with 169 votes for and one vote against.

STRASBOURG, France (AP) — French President Emmanuel Macron has pledged to make the European Union more powerful as his country holds the bloc’s presidency for six months — yet he has been accused by rivals and critics of using the position as a springboard toward a reelection bid.

Macron spoke at length Wednesday to European lawmakers in Strasbourg, detailing France’s priorities for the six-month rotating presidency of the bloc.

PARIS (AP) — French teachers have walked out in a nationwide strike Thursday to express anger at the way the government is handling the virus situation in schools, denouncing confusing rules and calling for more protection.

Exhausted by the pressures of surging COVID-19 cases, a large majority of teachers were expected to support the call by 11 unions to protest virus-linked class disruptions and ever-changing isolation rules.

Unions have staged a street protest in Paris city center on Thursday afternoon.

PARIS, Jan 9 (Reuters) - A mandatory order would not be the most efficient way to encourage those not vaccinated against COVID-19 to get the shot and that plans to toughen health pass conditions were already yielding results, government spokesman Gabriel Attal said.

People in France already have to show either proof of vaccination or a negative test to enter restaurants and bars and use inter-regional trains. But with Omicron infections surging, parliament is debating legislation that will drop the test option.

09 Jan 2022; MEMO: Former Tunisian President Mohamed Moncef Marzouki affirmed that the French authorities have refused to extradite him to Tunisia, after a Tunisian court issued an international arrest warrant against him.

In response to constitutional law Professor Rabeh Al-Kharaifi, who accused Marzouki of being a French citizen, the former president said: "How many times should I repeat that I have no other citizenship except the Tunisian one? How many times will they keep repeating the same lie and others?"

PARIS, Jan 8 (NNN-AGENCIES) — The total number of COVID-19 cases registered worldwide passed 300 million on Friday, with the Omicron variant’s rapid spread setting new infection records in dozens of countries over the last week.

In the past seven days, 34 countries have recorded their highest number of weekly cases since the start of the pandemic, including 18 nations in Europe and seven in Africa, according to an AFP count based on official figures.

PARIS, Jan 6 (Reuters) - France's parliament on Thursday approved President Emmanuel Macron's plans for a vaccine pass to help curb the spread of the Omicron variant after a tumultuous debate whipped up by Macron's comments that he wanted to "piss off" the unvaccinated.

Macron told Le Parisien newspaper earlier this week that he wanted to make the lives of those refusing the COVID-19 vaccine so complicated by squeezing them out of public places that they would end up getting jabbed. 

PARIS, Jan. 6 (Xinhua) -- French Prime Minister Jean Castex said Thursday that he hopes the vaccination pass bill will enter into effect on Jan. 15 as the parliament adopted the first reading of the draft bill.

Speaking to French news BFMTV-RMC, Castex said the draft bill, transforming the health pass to a COVID-19 vaccination pass, was passed in the lower house of the parliament with 214 votes against 93 on Thursday morning.

"It is a good thing, not only for the government, but also for the country and for the French people," Castex told BMFTV-RMC.

PARIS, Jan. 5 (Xinhua) -- The French Public Health Agency reported on Wednesday 332,252 new COVID-19 cases detected in the last 24 hours, breaking the daily record set on Tuesday.

Speaking to the press on Wednesday, French government spokesperson Gabriel Attal said that the fight against the pandemic in France is "far from over."

"In two weeks, the incidence rate has tripled and has exceeded 1,800 cases per 100,000 inhabitants," he said.

Hospitals are overcrowded, and the majority of coronavirus-infected patients in intensive care are unvaccinated, he added.