France

15 Apr 2021; MEMO: Nine French MPs have called on President Emmanuel Macron to provide data and maps about nuclear waste sites in Algeria, agencies reported yesterday. The French conducted nuclear tests in the Algerian Sahara in the 1960s.

"You now have the opportunity to take concrete action in favour of the civilians and the environment which continue to be affected by nuclear waste buried by France in the sands of the Algerian Sahara," the MPs told Macron. "You must seize it."

PARIS (Reuters) - The European powers party to the Iran nuclear deal told Tehran on Wednesday that its decision to enrich uranium at 60% purity and install a further 1,000 centrifuges at its Natanz site were contrary to efforts to revive the 2015 nuclear deal.

Talks between world powers, Iran and the United States are due to resume in Vienna on Thursday, but in a joint statement Britain, France and Germany said Tehran’s decision to enrich at 60 percent was not based on credible civilian reasons and constituted an important step in the production of a nuclear weapon.

New Delhi, Apr 13 (PTI) French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian on Tuesday said that the country has set a target of having 20,000 Indian students in France by 2025.

There were 10,000 Indian students studying in the European nation in 2019, according to officials at the French Embassy.

"We have set a target -- it is to have 20,000 Indian students in France by 2025, and we will make it. We want to bring French and Indian youth even closer," Minister Le Drian said.

PARIS, April 11. /TASS/: Moscow expects Paris to support its initiatives aimed at non-placement of arms in outer space, Russian Ambassador to France Alexei Meshkov said in an interview with TASS on occasion of the 60th anniversary of the first human space flight.

PARIS (Reuters) - French lawmakers voted late on Saturday to abolish domestic flights on routes than can be covered by train in under two-and-a-half hours, as the government seeks to lower carbon emissions even as the air travel industry reels from the global pandemic.

The measure is part of a broader climate bill that aims to cut French carbon emissions by 40% in 2030 from 1990 levels, though activists accuse President Emmanuel Macron of watering down earlier promises in the draft legislation.

PARIS (Reuters) - The European Union’s COVID-19 recovery response is robust and does not fall short when compared with the United States’ $1.9 trillion recovery plan, European Council President Charles Michel told Les Echos newspaper.

EU member states agreed last summer on a 750 billion euro ($892.2 billion) recovery fund, but with governments still submitting detailed spending plans, frustration is growing in some capitals at the slow speed of disbursing the money.

PARIS (Reuters) - The French government will continue giving strong support to the air transport industry throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire said on Wednesday.

“We will continue to support massively and durably the French air transport sector, the small- and medium-sized companies that work in the industry, the aerospace industry, Airbus, and the entire French industry ” Le Maire told the French Senate.

PARIS, April 6 (NNN-AGENCIES) — The novel coronavirus has killed at least 2,853,908 people since the outbreak emerged in China in December 2019.

At least 131,213,930 cases of coronavirus have been registered. The vast majority have recovered, though some have continued to experience symptoms weeks or even months later.

These figures are based on daily tolls provided by health authorities in each country and exclude later re-evaluations by statistical organisations, as has happened in Russia, Spain and Britain.

PARIS (Reuters) - French Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire said on Tuesday a global deal on cross-border taxation was within reach as he welcomed a pledge by U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen to work on a global corporate minimum rate.

“We welcome the United States’ support for minimum corporate tax,” Le Maire said in a statement to Reuters, adding he also wanted to make progress with Yellen in international talks to rewrite the rules for cross-border taxation of digital companies.

PARIS (AP) — France’s role before and during the 1994 Rwandan genocide was a “monumental failure” that the country must acknowledge, the lead author of a report commissioned by President Emmanuel Macron said, as the country is about to open its archives from this period to the public.