France

PARIS (AP) — French President Emmanuel Macron has tested positive for COVID-19, the presidential Elysee Palace announced on Thursday.

It said the president took a test “as soon as the first symptoms appeared.” The brief statement did not say what symptoms Macron experienced.

It said he would isolate himself for seven days. “He will continue to work and take care of his activities at a distance,” it added.

15 Dec 2020; MEMO: Reporters Sans Frontiers (RSF) has revealed that China, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Vietnam and Syria are the world's biggest jailers of journalists for the second year.

In a report the organisation stated that the number of journalists in prison this year is just two less than it was this time last year, when the number stood at 389.

Paris, Dec 15 (AP-PTI) French President Emmanuel Macron announced a referendum to add the fight against climate change and the need to preserve the environment into the French Constitution.

Speaking on Monday to a citizen's group in charge of making proposals on climate-related issues, Macron proposed a change in the constitution that requires a parliamentary vote, and then a referendum.

PARIS (AP) — Paris police took nearly 150 people into custody at what quickly became a tense and sometimes ill-tempered protest Saturday against proposed security laws, with officers wading into the crowds of several thousand to haul away suspected trouble-makers.

Police targeted protesters they suspected might coalesce together into violent groups like those who vandalized stores and vehicles and attacked officers at previous demonstrations.

BOULOGNE-SUR-MER, France (AP) — Long lines of trucks carrying stockpiles for British companies jam the highways leading to France’s northern port of Calais, while in the coastal town of Boulogne-sur-Mer, French fishermen pull in their lines and fear that battles over fishing rights will soon erupt.

Up and down France’s northern coast, the uncertainty of Brexit is causing ripples of chaos and frustration.

PARIS (Reuters) -France, Germany and Britain said on Monday they were alarmed by an Iranian announcement that it intended to install additional, advanced uranium-enriching centrifuges and by legislation that could expand its nuclear programme.

“If Iran is serious about preserving a space for diplomacy, it must not implement these steps,” the three powers, who along with China and Russia are party to a 2015 nuclear containment deal with Tehran, known as the JCPoA, said in a joint statement.

PARIS (Reuters) - Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi begins on Monday a visit to France to underscore close ties, but with a renewed crackdown on political dissent at home, the trip has overshadowed French efforts to nurture their security and business relationship.

With both countries concerned by the political vacuum in Libya, instability across the region and the threat from jihadist groups in Egypt, they have cultivated closer economic and military ties during Sisi’s rise to power.

PARIS (AP) — Hoping to strengthen its funding, the World Health Organization is appointing a CEO to a foundation intended to bring in more private donations, which should leave the global health body less vulnerable if a country withdraws or cuts funding as the United States did.

Anil Soni will join the new WHO Foundation in January after eight years with the multinational pharmaceutical Viatris.

PARIS, Dec 4 (NNN-AGENCIES) — French authorities inspected dozens of mosques and prayer halls suspected of radical teachings starting on Thursday as part of a crackdown on extremists following a spate of attacks, Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin said.

Darmanin told RTL radio that if any of the 76 prayer halls inspected was found to promote extremism they would be closed down.

Paris, Dec 3 (AP-PTI) France and the United Nations vowed Wednesday to keep providing humanitarian aid to Lebanon but urged the country's leaders to form a new government as a political deadlock in Beirut has blocked billions of dollars in assistance for the cash-strapped country hit by multiple crises.

A meeting organised via videoconference by the U.N. and France was the second since the disastrous August 4 explosion that destroyed Beirut's port and wrecked large parts of the capital.