France

PARIS, Dec. 2 (Xinhua) -- French President Emmanuel Macron on Wednesday expressed condolences over the death of the country's former president, Valery Giscard d'Estaing.

"The direction he set for France still guides our way ... his death has plunged the French nation into mourning," Macron said in a statement, describing his predecessor as "a servant of the state, a politician of progress and freedom."

PARIS (Reuters) - Ryanair is close to placing an order for dozens of additional Boeing 737 MAX jets in a commercial boost to the U.S. planemaker after regulators lifted a 20-month safety grounding, industry sources said.

Europe’s largest low-fare carrier, which has an option to expand its current order by 75 jets to 210 aircraft, declined to comment. Boeing could not immediately be reached for comment.

PARIS (AP) — France is resuming collection of a special tax on Big Tech companies like Amazon and Facebook despite the threat of U.S. retaliatory tariffs on French Champagne, cheese, handbags and other goods.

The tax brought about 400 million euros to the French budget last year, but the government agreed to suspend it in 2020, in exchange for an American promise to drop the tariff threat pending talks on an international deal on taxing online companies.

PARIS (AP) — A Black man beaten up by several French police officers said he is seeking justice after the publication of videos showing officers repeatedly punching him, using a truncheon and tear gas against him for no apparent reason.

French Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin ordered the officers involved in the case suspended.

PARIS, Nov 26 (NNN-AGENCIES) — More than 60 million cases of the novel coronavirus have been detected worldwide, according to a tally from official sources.

In total 60,014,291 infections, including 1,415,258 million deaths, have been recorded around the world since the pandemic emerged in China late last year.

The tallies, using data collected from national authorities and information from the World Health Organization, probably reflect only a fraction of the actual number of infections.

Many countries test only symptomatic cases or the most serious ones.

PARIS (Reuters) - France will start easing coronavirus lockdown rules in coming weeks, carrying out the process in three stages so as to avoid a new flareup in the pandemic, the government said on Sunday.

On Tuesday, President Emmanuel Macron will give a speech to the nation about the virus situation and may announce a partial relaxation of restrictions which have been in place since Oct. 30.

PARIS (AP) — U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo arrived Saturday in Paris, at the start of a seven-country tour of Europe and the Middle East, travels that were certain to be awkward since all the nations on his schedule have congratulated Joe Biden for his victory in the U.S. presidential race.

The trip is aimed at shoring up the priorities of the outgoing administration of President Donald Trump. It will include visits to Israeli settlements in the West Bank that have been avoided by previous secretaries of state.

PARIS (Reuters) - France’s Foreign Ministry said on Wednesday that an attack had taken place at a ceremony marking the end of World War One in the Saudi Arabian city of Jeddah, and that several people had been wounded as a result of an explosive device.

“The embassies that were involved in the commemoration ceremony condemn this cowardly attack, which is completely unjustified. They call on the Saudi authorities to shed as much light as they can on this attack, and to identify and hunt down the perpetrators,” said the French Foreign Ministry.

PARIS, Nov. 7 (Xinhua) -- France's cumulative number of confirmed COVID-19 cases since the outbreak of the epidemic stood at 1,748,705 and the total number of COVID-19-related fatalities topped 40,000, the Public Health Agency said on Saturday.

A further 306 people had lost their lives to the virus, raising the death toll to 40,169, the agency added.

The total number of confirmed cases went up by a record 86,852 from the 1,661,853 registered on Friday. But French health authorities did not specify whether the massive spike of cases was all confirmed in the past 24 hours.

PARIS (AP) — French President Emmanuel Macron said on Thursday that France is reinforcing its border controls after a series of attacks that hit the country in recent weeks.

Macron said the number of police and troops in charge of border controls will double from 2,400 now to 4,800. They will focus on fighting illegal immigration and smuggling activities, he said, during a visit to a frontier post in Le Perthus, at the border with Spain.