France

PARIS, Nov. 2 (Xinhua) -- French President Emmanuel Macron said on Monday evening that the French share the shock and sorrow of the Austrian people following the shootings in Vienna, pledging that "our enemies must know who they are dealing with. We will not give in."

"After France, it is a friendly country that is attacked. This is our Europe. Our enemies must know who they are dealing with. We will not give in," said Macron on Twitter.

PARIS, November 2. /TASS/: French Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin is due to pay a visit to Russia in the near future, the minister told BFM TV channel on Monday.

"Several days ago I had a meeting with Russia’s Ambassador to France [Alexey Meshkov] and in the coming days I will arrive in Russia for a visit," Darmanin said.

Russia is among the countries, whose natives have radical views, the minister noted. "Russia is a country affected by this problem, there are individuals coming to France from Chechnya, which is part of Russia," Darmanin said.

02 Nov 2020; MEMO: France is to return its ambassador to Turkey, French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian said yesterday, one week after recalling him.

France summoned its official after weeks of increasing tensions between the two countries over French President Emmanuel Macron’s support for a satirical magazine which insulted Prophet Muhammad (pbuh).

LYON, France (AP) — French police on Sunday released an initial suspect in the shooting of a Greek Orthodox priest and widened their search for the gunman who critically wounded the priest as he closed the door to his official residence at a church in the city of Lyon.

The Lyon prosecutor’s office said a man who was arrested shortly after Saturday’s shooting was released after they found no evidence of his involvement, suggesting that the clergyman’s assailant remained at large.

PARIS (AP) — The pressure rises with each gruesome attack. After three in five weeks, France’s Muslims are feeling squeezed.

A spotlight of suspicion was trained on them again even before the latest acts of extremist violence, including two beheadings. President Emmanuel Macron has forged ahead with his effort to rid Islam in France of extremists, part of a project he labels “separatism,” a term that makes Muslims wince.

LYON, France (AP) — A Greek Orthodox priest was shot Saturday while he was closing his church in the French city of Lyon, and authorities locked down part of the city to hunt for the assailant, authorities said.

The priest, a Greek citizen, is in a local hospital with life-threatening injuries after being shot twice in the abdomen, a police official told The Associated Press. The attacker was alone and fired from a hunting rifle, said the official, who was not authorized to be publicly named.

PARIS (Reuters) - A third person was taken into custody in France in connection with a knife attack which left three dead in Nice on Thursday, a police source said on Saturday, as the government ramps up security efforts against possible militant attacks.

An assailant shouting “Allahu Akbar” (God is Greatest) beheaded a woman and killed two other people in a church in Nice, in France’s second deadly knife attack in two weeks.

NICE, France (AP) — Mourners lit candles and prayed silently Friday to honor three people killed in a knife attack at a church, as France heightened security at potential targets at home and abroad amid outrage over its defense of the right to publish cartoons mocking the prophet of Islam.

30 Oct 2020; MEMO: The head of French Muslim NGO BarakaCity has publicly requested asylum in Turkey for himself and his organisation, following the French government’s crackdown against its Muslim population and its dissolution of the NGO.

Idriss Sihamedi, BarakaCity’s founder and head, whose house was raided by anti-terror police two weeks ago over allegations of harassment and extremism, announced his request for asylum in Turkey on Twitter yesterday.

NICE, France (AP) — A young Tunisian man armed with a knife and carrying a copy of the Quran attacked worshippers in a French church and killed three Thursday, prompting the government to raise its security alert to the maximum level hours before a nationwide coronavirus lockdown.