France

NOUMEA, New Caledonia (AP) — A majority of voters in New Caledonia chose to remain part of France instead of backing independence in a referendum Sunday that led the French president to call for dialogue after a three-decade decolonization effort in the South Pacific archipelago.

In a televised address from Paris, President Emmanuel Macron welcomed “an expression of confidence in the Republic with a deep feeling of gratitude... and modesty.”

04 Oct 2020; MEMO: Tunisia’s Ons Jabeur became the first Arab woman to reach the fourth round of the French Open as she beat eighth seed Aryna Sabalenka on Saturday, reports Reuters.

The 30th seed displayed her trademark court craft to undermine Sabalenka’s raw power as she surpassed her previous best third round showing at Roland Garros in 2017.

PARIS (AP) — Italian firefighters rescued 25 people trapped on the French side of a high mountain pass by severe flooding that killed two people in Italy, while 15 were stuck in a train station for the night and eight more remained missing Saturday in France.

A storm that moved overnight across southeastern France into northwestern Italy caused major flooding on both sides of the border, destroying bridges, blocking roads and isolating communities.

PARIS (Reuters) - France’s top civil court on Wednesday ruled that Rwandan genocide suspect Felicien Kabuga can be handed over to a United Nations tribunal for trial, rejecting his lawyers’ arguments that he should face justice in France.

PARIS (Reuters) - French police are studying a video in which the man suspected of attacking people with a meat cleaver on Friday says he will commit an act of “resistance” after the republication of cartoons mocking the Prophet Mohammad in a satirical magazine.

The suspect, who is from Pakistan, wounded two people who had stepped outside for a cigarette in front of the old offices of the Charlie Hebdo magazine. His clothes were spattered in blood when he was arrested shortly after the attack.

PARIS (AP) — French President Emmanuel Macron assailed Hezbollah and the entire Lebanese political class Sunday, and warned of a new civil war if they can’t set aside personal and religious interests to unlock international aid and save Lebanon from economic collapse.

But Macron said France wouldn’t impose sanctions on anyone in its former protectorate — for now. And he clung to his proposed road map to break Lebanon’s political stalemate despite Saturday’s resignation of its prime minister-designate, which throws Macron’s plan into question.

PARIS (Reuters) - Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko must accept the logic of democracy and quit power, French President Emmanuel Macron told le Journal du Dimanche.

Belarus, a former Soviet republic closely allied with Russia, has been rocked by street protests since authorities said Lukashenko won an Aug. 9 election by a landslide.

More than 12,000 protesters have been arrested since the election that the opposition denounced as rigged.

27 Sep 2020; MEMO: French-backed tension between East Mediterranean states and Turkey boosts French arms sales, Paul Iddon, contributor to Forbes, revealed on Thursday.

PARIS (AP) — France’s interior minister promised Sunday to protect France’s Jewish community from extremists after a double stabbing in Paris blamed on Islamic terrorism.

Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin visited a synagogue Sunday ahead of the evening start of Yom Kippur, the Jewish Day of Atonement, and said more than 7,000 police and soldiers are protecting Jewish services this weekend. France has Europe’s largest Jewish community.

PARIS (AP) — Paris police say a suspect believed to have wounded four people in a knife attack near the former offices of satirical newspaper Charlie Hebdo has been arrested.

A Paris police official said that while authorities initially thought two attackers were involved, they now believe it was only one person, who was detained near the Bastille plaza in eastern Paris.

It is unclear what motivated the attack Friday or whether it had any link to Charlie Hebdo, which moved offices after they were attacked by Islamic extremists in 2015.