France

PARIS, May 29 (NNN-AGENCIES) — Several European countries including France and Britain on Thursday moved to further lift crippling coronavirus lockdown measures, but fresh restrictions in parts of Asia signalled the crisis is far from over.

As much of the world grapples to find the path forward, with the deadly virus still spreading in some places and a vaccine at best a distant reality, Europe is slowly emerging from isolation.

PARIS (Reuters) - The French government on Wednesday cancelled a decree allowing hospital doctors to administer hydroxychloroquine as a treatment to patients suffering severe forms of COVID-19, the illness caused by the new coronavirus.

The move, which takes immediate effect, is the first by a country since the World Health Organization said on Monday it was pausing a large trial of the malaria drug on COVID-19 patients due to safety concerns.

PARIS (Reuters) - Air France (AIRF.PA) will have to “drastically” reduce its domestic air traffic in exchange for state loan guarantees, French Environment Minister Elisabeth Borne said on Sunday.

Domestic routes were served by alternatives in the form of high-speed trains, she noted in an interview with France Inter radio.

The government last month offered the airline a 7 billion euro ($7.6 billion) package made up of state-guaranteed bank loans and loans directly from the state.

PARIS, May 23 (NNN-AGENCIES) – Ten European nations issued a joint statement, regretting the United States’s withdrawal from the Open Skies Treaty, which they consider “a crucial element of the confidence-building framework that has been created over the past decades to increase transparency and security across the Euro-Atlantic area.”

PARIS, May 22 (Xinhua) -- Ten European nations on Friday issued a joint statement regretting the United States' withdrawal from the Open Skies Treaty, which they consider "a crucial element of the confidence-building framework that has been created over the past decades to increase transparency and security across the Euro-Atlantic area."

PARIS, May 22 (Xinhua) -- France has decided to organize the delayed second round of mayoral elections on June 28, which Prime Minister Edouard Philippe said on Friday is "reversible" if the coronavirus epidemic situation turns against it.

"On May 27, we will present a decree calling voters to the polls on June 28," Philippe said at a joint press conference with Interior Minister Christophe Castaner.

PARIS, May 22 (NNN-AGENCIES) — The number of coronavirus deaths registered in France over the last 24 hours dipped to 83 on Thursday, as a top doctor said he was not seeing a second wave of infections despite the country easing its lockdown.

The latest deaths in hospitals and nursing homes brought France’s total toll from the pandemic to 28,215, the health ministry said in a statement.

PARIS, May 22 (NNN-AGENCIES) — Global infections from the novel coronavirus passed five million as the pandemic played out unevenly across the planet, with China eager to declare a victory, Europe tentatively emerging from its shell and deaths still rising in hotspots in Latin America.

The grim milestone comes after known cases of COVID-19 doubled in just one month, with the death toll now topping 328,000 worldwide.

RENNES (France), May 21 (NNN-AGENCIES) — More than 100 people have tested positive for the novel coronavirus at a slaughterhouse in western France, the regional health authorities said.

The cases follow coronavirus outbreaks at meat plants not only in France but also in Germany, Spain, Australia, the United States and Brazil — where people tend to work in close proximity.

PARIS, May 21 (NNN-AGENCIES) —The party of French President Emmanuel Macron has lost its outright majority in parliament, after a group of MPs broke away to form a new party.

Ecology, Democracy, Solidarity will be largely formed of seven MPs from La République en Marche (On the Move) and other ex-supporters of the president.

The defecting MPs want to focus on green issues and social inequality.