France

PARIS (Reuters) - French President Emmanuel Macron rejected the idea that China had handled the coronavirus outbreak better than Western democracies in an interview published in Friday’s Financial Times.

The FT quoted him as saying that there was no comparison between countries where information flowed freely and citizens could criticise their governments and those where the truth was suppressed.

PARIS (Reuters) - Amazon (AMZN.O) has no clarity yet on when its warehouses in France might reopen, the head of its French business said on Thursday, after the e-commerce giant clashed with unions over the measures taken to limit the risks of coronavirus contagion.

Amazon closed six French warehouses used to stock and package goods for shipment on Thursday until at least April 20, in one of the biggest fallouts yet from a growing stand-off with its workers over safety measures during the pandemic.

PARIS, April 16 (NNN-AGENCIES) — Nearly 700 sailors assigned to the French aircraft carrier Charles de Gaulle’s naval group have tested positive for the coronavirus, the armed forces ministry said.

The ministry said 1,767 mariners, nearly all from the Charles de Gaulle itself, had been tested and results showed at least 668 to be infected with the new coronavirus. Results are still not in from a third of the tests.

“Thirty-one personnel are today in hospital,” it said in a statement. “More tests are being carried out.”

PARIS, April 15. /TASS/: French President Emmanuel Macron hopes that his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin will join his initiative on global ceasefire amid the coronavirus pandemic, he told Radio France Internationale Wednesday.

“I discussed this with Putin initially, when I first proposed this initiative. I did not talk with him again since I received decisive confirmation from other leaders. I hope to do it a few hours later," Macron said.

15 April 2020; AFP: French President Emmanuel Macron on Wednesday called for a moratorium on the debt of African countries as "an essential step" to help the continent get through the coronavirus crisis.

Speaking in an interview with Radio France Internationale, Macron urged G20 finance ministers meeting Wednesday to take action on a moratorium as the COVID-19 pandemic threatens to overwhelm the fragile health systems of the poorest countries.

The moratorium would be a first step towards full cancellation of African debt, he said.

PARIS, April 15 (NNN-AGENCIES) — International creditors must relieve African countries of debt payments this year to help them deal with the Coronavirus pandemic, French President Emmanuel Macron said.

A moratorium on African countries’ debt payments is “an indispensable step” to help the continent weather the coronavirus crisis, the French president told Radio France Internationale (RFI), FRANCE 24’s sister station, calling for the debt to be eventually written off.

PARIS (Reuters) - Major international creditors have agreed a moratorium on the poorest countries debt in response to the new coronavirus crisis, French Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire said on Tuesday.

Le Maire also told reporters that a large majority of African countries were eligible to be covered by the debt moratorium.

PARIS, April 13 (NNN-AGENCIES) — France reported a drop in COVID-19 deaths on the previous 24 hours, with the total toll from the coronavirus epidemic in the country now 14,393, the health ministry said.

It said that there were 315 deaths in hospital over the last day, compared with 345 the day earlier. The total toll includes those who have died in nursing homes.

France had on April 6 recorded 605 deaths in hospitals, its highest daily number so far.

PARIS/TOULOUSE (Reuters) - Airbus (AIR.PA) has shelved plans to create a new assembly line in Toulouse, France, for its A321 airliner as the company wrestles with the coronavirus crisis.

Airbus announced plans for the line in January when its problem was how to meet record demand for the jet from its site in Hamburg, Germany, which has struggled to accommodate the extra hours and complexity involved in making Airbus’s most ambitious single-aisle jet.

8 April 2020; AFP: In its worst performance since 1945, the French economy shrank around six percent in the first quarter of this year as the coronavirus pandemic decimated business activity, the Bank of France said Wednesday.

Official figures showed previously that the economy shrank 0.1 percent in the last three months of 2019, meaning that with two consecutive quarters of negative growth, the country is now technically in recession.