France

PARIS, Dec 20 (NNN-AGENCIES) — A European operation to ensure safe shipping in the Gulf region, scene of attacks on merchant vessels this year, will get underway next month when a French warship starts patrolling there, a French armed forces spokeswoman said.

The French government has pushed for a European security alternative in the Strait of Hormuz after ruling out taking part in a US-led coalition protecting oil tankers and cargo ships from what Washington says is a threat from Iran.

PARIS, December 18. /TASS/: A Russian Soyuz-ST-A carrier rocket with four satellites and Europe’s Cheops telescope intended to search for exoplanets has successfully blasted off from the Kourou spaceport in French Guiana, the flight operator Arianespace announced in a live broadcast on Wednesday.

The launch is a concluding mission for Arianespace in 2019. Within four hours after the liftoff, the Fregat-MT booster will orbit Europe’s Cheops telescope, the Italian Cosmo-SkyMed radar satellite and also three small satellites: the European OPS-SAT and the French EyeSat and ANGELS.

18 December 2019; AFP: Hundreds of thousands of French protesters took to the streets Tuesday in a pension reform standoff that has sparked nearly two weeks of crippling transport strikes, with the government vowing it will not give in to union demands to drop the overhaul.

Police said they fired tear gas in Paris after protesters hurled projectiles at them, with 30 people arrested in the French capital.

PORTO-NOVO, Dec 17 (NNN-AGENCIES) — The French culture minister says his government will return artworks taken from Benin during the colonial conquest of the region by 2021.

Franck Riester was speaking on a visit to Benin.

France promised last year to send back 26 pieces now in the Quai Branly museum in Paris without delay, but Benin said it needed time to build a proper exhibition facility.

The 26 thrones and statues were taken in 1892 during a colonial war against the then Kingdom of Dahomey.

15 December 2019; AFP: Tensions between the French government and unions opposed to pension reforms mounted Sunday as a crippling transport strike entered its 11th day.

The overhaul, unveiled this week by Prime Minister Edouard Philippe, would do away with the 42 separate pension systems -- some of which offer early retirement and other benefits to public-sector employees such as train drivers, dockers and even Paris Opera employees.

ATHENS, Dec 13 (NNN-AGENCIES) — France will help Greece tackle an ongoing migration challenge that has put overwhelming pressure on its infrastructure by accepting 400 asylum-seekers, the French ambassador to Athens said.

“Over the coming months, France will accept 400 persons who have arrived on Greek soil,” ambassador Patrick Maisonnave told the state Athens News Agency.

“We cannot leave Greece without assistance in the midst of a humanitarian challenge,” said Maisonnave, noting that Turkey has “repeatedly threatened” to send more asylum-seekers to Europe.

PARIS (Reuters) - Police officers shot dead a man who threatened them with a knife in the Paris business district of La Defense on Friday, police sources said.

A security man had alerted police to the presence of a man armed with a knife in La Defense Square.

The suspect rushed towards the three-men patrol that had gone to check the situation, wielding the knife and shouting: “I am going to kill you”, the sources said.

Seven shots were fired, with two shots hitting the man in the chest and in the thigh. The man carried no identify papers.

PARIS (Reuters) - French President Emmanuel Macron and Niger President Mahamadou Issoufou agreed on Thursday to propose a postponement to early 2020 of a meeting of Sahelian country leaders due to take place in France this month, the French presidency said.

The decision to postpone the event, which was to address French military presence in the region as well as the fight against so-called jihadist organizations, follows an attack on a remote military camp in Niger.

PARIS, Dec. 10 (Xinhua) -- French transport workers walked off the job, hitting train, metro and bus services on Tuesday for the sixth consecutive day, while civil servants, teachers and students joined the strike to bend the government over its plan to reform the country's pension system.

Demonstrations were called across France during the day, the second such action in less than a week, as unions are looking to fill the streets in a show of force to push their demand to drop a planned universal pension system.

10 Dec 2019; MEMO: The French Foreign Ministry announced on Monday that Paris will host an international conference on Lebanon on December 11th.

Foreign ministry spokeswoman, Agnes von der Muhll told reporters in a daily online briefing that the conference aims to urge Beirut to accelerate the formation of a government capable of improving the economic situation in the country.