France

PARIS (AP) — When France’s president wants to carry European concerns to the world stage to find solutions for climate change, trade tensions or Iran’s nuclear ambitions, he no longer calls Washington. He flies to Beijing.

President Emmanuel Macron’s visit to China this week suggests that the United States risks being sidelined on the global stage under President Donald Trump. One moment spoke volumes: Chinese President Xi Jinping sampling French wines, which Trump’s administration recently slapped with heavy new tariffs.

BAYONNE (France), Oct 31 (NNN-AGENCIES) — An octogenarian accused of wounding two men in a shooting at a mosque in southern France has been charged and ordered held in detention, the prosecutor’s office said.

Claude Sinke, who stood as a candidate for the far-right National Rally in 2015 regional elections, tried to set fire to a mosque in Bayonne in the southwest on Monday, and shot two men, aged 74 and 78, who came out to investigate.

PARIS (Reuters) - Lebanon needs to quickly form a government that can push necessary reforms, French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian said on Thursday, two days after Lebanese Prime Minister Saad al-Hariri resigned following mass demonstrations.

Le Drain said Lebanese citizens’ right to peaceful protest must be preserved.

Lebanon’s troops and riot police deployed on Thursday to reopen a major highway north of Beirut and a bridge in the capital that anti-government protesters had blocked.

29 October 2019; AFP: French police were investigating Tuesday the motives of an 84-year-old man with links to France's main far-right party who attacked a mosque and shot two men in their 70s, seriously wounding both.

The attack in Bayonne on Monday afternoon, in a neighbourhood described by its residents as peaceful, shocked Muslims and the community at large, prompting firm condemnation from the government as well as from far-right leader Marine Le Pen.

PARIS (AP) — For Georges Salines, whose 28-year-old daughter Lola was killed when Islamic extremists went on a bloody rampage in Paris in 2015, the death of the man who inspired the attack brought a welcome “sense of satisfaction.”

But like other survivors and families of victims of the Islamic State group, Salines stressed that the death of its leader, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, does not mean the fight against terrorism is over.

PARIS (Reuters) - France wants clarity from Britain before it can consider extending the deadline for Brexit negotiations with the European Union, French European Affairs Minister Amelie de Montchalin said on Sunday.

“We cannot give extra time based on political fiction. We need to have certainty in order to decide (on an extension), certainty about ratification, about elections or about a second referendum,” she said on TV5Monde television.

PARIS (AP) — Rich countries gathered Thursday in France to discuss replenishing an international fund that is meant to help poor nations tackle climate change, but which is falling short of its targets because the U.S. has stopped contributing.

The two-day meeting in Paris aims to replenish the Green Climate Fund, which has spent much of the $7 billion it received from governments in the past five years.

PARIS, Oct. 22 (Xinhua) -- Chinese State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi has said that China is confident of reaching an investment deal with the European Union (EU).

In an interview with AFP during his visit in France on Monday, Wang said China and EU are each other's largest trade and economic partner, and both hope that economic and trade cooperation will become more standardized and law-based. He said China holds a positive attitude towards the signing of a comprehensive investment agreement with EU.

STRASBOURG (Reuters) - The European Commission said next year’s draft budgets for France and Italy could be in breach of European Union fiscal rules and it asked for clarification by Wednesday in letters sent to the countries’ finance ministers.

The EU executive has also issued budget warnings to Finland over its spending, and to Spain, Portugal and Belgium who have submitted incomplete budget plans because of recent elections.

PARIS, Oct. 21 (Xinhua) -- Chinese State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi met with French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian here on Monday, agreeing to promote bilateral ties and strengthen cooperation on international affairs.