France

Paris, Jan 15 (AP-PTI) All of France will be under a stricter curfew starting Saturday at 6 p.m. for at least 15 days to fight spread of the coronavirus.

French Prime Minister Jean Castex also announced strict new controls for those arriving in France from countries outside the European Union. Starting Monday, they must produce a PCR test with negative results and self-isolate for seven days followed by a new, negative test.

PARIS (Reuters) - French Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire said on Thursday that resolving transatlantic trade sanctions were his priority for dealings with the incoming administration of U.S. President-elect Joe Biden.

“These sanctions are very detrimental. A trade war is not in the interests of the U.S. and not in the interest of Europe,” Le Maire said in an interview at the Reuters Next conference.

Le Maire said he had received no “initial signals” from the incoming administration and that he hoped to visit Washington in February.

PARIS (Reuters) - Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire on Thursday said a growth forecast of 6% for France’s economy in 2021 remained within reach and that he was confident of a strong recovery by the end of the year.

“I am really quite confident that the second part of 2021 will be good for the French economy,” Le Maire said in an interview at the Reuters Next conference.

But he cautioned: “We have to remain humble and cautious because we have been fooled by the virus many times.”

PARIS (Reuters) - Moderna Inc’s COVID-19 vaccine will arrive in France on Monday, French Prime Minister Jean Castex said, as the country steps up its vaccination drive following a sluggish start.

Castex and Health Minister Olivier Veran visited a health centre in Tarbes, southwestern France, on Saturday as part of the government’s campaign to accelerate France’s vaccine rollout.

PARIS, Jan 4 (NNN-AGENCIES) — Countries across the world tightened restrictions on their populations to fight a resurgence in the coronavirus, as the European Union offered to help drug companies expand vaccine production to improve distribution “bottlenecks”.

From local curfews, to alcohol bans and complete lockdowns, governments are trying to tackle a surge in cases.

The coronavirus has killed more than 1.8 million people globally since emerging in China in December 2019.

PARIS, Jan. 2 (Xinhua) -- Over 1,200 revelers attending an illegal rave party in northwest France on New Year's Eve were sanctioned for defying anti-coronavirus sanitary rules, the Interior Ministry and local authorities said on Saturday.

Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin said on Twitter that more than 1,200 party-goers were issued with penalty notices as they left the site, adding that the event's organizers were being identified and would be prosecuted.

PARIS (AP) — The French presidency announced that two French soldiers were killed Saturday in Mali when an improvised explosive device hit their armored vehicle, five days after three others died in similar circumstances.

The soldiers were participating in an intelligence mission in the Menaka region of northeastern Mali, as part of a larger operation aiming at fighting Islamist extremists in Africa’s Sahel region.

A third soldier has been injured and is in a stable condition, the French military said.

Calais (France), Jan 1 (AP-PTI) France's government cast a favourable light on Friday on a reported bid by the father of Britain's prime minister to take up French nationality, saying it shows how attached Britons are to the European Union that they're no longer part of.

PARIS (Reuters) - France will impose an earlier curfew in 15 northeastern and southeastern departments from Saturday to combat the spread of the coronavirus, starting at 6 p.m. instead of 8 p.m., the government said on Friday.

“We are taking a decision for 15 departments. In a week’s time we will assess the impact of this earlier curfew on these 15 departments, on the circulation of the virus elsewhere in the country,” government spokesman Gabriel Attal told TF1 television.

PARIS (Reuters) - The U.S. decision to impose additional tariffs on French wines and cognac, which come in addition to a first set of tariffs late last year, will cost the sector a total of over 1 billion euros ($1.23 billion), the French wine exporters’ federation said on Thursday.

The U.S. government on Wednesday said it would raise tariffs on certain European Union products, including wines from France, the latest twist in a 16-year battle over aircraft subsidies between Washington and Brussels.