France

05 August 2022; MEMO: A United Nations panel yesterday ruled that France had violated an "international human rights treaty" by preventing a Muslim woman from wearing her headscarf in school.

The UN Human Rights Committee (UNHRC) said in a statement that the French move had violated "rights guaranteed under the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR)."

The Committee's decision had come after a complaint that was filed by a French Muslim woman in 2016.

PARIS (AP) — French Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne warned Friday that France is facing the “most severe drought” ever recorded in the country and announced the activation of a government crisis unit.

Borne said that many areas in France are going through a “historic situation” as the country endures its third heatwave this summer.

“The exceptional drought we are currently experiencing is depriving many municipalities of water and is a tragedy for our farmers, our ecosystems and biodiversity,” she said in a statement.

PARIS, August 4. /TASS/: France has extradited Russian national Alexander Vinnik to Greece, his French lawyer Frederic Belot told TASS.

"Alexander Vinnik has just been sent to Greece," he said.

Belot believes that Greece will soon extradite the Russian to the United States based on an arrest warrant issued by a San Francisco court.

Earlier on Thursday, the Investigative Chamber of the Paris Court of Appeals ruled that Vinnik should be extradited to Greece. The French court also upheld the United States’ request to dismiss its extradition request.

PARIS, Aug. 1 (Xinhua) -- The highly pathogenic bird flu, or avian influenza, has been detected at a turkey farm in northern France, causing the cull of at least 8,000 turkeys, French daily news Le Figaro reported on Monday.

"Regulated protection and surveillance zones have been set up within a radius of 3-10 km," local authorities of the city of Feuilleres, in the northern department of Somme of France, said in a press release. The first cluster of the high pathogenic bird flu was found on Saturday at the turkey farm.

29 July 2022; MEMO: French President, Emmanuel Macron, was hosting Saudi Crown Prince, Mohammed bin Salman, on Thursday as part of increased Western efforts to court the major oil-producing State amid the war in Ukraine and faltering talks to revive a nuclear deal with Iran, Reuters reports.

PARIS, July 28 (Reuters) - French President Emmanuel Macron hosts Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman on Thursday as part of increased Western efforts to court the major oil-producing state amid the war in Ukraine and faltering talks to revive a nuclear deal with Iran.

French opposition figures and human rights groups have criticised Macron's decision to invite to dinner at the Elysee Palace a man Western leaders believe ordered the murder in 2018 of prominent Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi.

PARIS, July 23 (Reuters) - French President Emmanuel Macron expressed his disappointment to his Iranian counterpart Ebrahim Raisi at the lack of progress over talks on the 2015 nuclear agreement, the Elysee Palace said in a statement on Saturday.

In June, Iran began removing essentially all the agency's monitoring equipment, installed under its 2015 nuclear deal with world powers.

The French leader urged Raisi to make a "clear choice" to reach a deal and go back to the implementation of Iran's commitments under the 2015 nuclear agreement, the Elysee Palace said.

23 July 2022; MEMO: Some 38 far-left French MPs have signed a draft resolution condemning Israel's "institutionalisation of an apartheid regime against Palestinian people," news agencies reported on Friday.

The draft resolution was originally submitted on 13 July by Communist MP Jean-Paul Lecocq but stirred a public debate on Friday.

PARIS, July 19 (NNN-AGENCIES) — France secured promises of new energy supplies from the United Arab Emirates on Monday after talks between President Emmanuel Macron and UAE leader Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al-Nahyan in Paris.

The UAE has emerged as a key partner for Western countries as they scramble for energy deals worldwide to replace imports from sanctions-hit Russia.

Sheikh Mohamed, also known as MBZ, was on his first overseas state visit since taking office in May following the death of his half-brother.

PARIS, July 18 (Reuters) - The governments of France and the United Arab Emirates signed on Monday a strategic agreement to cooperate in the energy sector, the French government said.

The partnership aimed to identify joint investment projects in France, the UAE or elsewhere in the sectors of hydrogen, renewable and nuclear energy, the French government said in a statement.

"In the currently uncertain energy context, this agreement will pave the way for a stable long-term framework for cooperation, opening the way for new industrial contracts," it added.