France

PARIS, Aug 14 (Reuters) - Protesters marched in cities across France for a fifth consecutive weekend in what could the biggest demonstration yet against rules compelling them to show a COVID-19 health pass for daily activities.

They rallied through the streets of Paris, Marseille, Nice, Montpellier and other towns waving placards reading "Pass=Apartheid" and chanting "Freedom, freedom".

Since last Monday, citizens have been required to show the pass in public places, proving that they have been vaccinated or have recently been tested negative for the coronavirus.

PARIS, Aug. 7 (Xinhua) -- In order to contain the COVID-19 pandemic and in particular the spread of the Delta variant, European countries are toughening up the tone with new measures such as requiring the health pass for accessing public places and making vaccination mandatory for certain professions.

05 Aug 2021; MEMO: France on Wednesday pledged to send 500,000 doses of coronavirus vaccines to Lebanon, along with €100 million ($118.9 million) in emergency aid to rebuild Beirut a year after a massive explosion tore through the capital city, Anadolu Agency reported.

MARSEILLE, Aug 2 (NNN-AGENCIES) — Rescue ships picked up more than 700 people trying to cross the Mediterranean in makeshift vessels this weekend, mainly off the coasts of Libya and Malta, a migrant aid group said.

The latest figures came as UN migration officials repeated their calls for a fairer mechanism to share out the responsibility of caring for them, rather than leaving it to the Mediterranean countries.

SOS Mediterranee said that its vessel, the Ocean Viking, had carried out six separate operations in international waters since Saturday.

01 Aug 2021; AA: For the third week in a row, anti-vaccine and anti-health pass demonstrations continued in France amid rising COVID-19 infection rates.

Saturday’s protests, according to the Interior Ministry, saw an estimated 184 rallies with 204,090 demonstrators across the country, a figure higher than the previous weeks.

PARIS, July 31 (Reuters) - French President Emmanuel Macron called for the opening of talks to end hostilities in Ethiopia's northern region of Tigray, the Elysee Palace said in a statement on Saturday.

The statement came after calls Macron held earlier in the day with Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed and Sudanese counterpart Abdalla Hamdok.

Macron also said all restrictions should be lifted to allow the delivery of humanitarian aid in Tigray, where thousands of children could suffer life-threatening malnutrition, according to the United Nations children's agency.

PARIS, July 30 (NNN-AGENCIES) — More than 4 billion doses of anti-Covid vaccines have been administered around the world, eight months after the vaccination drive started, according to latest count Thursday.

Global injections have slowed slightly: this fourth billion was reached in 30 days, while it took only 26 days to reach the previous one. The first and second billion were reached after about 140 and 40 days respectively.

CARRY-LE-ROUET, France (AP) — Europe’s famed summer holiday season is in full swing, but efforts to inoculate people against the coronavirus are not taking a break.

Instead, with lockdowns easing despite concerns about variants and nations looking to breathe new life into their ailing tourism industries, vaccinations are being taken to vacationers. It’s all part of an effort to maintain momentum in campaigns to protect against the pandemic that has killed more than 1 million across the continent, including in the European Union, the United Kingdom and Russia.

PARIS, July 27 (Reuters) - Cuba's embassy in Paris said on Tuesday it had been attacked overnight with petrol bombs that caused some damage but no injuries to its staff, in an incident that prompted French authorities to beef up security around the building.

Three petrol bombs were thrown by two unnamed individuals, causing a fire on the facade and the entrance of the building, the embassy said in a statement.

PARIS, July 25 (Xinhua) -- Four sites in China, India, Iran and Spain have been inscribed on the World Heritage List, announced the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) on Sunday.

Those sites include "Quanzhou: Emporium of the World in Song-Yuan China", "Ramappa Temple" in India, "Trans-Iranian Railway" in Iran, and "Paseo del Prado and Buen Retiro", a landscape of arts and sciences in Spain, the UNESCO said in a press release.