France

02 September 2023; MEMO: French President Emmanuel Macron called on Friday for firmness in banning students from wearing abayas and other Islamic clothing, just three days before the start of the school year.

PARIS, August 28. /TASS/: France is set to support any efforts, including military intervention, made by the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) to restore constitutional order in Niger, French President Emmanuel Macron said on Monday.

"We support the diplomatic and, if it is decided, the military activity of ECOWAS," he said, adding that Paris will not drop its support for legitimately elected President Mohamed Bazoum.

PARIS, Aug 28 (Reuters) - French conservatives on Monday applauded the government's decision to ban children from wearing the abaya, the loose-fitting, full-length robes worn by some Muslim women, in state-run schools, but the move also drew criticism and some mockery.

France, which has enforced a strict ban on religious symbols in state schools since 19th century laws removed any traditional Catholic influence from public education, has struggled to update guidelines to deal with a growing Muslim minority.

26 August 2023; MEMO: France’s financial crimes prosecutor’s office said on Friday that former President Nicolas Sarkozy will stand trial in 2025 on charges of corruption and receiving illegal campaign funding from Libyan government for his campaign in the 2007 presidential elections that he won.

Sarkozy has always denied these accusations.

He said in a 2018 interview that there isn’t the slightest evidence of the claims. 

PARIS (AP) — A fire ripped through a vacation home for adults with disabilities in eastern France on Wednesday, killing at least nine people, the head of rescue operations said.

Lt. Col. Philippe Hauwiller, who was leading the rescue work of firefighters, said crews were searching for the bodies of two others who were feared dead in the fire. Authorities said 17 people were evacuated, including one who was sent to a hospital with serious injuries.

PARIS (AP) — The president of the International Olympic Committee on Wednesday formally invited the world’s nations but not Russia or its military ally Belarus to gather in one year in Paris for the Olympics — launching the final countdown to the 2024 Games against the backdrop of the war in Ukraine.

IOC president Thomas Bach accompanied his invite with a plea for togetherness and invoked the memory of John Lennon as he argued that “our fragile world, with conflict, division and war,” needs the Olympics’ “unifying power more than ever.”

PARIS (AP) — U.S. first lady Jill Biden visited Paris on Tuesday to attend a flag-raising ceremony at UNESCO, marking Washington’s official reentry into the U.N. agency after a five-year hiatus.

Before the Stars and Stripes is hoisted up outside UNESCO’s headquarters, Biden will make remarks about the importance of American leadership in preserving cultural heritage and empowering education and science across the globe.

PARIS (AP) — The French president is heading to the South Pacific to make France’s voice heard in a region shaping up as a prime geopolitical battleground for China and the U.S.

President Emmanuel Macron’s trip to Papua New Guinea, Vanuatu and New Caledonia comes as French forces take part in massive U.S.-Australian-led military exercises in the region. With French troops, citizens and resources spread across its Pacific territories, France wants to protect its own interests and project its power alongside like-minded democracies worried about China’s growing assertiveness.

SAINTE-CROIX du VERDON, France (AP) — At the pristine southern French lake of Sainte-Croix-du-Verdon, tourists in pedal boats and on white water rafts — and the businesses that welcome them — have been buoyed by generous rainfall and good water management this spring.

After a prolonged drought last summer, then another in the winter that followed, the once cracked lakebeds are now abundantly watered. Dams are releasing water into reservoirs on a consistent schedule for activities in the lake.

But tour operators are still wary.

Paris, Jul 14 (PTI) Prime Minister Narendra Modi has become the first Indian premier to have been conferred with the Grand Cross of the Legion of Honour, France's highest civilian and military honour, by French President Emmanuel Macron.