France

PARIS, Jan 22 (Reuters) - European Parliament member Gilbert Collard said on Saturday he is leaving Marine Le Pen's National Rally to join rival far-right presidential candidate Eric Zemmour, becoming the third Le Pen ally in a week to link up with Zemmour.

Last week, Jerome Riviere, head of Le Pen's National Rally group in the European Parliament, and Damien Rieu, parliamentary assistant to another National Rally EU lawmaker, also quit to join Zemmour's ranks. 

PARIS, Jan 21 (NNN-AGENCIES) — French rail giant Alstom announced Friday it plans to hire 7,500 people worldwide this year to meet rising demand and record orders totalling 77.8 billion euros at the end of last year.

  The firm hopes to hire 6,000 engineers and managers as well as 1,500 workers and technicians, according to the firm that has 72,000 salaried staff around the world.

  “These hires are aimed at projects involving rolling stock, signals, and services,” Alstom said in a statement.

PARIS, Jan 21 (Reuters) - A French court on Friday sentenced two one-time aides to former French president Nicolas Sarkozy to jail for their role in the misuse of public funds to finance opinion poll contracts.

Five of Sarkozy’s former aides and allies from his time as president between 2007 and 2012 were on trial on charges of favoritism, conspiracy and misuse of public funds over the awarding of contracts worth 7.5 million euros ($8.5 million)

20 Jan 2022; MEMO: Interpol has asked authorities in Abu Dhabi, the capital of the United Arab Emirates, to detain the Spanish-Lebanese arms dealer Abdul Rahman El Assir, who has been seen there in the company of Spain's former monarch Juan Carlos I, police sources told El País.

The newspaper said El Assir, 71, is wanted by Spain and France over tax fraud and other crimes; his whereabouts had been a mystery since 2018, when he failed to show up for trial in Madrid. Two international warrants were issued for his arrest in 2019.

PARIS, Jan 20 (Reuters) - France's parliament passed an opposition-led motion asking the government to condemn China for "crimes against humanity and genocide" against its Uyghur Muslim minority and to take foreign policy measures to make this stop.

The non-binding motion, led by the Socialist party and supported by several other opposition parties, was adopted with 169 votes for and one vote against.

STRASBOURG, France (AP) — French President Emmanuel Macron has pledged to make the European Union more powerful as his country holds the bloc’s presidency for six months — yet he has been accused by rivals and critics of using the position as a springboard toward a reelection bid.

Macron spoke at length Wednesday to European lawmakers in Strasbourg, detailing France’s priorities for the six-month rotating presidency of the bloc.

PARIS (AP) — French teachers have walked out in a nationwide strike Thursday to express anger at the way the government is handling the virus situation in schools, denouncing confusing rules and calling for more protection.

Exhausted by the pressures of surging COVID-19 cases, a large majority of teachers were expected to support the call by 11 unions to protest virus-linked class disruptions and ever-changing isolation rules.

Unions have staged a street protest in Paris city center on Thursday afternoon.

PARIS, Jan 9 (Reuters) - A mandatory order would not be the most efficient way to encourage those not vaccinated against COVID-19 to get the shot and that plans to toughen health pass conditions were already yielding results, government spokesman Gabriel Attal said.

People in France already have to show either proof of vaccination or a negative test to enter restaurants and bars and use inter-regional trains. But with Omicron infections surging, parliament is debating legislation that will drop the test option.

09 Jan 2022; MEMO: Former Tunisian President Mohamed Moncef Marzouki affirmed that the French authorities have refused to extradite him to Tunisia, after a Tunisian court issued an international arrest warrant against him.

In response to constitutional law Professor Rabeh Al-Kharaifi, who accused Marzouki of being a French citizen, the former president said: "How many times should I repeat that I have no other citizenship except the Tunisian one? How many times will they keep repeating the same lie and others?"

PARIS, Jan 8 (NNN-AGENCIES) — The total number of COVID-19 cases registered worldwide passed 300 million on Friday, with the Omicron variant’s rapid spread setting new infection records in dozens of countries over the last week.

In the past seven days, 34 countries have recorded their highest number of weekly cases since the start of the pandemic, including 18 nations in Europe and seven in Africa, according to an AFP count based on official figures.