France

PARIS, Oct 6 (NNN-AGENCIES) — Global sugar prices soared to their highest level in almost 13 years in September as the El Nino weather phenomenon hit production in India and Thailand, the Food and Agriculture Organization said Friday.

While world food prices steadied as a whole last month, the FAO’s Sugar Price Index jumped by 9.8 percent compared to August, the highest point since November 2010, the UN agency said.

PARIS, Oct 2 (NNN-AGENCIES) — France started vaccinating ducks against bird flu on Monday to try and stem the virus that killed millions of birds around the world, a move that prompted the United States to impose trade restrictions on French poultry imports.

France has been among the countries worst affected by an unprecedented global spread of highly pathogenic avian influenza, commonly called bird flu, that has disrupted supply of poultry meat and eggs and sent prices rocketing in many parts of the globe in the past years.

PARIS, Sept 29 (Reuters) - There are no talks with the Taliban to negotiate a peace settlement, Afghan anti-Taliban leader Ahmad Massoud said on Thursday, vowing to step up "guerrilla warfare" to bring the hardline Islamists to the negotiating table.

Speaking in an interview in Paris, Massoud, the exiled leader of the National Resistance Front of Afghanistan (NRF), said that the only way for the Taliban to achieve legitimacy would be to hold elections, but there was no prospect of that happening for now.

25 September 2023; MEMO: French President Emmanuel Macron announced on Sunday evening that his country’s ambassador to Niger will return “in the next few hours” to France, and that French forces will leave the African country by the end of the year. The move follows a two-month confrontation with the Nigerien military junta.

25 September 2023; MEMO: France’s highest Court, on Monday, ruled that the government ban on Muslim dress abaya is legal, Anadolu Agency reports.

The Council of State said it had rejected an appeal by three organisations against the government ban announced last month on abaya – a loose-fitting and full-length robe – worn by some Muslim students in schools.

PARIS (AP) — President Emmanuel Macron announced Sunday that France will end its military presence in Niger and pull its ambassador out of the country as a result of the coup that removed the democratically elected president.

Niger’s junta said in response that the announcement signals a “new step towards the sovereignty” of the country.

“Imperialist and neo-colonialist forces are no longer welcome on our national territory. The new era of cooperation, based on mutual respect and sovereignty is already underway,” it said in a statement.

25 September 2023; MEMO: Thousands of demonstrators take to the streets Saturday across France to denounce police violence, systemic racism and support for public freedoms, reports Anadolu Agency.

The protests came three months after the death of Nahel M., 17, who was killed in a police shooting in Nanterre in late June.

23 September 2023; MEMO: A Muslim student, who had been turned away from school for wearing a kimono, a Japanese garment, in France, has filed a complaint with the UN over being “discriminated against” due to her religious affiliation, Anadolu Agency reports.

The controversy over the French government’s stance against hijab in schools continues, with many students being turned away for wearing loose over-garments.

PARIS, Sept 21 (NNN-AGENCIES) — People in poorer countries are disproportionately suffering from air pollution spewed from the increasing scourge of fires in forests and fields around the world, according to new research published Wednesday.

Landscape fires include blazes in forests, shrub, grass, pastures and agricultural lands, whether planned or uncontrolled such as the wildfires that have ravaged countries including Algeria, Canada and Greece this year.

PARIS, Sept 13 (Reuters) - Apple (AAPL.O) defended its iPhone 12 model on Wednesday after a French watchdog ordered a halt to its sales citing breaches of European Union radiation exposure limits.

The French move raised the prospect of further bans in Europe. Germany's network regulator BNetzA said it might launch similar proceedings and was in close contact with French authorities, while Spain's OCU consumers' group urged authorities there to halt the sales of the iPhone 12.