France

PARIS (AP) — Turmoil at the French Olympic Committee is casting yet another shadow on French sports in the buildup to the Paris Olympics.

Since the committee removed secretary general Didier Seminet last month, president Brigitte Henriques has started suing him for “psychological violence.”

The committee confirmed Henriques began the legal action but declined to make further comments about the case when contacted by The Associated Press on Monday.

29 Sep 2022; MEMO: The government in France has announced that it is closing another mosque. Media reports yesterday said that the closure of the Obernai Mosque in the Bas-Rhin region is because the Imam has been accused of extremism, taking an anti-French position and making provocative comments against the values of the republic.

PARIS (AP) — France forecasts growth to slow down substantially next year in the EU’s second-biggest economy, amid fears of a recession in neighboring Germany as the economic situation in Europe is slammed by the impact of Russia’s war in Ukraine.

France’s budget, presented Monday in a Cabinet meeting, is based on an predicted growth of 1% next year — down from an estimated 2.7% this year.

As the country faces soaring energy and food prices, Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire said inflation in France is expected to reach 6% in the coming months and 4% later next year.

PARIS, Sept 23 (Reuters) - Diplomatic efforts by French President Emmanuel Macron in response to the war in Ukraine were a failure and "deeply harmful" for Kyiv, Anders Fogh Rasmussen, the former NATO secretary-general, said in an interview published on Friday.

"It was not a success", Rasmussen, a former Danish prime minister who was one of the world's most-senior diplomats until he left the transatlantic defence alliance in 2014, told French magazine Le Point.

20 Sep 2022; MEMO: French President, Emmanuel Macron, held face-to-face talks with his Iranian counterpart, President Ebrahim Raisi, on Tuesday, with the French leader saying he hoped to be able to "discuss all subjects".

The meeting is Raisi's first head-to-head with a major Western leader since he was elected last year.

PARIS, Sept 18 (Reuters) - French far-right Rassemblement National leader Marine Le Pen said on Sunday that her party will vote against President Emmanuel Macron's pension reforms and against the 2023 budget.

"We will oppose Emmanuel Macron's pension reform plans that are unfair and will divide (the country)," Le Pen told a party meeting in Cap d'Agde in southern France.

Macron wants to start implementing the reforms, which mainly consist of a progressive rise to 65 of the legal retirement age, next summer.

PARIS, Sept 18 (Reuters) - France will recognise a state of natural disaster for Guadeloupe after heavy rain tied to the powerful storm Fiona caused flooding in the French Caribbean island, killing one man, President Emmanuel Macron said on Twitter on Sunday.

16 Sep 2022; MEMO: The European Court of Human Rights on Wednesday ruled that France must re-examine repatriation requests from two French women who travelled to Syria with their partners to join Daesh, and the children they gave birth to there, AFP reports.

According to the report, the Court ruled France's refusal to repatriate the women and children was in violation of the rights to "enter the territory of the state of which (one) is a national".

PARIS, Sept 16 (Reuters) - European flights faced widespread disruption on Friday as a French air traffic controllers' strike forced airlines to cancel half of those scheduled to arrive or depart Paris airports and others due to have flown over France.

Strikes and staff shortages in the past few months have forced airlines to cancel thousands of flights, dashing their hopes of a summer rebound after widespread COVID-19 lockdowns, with disruption continuing into the autumn. 

PARIS, Sept 15 (Reuters) - A Russian billionaire is suing French authorities in an effort to win back access to two of his yachts, arguing customs officials did not have the right to immobilise them despite him being on an EU sanctions list, his lawyer said on Thursday.

Alexey Kuzmichev, one of the main shareholders of Russia's Alfa-Bank, who was sanctioned by the EU in March for his ties to President Vladimir Putin, appealed the seizure of his ships "La Petite Ourse" and "La Petite Ourse II", held in the Cote D'Azur towns of Antibes and Cannes, respectively.