Tag: France

Pakistan and France signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) to establish a Joint Business Council (JBC), which will mutually benefit trade between the two...

The visit of Prime Minister Syed Yusuf Raza Gilani to France is of great significance and would help to strengthen trade ties between the...

TRIPOLI - The leaders of Britain, France and the United States (US) said a Libyan future including Moammer Gaddafi was "unthinkable", as Russia charged Friday that the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) was exceeding its UN mandate in the restive Arab nation.
British Prime Minister David Cameron, France's President Nicolas Sarkozy and US President Barack Obama penned a joint article dismissing a Libyan future with Gaddafi as "unthinkable" and saying his staying on would

LAHORE - The Jamaat-e-Islami (JI) women's wing demonstrated against the ban on wearing hijab in France outside Lahore Press Club on Thursday. JI Women and Family Commission President Samyia Rahel Qazi, Rabyya Tariq, Gulfreen Nawaz, and Shaheena Tariq led the protest. Dozens of veiled women from all walks of life including professionals, housewives and students participated in the protest.
Women carrying JI flags chanted slogans and brandished placards saying "Hijab is our

PARIS - France insisted on Thursday that NATO air strikes against Moamer Gaddafi's forces in Libya are being carried out in "strict accordance" with the terms of a UN Security Council resolution. Paris was reacting after emerging powers Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa urged that "force be avoided" in Libya, and Russia's President Dmitry Medvedev said the Security Council had not authorised military action.
"Firstly, France's action is carried out in strict

PARIS - Top Spanish sprinter Oscar Freire will not race this year's Tour de France as his Dutch team Rabobank focus on the yellow jersey ambitions of all-rounder Robert Gesink, according to a report Tuesday. Freire is a former three-time world road race champion who won the Tour de France green jersey for the race's points competition in 2008.
However Sporza.be website quoted Freire as saying he would not race this year's edition as Rabobank put all their resources into Gesink,

PARIS - France's ban on full face veils, a first in Europe, went into force on Monday, making anyone wearing burqa in public liable to a fine of 150 euros ($216) or lessons in French citizenship. The centre-right government, which pushed the law through parliament in October, rolled out a public relations campaign with posters, pamphlets and an official web site to explain the ban and how it will be enforced. Guidelines in the pamphlet forbid police from asking women to remove their

PARIS - Paris police on Monday arrested two veiled women and several other people protesting in front of Notre Dame cathedral against France's new ban on wearing full-face veils in public.
An AFP journalist at the scene said the arrests came after police moved in to break up the protest which had not been authorised.
On Saturday police arrested 59 people, including 19 veiled women, who turned up for a banned protest in Paris against the draconian new law, the first of its

PARIS - The crisis in Ivory Coast could be resolved in a matter of hours, French Defence Minister Gerard Longuet said on Tuesday.
"We are in a situation where everything could be resolved in the next few hours," Longuet told a news conference, after meeting with his German counterpart Thomas de Maiziere.

ABIDJAN - France ordered more troops into Ivory Coast to protect civilians on Monday as forces backing presidential claimant Alassane Ouattara prepared a "lightning" assault to remove Laurent Gbagbo from power. As hundreds of pro-Ouattara soldiers gathered on the outskirts of Abidjan, waiting to launch what they say will be the final assault to unseat Gbagbo, explosions could be heard from the direction of the presidential palace. Gbagbo has refused to cede power after a disputed

TOKYO - French President Nicolas Sarkozy on Thursday proposed a meeting of G20 nuclear industry officials in May to start hammering out new global safety standards in the wake of the power plant disaster in Japan.
Japan's battle to avert a catastrophic meltdown of fuel rods at the earthquake-wrecked facility north of Tokyo has triggered alarm and safety reviews in nuclear-powered countries around the world. Sarkozy, the first foreign leader to visit Japan since the March 11

PARIS - French Foreign Minister Alain Juppe said Thursday that coalition airstrikes against Libya had been a "success" and would continue.
France's defence minister, meanwhile, said intercepted communications showed that some forces under Muammar Gaddafi are wavering in their support of the Libyan leader.
"We will continue with the airstrikes," Juppe told RTL radio, adding that the strikes were "only targeting military sites and nothing else." He said the air campaign was a

LONDON/PARIS - Britain on Thursday hailed a "change in the position" of the United States on Libya and urged immediate action to stop Moamer Gaddafi's forces, piling on pressure for a UN vote on a no-fly zone. "There has been a significant change in the position of the White House," Alistair Burt, a British Foreign Office minister with special responsibility for the Middle East, told BBC radio. "We obviously appreciate that the United States does realise the urgency of the situation."

PARIS - The unfolding nuclear accident in Japan is reviving the debate over safety in France, which relies on nuclear for 80 percent of its power needs, but there appears scant prospect it will turn its back on the industry.
In stark contrast with neighbouring Germany, where Chancellor Angela Merkel announced the suspension of her nuclear energy policy, France signalled it would not pull the plug on its flagship nuclear industry, one of the country's key exports.
French

WILLENCOURT - Police arrested a suspected Basque separatist commander posing as a holidaymaker with accomplices in a remote village in France, officials and locals told AFP on Friday. The counter-terrorism squad swooped on the cottage where the four suspects were living in an overnight raid in the sleepy countryside hamlet south of Dunkirk in northern France. The Spanish interior ministry said in a statement Friday that French police had identified Alejandro Zobaran Arriola, 30,

RAS LANUF - Britain, France and Gulf states on Monday said they were seeking UN authority for a no-fly zone over Libya, as Muammar Gaddafi's warplanes counter-attacked against rebels and aid officials said a million people were in need.
Rebels swiftly rejected an olive branch offered by an associate of Gaddafi, and fighting escalated around one of the country's key oil ports. The ageing autocrat warned that if he fell thousands of refugees would "invade Europe". With civilians

PARIS - Violence during anti-regime protests in Libya could constitute crimes against humanity which might need to be brought before international judges, the French foreign ministry said on Thursday. France also called for a UN-mandated mission of Inquiry to be sent to Libya to assess such eventual crimes.
A UN rights council resolution is being discussed "strongly condemning the massive and unacceptable violence currently carried out" in Libya, a ministry statement said, with