France launches mass Covid-19 screening campaigns before lifting lockdown, NEWS
La Commission d'enquête du Sénat sur la crise du Covid-19 impute "directement", dans un rapport rendu public jeudi, la pénurie de masques de la France au printemps dernier à une décision prise par Jérôme Salomon en 2018, celle de "ne pas renouveler le stock de masques chirurgicaux".
Germany will close most shops from Wednesday until Jan. 10 as it tightens coronavirus restrictions and tries to rein in the spread of the disease, Chancellor Angela Merkel said on Sunday.
La responsabilité du numéro deux du ministère de la Santé pointée du doigt par un rapport sénatorial. La Commission d'enquête sur la crise du Covid-19 a rendu public son travail, jeudi 10 décembre, dans lequel elle impute "directement" la pénurie de masques à une décision de Jérôme Salomon.
Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi was meeting Monday with French President Emmanuel Macron for talks on fighting terrorism, the conflict in Libya and other regional issues as part of a state visit to France, amid criticism from human rights groups over the Egyptian leader's crackdown on dissent. FRANCE 24's Philip Turle tells us more.
"Cette pénurie est la conséquence directe de la décision, prise en 2018 par le directeur général de la santé (Jérôme Salomon, NDLR), de ne pas renouveler le stock de masques chirurgicaux", relève le rapport, "décision entourée de soupçons de pressions exercées pour modifier les conclusions d’un rapport d’expert conseillant de décider l’inverse."
Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi is paying a state visit to France for talks on fighting terrorism, the conflict in Libya and other regional issues, amid criticism from human rights groups over the Egyptian leader's crackdown on dissent. El-Sissi has overseen the largest crackdown on critics in Egypt in living memory, jailing thousands of Islamists along with pro-democracy activists, reversing freedoms won in the 2011 Arab Spring uprising, silencing critics and placing draconian rules on rights groups. FRANCE 24's Philip Turle tells us more.
"On a affaibli l'état de préparation du pays sans en référer à quiconque", a déploré la corapporteure Catherine Deroche (LR) au cours d'une conférence de presse en ligne, estimant que "des impératifs budgétaires ou la peur d'en faire trop" ont prévalu dans les décisions.
Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi is paying a state visit to France for talks on fighting terrorism, the conflict in Libya and other regional issues, amid criticism from human rights groups over the Egyptian leader's crackdown on dissent. French President Emmanuel Macron will host el-Sissi at the Elysee Palace on Monday, and is expected to raise human rights concerns among the other topics on the agenda, according to Macron’s office.
"Alors qu'il s'établissait à 754 millions d'unités fin 2017, le stock stratégique de masques chirurgicaux n'en contenait plus que 100 millions fin 2019", écrivent les sénateurs, qui ont mené de nombreuses auditions ces derniers mois.
A suspect in a 1982 attack on a Jewish neighbourhood in Paris that killed six people was on Saturday charged and remanded in custody by French authorities after his extradition from Norway, judicial sources said.
Achat de "seulement 50 millions de masques"
Le tournant se situe, selon les sénateurs, en octobre 2018. François Bourdillon, alors patron de l'agence Santé publique France, informe le Pr Salomon que "613 millions de masques chirurgicaux sans date de péremption acquis au mitan des années 2000 sont non conformes et ne peuvent en conséquence être utilisés".
Walid Abdulrahman Abu Zayed was charged with murder and attempted murder by a Paris magistrate specialising in terror crimes, said a judicial source, who asked not to be named.
"Il lui est indiqué que le stock se compose désormais de 99 millions de masques chirurgicaux, dont 63 millions périment fin 2019", poursuit le rapport.
"Informé de la situation des stocks en 2018, le DGS a pourtant choisi de ne pas les reconstituer, sans en informer la ministre (Agnès Buzyn, ensuite remplacée par Olivier Véran, NDLR)", pointe-t-il.
Abu Zayed was arrested in September in the town of Skien southwest of Oslo and Norway approved his extradition on November 27
Selon la commission, le Pr Salomon a "ordonné l'achat de seulement 50 millions de masques (50 millions supplémentaires si le budget le permettait), soit moins que la quantité nécessaire ne serait-ce que pour renouveler ceux arrivant à péremption fin 2019".
"Pression" pour un rapport et disparition du stock de masques FFP2
He had appeared before the magistrate after arriving late Friday at Paris' Charles de Gaulle airport from Oslo, where he had been living since 1991.
Les sénateurs l'accusent même d'avoir fait "modifier a posteriori les conclusions d'un rapport d'experts" qui préconisait la constitution d'un "stock élevé, probablement d'environ un milliard de masques chirurgicaux".
The bombing of a Jewish restaurant in the Marais area of the French capital which also injured 22 on August 9 1982 has been attributed to the Abu Nidal Organisation, which splintered from the militant Palestinian Fatah group.
"L'analyse de courriels échangés entre la direction générale de la santé et Santé publique France atteste d'une pression directe de Jérôme Salomon sur l'agence afin qu'elle modifie la formulation des recommandations de ce rapport", pour "faire disparaître la référence à la taille du stock", assure la commission.
"There is an urgent need to take action," Merkel said following a meeting with leaders of the country's 16 federal states.
Under the agreement, only essential shops such as supermarkets and pharmacies, as well as banks, are to remain open.
Schools will also be closed in principle during the period, and employers will be asked to close operations or have employees work from home. The sale of fireworks will be banned ahead of New Year's Eve.
Abu Zayed has denied being involved in the attack in which between three and five men opened fire and threw grenades into the restaurant.
My husband never killed anyone. He has never been in France," his wife told AFP in 2015 in response to an international arrest warrant issued by France.
Germany has been in partial lockdown for six weeks, with bars and restaurants closed, while stores and schools have remained open. Some regions have already imposed tougher measures as infections grew.
New daily infections and deaths have reached records in recent days, and more politicians have been sounding the alarm.
Abu Zayed claims he was in Monte Carlo at the time of the attack.
Opposing his extradition, he told Norwegian authorities: "I don't like France. I don't want to go to prison in France."
French authorities have issued arrest warrants over the attack, against two suspects in Jordan and another believed to be in the West Bank.
The number of confirmed coronavirus cases in Germany increased by 20,200 to 1,320,716, data from the Robert Koch Institute (RKI) for infectious diseases showed on Sunday. The reported death toll rose by 321 to 21,787, the tally showed.
In 2019, Jordan refused to extradite one of the suspects because the case was too old, dashing the hopes of victims' families that the perpetrators would finally be brought to justice.
The case has also been the subject of speculation of shady deals between France and the Abu Nidal Organisation.
Lawyers for the bereaved say documents give credence to the idea that French intelligence guaranteed the group it would not face prosecution so long as it did not carry out any more attacks in France.
Former head of the Directorate of Territorial Surveillance (DST) Yves Bonnet admitted during a hearing there was an "unwritten contract" between the two sides, according to Le Parisien newspaper.
(AFP)
Violence erupted in Paris on Saturday for the second consecutive weekend at a mass protest against a new security law, with demonstrators clashing with police, vehicles set alight and shop windows smashed.
The weekly nationwide protests are becoming a major headache for President Emmanuel Macron's government, with tensions intensified by the beating of a Black music producer by police last month.
Members of the Yellow Vests movement, which shook Macron with protests against economic hardship in France over the winter of 2018-2019, were also prominent in the rally.
Windows of a supermarket, property agency and bank were broken while several cars burst into flames along Avenue Gambetta as demonstrators marched towards Place de la République in eastern Paris, AFP reporters said.
Objects were also thrown at police who responded by using tear gas, in a repeat of the violent scenes from the protests last weekend against the security law that would restrict publishing pictures of the faces of police.
Some demonstrators used objects left in the streets to create impromptu barricades that they then set on fire.
Protesters, some letting off smoke bombs and firecrackers, shouted slogans like "Everyone hates the police."
It was one of almost 100 protests planned throughout France on Saturday against the new security law with thousands gathering in cities including Marseille, Montpellier and Nantes, where two police officers were wounded by a Molotov cocktail.
Police arrested 95 people during these protests across France and 67 officers were injured during the demonstrations, Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin said on Sunday.
In Paris, the site of the worst violence, 48 police officers or gendarmes were injured during street clashes, the interior ministry said on Twitter.
A firefighter was also injured in the capital after being hit by a projectile, a police source said.
Paris police held 25 people, including two minors, said the prosecutors' office.
Police had been deployed in force to avert trouble after the violent clashes erupted during the demonstration in Paris a week ago that saw dozens wounded.
'No contradiction'
“The bill will not jeopardise in any way the rights of journalists or ordinary citizens to inform the public,” Alice Thourot, an MP for Macron’s La République En Marche (LREM) party and the co-author of the clause, told Le Figaro two weeks ago. Article 24 would “outlaw any calls for violence or reprisals against police officers on social media – and that only”, Thourot said.
Article 24 was intended in part to "allay justifiable fears among the police that they are being filmed on duty, identified on social media and endangered in their private lives, as the big platforms indulge subscribers in their favourite pastime: the trending vendetta", wrote Jeremy Harding, a frequent commentator on French politics, in the London Review of Books.
But journalists' groups and human rights organisations have led protests for weeks to have the government scrap or revise the bill, saying it would make it harder to prosecute cases of abuse. "We're heading towards an increasingly significant limitation of freedoms," Karine Shebabo, a protester at Saturday's demonstration in Paris, told Reuters.
After four French police officers were charged November 30 over the beating and racial abuse of black music producer Michel Zecler, MPs from Macron's party pledged a "complete rewrite" of part of the draft law.
Under a sign demanding the withdrawal of the security law, CGT union leader Philippe Martinez said several causes were coming together.
"There is no contradiction between public and individual freedoms and the need to fight job insecurity and unemployment," Martinez told AFP.
He referred to the "abuse of employers" and the loss of worker protections.
Not 'reducing freedoms'
The new clashes came after Macron gave hugely-anticipated interview on Friday to Brut, a video-based news portal aimed at young people. Voters aged 18-24 are the age group among which the president is the most popular, according a survey by Odoxa for Le Figaro and France Info published on Friday.
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Macron acknowledged "there are police who are violent" and insisted that "they need to be punished".
He acknowledged that "when you have a skin colour that is not white, you are controlled much more (by police). You are identified as a problem factor. And that cannot be justified."
But he also lashed out at the violence against police at last weekend's rally in Paris, which he blamed on "crazy people".
"I cannot let it be said that we are reducing freedoms in France," he said.
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