120 people killed in multiple attack in Paris

IT was a bad day in France on Friday night after gunmen attacked four different locations simultaneously leaving at least 120 people dead.

Attack in France

France has declared national state emergency and has closed its borders after the incident.

 

Gun took hostages at the Bataclan concert hall in Central where California rock group was playing, leaving 80 people dead before being overpowered by police.

The attackers tossed explosives at the hostages, then blew themselves up with suicide belts as police closed in, the Associated Press reported

 

Others were reported killed by two suicide bombers near the Stade de France and gun attacks at Cambodia restaurant in city centre.

Seven attackers were reportedly killed including three killed by the police at Bataclan concert hall.

The government has instructed that everyone stay indoors, pools, schools and other public places shut for security reasons, and about 1500 military personnel are being deployed across the city.

No terorist groups have taken responsibility of the attack but an eyewitness who was one of the hostages at the Bataclan concert revealed that one of the attackers said their actions were for Syria, before shooting people.

The country President, Francois Hollande while addressing the country assured the people that everything will be done to bring those responsible to justice. He ordered that the attackers be fought “without mercy”

 

120 people killed in multiple attack in Paris

France to lift ban on gay men giving blood

France will lift a ban on gay men donating blood, introduced in the 1980s to prevent the spread of AIDS but criticised by rights groups, the health minister said Wednesday. “Giving blood is an act of generosity, of civic responsibility, and the donor’s sexual orientation cannot be a condition,” Marisol Touraine announced in Paris.

Gays in Benin

“While respecting patient safety, today we are lifting a taboo,” she said. Touraine said the lifting of the ban, promised by Francois Hollande in his presidential campaign, will happen in stages, starting next year. At first, donation of “whole blood” — the red cells, plasma and platelets — will be open to gay men who have not been sexually active for the preceding 12 months, she specified.

For donations of only plasma, the liquid component of blood, donors will be considered if they have not had sex with another man for four months, or were in a monogamous relationship. Experts will then analyse whether the change had brought about any additional risk, after which measures may be relaxed further in 2017, the minister said.

In other countries with similar waiting periods for donors, including Australia, Britain, Japan and Sweden, rights groups criticise the measure as discriminatory, given that no similar condition exists for heterosexual men or women. US regulators in May recommended lifting a lifetime ban on blood donations by gay men, but also with a 12-month waiting window.

On its website, the US Food and Drug Administration says men who have sex with men are “at increased risk for HIV”. “Men who have had sex with other men represent approximately two percent of the US population, yet are the population most severely affected by HIV,” it states.

The issue is sensitive in France, where hundreds of people died in the 1980s after HIV-tainted blood was distributed by the national blood transfusion centre. Much of the contaminated blood was exported, leading to the infection and deaths of hundreds more.  Several senior civil servants, including the head of the transfusion service, were jailed or fined.

In 1999, then prime minister Laurent Fabius, now foreign minister, and his social affairs minister were cleared of wrongdoing in the scandal. The health minister was convicted but not given a punishment. Mandatory HIV testing of donated blood began in 1985.

In April this year, the EU’s top court ruled that governments can ban homosexual blood donors if they can show it is the best way to limit the risk of HIV infection.

France to lift ban on gay men giving blood

Boko Haram has expanded after declaring loyalty to IS - Hollande

•130m euros for Nigerian projects

French President François Hollande has  promised his administration’s  support for the Multinational Joint Task Force (MJTF) with equipment and intelligence gathering in the fight against terrorism in Nigeria and Africa.

Buhari and Hollande of France

The MJTF is the almost 9,000-strong force constituted by Nigeria, Chad, Cameroon and Benin to fight the Boko Haram sect.

The French President spoke at a joint news conference at the Elsee Palace, with visiting President Muhammadu Buhari who is on a three-day trip to Paris.

The French President also said the fight against Boko Haram and Islamic State jihadists is the same battle.

He warned that Boko Haram had expanded “after declaring its loyalty to IS”.

He said the jihadists’ alliance, announced in March, had given Boko Haram “a source of material resources.”

“We know Boko Haram is linked to Daesh and so receives help, support from this group,” Hollande said, using the Arabic acronym for the IS group.

“To fight Boko Haram is to fight Daesh, and we can no longer single out terrorism according to regions. It is the same terrorism, inspired by the same ideology of death,” the French leader added.

The French President said his government was concerned about the increasing spate of insecurity in Nigeria and West Africa and is ready to render support in tackling extremism.

He said he discussed with President Buhari new strategies of partnership that would enable Nigeria and its neighboring countries – Cameroun, Chad, Niger and Benin Republic – through the joint action of the MJTF to fight the insurgency and restore the peace.

As an intervention approach to assist in the fight, he recalled that France last year hosted a Regional Summit on Security in Paris which brought together the neighboring countries to chart the way forward.

He said: “We provide all of the support to the countries in the region which are affected by this cult and in Nigeria; we want to provide support and solidarity.”

Thanking President Buhari for his recent actions towards defeating terror, he said France had concluded arrangements to invest 130 million eoros in the development of infrastructure in Nigeria for rebuilding of roads, provision of electricity and water supply.

Despite the fall in the price of crude oil in the international market which has affected Nigerian expected revenue, he noted that the country’s economy still remained strong.

“The Nigerian economy remains strong so, France wants to be doing business in the country.” He said

President Buhari thanked the French government for its interest in assisting Nigeria and expressed readiness of his administration to partner with France.

With the commitment from France, he said Nigeria’s next shopping list regarding support will move to other members of the G7.

“We have to depend on France and the other G7 countries for support to fight piracy.

“Our next shopping list is going to G7 in terms of intelligence and training. Another problem is the problem in the Gulf of Guinea, from Senegal to Angola, that area is endowed with resources like petroleum and other minerals but surrounded by piracy and theft.

“We are going to depend on France and the G7 countries to flush these criminals out of the region.

“On Nigeria’s problems, more than 67 per cent of our youths and most of them under their youthful age are unemployed. We are finding best way in Agriculture and mining to address this before sophisticated infrastructure and security, are provided.

“We want to make sure we feed ourselves and provide security before other things are also tackled,” he added

Nigeria and France, last year, signed bilateral agreements which enables the French government to provide $1.170 Million soft loan through the French development agency AFD for the construction of high voltage power lines and substations that will connect Abuja with electrical distribution network.

The President will today continue his visit and hold talks with the business community in France.

Boko Haram has expanded after declaring loyalty to IS - Hollande

Co-pilot deliberately crashed Germanwings plane – French prosecutor

The co-pilot of a Germanwings flight that slammed into an Alpine mountainside “intentionally” sent the plane into its doomed descent, a French prosecutor has said.

Marseille prosecutor Brice Robin said on Thursday that the commander left the cockpit, presumably to go to the lavatory, and then was unable to regain access.

In the meantime, he said, co-pilot Andreas Lubitz manually and “intentionally” set the plane on the descent that drove it into the mountainside in the southern French Alps.

It was the co-pilot’s “intention to destroy this plane,” Robin said.

The information was pulled from the black box cockpit voice recorder, but Robin said the co-pilot did not say a word after the commanding pilot left the cockpit.

“It was absolute silence in the cockpit,” he said.

During the final minutes of the flight’s descent, pounding could be heard on the door as alarms sounded, he said.

Meanwhile, German Interior Minister Thomas de Maiziere said that current information suggested that the co-pilot had no links to terrorism.

“According to the current state of knowledge and after comparing information that we have, he does not have a terrorist background,” he said.

In the German town of Montabaur, acquaintances said Lubitz was in his late twenties and showed no signs of depression when they saw him last fall as he renewed his glider pilot’s license.

“He was happy he had the job with Germanwings and he was doing well,” said a member of the glider club, Peter Ruecker, who watched him learn to fly. “He gave off a good feeling.”

Lubitz had obtained his glider pilot’s license as a teenager, and was accepted as a Lufthansa pilot trainee after finishing a tough German college preparatory school, Ruecker said. He described Lubitz as a “rather quiet” but friendly young man.

Co-pilot deliberately crashed Germanwings plane – French prosecutor

150 Killed as Germanwings Airliner Crashes

An Airbus A320 airliner has crashed in the French Alps between Barcelonnette and Digne, killing approximately 150 people on board, French aviation officials and police said.

According to BBC, the jet belongs to the German airline Germanwings, a subsidiary of Lufthansa. The plane, flight 4U 9525, had been en route from Barcelona to Duesseldorf with 144 passengers and six crew.

No one is expected to have survived, French President Francois Hollande said. He and German Chancellor Angela Merkel have spoken of their shock. “This is the hour in which we all feel deep sorrow,” Ms Merkel told reporters, adding that she was planning to travel to the crash site.

Speaking earlier, Hollande said the “conditions of the accident, which have not yet been clarified, lead us to think there are no survivors”. He described the crash as a tragedy, adding that it had taken place in an area that was hard to access.

Several German newspapers are reporting that the passengers included a German school class on its way back from an exchange trip. Sandrine Boisse, a tourism official from the ski resort of Pra Loup, told the BBC that she had heard a strange noise in the mountains at around 11:00 (10:00 GMT).

“At first we thought it was on the ski slopes, an avalanche, but it wasn’t the same noise,” she said. “I think it was the noise of when a plane goes very quickly down.” Spain’s King Felipe, on a state visit to France, thanked the French government for its help and said he was cancelling the rest of his visit.

Earlier reports, quoting the French interior ministry, said the plane had issued a distress call – but this has been contradicted by an aviation official quoted by the AFP news agency. Search-and-rescue teams are headed to the crash site at Meolans-Revels, said regional council head Eric Ciotti.

French Prime Minister Manuel Valls said he had sent Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve to the scene and a ministerial crisis cell had been set up to co-ordinate the incident.

The interior ministry said debris had been located at an altitude of 2,000m (6,500ft).

Spokesman Pierre-Henry Brandet told BFM TV that it would be “an extremely long and extremely difficult” search-and-rescue operation because of the remote location.

Lufthansa chief executive Carsten Spohr

tweeted: “We do not yet know what has happened to flight 4U 9525. My deepest sympathy goes to the families and friends of our passengers and crew. “If our fears are confirmed, this is a dark day for Lufthansa. We hope to find survivors.” The Airbus A320 is a single-aisle passenger jet popular for short and medium-haul flights.

150 Killed as Germanwings Airliner Crashes

French doctors stage massive protest rally in Paris

Angry French doctors and health workers staged a protest march across the capital Sunday, gathering more than 40,000 people according to organisers and 19,000 according to police.

Doctors, interns, nurses and dentists have been protesting for weeks, with some staging a two-week stoppage before Christmas, to amend a controversial health bill that goes before a parliamentary committee from Tuesday.

An interns’ association claimed 50,000 people took part in the rally while a surgeons’ group put the numbers at 46,000.

The draft legislation notably provides for doctors to be paid in full by the state-run social security system by 2017, rather than the current system under which patients pay doctors and are then refunded by the system.

Medics fear the proposed change will hugely add to their paper-work, cause payment delays and open the door to administrative meddling in medical affairs .

 

French doctors stage massive protest rally in Paris

Eagles will fly over France, says Keshi

Super Eagles coach, Stephen Keshi has declared that his team has no option than to win against France when they clash in the round of 16 on Monday.

Though the Eagles are the underdogs, Keshi stated before they left Campinas for Brasilia that his team’s mentality is strong and for them, it has always been nothing but a win each time they are out to play a game.

“I said before the tournament that our mentality must be strong. Our approach to every match has always been the same: to win.

“Whether we are playing against Spain at the FIFA Confederations Cup or playing against Liberia in a friendly match, I always tell the boys that victory is non–negotiable.

“For us, we will go into Monday’s match aiming to win. But as I also said before the competition, we take it one match at a time.

“We don’t even want to think of who might be lurking in the quarter finals if we win; we are not bothered. All we know is that we must win on Monday.”

France top group E with seven points and they have played some excellent football unlike in 2010 where they were dumped in the preliminaries. With their arrays of stars in all departments they have left no one in doubt that they are candidates for the trophy.

But all that will to win the world cup will be put to test when they face the Eagles at the 72, 000 capacity Estadio Nacional Mane Garrincha, the second biggest stadium in Brazil.

The clash between Nigeria and France will be like a reunification of Premier League stars as six Nigeria players Joseph Yobo, Peter Osaze Odemwingie, John Obi Mikel, Kenneth Omeruo, Shola Ameobi and Victor Moses will face the likes Patrice Evra, Hugo Lloris, Mathieu Debuchy, Loic Remy, Moussa Sissoko, Laurent Koscielny, Bacary Sagna, Olivier Giroud Arsena) and Mamadou Sakho Liverpool all who play in the EPL.

 

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Eagles will fly over France, says Keshi

France hosts security summit on Boko Haram

France is to host a security summit on the threat from Boko Haram Islamists, after they abducted more than 200 schoolgirls in Nigeria in April.

Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan and other West African leaders will attend the talks in Paris.

On Friday Mr Jonathan was due to visit the north-eastern town of Chibok, where the girls were seized, but called it off for for security reasons.

He has ruled out negotiations over their possible release, reports say.

On Thursday, relatives of the girls called for their unconditional release by Boko Haram.

This came three days after Boko Haram released a video showing more than 100 of the girls and offering an exchange for prisoners.

French President Francois Hollande is expected to open the summit later on Saturday.

The leaders of Nigeria’s neighbours – Benin, Cameroon, Niger and Chad – are scheduled to attend the talks, which will also include representatives from the UK, US and EU.

A statement said delegates at the meeting will “discuss fresh strategies for dealing with the security threat posed by Boko Haram and other terrorist groups in West and Central Africa”.

Mr Hollande on Friday discussed the issue in a phone call with US President Barack Obama.

The safe return of the 223 girls was now one of America’s main priorities, with US specialist teams and drones being involved in the rescue operation, the White House said.

France is also providing Nigeria with expert assistance to help release the girls.

US officials have criticised the speed of Nigeria’s response to the threat from Boko Haram.

France hosts security summit on Boko Haram

Chibok: France to send agents for rescue operation

France on Wednesday offered to send security service agents to Nigeria to help recover more than 200 schoolgirls kidnapped by the Boko Haram sect, Foreign Minister, Laurent Fabius, said.

With more than 4,000 troops operating between Mali to the west and Central African Republic to the east, Paris has a major interest in preventing Nigeria’s security situation from deteriorating, having previously voiced concerns Boko Haram could spread further north into the Sahel.

“The President has instructed … to put the (intelligence) services at the disposal of Nigeria and neighbouring countries,” Reuters quoted Fabius as saying to lawmakers.

“This morning he asked us to contact the Nigerian president to tell him that a specialised unit with all the means we have in the region was at the disposal of Nigeria to help find and recover these young girls.”

Boko Haram kidnapped more than 200 schoolgirls last month and has threatened to sell them into slavery.

“In the face of such ignominy France must react. This crime cannot be left unpunished,” Fabius said.

Chibok: France to send agents for rescue operation