FRANCE
Eiffel Tower grows 6m
The Eiffel Tower on Tuesday grew by 6m after engineers hoisted a new communications antenna at the top of the landmark. People watched from the Trocadero Esplanade as the new digital radio antenna was helicoptered up. With the new antenna, the Eiffel Tower grew from 324m tall to 330m. The Eiffel Tower company’s president, Jean-Francois Martins, told reporters that scientific progress is an integral part of the Iron Lady’s 133-year history. “It’s a historical moment this morning, because the Eiffel Tower is getting higher, which is not so common,” he said. “From the invention of the radio at the beginning of the 20th century to right now, decades after decades, the Eiffel Tower has been a partner for all the radio technology,” Martins said. The Eiffel Tower was 312m high when it was inaugurated on March 31, 1889.
FRANCE
Corsica change hinted
Paris is prepared to loosen its grip on Corsica in a process that could lead to a yet-to-be decided autonomous status for the island, Minister of the Interior Gerald Darmanin was quoted by a Corsican newspaper as saying ahead of a visit yesterday. The comments, published ahead of a two-day visit to Corsica, follow protests last weekend that revived long-standing tension between Corsica and Paris. The government is determined to engage in an “unprecedented discussion on institutional matters”, Darmanin told Corse Matin. “I note that many presidential candidates are in favour of an institutional evolution for Corsica... We are ready to go as far as autonomy,” he said, referring to elections next month. Exactly what autonomous status would mean still needs to be decided, Darmanin said. “We need to talk about this, it will take time,” the newspaper quoted him as saying. Protesters in the northern Corsican town of Bastia attacked public buildings and threw projectiles at police on Sunday after demonstrations in the past week expressed outrage over an attack on a jailed nationalist at a mainland prison. Further demonstrations were also expected yesterday in the regional capital of Ajaccio, where Darmanin was to meet local officials. “We don’t have much hope. We don’t understand how a minister can come here today and make suggestions, although he does not know if he will still be minister in less than a month,” Luc Bernardini of Core in Fronte told broadcaster RMC. “If he’s only coming to do us, or himself, a favour, our response will be the same as that of the last days on the streets. The Corsican people will say: ‘No.’”
C AFRICAN REPUBLIC
Reconciliation talks planned
National reconciliation talks are to take place next week between the government, and opposition groups and civil society, a presidential decree said on Tuesday. The nation was plunged into bloodshed along sectarian lines in 2013 when then-president Francois Bozize was toppled by a predominantly Muslim militia. Military intervention by France, the country’s former colonial ruler, helped stabilize the situation. “The Republican Dialogue will be convened from Monday 21 to Sunday 27 March 2022 in Bangui,” said the decree, which was signed by President Faustin Archange Touadera. A coalition of armed groups tried to topple Touadera ahead of elections in December 2020, but were thwarted after Russia flew in hundreds of paramilitaries and Rwanda sent its own military contingent.
‘IN A DIFFERENT PLACE’: The envoy first visited Shanghai, where he attended a Chinese basketball playoff match, and is to meet top officials in Beijing tomorrow US Secretary of State Antony Blinken yesterday arrived in China on his second visit in a year as the US ramps up pressure on its rival over its support for Russia while also seeking to manage tensions with Beijing. The US diplomat tomorrow is to meet China’s top brass in Beijing, where he is also expected to plead for restraint as Taiwan inaugurates president-elect William Lai (賴清德), and to raise US concerns on Chinese trade practices. However, Blinken is also seeking to stabilize ties, with tensions between the world’s two largest economies easing since his previous visit in June last year. At the
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
Beijing is continuing to commit genocide and crimes against humanity against Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in its western Xinjiang province, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a report published on Monday, ahead of his planned visit to China this week. The State Department’s annual human rights report, which documents abuses recorded all over the world during the previous calendar year, repeated language from previous years on the treatment of Muslims in Xinjiang, but the publication raises the issue ahead of delicate talks, including on the war in Ukraine and global trade, between the top U.S. diplomat and Chinese
RIVER TRAGEDY: Local fishers and residents helped rescue people after the vessel capsized, while motorbike taxis evacuated some of the injured At least 58 people going to a funeral died after their overloaded river boat capsized in the Central African Republic’s (CAR) capital, Bangui, the head of civil protection said on Saturday. “We were able to extract 58 lifeless bodies,” Thomas Djimasse told Radio Guira. “We don’t know the total number of people who are underwater. According to witnesses and videos on social media, the wooden boat was carrying more than 300 people — some standing and others perched on wooden structures — when it sank on the Mpoko River on Friday. The vessel was heading to the funeral of a village chief in