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.
A fire caused by a burst gas pipe yesterday spread to several homes and sent a fireball soaring into the sky outside Malaysia’s largest city, injuring more than 100 people. The towering inferno near a gas station in Putra Heights outside Kuala Lumpur was visible for kilometers and lasted for several hours. It happened during a public holiday as Muslims, who are the majority in Malaysia, celebrate the second day of Eid al-Fitr. National oil company Petronas said the fire started at one of its gas pipelines at 8:10am and the affected pipeline was later isolated. Disaster management officials said shutting the
US Vice President J.D. Vance on Friday accused Denmark of not having done enough to protect Greenland, when he visited the strategically placed and resource-rich Danish territory coveted by US President Donald Trump. Vance made his comment during a trip to the Pituffik Space Base in northwestern Greenland, a visit viewed by Copenhagen and Nuuk as a provocation. “Our message to Denmark is very simple: You have not done a good job by the people of Greenland,” Vance told a news conference. “You have under-invested in the people of Greenland, and you have under-invested in the security architecture of this
Japan unveiled a plan on Thursday to evacuate around 120,000 residents and tourists from its southern islets near Taiwan within six days in the event of an “emergency”. The plan was put together as “the security situation surrounding our nation grows severe” and with an “emergency” in mind, the government’s crisis management office said. Exactly what that emergency might be was left unspecified in the plan but it envisages the evacuation of around 120,000 people in five Japanese islets close to Taiwan. China claims Taiwan as part of its territory and has stepped up military pressure in recent years, including
UNREST: The authorities in Turkey arrested 13 Turkish journalists in five days, deported a BBC correspondent and on Thursday arrested a reporter from Sweden Waving flags and chanting slogans, many hundreds of thousands of anti-government demonstrators on Saturday rallied in Istanbul, Turkey, in defence of democracy after the arrest of Istanbul Mayor Ekrem Imamoglu which sparked Turkey’s worst street unrest in more than a decade. Under a cloudless blue sky, vast crowds gathered in Maltepe on the Asian side of Turkey’s biggest city on the eve of the Eid al-Fitr celebration which started yesterday, marking the end of Ramadan. Ozgur Ozel, chairman of the main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP), which organized the rally, said there were 2.2 million people in the crowd, but
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