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 Zurich city councilor has apologized and reportedly sought police protection against threats after she fired a sport pistol at an auction poster of a 14th-century Madonna and child painting, and posted images of their bullet-ridden faces on social media. Green-Liberal party official Sanija Ameti, 32, put the images on Instagram over the weekend before quickly pulling them down. She later wrote on social media that she had been practicing shots from about 10m and only found the poster as “big enough” for a suitable target. “I apologize to the people who were hurt by my post. I deleted it immediately when I
The governor of Ohio is to send law enforcement and millions of dollars in healthcare resources to the city of Springfield as it faces a surge in temporary Haitian migrants. Ohio Governor Mike DeWine on Tuesday said that he does not oppose the Temporary Protected Status program under which about 15,000 Haitians have arrived in the city of about 59,000 people since 2020, but said the federal government must do more to help affected communities. On Monday, Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost directed his office to research legal avenues — including filing a lawsuit — to stop the federal government from sending
Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) is to visit Russia next month for a summit of the BRICS bloc of developing economies, Chinese Minister of Foreign Affairs Wang Yi (王毅) said on Thursday, a move that comes as Moscow and Beijing seek to counter the West’s global influence. Xi’s visit to Russia would be his second since the Kremlin sent troops into Ukraine in February 2022. China claims to take a neutral position in the conflict, but it has backed the Kremlin’s contentions that Russia’s action was provoked by the West, and it continues to supply key components needed by Moscow for
Japan scrambled fighter jets after Russian aircraft flew around the archipelago for the first time in five years, Tokyo said yesterday. From Thursday morning to afternoon, the Russian Tu-142 aircraft flew from the sea between Japan and South Korea toward the southern Okinawa region, the Japanese Ministry of Defense said in a statement. They then traveled north over the Pacific Ocean and finished their journey off the northern island of Hokkaido, it added. The planes did not enter Japanese airspace, but flew over an area subject to a territorial dispute between Japan and Russia, a ministry official said. “In response, we mobilized Air Self-Defense
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