The Nation Newspaper

Tag: France

  • I have 70% knowledge of my opponent – Falconets coach

    I have 70% knowledge of my opponent – Falconets coach

    The head coach of the Nigeria female U20 team, Christopher Danjuma, has said he has 70 per cent knowledge of how the Falconets ’ opponent, Tanzania, will play the African qualifier for France 2018 on Saturday.

    The coach, who disclosed this in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria（NAN）in Benin on Thursday, said the Falconets would approach the match in a  business like manner.

    He said his team worked more on tactics they hoped to execute the match at their training session on Thursday morning, adding that the girls were well prepared and motivated to tackle  the East African team.

    Danjuma said he was not bothered with the Tanzanians style of play, as  the Falconets were prepared to counter any style adopted by their opponents.

    “It would have been suicidal for me not have known anything about our opponent. Be that as it may we are going to make Nigerians proud  come Saturday.

    “Our aim is to win and win well. We want to do this so that the return leg will just be a formality for us,” he said.

    NAN reports that the Falconets, who arrived the ancient city late Tuesday night, have been training since Wednesday at the Samuel Ogbemudia Stadium, venue of the match.

    Their opponent, Tanzania, are expected to fly into Abuja on Thursday and procees to Benin same day.

    The second leg feature will take place in Dar es Salaam on Sept. 30, with the winner, on aggregate, to tackle the winner of the Morocco/ Senegal clash in the second round in November.

    NAN reports also that the 9th FIFA U20 World Cup will be staged in four cities in France from August 7 to 26 2018.

  • Jaguar launches Land Rover electric cars 2020

    Jaguar launches Land Rover electric cars 2020

    All new Jaguar Land Rover cars will be available in an electric or hybrid version from 2020, Britain’s biggest carmaker said on Thursday as it speeds up plans to electrify its model range.

    Last year the company, owned by India’s Tata Motors (TAMO.NS), said it would offer greener versions of half of its new line-up by 2020, but it has now ramped up its plans.

    Demand for electric models continues to rise sharply and in July Britain said it would ban the sale of new petrol and diesel cars from 2040 to cut pollution, replicating plans by France and cities such as Madrid, Mexico City and Athens.

  • Nigeria’s athlete elected into United World Wrestling Commission

    Nigeria’s athlete elected into United World Wrestling Commission

    Nigeria’s most decorated wrestler, Odunayo Adekuoroye, has been elected into the United World Wrestling ( UWW ) Athletes Commission.

    The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that an election was held at the just-concluded World Wrestling championships in France.

    Adekuoroye was among the seven people elected to represent the interest of athletes in the UWW.

    Daniel Igali, President, Nigeria Wrestling Federation (NWF), told NAN that Adekuoroye clinching of a silver medal at the world championships contributed to her election into the commission.

    “She was the first Nigerian to win a silver medal at the world championships, thereby surpassed fellow Nigerian, Ifeoma Ihenacho who won bronze medals in 2009 and 2010, respectively,’’ he said.

    Igali, a Sydney 2000 Olympic Gold medallist for Canadian, said Adekuoroye is currently one of the most accomplished female wrestlers on the world stage.

    “The election took place at the last world championships.

    “The NWF had no reservations in forwarding her as a candidate for the athletes commission position and we were not disappointed.

    “This shows the steady progress we are making as a federation in all facets of sports development.

    “We hope Adekuoroye will make valuable contributions to the athletes commission and in uplifting the welfare of athletes on the world stage,’’ he said.

    Meanwhile, Adekuoroye, the Commonwealth gold medallist, has commended the leadership of the NWF for nominating her to serve on the world body.

    “Honestly, I am very delighted that the NWF nominated me and with the recognition by UWW, it is a great privilege for me to serve.

    “I am excited because my president and my coach have always believed in my capabilities to excel. They are a veritable source of encouragement to me,’’ she added.

  • France, Spain to strengthen anti-terror cooperation

    France, Spain to strengthen anti-terror cooperation

    France and Spain on Wednesday vowed to step up their cooperation in the fight against terrorism at a meeting held between the interior ministers of the two countries, at a news conference.

    French interior minister Gerard Collomb and his Spanish counterpart Juan Zoido announced that they had signed an agreement to jointly train 120 French gendarmes alongside Spanish officers at a police academy south of Madrid.

    The meeting of the two ministers was planned a while ago but became more significant after last week’s terrorist attacks in Catalonia, which killed 15 people and injured over 120 others.

    The ministers said they have discussed the ongoing investigation into the double attacks during their meeting.

    According to the French police, a few days before the attacks, several members of the suspected terror gang were spotted in France.

    Investigators are still trying to trace their journey, specifically a visit to Paris by one of the key suspects, Younes Abouyaaqoub, who was shot dead by Spanish police on Monday.

    He was believed to be the driver of a van that rammed into pedestrians in Barcelona on Aug. 17.

    Meanwhile, an Audi A3 that carried out a similar attack in the Cambrils beach resort on Aug. 18 was also captured on surveillance camera in the Paris region less than a week before the attack.

    Besides Spain and France, the investigation has now extended to Belgium and Switzerland, as several suspects, including an extremist preacher Abdelbaki Es Satty, were spotted in these countries before the attacks.

    The preacher is suspected to have played a key role in the radicalisation of the young gang.

  • Paris-bound Nigerian wrestlers to leave on Monday

    Paris-bound Nigerian wrestlers to leave on Monday

    Reprieve has finally come the way of the Nigerian contingent to the World Wrestling Championships in Paris, France, who had flight delay as they will now depart on Monday evening aboard Air Ethiopia.

    The contingent had experienced flight delay in the hands of Air Maroc in the early hours of Monday and had to find an alternative.

    The three, according to the President, Nigeria Wrestling Federation (NWF), Daniel Igali, they are to weigh-in for the competition on Tuesday afternoon.

    Igali told NAN on the telephone from Paris that when the wrestlers got to the airport in the early hours of Monday, they were told that Air Maroc had a defective aircraft on Sunday.

    He said that because the aircraft was small, it only picked a few passengers for Sunday, leaving those for 4 a.m. flight on Monday stranded.

    However, in a twist of events, the NWF said it had secured four tickets aboard Ethiopia Airlines aircraft to convey some of the country’s contingent to the championships.

    Igali told NAN on the telephone from Paris that three wrestlers and a coach would now travel on Monday evening.

    “We have been able to get four new tickets on Ethiopia Airlines for them. They should hopefully arrive in Paris by 6 a.m. on Tuesday.

    They will undergo a weight exercise tomorrow compete on Aug. 23.

    NAN reports that six wrestlers, including four females and two males will represent the country at the competition.

    The male wrestlers are Amas Daniel (65kg) and John Emmanuel (70kg), while the female are Blessing Oborududu (63kg), Adekuroye Odunayo (53kg), Mercy Genesis (48kg), and Aminat Adeniyi (58kg).

    The wrestlers are being tutored by the head coach of NWF, Victor Kodei and a female coach, Purity Akuh.

    The competition began on Monday which is for arrivals and end Aug. 26.

  • AFRIFF students set for scholarship in France

    AFRIFF students set for scholarship in France

    The Africa International Film Festival (AFRIFF) is set to send another set of film students on scholarship – this time, to CineFabrique, a film school in Lyon, France.

    The scholarship is the third in the series, whereby 20 students are selected from the 200 that participate in the AFRIFF Talent Development Workshops annually for further training abroad. The talent workshop is an intrinsic part of the festival programmes that has held sway for seven years.

    Unveiling the next set of beneficiaries at a press conference attended by representatives of partner institutions – Ford Foundation and Alliance Francaise on Wednesday, AFRIFF Founder/CEO, Ms Chioma Ude said all is set for the 20 students selected from last year’s workshop to embark of the training – a six-week summer course in the French city.

    The initiative, she said, provides beginners and intermediate courses for young people in their choice areas of filmmaking.

    Shedding light on this, Mr. Paul Nwulu, Program Officer at Ford Foundation said the scholarship scheme, meant to advance the aspirations of these burgeoning talents, is an intensive hands-on training camp on various aspects of filmmaking.

    “What we have done for the last two years was to use the AFRIFF to select young filmmakers who went to Montana State University in the U.S. to do an extensive course on documentary filmmaking, focusing on social justice documentaries. And that focus was because that is what Ford Foundation is interested in. We are looking at issues that make the lives of human beings better, so, the young people went there to learn these issues.”

    He said Ford Foundation will only cater for 10 of the students who are females because the previous editions had more male participation, adding that his institutions is also concerned with advancing the career of women.

    “One of the things that make this year unique is that we actually asked AFRIFF to focus on young women to tell these stories and why we did that is because we looked at the data for the first two years, we trained about 36 young people over the first two years and women were ‘marginalized’ in that process. We had less than half of women and we felt like, if we look at our society today, women are the most ‘marginalized’ groups in our society. Even though they make half the population of this country, they are nowhere in our parliament in this country; we have less than five percent of women there. Also, look at governor’s appointed positions; we have a lot less women than any other country in the region.”

    The last two seasons had Ford Foundation bankrolling the scholarship at the prestigious Montana State University, United States. Nwulu said the Foundation is encouraged to support AFRIFF on the scholarship because feedback from previous efforts has been laudable.

    “This year, we have decided to move the location from Montana to Lyon, France to give a different type of experience, and for Ford Foundation, one of the reasons why we decided to partner AFRIFF is because, if you look at very viable partners that are dealing in the space of storytelling, AFRIFF is one of them, with their film festival and their engagement in trying to get African stories out to a global audience. We could not ask for a better partner to work with.”

    As a prerequisite to the six-week summer course in France, the students from the 2016 AFRIFF class will be exposed to a requisite French language tutorial at the popular Alliance Française in Lagos.

    According to Mrs Emmanualle Ravot, Deputy Director/Director of Studies at Alliance Francaise, the French lesson is expected to prepare the students in the areas of French courtesies and cultural background, even though the students will be taught filmmaking in English language.

    After the course, they are expected to be taken on a tour of Paris and its beautiful sites, including France 24 where plans are on to make them go through brief internship.

    Ude said the scholarship is one in a series of other talent development initiatives of the seven-year-old festival, adding that the skill acquisition and youth development initiative was designed to use filmmaking as an authentic vehicle for youth empowerment.

    “AFRIFF’s vision is to raise awareness about African cinema, its vast potential and the tremendous socio-economic impact of creative professionals in Africa. The first four years of the festival were strategically intended to build the AFRIFF brand and gain the brand notoriety that has now earned us partnership with global brands like Access Bank, Air France, Ford Foundation, Relativity Media, British Council and Alliance Francaise among others,” she said.

    The beneficiaries include 18 Nigerians – Linda Omena Sodje, Adejumoke Aderounmu, Tosin Adeyemi, Hannah Babatunde, Jennifer Eneanya, Olubunmi Ajiboye, Lois Burutu, Cynthia Okoroafor, Olaniran Adedapo Aisida, Marvellous Michael, Bolaji Adelakun, Moyo Shomade, Chisom Ifeakandu, Ekene Nwonye, Ngozi Emmanuel, Obodoakor Emelie, Demola Adedoyin, Vivian Ubochi, and two Ghanaians – Joseph Otsiman and Richard Ofoe.

  • France bans hiring of spouses by politicians in wake of Fillon scandal

    France bans hiring of spouses by politicians in wake of Fillon scandal

    France on Thursday banned politicians from employing their spouses or children as parliamentary assistants under rules adopted in response to a scandal involving former Prime Minister, Francois Fillon and his wife.

    The law, one of the first to be approved since President Emmanuel Macron’s election in May, will apply to ministers and members of parliament, bringing France into line with countries like Germany.

    The law will also ending what is a widespread family business.

    The essential clauses of the legislation were voted through by members of the National Assembly in votes Wednesday night and on Thursday.

    Macron, a 39-year-old centrist, won the presidential contest promising he would end practices blamed for widespread voter distrust of politicians.

    One of his hottest competitors in the presidential race was Fillon, a conservative ex-prime minister whose campaign was destroyed by a scandal involving payments to his British spouse Penelope.

    The affair was exposed by media in late January, prompting a judicial inquiry, still underway, into allegations that Fillon paid wife Penelope hundreds of thousands of euros over years for little, if any, work as an assistant.

    He also paid two of the couple’s children for similar work.

    Although he denounced what he called a dirty tricks campaign and denied having done anything illegal, he admitted an error of judgment.

    The scandal sank his bid for election and thrust the spotlight on the family hires of dozens of other politicians.

    Roughly one in six members of parliament has a family member drawing a salary as an assistant.

    Macron’s government, whose debut as a clean-hands operation has been tainted by a separate inquiry that prompted a justice minister to resign, is also planning a crackdown on how freely MPs use the substantial budgets allotted to them.

    Currently, members of the 577-member National Assembly get a budget of 130,000 euros (152,000 dollars)a year, on top of their own pay and secretarial funds – which the new government says is too loosely controlled in the way it is used.

    “Members of parliament are there to adopt laws and not to be hand out subsidies,” Nicole Belloubet, who replaced predecessor Francois Bayrou in June as justice minister, told Europe 1 radio.

    The bill on family hires was criticised by some politicians, during a pre-vote debate where one of them, Julien Aubert of the opposition The Republicans party, said it was excessive.

    “It’s like a pig flu: one pig is ill and the whole herd gets put down,” he said.

  • France to nationalise shipyard if Italy rejects deal – Minister

    France to nationalise shipyard if Italy rejects deal – Minister

    The French state on Wednesday said it would nationalise the STX France shipyard if Italy does not accept its offer to split STX’s capital equally.

    It put down a marker on the limits of economic liberalism under new President Emmanuel Macron.

    The threat raises the stakes in a standoff over the shipyard’s fate, the only one in France with facilities large enough to build aircraft carriers.

    Fincantieri agreed in May to pay 79.5 million euros (92.6 million dollars) for two-thirds of STX France, which is being sold following the collapse of South Korean parent STX.

    However, the Italian bid has raised fears for French jobs at the Saint-Nazaire site on the Atlantic Coast.

    French Economy Minister Bruno Maire said the nationalisation would give the state more time to find a better shareholder deal.

    He said even if its temporary, it would mark the first major state intervention in the corporate world by Macron’s government, which was elected on a pro-business platform.

    Italian interests rejected the French proposal for ownership of STX France to be split equally between Italian state-owned shipbuilder Fincantieri and Paris.

    Both Fincantieri Chief Executive Giuseppe Bono and Italian Industry Minister Carlo Calenda raised the prospect that Fincantieri could walk away from the deal if France backed away from conditions agreed under the former government of President Francois Hollande.

    “We are Europeans and on STX we cannot accept being treated worse than the Koreans,” Bono said on a conference call in reference to the shipyard’s previous majority owner.

    Italian Economy Minister Pier Padoan later took a more conciliatory tone, saying Italy was open to changing the terms of the deal, but insisted Fincantieri must have control.

    “We have offered to listen to the new government’s requirements, but there is no reason why Fincantieri should give up a majority stake and control of the French company.”

  • France military chief resigns over budget cuts

    France military chief resigns over budget cuts

    France’s head of the armed forces resigned on Wednesday after a heated dispute with Emmanuel Macron over defence budget cuts, bringing to a head an early test of the newly elected president’s mettle.

    In a statement, 60 year-old Pierre de Villiers said he had tried to maintain a French defence force with the ability to do an increasingly difficult job within the financial constraints imposed on it, but was no longer able to sustain that.

    “In the current circumstances I see myself as no longer able to guarantee the robust defense force I believe is necessary to guarantee the protection of France and the French people, today and tomorrow, and to sustain the aims of our country,” he said.

    De Villiers said that Macron had accepted his resignation.

    A fierce row broke out on July 14 between the two men just two months after Macron was elected, and just as France prepared for the military pomp of the Bastille Day parade where Macron’s U.S. counterpart Donald Trump was the guest of honor.

    De Villiers, appearing before a closed-door hearing of parliamentarians, had used strong language to protest at the 850 million euro (979.46 million dollars) defence budget cut Macron was making as part of his efforts to rein in state spending.

    “I won’t let myself be fucked like that,” he said according to two parliamentary sources.

    “I may be stupid, but I know when I am being had.”

    Macron had gone public with his rebuke. “I have made commitments, I am your boss,” he said in a speech to dozens of top army officers and their families.

  • Migration: France to present new measures to tackle crisis

    Migration: France to present new measures to tackle crisis

    France will present new measures next week to handle the Europe-wide migration crisis and reform asylum procedures “to honour France’s tradition of hosting refugees,” Prime Minister, Edouard Philippe, said on Tuesday.

    In an address to the National Assembly, Philippe noted that “France has been incapable of meeting its legal and moral obligations’’ with respect to the refugee issue.

    In order to overcome the “migration challenge,’’ the French government is set to unveil more tools to fight illegal migration and facilitate procedures for asylum seekers with a “requirement of dignity,” he said.

    Philippe pledged to reduce the average time to process asylum requests from 14 months to six months and improve cooperation with European neighbours to fix the issue.

    By the end of June, a total of 95,768 migrants and refugees had entered Europe by sea, with the majority of them flooding into Italy, Greece and Spain, figures released by the International Organisation for Migration showed.

    France has already promised to take in 30,000 refugees by 2017.