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Russian workers who do not get vaccinated can be suspended from work... Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin says some who have been vaccinated have developed the "Delta Variant" of COVID-19... In Israel that "Delta Variant" cited in connection with a school outbreak... A member of Uganda's Olympic team testing positive for COVID-19 upon arrival in Tokyo for the Summer Olympics... Armenia's election today... French Regional Elections Low voter participation reported in the first round of French regional elections today... The news tonight as reported by major media is that "Les Republicans" (LR) the traditional party of the "Right" ran strong. Its...

ONE of the busiest train stations in Europe was placed on lockdown as heavily armed cops reportedly hunted for ‘three dangerous men’. French authorities confirmed a police operation was underway at Gare du Nord – the station at which Eurostar trains arrive in Paris from London. The Paris police headquarters said the operation was to “dispel any doubt” about a threat, but would not give more details. However reports in Le Parisien claimed cops were hunting for “three dangerous men”.

Halfway between mountains and the Mediterranean, the southern French village of Puget-Theniers is old, idyllic and a picture of the quiet rebellion under way in rural areas. In the first round of France's presidential election, residents here, an hour's drive from the city of Nice, voted overwhelmingly to cast the country's rulers to the wolves. Thirty-seven percent of 1,300 ballots on April 23 were for far-right leader Marine Le Pen and another 18 percent for Communist-backed firebrand Jean-Luc Melenchon. A collection of other "anti-system" candidates from Trotskyists to a man who believes the European Union is a CIA-backed conspiracy won...

Today is the scheduled date for the French election. Darned if I or anyone can say how it will turn out, though I think our President is right -- the attack on three policemen on the Champs-Élysées would certainly seem to boost the chances of Marine le Pen. Of course, I could be wrong, and Barack Obama’s apparent favorite Emmanuel Macron, who says terrorism will “be a fact of daily life” that his countrymen will just have to get used to, will appeal to enough suicidal Frenchmen to carry the day. March for ScienceOn Saturday, crowds at the laughably titled...

22 March 2015 Ex-President Nicolas Sarkozy's conservative UMP and its allies led voting in the first round of French local elections, exit polls suggest. They pushed the far-right National Front into second, with President Francois Hollande's ruling Socialists in third. Voters are electing representatives in 101 departments, or counties, charged with issues like schools and welfare. A second round of voting will take place in a week's time.

A chastened Nicolas Sarkozy will attempt this week to relaunch his presidency after voters yesterday vented their unhappiness by thrashing his centre-right party in elections for regional councils. The Socialist opposition and its Green allies won an estimated 55 per cent of the vote compared with about 37 per cent for the Union for a Popular Movement (UMP), according to exit polls. However, they failed to score the clean sweep that they had hoped against Mr Sarkozy's camp in the voting for the 22 regional councils of mainland France and Corsica. UMP supporters who abstained in the first round of...

Rarely has a Monday dawned so bright and beautiful in Washington. Everything suddenly looked possible again, if only for the day. Nicolas Sarkozy, an unapologetic champion of hard work, free markets and the United States, wins a smashing victory in France, and Queen Elizabeth II, the sovereign of America's traditional best friend abroad, arrives in Washington and the town goes ga-ga. Mr. Sarkozy sounds almost too good to be true, an echo of Maggie Thatcher, pledging to cut taxes, shrink a bloated government, reduce the welfare state, shut down useless parts of the government and make France competitive again. Even...

Perdictions come true in France.

Participation at noon : 34,11%, +3 point than the first round. First estimation at 2.30 pm : Sarkozy ahead of 10%, as predicted. The rout of the left is going well !!!

53% of people found Sarkozy "more convincing" than leftist Royal, who only gains 31%. Sarkozy was found "more competent" (+6%) and more "sympathetic" (+4%) than his opponent. Royal is seen "more courageous" (+11%) and more dynamic" (+9%) than her opponent. Sarkozy is found more convincing on major issues like security and economy. The French swift voters favor Sarkozy by 50% against 25% for Royal. Finally, voters were 52% (+4) to wish Sarkozy's victory against only 37% (+1) Royal's.

Ségolène Royal, French socialist candidate : "We have to create virtuous circles..." "There is a new era of love and hope" "Economy will grow when I will be chosen for President" "There is so much to do for people to live of love and without poverty" "If people learnt to discuss each other, there wouldn't be wars"

During the first round of France's presidential election, Laurence Ribeaucourt had the surprise of her political life. A social worker and local councillor in a poor suburb north-east of Paris, she was monitoring the vote and the last place she expected to see the deprived youths she had cared over the years for was a polling station.

Elections: It's too soon to call the winner of France's presidential election, even with conservative candidate Nicolas Sarkozy taking a big lead in Sunday's first round of voting. But there are plenty of reasons for optimism. France's unpredictable voters gave Sarkozy a 31% to 26% victory over his nearest challenger, socialist-lite Segolene Royal. No matter who wins now, that verdict represents a mandate for energizing France's economy, which has been stagnant for more than a decade. French economic growth, averaging a mere 2.3% since 1997, and unemployment at near 10% for much of that time, both show how France has...

A ccording to the latest polls, by spring 2007 the president of France could well be Nicolas Sarkozy, the man who The Washington Post described as “not your everyday French politician.”[1] For a start, the current French Interior Minister and leader of the UMP conservative party is pro-American. He understands that the war on terrorism is the world’s fight and not one America should have to bear alone. He grasps the nature of the threat facing Continental Europe from Muslim extremism and favors fighting terrorism head-on and without apology. His worldview is not one that ends in the Michelin-starred restaurants...

French Jews Split On PresidentBrett KlineJTA Wire ServiceJANUARY 07, 2007Paris With the French presidential election three months away, conservative candidate Nicolas Sarkozy is gaining strength in the Jewish community. But are voters being swayed by Sarkozy's strong support of Israel and tough stands on suburban violence and Islamic fundamentalism, or do they just not think much of his opponent, Segolene Royal of the Socialist Party? "Usually I don't vote, but this time I am registering and then I will vote for Sarkozy," said Michael Sebban, 38, a high school philosophy teacher and author of several novels. "But I am really...

Estimates available at poll closing time have the Right taking 399 seats, the left 178! It's an absolute law-making majority for the right. Along with Chirac as President, the whole of France's government is now run by the right. Initial polls indicate nearly 40% of the French electorate has abstained from this election, making it the highest abstention on record.

Students demonstrate holding French national flag with a swastika, a symbol against the extreme-right leader Jean-Marie Le Pen, in Paris Tuesday, April 23, 2002. Spontaneous demonstrations continued throughout France , especially amomg the young, on Tuesday after Le Pen advanced Sunday to the May 5 presidential election runoff against Chirac. The placard reads : " save the Republic". (AP Photo/Jacques Brinon)

Monster from France's past bids for a bankrupt republic By Daniel Johnson (Filed: 23/04/2002) HOW could the French vote for a demagogue like Jean-Marie Le Pen? Why is France so different? It is as if one's next-door neighbour had suddenly turned out to be keeping a corpse under the floorboards. France is more familiar to many Britons than their own country, yet the French suddenly seem alien, incomprehensible and rather frightening. They, too, feign shock and anger that such a provincial rabble-rouser should come so close to the presidency. The French, however, should know their own history and culture well...

<p>PARIS (AP) --  Politicians expressed shock Monday about an extreme-right leader's second-place finish in French elections, while newspapers compared the election to an earthquake.</p> <p>Jean Marie Le Pen and incumbent French President Jacques Chirac, a conservative, took the top two slots in Sunday's first-round election and will face each other in the May 5 runoff. It was a major upset, as Socialist Prime Minister Lionel Jospin had been widely expected to advance to the next round.</p>

No socialist or communist candidates at the second round of the presidential election. The current president Chirac came up with 20% while the candidate for the Extreme Right Le Pen took the second spot with 18%/ The current socialist Prime Minister came third with 16% thus out of contention for the second round !