EU court upholds tough tobacco restrictions

The European Union's top court dealt a blow to the tobacco industry Wednesday by approving sweeping new rules that will require plain cigarette packs, ban menthol cigarettes and regulate the growing electronic cigarette market.

Tobacco companies had protested a 2014 EU directive on the new rules, calling it disproportionate. But the European Court of Justice on Wednesday upheld the directive, arguing it's in line with efforts to fight smoking and protect public health.

The court said it is OK to ban menthol and other flavorings that make tobacco more appealing. The directive also requires standardized, plain labels that cover at least 65 percent of all cigarette packs with health warnings.

The rules will require warnings for e-cigarettes, limit their nicotine levels to 20 grams and restrict advertising and sponsorship by their makers.

The Independent British Vape Trade Association said in a statement that it is disappointed by the ruling and argued it could push some e-cigarette smokers back to tobacco.

Among those welcoming the decision was French Health Minister Marisol Touraine, who said plain cigarette packs will be required in France starting May 20.

"It's a victory for public health, a victory in the battle against lobbies, because in the fight against smoking ... the obstacles are numerous," she told reporters after a Cabinet meeting.

The EU Commission has come under criticism in the past for failing to fully disclose information about its dealing with tobacco lobbyists.

Marc Firestone, senior vice president at Philip Morris International, which had questioned the directive's legality, said in a statement that the court didn't address whether plain packaging is legal or reduces smoking rates. He said the ruling "reflects the substantial deference that the Court of Justice often shows to the EU institutions."

European Central Bank to stop issuing 500 euro bill

The European Central Bank will stop issuing 500 euro ($575) banknotes towards the end of 2018 on concerns it could facilitate illicit activities but outstanding bills will remain in use indefinitely, the ECB said in a statement on Wednesday.

“The 500 euro note will remain legal tender and can therefore continue to be used as a means of payment and store of value,” the bank said.

“The 500 euro banknote, like the other denominations of euro banknotes, will always retain its value and can be exchanged at the national central banks of the Eurosystem for an unlimited period of time.”

The ECB has been looking to get rid of the 500 euro note, despite the objections of Germany’s central bank, due to concerns that it is also used by criminals and militants to finance their activities.

Turkish PM Davutoglu bows out in power rift with Erdogan

Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu announced his resignation as leader of the ruling AK party on Thursday. The decision effectively ends his premiership, handing another victory to President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

After a meeting of the party's executive committee, Davutoglu said in a speech in Ankara that under the current circumstances, he did not intend to run for the AKP leadership at an extraordinary congress set for May 22.

"I decided that for the unity of the [ruling party] a change of chairman would be more appropriate. I am not considering running at the May 22 congress," said the former academic-turned-politician.

The decision is not immediately effective, which means Davutoglu will continue to hold the premiership until the May 22 party congress.

French economic growth beats forecasts on consumer spending

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© Miguel Medina, AFP file picture | Consumer spending boosted the French economy in the first quarter of 2016

Text by FRANCE 24 

Latest update : 2016-04-29

The French economy grew 0.5 percent in the first quarter, boosted by the strongest increase in consumer spending since 2004 and beating even the most optimistic forecast, the INSEE national statistics agency said in a preliminary estimate on Friday.

In a preliminary reading of gross domestic product for the quarter, INSEE said the 2 trillion euro economy had accelerated from the 0.3 percent growth posted in the previous three months, as a pick-up in business investment helped offset lower exports and stocks.

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'THINGS ARE BETTER', SAYS HOLLANDE

A poll of 30 analysts surveyed by Reuters had forecast 0.4 percent growth for the euro zone’s second-largest economy in the three months to March, with the lowest estimate at 0.1 percent and the highest at 0.4 percent.

'Things are getting better'

The data appeared to lend some credence toPresident Francois Hollande’s assertion this month on prime-time television that “things are going better”, coming at the end of a week that saw the number of jobless people drop by the most since the dot com boom.

The French Labour Ministry said on Wednesday that the number of people registered as out of work in mainland France fell by 60,000 to 3,531,000 in March, down 1.7 percent over one month, but still up 0.5 percent over one year.

The recent data provides some rare good news for the Socialist government. Hollande has staked his political future on boosting the French economy and tackling unemployment, saying he will not stand for re-election in 2017 unless he bring down the jobless rate. The president has said that he will give himself until the end of the year to decide whether to run for office again.

(FRANCE 24 with REUTERS)

Date created : 2016-04-29

Police officers, soldiers killed in Turkey border attacks

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© ILHAS NEWS AGENCY, AFP | A car bomb exploded by the police headquarters in the southeastern Turkish city of Gaziantep on May 1, 2016, in one of two attacks in the country on Sunday morning

Video by FRANCE 24

Text by NEWS WIRES

Latest update : 2016-05-02

Two police officers were killed and 22 people wounded in a suicide car bomb attack in the southeastern Turkish city of Gaziantep, the governor and police sources said, in one of three attacks on the security forces on Sunday.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility but security sources said police raided the home of a suspected Islamic State militant believed to have carried out the attack and detained his father for DNA tests and questioning.

Turkey has suffered attacks recently both by Kurdish militants and members of Islamic State, raising concern at home and among NATO allies about the increasing spillover of conflict from neighbouring Syria. The city of Gaziantep is just 65 km (40 miles) from the Syrian border.

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The Gaziantep-based suspect is believed to have detonated a bomb-laden vehicle just outside the gates of the city’s main police headquarters on a street housing several other provincial government buildings, whose windows were also smashed.

“The father of a suspect who is believed to have carried out the attack has been detained. We have records of the suspect’s links with Islamic State,” a security source said.

Sources also said there were two vehicles carrying out the attack. While the suicide bomber was inside the detonated car, three men opened fire on police guarding the station from a second.

Several security sources also said police had received intelligence on the attack on Saturday and had ordered officers not to gather in front of the station as they deployed for May Day celebrations, a move which may have prevented a higher toll.

Nineteen police and four civilians were wounded, a statement from the governor’s office said. One officer died at the scene and a second later in hospital, a security source said.

“We have eight people in intensive care. Seven of them are police officers,” Deputy Prime Minister Mehmet Simsek told reporters after visiting the wounded.

Multiple threats

Several hundred miles east in the town of Nusaybin, three Turkish soldiers were killed and 14 wounded in an armed attack by Kurdish militants, an army statement said. Another was killed in clashes with PKK militants in border province of Sirnak.

A separate car bomb attack carried out by suspected PKK militants on a gendarmerie station in the southeastern town of Dicle wounded 10 troops, security sources said. Two others were wounded when an armoured vehicle en route to the scene was also attacked.

Turkey is facing security threats on several fronts. As part of a U.S.-led coalition, it is fighting Islamic State in Syria and Iraq and battling Kurdish PKK militants in its southeast, where a 2-1/2-year ceasefire collapsed last July.

Turkish military sources said on Sunday drones from the U.S.-led coalition, drawing on intelligence from Ankara, had struck an Islamic State explosives depot in the northern Syrian town of Dabiq. Two Islamic State militants outside the building were killed and several others were thought to have been inside.

Gaziantep, which borders Islamic State-held Syrian territory, is home to a large Syrian refugee population and there have been several police raids on suspected Islamic State militants there over the past months.

A wave of suicide bombings this year, including two in Turkey’s largest city Istanbul, have been blamed on Islamic State, and two in the capital Ankara were claimed by a Kurdish militant group.

The Kurdish militant group TAK, an offshoot of PKK, on Sunday claimed a suicide bombing last week in Turkey’s fourth-largest city of Bursa that wounded eight people.

(REUTERS)

French presidential election set for April 23 and May 7, 2017

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© AFP

Text by NEWS WIRES

Latest update : 2016-05-04

The two rounds of France's 2017 presidential elections will take place on April 23 and May 7, the government announced on Wednesday.

Opinion polls show former prime minister Alain Juppe from the center-right Les Republicains party is the front-runner.

Far-right party leader Marine Le Pen is seen making it to the run-off between the top two candidates after the first round, but then losing.

Turkey visa-free deal gets conditional EU green light


The European Commission on Wednesday gave conditional backing to visa-free travel for more than 80 million Turks as the EU tries to save a controversial deal with Ankara to solve the migrant crisis.

"The European Commission is today proposing... to lift the visa requirements for the citizens of Turkey" on condition that Ankara fulfils "as a matter of urgency" criteria set by the EU, according to a document tweeted by Competition Commissioner Margrethe Vestager.

The Commission said Wednesday that Turkey has met most of the 72 criteria needed for a visa waiver, and it invited member states and EU lawmakers to endorse the move by June 30.

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Commission Vice-President Frans Timmermans said, "There is still work to be done as a matter of urgency but if Turkey sustains the progress made, they can meet the remaining benchmarks."

Brussels is also set to announce further measures to tackle the biggest influx of migrants since World War II, with an extension of border controls in the passport-free Schengen zone and an overhaul of its asylum rules.

The measures included a 250,000 euro fine per head for EU states refusing to take in refugees.

Turkey had threatened to tear up the March agreement to take back migrants who cross the Aegean Sea to Greece if the EU failed to keep its promise to allow Turkish citizens to travel without visas to the Schengen area by next month.

Many EU states still have concerns about the legality of the deal and the human rights situation in Turkey.

Reporting from Brussels, FRANCE 24’s Armen Georgian noted that although the European Commission on Wednesday gave a conditional backing to the deal, it still needed to be approved by the European parliament and by EU governments and that could take a while. “I’ve been hearing from MEPs (Members of European Parliament) this morning who are by no means unanimous or united on this issue. Some of them were telling me that Europe is making too many concessions too quickly to Ankara and that Turkey’s democratic record is troubling. They were telling me that Europe does not need to move so fast just because it needs Turkey on the migrant issue.”

Schengen border controls

The Turkish deal is the cornerstone of the EU's plan to curb a crisis that has seen 1.25 million Syrian, Iraqi, Afghan and other migrants enter Europe since 2015, though the numbers of arrivals have dropped since March.

Turkey meanwhile has been rushing through laws in recent days to meet the EU's requirements, although that effort has occasionally stalled because of a series of mass brawls in parliament.

The new laws include making a reciprocal visa agreement for EU nationals, including those of Cyprus, with which Turkey has long-standing tensions over its occupation of the north of the Mediterranean island.

"Yesterday, a government decree has been adopted by the Turkish government allowing the access to Turkish territory without visa for citizens of all 28 member states, I repeat all 28," Commission spokesman Margaritis Schinas said.

Since 2015, several countries in the Schengen area have effectively suspended the principle of border-free travel in the wake of the migrant crisis and terror attacks.

On Wednesday the EU also backed an extension of border controls requested by Germany, France, Austria, Denmark and Sweden – countries who insisted their border situation remains "extremely volatile".

EU rules say countries can reintroduce border controls for up to two years, in periods of up to six months at a time, in exceptional circumstances.

Dublin rules

Also Wednesday, the EU unveiled an overhaul of its asylum rules to more fairly share responsibility for migrants and refugees arriving in Europe.

The so-called Dublin rules currently in force have been criticised as obsolete and unfair to countries like Greece, where most of the migrants entered the bloc last year.

Under those rules, migrants seeking asylum must lodge their application in the country where they first arrived, and should be returned there if they try to move elsewhere in the bloc.

The Commission Commission also proposed a special mechanism whereby refugees and migrants can be relocated to other countries if a crisis is declared – for example in Greece.

(FRANCE 24 with AFP and REUTERS)

Perpetrator of deadly Turkish car bombing ‘linked to IS group’

The perpetrator of a deadly car bombing that hit the Turkish city of Gaziantep near the Syrian border at the weekend is linked to the Islamic State (IS) extremist group, Turkey's interior minister said on Monday.

The bomber "is a member of a terrorist organisation linked to Daesh," Interior Minister Efkan Ala said in televised remarks, using an alternative name for the jihadist group.

One policeman was killed when the car bomb went off outside the police headquarters in Gaziantep on Sunday morning. Another police officer later died of his wounds.

Ala said nearly 50 suspects had been detained in connection with the attack.

The announcement will intensify concerns about the risk of jihadist attacks in Turkey, which has already seen tourism fall sharply since the start of the year.

Turkey remains on high security alert after a series of attacks on its soil blamed on Kurdish militantsand IS jihadists, who still control territory in Syria right up to the Turkish border.

Government spokesman and Deputy Prime Minister Numan Kurtulmus told reporters after the weekly cabinet meeting the authorities had thwarted 49 suicide bombings in Turkey so far this year.

A radical Kurdish militant group, Kurdistan Freedom Falcons (TAK), on Sunday claimed a suicide bombing in Turkey's former Ottoman capital of Bursa last week, saying the female assailant had failed to reach her intended target.

Ala said that the bomber was a member of the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) which has waged a three-decade insurgency against the Turkish state. The TAK is usually seen as a splinter group of the PKK.

A member of international coalition against IS group, Turkey has taken more robust action against IS jihadists since last summer.

The Turkish border town of Kilis has come under rocket fire from IS-controlled territory in recent weeks, prompting the army to respond with artillery fire.

In the latest strikes on Kilis on Monday, one person was killed and two wounded when Katyusha-type rockets hit an inhabited area in the town, the Dogan news agency reported.

Twenty people have now been killed in IS strikes on Kilis since January.

Turkish artillery have launched deadly strikes on IS positions in Syria, while drones that took off from an air base in southern Turkey also pounded the jihadists, the state-run Anatolia news agency reported on Monday, citing security sources.

"We have discussed steps to be taken by both using our national resources and in international solidarity to stave off threats arising from across the border," Kurtulmus told reporters.