Lunchtime News Tuesday 1st December 2020

News

School bus crashes injuring three teenagers - Three teenagers have been injured, including two seriously, in a road accident this Tuesday morning involving a school bus in eastern France.

The D9 road where the accident occured was very snowy with bad the weather conditions. The department of Doubs had been placed on yellow weather alert for a risk of snow-ice during the night of Monday to Tuesday.

The students aged between 13 and 16, were travelling to another college Saint-Jeanne Antide at the time of the accident.

December 1st - As with every first of the month in France changes are to come into effect including an increase in the price of gas by 2.4% and the price of some cigarette packs are expected to increase to ten euros.

There are also only a few days left to pay your housing tax which is due on December 15th and December 20th for online payments. December 15th is also the deadline to make any changes or corrections to your 2020 tax return if you think you’ve made a mistake on your income tax return for 2019.

Application for Storm Alex - An application has been launched to connect disaster victims of Storm Alex and volunteers. Created by 37 year old Nicolas Maceli from Menton “Aide 1 Vallée” has just exceeded 1,000 registrations.

French skipper abandons ship - A French skipper who was forced to abandon ship during the Vendée Globe yacht race has been rescued. A “difficult operation” took place early this morning 11 hours after the skipper triggered a distress beacon.

Kevin Escoffier was plucked from his life raft at 1am local time in the Atlantic Ocean off South Africa’s Cape of Good Hope by rival skipper and compatriot Jean Le Cam.

Vendée Globe organisers said they had received a message from Le Cam informing them of the successful rescue, which took place in the darkness.