Lunchtime News Tuesday 22nd March 2022

News

Fire - A fire has broken out in the middle of the night in a 20-storey building in Toulon. Firefighters intervened at around 2am this morning as several residents were evacuated. The cause of the blaze remains to be determined. No injuries were reported.

Corsican nationalist Yvan Colonna has died - Corsican nationalist activist Yvan Colonna has died from his injuries following an attack in prison by a fellow inmate.  The Corsican independence activist was serving a life sentence for the assassination of the prefect Claude Erignac back in 1998. Colonna had always claimed his innocence following his arrest in July 2003.

Ukrainian refugees - The Prefect of the Alpes-Maritimes has said that just over 12,100 Ukrainian refugees have passed through the La Turbie toll booths on the A8 motorway since the start of the conflict in Ukraine. Speaking on France Bleu Bernard Gonzalez said that the services of the Alpes-Maritimes Prefecture have been mobilized to issue residence permits to the large number of refugees arriving in the department.

850 million euros of assets seized - Meanwhile France’s Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire has announced that France has seized around 850 million euros of Russian oligarchs’ assets. Le Maire added that authorities have immobilised 539 million euros in real estate on French territory, corresponding to some 390 properties and two yachts with a value of 150 million euros.

Covid - In Monaco 48 new cases of covid were identified on Monday bringing the total number of people affected to 10,175. Twelve people are currently in hospital and 152 are being followed by the Home Monitoring Centre. The Monaco government is organizing a new large-scale covid screening campaign in the Principality's schools. Several thousand self-tests are being made available to the entire educational community including teachers, non-teachers and students. The aim is to allow as many people as possible to test themselves.

Presidential elections - According to the latest opinion poll of voting intentions from the Elabe Institute Presidential candidate Emmanuel Macron remains in the lead, despite a notable setback. Marine Le Pen and Jean-Luc Mélenchon continue their progression, while Éric Zemmour and Valérie Pécresse lose points. After a sharp rise two weeks ago (8.5%), Emmanuel Macron is down for the second week in a row. He is now credited with 27.5% of the vote, down 3.5 points from our poll last week.

 

 

 

 

 

 

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