Lunchtime News. Tuesday July 7th 2020

Accident-An accident on the A8 eastbound at the Magnan Viaduct has been causing long traffic delays back towards Monaco today.

The accident ,involving 3 vehicles happened at around 9.30 this morning with traffic reduced to one lane while emergency services responded.

There are no reports of any serious injuries.

Meanwhile-Gendarmes in the Var say that there have been an alarming number of accidents on the region’s roads in the past two weeks.

A quarter of all accidents in the Var have happened in the last 15 says and authorities are calling on motorists to pay extra care and attention.

Increased road checks are being carried out across the department.

Grandpa dealer-A 64 year old grandfather from Nice has been jailed for 3 years with 18 months suspended for drugs offences.

Police who raided the man’s flat in Nice discovered 225 grams of cocaine along with precision scales and 820 euros in cash.

The suspect told the Nice criminal court that he had “been looking after the drugs for someone else” but admitted to selling small amounts of cocaine to “pay for his food and rent”.

The man had several previous convictions for drugs and arms offences.

Fined- A 47 year old Italian has been fined 2,000 euros by the Monaco criminal court after being stopped while riding his motor scooter without a helmet in January of this year.

The man ,a bank employee was stopped by police near to the Jardin Exotique.He was found to be over the alcohol limit  and did not have his license or insurance documents or the bike registration papers with him.

The offender confessed to being “naïve” and apologised for his behaviour.

He was fined 1,500 euros plus several amounts of fines totalling 335 euros.

In National News.

The new French government of Emmanuel Macron has been meeting in Paris for the first time since Jean Castex was appointed as Prime Minister last Friday.

There have been several ministerial changes in the cabinet ,notably at the Interior Ministry where Christophe Castaner has been replaced by Gerald Darmanin.

President Macron is trying to kickstart  his final two years in office before the next elections as France faces huge financial problems as a result of the coronavirus crisis.

The new cabinet is seen as a gamble by political analysts who say that replacing Edouard Philippe as Prime Minster may come back to haunt the President who may well find that he’s his main rival for the 2022 election.

Airport checks-Paris airports are stepping up temperature checks on passengers in a bid to stop new cases of coronavirus.

Both Orly and Roissy-Charles-de-Gaulle have installed thermal cameras to check that nobody arriving in the country has an abnormally high body temperature.

Anyone with a temperature above 38 degrees will be asked to proceed to a second check with a contactless thermometer.

If the second test is also high ,a passenger would be advised to take a medical appointment and undergo a coronavirus test.

Anybody who then tests positive will be told to self-isolate for 14 days and will be offered a place to stay.

Some checks on passengers leaving the country are also being carried out.