Main image

REUTERS Live News

Watch live streaming video from ilicco at livestream.com

Saturday, May 14, 2011

EDITORIAL : RFI english, FRANCE

 
 
French press review
 
 
The economy and social issues are dominating the French newspapers
The economic daily Les Echos raises an alarm about the worsening drought in France and its impending effects – a projected shortfall of between 30 to 50 per cent in grain production in the country.
The Catholic daily, La Croix, is also concerned by the emergency. The paper reports that there is an unprecedented mobilisation by all stake-holders to prevent the worsening of the water situation in 20 of the worst-hit regions.
Le Figaro today publishes a survey establishing that 65 per cent of French citizens, including left-leaning voters, are against welfare payouts and do support the proposal by European affairs minister Laurent Wauquiez to subject beneficiaries to do community work in compensation for the checks.
The scheme has left the government locked in an exercise of damage control. Le Figaro explains that the crisis broke out after Laurent Wauquiez slammed the payouts as the cancer eating into French society.  Wauquiez’s called the proposal off after an angry rebuke from his solidarity affairs counterpart. The conservative paper states that Prime Minister François Fillon called the move an error which the minister had since apologised for.

La Tribune
on its part takes up the latest French economic growth figures. The statistics due to be published later today are projected to rise above 0.8 per cent during the first quarter – more than double last year’s growth rate. In another statement Thursday night Economy Minister Christine Lagarde suggested that there would be rise to 1 per cent of the French GDP. The paper underlines a slight improvement in job creation and picks out the hi-tech sector as the one offering the most jobs as it looks to recruit some 31 thousand senior staff in 2011.
Today’s issue of the Communist party daily, L 'Humanité, is all about the clamour for jobs. The tabloid’s managers picked union leader Bernard Thibault to sit in as editor-in-chief for the very special issue. The paper is seeking to mobilize workers for muscle-flexing protests and a heated stand-off this summer, between the unions and the government, especially over the loss of 31,000 public service jobs .
Le Monde makes some new revelations about the scandal over the killer drug MEDIATOR. The newspaper says it has found out that drug company Servier knew since 1995 that the tablets contained toxic elements. The respected paper reports that it was able to consult an internal document which the company has kept secret as it faces a series of court battles filed by thousands of victims seeking compensation.
France Soir joins the hunt for the serial killer from Nantes who disappeared after exterminating his family. The evening tabloid publishes the search warrant put out by Interpol for Xavier Dupont de Ligonnes . France Soir tries to figure out what the slippery character could look like at this moment. The paper says it suspects he’s probably changed his face hoping to start his life afresh somewhere
Left-leaning Libération examines the crisis at France’s Number One broadcaster TFI.
The giant private channel is facing its worst audience ratings in years. The paper says the setback is caused by the poor ratings of prime time news anchor Laurence Ferrari drafted in to replace veteran star Patrick Poivre d’Arvor. Libé says TFI is almost being overtaken by the state-owned broadcaster France 2 due to Ferrari’s lack of appeal and warns that she has been turning audiences away and eroding TFI’s standing as France’s most powerful audiovisual company.
Today is Friday the 13th, probably the most superstitious day in the modern calendar.
It doesn’t come up that often, so Aujourd’hui en France /Le Parisien did its best, exploring from A to Z, what makes this day so special to people around the world.
The popular paper says millions of French people are hoping to capitalize on its mysteries and will try their luck by playing big in the pools and lotteries.







 

0 comments:

Post a Comment

CRICKET24

RSS Feed