France is trying to contain coronavirus surges with tighter lockdown orders in Dunkirk and along its border with Germany.
Conditions for cross-border workers are being tightened and they will need to provide proof of negative Covid tests if they try to visit Germany for non-work reasons.
In Dunkirk, the more contagious mutation first discovered in England is gaining ground and the weekend lockdown will mean that all but essential travel is banned.
Emergency vaccine supplies will be shipped to Dunkirk in northern France and the Moselle region, on the German border in eastern France, where cases of the South African variant have been identified.
“The situation is alarming,” health minister Olivier Veran said in Dunkirk. “We’ll take responsible action everywhere it’s needed.”
In Dunkirk and the Hauts-de-Flandre region, which have about 250,000 inhabitants, the weekend lockdowns will mean most people are allowed to leave home only for food shopping and medical appointments.
Large shopping centres will be reduced to offering click and collect services, face masks will be compulsory in cities, and the number of customers allowed in small shops will be cut to one per 15 metres.
"We will reinforce our testing policy to detect, isolate and treat sick people during the entire duration," Mr Veran said.
"As we did in Nice, we will increase the number of vaccines delivered to better protect the most vulnerable people in this region ... there will be 16,700 additional doses of vaccine which will reinforce the vaccination campaign in the region, so 8,200 doses of the Pfizer vaccine and 8,500 doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine.
"It will be part redeployment of vaccines within the region and part an additional national delivery."
The Alpes-Maritimes region in the south, which includes Nice, was earlier ordered into weekend lockdowns, and the Paris region is under scrutiny as case numbers continue to rise there.
France recorded an average of about 20,000 new cases a day since December, and intensive care occupancy recently showed a slight rise, to 67 per cent.
The country has so far ruled out another economy-bashing national lockdown but is also dealing with the EU's comparatively slow distribution of vaccinations.
The EU was criticised for taking almost a month longer than Britain to approve the first vaccines.
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Where: NSC Olimpiyskiy Stadium, Kiev, Ukraine
When: Saturday, May 26, 10.45pm (UAE)
TV: Match on BeIN Sports
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"They see their tomorrows slipping out of their reach. And though it seems to them that everything outside this reality is heaven, yet they do not want to go to that heaven. They stay, because they are afflicted with hope." - Mahmoud Darwish, to attendees of the Palestine Festival of Literature, 2008
His life in brief: Born in a village near Galilee, he lived in exile for most of his life and started writing poetry after high school. He was arrested several times by Israel for what were deemed to be inciteful poems. Most of his work focused on the love and yearning for his homeland, and he was regarded the Palestinian poet of resistance. Over the course of his life, he published more than 30 poetry collections and books of prose, with his work translated into more than 20 languages. Many of his poems were set to music by Arab composers, most significantly Marcel Khalife. Darwish died on August 9, 2008 after undergoing heart surgery in the United States. He was later buried in Ramallah where a shrine was erected in his honour.
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Investors: Oman Technology Fund from 2017 to 2019, exited through an agreement with a new investor to secure new funding that it under negotiation right now.
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Killing of Qassem Suleimani
