French and Rivera News.Thursday December 27th 2018

Dead hunter-Gendarmes from the mountain division have discovered the body of a hunter who fell from rocks near Tourette-Levens on Wednesday.

The alarm was raised at lunchtime by the man’s companions.

An initial search of the area  failed to find any trace of the missing man but he was later found after having fallen from a height of 30 meters.An enquiry is underway.

 

Coach fire-Traffic was disrupted on the A8 Motorway last night after a coach caught fire on the westbound side of the road at around ten past seven.

50 passengers on board the vehicle were moved to safety while fire crews dealt with the blaze.They were eventually taken away from the area in a replacement vehicle.

20 fire fighters were called out to deal with the blaze which was brought under control relatively quickly.

 

Bike protection-Anybody who got a new bicycle for Christmas or who just wants to protect their wheels from theft is invited to go to Viavelo in Nice today where a code will be engraved on it for 10 euros.

Half a million bikes are stolen annually in France and only 3 percent are ever returned to their owners.

A bicycode as it’s known can help authorities to return stolen bicycles their rightful owners by checking a computerized central register.

Viavelo is at 16 rue d’Italie in Nice and is open from 9am to 1pm and then between 2 and 5 pm.

 

Wine galore-269 bottles of rare wine are going under the hammer in Cannes today.

The bottles which include grands crus,magnums,methuselahs and jeroboams have starting prices ranging from 50 to 50,000 euros.

The auction is taking place over the next five days at the Hotel Martinez.

 

In National News.

 

Airport panic-Two men brandishing fake guns have caused panic at Charles de Gaulle Airport in Paris.

The alarm was raised by a passenger in terminal 2 at 8.30 on Wednesday morning and the building was quickly evacuated.

Police apprehended the two men quickly.They we found to be waving ‘air soft’ pistols which are replica guns used in sport.

Authorities consider the carrying of such guns in public to be a firearms offence.

 

 

Exhausted-Police in eastern France have broken up a gang who were stealing car exhausts for their rare metal content.

Authorities received a number of complaints from irate motorists who started their cars  only to find the exhaust was missing.

The gang as using a disc cutter to remove exhaust systems including catalytic converters which contain small amounts of rare earth metals including palladium,rhodium and minute amounts of gold.

Some of the metals are worth up to 40 euros per gramme.

 

 

Winter Sales-The president of the French independent retailers association has asked the government to advance the date of the winter sales by one week to compensate for lost revenue in the run up to Christmas because the yellow vests protests .

Francois Palombi says that many retailers need a quick boost to sales because the protests led to many shoppers staying away from city centres and retail parks in December.

Mr Palombi says that many shopkeepers took only 25 percent of their normal average takings this month compared with figures for last year.The sales are officially due to start on the 9th of January in the Alpes-Maritimes and the Var and on the 2nd of January in Monaco.

 

Environment-More than 1.6 million people have so far signed an online petition calling on the French government to do more to fight climate change.

The petition was launched last week by Greenpeace,Oxfam and two French environmental groups and has received support from several high profile stars including the actresses Marion Cotillard and Juliette Binoche.

Greenpeace France says that the more people who sign the petition ,the harder it will be for the government to ignore.

A recent similar petition in the Netherlands eventually brought fruit with a court ruling last October that the Dutch government must to more to reduce emissions.

 

Business.

 

Strong retail sales are one of the main reasons for the surge in US stock markets on Boxing Day with figures from Mastercard showing that holiday retail sales jumped by 5.1 percent-the strongest growth in nearly 6 years.

Confidence was also boosted following White House assurances that Jerome Powell,the chairman of the US Federal Reserve is not about to be sacked by President Trump.

The surge in markets came following a disastrous run-up to Christmas when stocks suffered their worst weekly falls in decades.

Investors are still concerned about the partial government shutdown in Washington as well as ongoing trade tensions with China.

Market volatility is still very much the focus with investors also closely watching the performance of the US economy over the coming months with some analysts suggesting that it’s running out of steam.

 

In the UK,retail analysts say that the number of people heading to the Boxing Day sales has fallen for the third year running despite some hefty discounting.

The retail analysts Springboard which examines data from UK high street and shopping centre cameras said that average footfall at 4pm yesterday was 3.1 percent lower than last year.

There were queues at some stores from midnight yesterday and in London’s West End,retailers declared a Boxing Day “bounce” saying that footfall had increased by 15 percent on last year.

Springboard has suggested that Boxing Day is becoming less important as a trading day although yesterday’s data does not include online sales.

 

 

And-Reuters is reporting that fresh misconduct allegations brought by Tokyo prosecutors against former Nissan chairman Carlos Ghosn centre on the use of company funds to pay a Saudi businessman who’s  believed to have helped him out of financial difficulties.

The news comes as Mr Ghosn was arrested for a third time last Friday following allegations of aggravated breach of trust in transferring personal investment losses to Nissan.

Reuters says that sources at Nissan have named the Saudi businessman as Khaled Al-Juffali who’s the  vice chairman of one of the country’s largest conglomerates and a member of the board at the Saudi Arabian Monetary Authority.

 

Sport.

 

Football-There was practically a full programme in the English Premier League on Boxing Day with Liverpool extending their lead at the top of the table following a 4-0 win over Newcastle.

Spurs are up to second on the back of a 5-0 victory over Bournemouth while Manchester City slipped to 3rd after losing 2-1 at Leicester.

In the other results Fulham and Wolves drew 1-1.Burnley went down to a 5-1 home defeat by Everton.Crystal Palace and Cardiff drew 0-0.Manchester United beat Huddersfield 3-1.Brighton and Arsenal drew 1-1 and Watford lost 2-1 at home to Chelsea.

 

There’s one game tonight.Southampton play West Ham.

 

In the English Championship on Boxing Day-Birmingham beat Stoke 2-0.Bolton were 2-1 winners over Rotherham.Bristol City and Brentford drew 1-1.Leeds beat Blackburn 3-2.Middlesbrough lost 1-0 at home to Sheffield Wednesday.Millwall beat Reading 1-0.Norwich and Nottingham Forest drew 3-3.Preston lost 2-1 to Hull.QPR beat Ipswich 3-0.Sheffield United were 3-1 winners over Derby.Aston Villa were 1-0 winners over Swansea and West Brom beat Wigan 2-0.

 

And in the Scottish Premiership-Celtic won a ding dong encounter 4-3 at Aberdeen.St Mirren lost 1-0 at home to St Johnstone.Dundee and Livingston drew 0-0.Hearts beat Hamilton 2-0.Motherwell lost 1-0 at home to Kilmarnock and Rangers and Hibs drew 1-1.

 

Cricket-It’s day 2 of the third Test between Australia and India in Melbourne.

India are still batting and have been piling on the runs before Australia came back into the contest a little in the first session of the day.

India had reached 378-5 after 154 overs shortly after tea.

 

Dale Steyn has become South Africa’s all time leading wicket taker after dismissing Pakistan’s Fakhar Zaman in the first Test at Centurion.

It was Steyn’s 422nd Test scalp and saw him pass Shaun Pollock on the list of leading South African wicket takers.

Pakistan were dismissed for 181 in their first innings with South Africa on 127-5 at stumps.

 

Racing-Clan des Obeaux has won the King George VI Chase at Kempton.

The 12-1 shot ridden by Harry Cobden saw off the challenge of Thistlecrack and the Gold Cup winner Native River.

The horse,which is part owned by Sir Alex Ferguson was trained by Paul Nicholls.That was his 10th King George success.

 

Weather.

 

Mainly fine with light variable winds.

Top temperature 144 degrees.

Overnight lows of 7 degrees on the coast and 4 degrees inland with partially cloudy skies.

Friday and the start of the weekend-Mainly fine with highs of 14-15 degrees.

 

 

 

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