Briefly

FRANCE

Macron calls for nuclear 'renaissance'

French President Emmanuel Macron on Thursday called for a "renaissance" for the country's nuclear industry, saying he wanted up to 14 new reactors to power the country's transition away from fossil fuels. Acknowledging that France had hesitated on whether to continue investing in its atomic sector after the 2011 Fukushima disaster in Japan, he called for a bold new bet on the technology alongside renewables. "We are going toward an electrification of all our tasks, our way of manufacturing, of moving around," Macron said in a speech at a turbine plant in eastern France, just two months ahead of presidential elections. Low-cost nuclear power has been a mainstay of the French economy since the 1970s, but recent attempts to build French-designed reactors at home, in Britain and in Finland have become mired in cost overruns and delays.

INDIA

Border guards seize 11 Pakistani fishing boats

Indian border guards said it has seized 11 Pakistani fishing boats near the western state of Gujarat. India's Border Security Force said in a statement issued on Thursday night that the Pakistani boats and fishermen had intruded into the Indian territory. A local media report on Friday said three Pakistani fishermen have also been apprehended. Fishermen of the two countries are often jailed for accidentally crossing into each other's territorial waters as fishing boats usually lack technologies to locate exact positions. Last month, New Delhi and Islamabad exchanged a list of fishermen languishing in each other's jails.

JAPAN

COVID-19 oral pills OKed amid infections

Japan has granted fast-track approval to US drugmaker Pfizer's COVID-19 pill, Health Minister Shigeyuki Goto said on Thursday, as the country struggles to slow fast-spreading Omicron infections. The approval came less than a month after Pfizer applied in mid-January, an exceptional speed in a country where foreign drug approvals usually take much longer. Goto said the availability of Pfizer's Paxlovid pill gives high-risk patients, including elderly people, more treatment options. Most of Japan's 47 prefectures are currently under a mild version of a state of emergency. On Friday, Prime Minister Fumio Kishida announced plans to extend current restrictions in Tokyo and 12 other areas for three more weeks until March 6.

Agencies - Xinhua