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French FM to Self-Isolate after COVID Contact Case

From left to right, German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas, Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry, French Foreign Affairs Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian and Jordanian Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi speak to the media during a press conference in Paris, Thursday, March 11, 2021. (Ludovic Marin/Pool Photo via AP)
From left to right, German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas, Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry, French Foreign Affairs Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian and Jordanian Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi speak to the media during a press conference in Paris, Thursday, March 11, 2021. (Ludovic Marin/Pool Photo via AP)
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French FM to Self-Isolate after COVID Contact Case

From left to right, German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas, Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry, French Foreign Affairs Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian and Jordanian Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi speak to the media during a press conference in Paris, Thursday, March 11, 2021. (Ludovic Marin/Pool Photo via AP)
From left to right, German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas, Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry, French Foreign Affairs Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian and Jordanian Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi speak to the media during a press conference in Paris, Thursday, March 11, 2021. (Ludovic Marin/Pool Photo via AP)

French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian will begin self-isolating after coming into contact with a person in his family who has tested positive for COVID-19, a foreign ministry official said.

Le Drian, 73, was due to be tested on Thursday evening and would take a second test next Wednesday, a week after being in contact with the positive person.

The minister, who is also number two in the French cabinet, on Thursday hosted a meeting with his German, Egyptian and Jordanian counterparts on the Middle East process and met US climate envoy John Kerry for a bilateral meeting on Wednesday evening.

French Health Minister Olivier Veran said on Thursday the COVID-19 situation in the greater Paris region was especially worrying, with a high number of people in intensive care units (ICUs) for the disease.

During a weekly briefing, Veran said that if the pandemic continued at its current rhythm in the area, the government would take "the necessary measures" to rein it in.

The French health ministry said the number of people treated in intensive care units (ICUs) for COVID-19 across the country went up by 74, to 3,922, the highest for three and a half months.

There were 265 new deaths from the respiratory disease over the past 24 hours, taking the total to 89,830, the seventh-highest in the world, versus a seven-day daily moving average of 285.

The number of cases went up by 27,166, at 3.990 million, the world's sixth highest total, versus 30,303 Wednesday and 25,279 a week ago.

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US, EU Call for Probe after Reports of Georgia Election Violations

Members of an election commission count ballots at a polling station after the parliamentary election in Tbilisi, Georgia, Saturday, Oct. 26, 2024. (AP Photo/Kostya Manenkov)
Members of an election commission count ballots at a polling station after the parliamentary election in Tbilisi, Georgia, Saturday, Oct. 26, 2024. (AP Photo/Kostya Manenkov)
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US, EU Call for Probe after Reports of Georgia Election Violations

Members of an election commission count ballots at a polling station after the parliamentary election in Tbilisi, Georgia, Saturday, Oct. 26, 2024. (AP Photo/Kostya Manenkov)
Members of an election commission count ballots at a polling station after the parliamentary election in Tbilisi, Georgia, Saturday, Oct. 26, 2024. (AP Photo/Kostya Manenkov)

Georgia's president called for protests on Monday following a disputed parliamentary election, and the United States and the European Union urged a full investigation into reports of violations in the voting.
The results, with almost all precincts counted, were a blow for pro-Western Georgians who had cast Saturday's election as a choice between a ruling party that has deepened ties with Russia and an opposition aiming to fast-track integration with Europe, said Reuters.
Monitors from the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) said on Sunday they had registered incidents of vote-buying, voter intimidation, and ballot-stuffing that could have affected the outcome, but they stopped short of saying the election was rigged.
President Salome Zourabichvili urged people to take to the streets to protest against the results of the ballot, which the electoral commission said the ruling party had won.
In an address on Sunday, she referred to the result as a "Russian special operation". She did not clarify what she meant by the term.
The ruling Georgian Dream party, of which Zourabichvili is a fierce critic, clinched nearly 54% of the vote, the commission said, as opposition parties contested the outcome and vote monitors reported significant violations.
Georgian media cited Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze as saying on Monday that the opposition was attempting to topple the "constitutional order" and that his government remained committed to European integration.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said the United States joined calls from observers for a full probe.
"Going forward, we encourage Georgia's political leaders to respect the rule of law, repeal legislation that undermines fundamental freedoms, and address deficiencies in the electoral process together," Blinken said in a statement.
Earlier, the European Union urged Georgia to swiftly and transparently investigate the alleged irregularities in the vote.
"The EU recalls that any legislation that undermines the fundamental rights and freedoms of Georgian citizens and runs counter to the values and principles upon which the EU is founded, must be repealed," the European Commission said in a joint statement with EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell.
President Zourabichvili, a former Georgian Dream ally who won the 2018 presidential vote as an independent, urged Georgians to protest in the center of the capital Tbilisi on Monday evening, to show the world "that we do not recognize these elections".
For years, Georgia was one of the most pro-Western countries to emerge from the Soviet Union, with polls showing many Georgians disliking Russia for its support of two breakaway regions of their country.
Russia defeated Georgia in their brief war over the rebel province of South Ossetia in 2008.
The election result poses a challenge to the EU's ambition to expand by bringing in more former Soviet states.
Moldova earlier this month narrowly approved adding a clause to the constitution defining EU accession as a goal. Moldovan officials said Russia meddled in the election, a claim denied by Moscow.