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French press review 14 August 2015

The French press question industrial security in China after deadly explosions in Tianjin. John Kerry flies to Havana to open a new embassy; the festive "Tel-Aviv on the River Seine" Day in Paris flops after being submerged by Israeli and Palestinian flags; and the announcement of a Paris conference on Oriental Christians in September cheers hearts this Pentecostal weekend.

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The paper are all hooting about the global mobilisation for Christians of the Orient, after the French government announced a gathering of 60 foreign ministers in Paris on 8 September to deliver a befitting response to the plight of Christian minorities in Syria and Iraq.

Le Figaro commends the initiative of the Socialist-led government in a rare tribute admitting that the mobilisation of those Christian communities has not slowed down one year after the fall of Qaraqosh, east of Iraq’s second largest city Mosul, which has been unleashing an exodus of hundreds of thousands of refugees.

The right-wing publication says the barbaric conduct of the Islamic State armed group marked by abductions and beheadings of scores of Christians in north-eastern Syria have contributed to maintaining the international momentum.

“Faith can move mountains”, says Le Figaro. It reminds the people of France gathered in prayer this weekend for the traditional 15 August celebration of the Blessed Virgin Mary to pray for their brothers in Christ killed and driven from their homes. “We owe them a moral debt”, says the publication, “to prevent the roots and the cradle of Christianity from being wiped out”.

La Croix looks back to the nights of the 6th and 7th of August 2014 when Islamic State insurgents invaded Nineveh, sparking the flight of millions of Iraqis whose situation remains as precarious as ever. According to the Catholic daily it was in these territories now threatened with extinction that the old and new testaments were written, centuries long before the birth of Islam.

It however underlines that it is not Christians who are subject to immense suffering but millions of Muslims as well which gave a greater sense of urgency and multi-confessional dimension to the Paris conference.

L’Humanité reports about the scenes of desolation in the northern Chinese port city of Tianjin where gigantic explosions left 50 people dead and 700 others wounded on Thursday. The communist party daily says that two days after the apocalypse Chinese authorities are still not able to identify the dangerous chemicals that devastated the industrial site.

Le Figaro publishes a photograph showing the charred remains of 10,000 cars destroyed by the explosions which left the people of China in a state of shock.

La Croix says that Tianjin explosions raise serious questions about industrial security in China. The environment group Greenpeace says that at least 700 tonnes of sodium cyanide were at the site, along with other poisonous chemicals detected in nearby drains.

The information was initially relayed by Beijing News. L’Humanité says the report was no longer available on the newspaper's website on Friday, giving rise to suspicions that the Chinese government was clamping down on sensitive information relating to the tragedy. This despite promises from President Xi Jinping to conduct an implacable inquiry into the fire.

As US Secretary of State John Kerry flies to Havana this Friday to open the new US embassy, Le Figaro say the two long-time foes are eager to turn the page of their 54-year Cold War. Libération reports that Kerry’s raising the Star-Spangled Banner in Havana will mark the thawing of bilateral relations, without addressing sticking issues regarding commercial exchanges and the repression of dissidents. Hence its conviction that this event in Havana is nothing more than a “small revolution”.

Tel-Aviv sur Seine, organised by the city of Paris on Thursday to celebrate the Israeli city on the makeshift Paris Plage beaches this summer, turned out to be a pro-Netanyahu fiasco, according to l’Humanité. For the Communist newspaper, the festive initiative Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo had been dying to stage ended up becoming a high security free tribune for supporters of Israel’s colonial policy, not accessible to everyone.

Libération quotes pro-Palestinian groups saying they needed to respond to the provocation by Hidalgo. La Croix regrets that the festive side of the event was finally eclipsed by security concerns marked by checkpoints and decibels. Le Figaro meanwhile giggles about the ridiculous twist the Tel-Aviv sur Seine event took   the newsmakers turning out to be journalists and policemen.

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