France's official Covid-19 death toll rose on Thursday to more than 100,000, making the country of 67 million the eighth nation in the world to reach the mark, news wires reported.

France launched yet another initiative, aimed at curbing carbon emissions. Under new amendments in legislation all domestic flights that could be substituted by train travel for under two and a half hour routes will be permanently suspended, Reuters reported. The move is the last in a series of actions targeted to lower green house gases. For the transport companies it comes on top of pandemic driven reduction of business and profits.

France will extend the period between the first and second shots of mRNA anti-Covid-19 vaccines to six weeks from four weeks as of 14 April to accelerate the inoculation campaign, Health Minister Olivier Veran told the JDD newspaper on Sunday, cited by Reuters.

The WHO reiterated on Friday there was "no adequate data" on switching Covid-19 vaccines between doses, after France said under-55s who received an AstraZeneca first jab should get their second from a different vaccine, AFP reported.

More than 10 million people in France have now received a first shot of a COVID-19 vaccine, with the government’s target for that number reached a week ahead of schedule, Prime Minister Jean Castex said on Thursday.

France’s role before and during the 1994 Rwandan genocide was a “monumental failure” that the country must acknowledge, the lead author of a report commissioned by President Emmanuel Macron said, as the country opens its archives from this period to the public on Wednesday, AP reports.

France begins production of Covid-19 vaccines this week at several of its manufacturing sites and opens a “vaccinodrome” at the Stade de France on Tuesday, RFI reports, 

French anti-terrorism prosecutors have arrested five women in the southern city of Beziers and launched a preliminary investigation in connection with a possible Islamist attack plot, a judicial source said on Sunday.

France announced on Sunday it had reached an agreement with the European Commission related to the framework of refinancing operation targeted at strengthening Air France-KLM’s balance sheet, Reuters reported quoting Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire.

France has entered its third strict national lockdown with tough restrictions as it faces a surge in new cases of Covid-19 that threatens to flood the country's hospitals, BBC reported. All schools and non-essential shops will shut for four weeks, and a curfew will be in place from 19:00 to 06:00. However, President Emmanuel Macron has promised more hospital beds for Covid patients.