The new sanctions target North Korea's hard currency revenues by placing a "hard, binding cap" on coal exports, cutting them by at least 62 percent, capping them at around $400 million or 7.5 million tons, diplomats said. According to the Global Trade Atlas, China is on track to import nearly $1 billion worth of coal from North Korea in 2016 despite a previous sanctions regime.

Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed often says that cities are where the global economy is most readily influenced and where its impacts are most easily felt. The mayor, who visited the Paris climate talks last year for a city leaders forum, has an ideological ally in the newly arrived French consul general in Atlanta, Louis de Corail.

France and Pakistan have inked a memorandum of understanding (MoU), offering 200 needs-based scholarships to the unprivileged Pakistani students in various subjects for further promoting bilateral educational cooperation. The scholarships would be available from next year. The MOU was signed by French Ambassador to Pakistan Martine Dorance and Higher Educational Commission (HEC) Chairman Dr Mukhtar Ahmed in a simple ceremony here at the residence of French envoy.

If six weeks in Paris during the European summer learning filmmaking from some of the greats of French cinema sounds like your kind of working holiday, you should probably keep your ear to the ground for the 2017 edition of the Femis Gulf Summer School. The programme – a partnership between The Embassy of France to the UAE and the Femis Film School in Paris – sends students from across the Gulf to Paris each summer for an intensive six-week course.

The Federal Government has expressed its readiness to partner with Japan and France to develop the movie industry through animated movies in line with its diversifying the economy. Alhaji Lai Mohammed, Minister of Information and Culture, said this on the sideline of the second edition of the Animated Film Festival organised by the Japanese and French Embassies in Abuja on Wednesday.

Nations can and should nurture their brands much as consumer products and other companies do, a bevy of speakers said Friday at the Wharton Nation Brand 2016 conference. [...] Countries have branding as part of their DNA, panelists said, pointing to Germany's reputation as a powerhouse of skilled engineering, France's reputation as a haven of culture and Brazil's fame as a place of soccer, beaches and fun.

The government of France and European Union (EU) have concluded plans to contribute the sum of €35.5 million in aid package for the rehabilitation and development of North-east Nigeria and especially Lake Chad Basin region devastated by the Boko Haram terrorism. The Adviser for Africa in the Office of the Presidency, L’Elysee, Paris, France, Mr. Thomas Melonio [...] stated that France in its ‘Lake Chad Initiative’ programme, will increase its financial and humanitarian input for the development of the Lake Chad region.