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France extends state of emergency for six months

The fact the president was open to the six-month extension was seen as a concession to the conservative opposition who have demanded that the state of emergency be maintained through to the end of the year.

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The National Assembly also voted to allow authorities to search luggage and vehicles without prior approval from a prosecutor.

Retreating from previous claims, Cazeneuve said Thursday that only local police, who are more lightly armed, were guarding the entrance when Mohamed Lahouaiej Bouhlel drove a 19-metric ton (20-ton) truck onto the sidewalk in Nice before mowing down pedestrians who had watched a fireworks show.

PARIS (AP) – France’s interior minister Bernard Cazeneuve acknowledged Thursday that there were no national police stationed at the entrance to the pedestrianized walkway in Nice during the Bastille Day truck attack that killed 84 people.

The bill now passes to the upper house, the Senate, which is set to debate it Wednesday afternoon.

The state of emergency now in place across France was implemented on the evening of November 13, last year, when “Islamic State”-affiliated militants launched several attacks across the capital Paris, leaving 130 people dead”.

Hollande, speaking during a visit to Portugal on Tuesday, urged the whole of Europe to make defence an absolute priority.

With elections due next year, the political unity seen after the January 2015 attack on satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo has evaporated.

France’s defense and foreign ministers were in the United States on Wednesday for talks with other members of a USA -led coalition on increased military efforts against the group, which has urged followers to attack France, among other enemy countries.

The government has defended its response to the jihadist threat, pointing to a raft of new anti-terror laws and the deployment of thousands of troops to patrol the streets.

A recent commission of inquiry found that the state of emergency was only having a “limited impact” on improving security.

Paris: French Prime Minister Manuel Valls warned Tuesday that the country must be prepared for more deadly attacks and will have to “learn to live with the threat”.

“Even if these words are hard to say, it’s my duty to do so: There will be other attacks and there will be other innocent people killed”, said Valls.

A video that went viral on social media after the attack on Nice, France displays an Arab woman screaming “where my daughter”, who is probably one of the 84 victims or among the injured.

In a statement, Mr Cazeneuve accused the paper of conspiracy theories and said several “heroic” national police – who killed the attacker after an exchange of fire – were stationed further down the promenade.

Authorities found “very violent” photos on his computer, showing corpses, fighters posing with the IS flag and photos of al-Qaeda founder Osama bin Laden.

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According to the France’s interior Ministry, there were ten children among the victims, and 18 people are in critical condition in the hospital.

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