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World in brief September 19 2020

FRANCE: Prime Minister Jean Castex is being sued by Covid-19 survivors and patients’ families over government failings in dealing with the virus.
The France Coronavirus Victims’ Group complains about the lack of available tests and slams contradictory government advice over issues like wearing masks. It says Mr Castex’s drive to reopen the economy is costing lives.

ROMANIA: “Irreplaceable” books valued at more than £2.5 million, including first editions of works by Galileo and Isaac Newton, have been recovered by police.
The books were swiped by burglars from London in 2017 who cut holes in a warehouse roof and abseiled in to lift their literary prize. 
An international effort by British, Italian and Romanian police found the stash under a house in Neamt.

CHINA: Beijing has expressed “serious concern” to the UN human-rights council over abuses of immigrants by private security companies in Britain, Australia and the United States.
It said that defending refugees’ human rights was made harder by “privatisation of immigration and refugee detention centres and outsourcing to private security companies.” It condemned the US in particular for the mass detention of children and for separating children from their families.

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LYNNE WALSH reports from the Women’s Declaration International conference on feminist struggles from Britain to the Far East