In order to avoid divisions at the Socialist Party’s summer conference, Martine Aubry has finally accepted the principle of early primaries in advance of the 2012 presidential election, Libération reports.
Paris Mayor Bertrand Delanoe and former Prime Minister Laurent Fabius who were also reticent have given their backing to the idea. Effectively, Aubry has been steamrolled into accepting early primaries.

However, in accepting the proposal, the issue of primaries is now somewhat resolved and the conference can look at other issues, says the Editorial. For once, the Socialist Party is more or less in agreement

There’s always one dissenter though. Socialist Party MP Philippe Martin said, “I think this is obscene with regard to the French people who are suffering the full effects of the crisis. Sarkozy is playing Robin Hood with his tough talk on the banks and we’re playing Snow White, staring at ourselves in the mirror to see who is the most beautiful on the Left.”

There was a big news conference yesterday, as le Figaro reports, to announce the arrival in France of the swine flu vaccination. Welcome, welcome! 94 million doses have been ordered at a cost of 1 billion euros. And worry not, for those who don’t like vaccinations, they won’t be carried kicking and screaming into the surgery to get the jab – it is optional.

The operation will take place over 4 months in gyms and school halls across the country, starting at the end of September.

Tests as to the efficiency and safety of these vaccines have been conducted by the pharmaceutical labs themselves. The results are available in the coming weeks. Le Figaro asks what the risks of a mass vaccination program like this are. In 1976 in the US, a vaccination program was put in place against the Swine Flu. 40 million people got the jab. 500 later suffered from Guillain-Barre Syndrome and 25 people died.

 
Libération carries a story about exploding iPhones and the silence of manufactuer Apple. The title of the article is Apple aphone (aphone meaning without a voice).

One of the more notable incidents in recent news involved a French teenager who received an eye injury when the screen of an iPhone he was holding shattered, sending a piece of glass into his eye. He described that the iPhone had made a "hissing sound" before the screen shattered on its own.

Today The Secretary of State for Consumers is to meet Apple representatives. There’s no immediate risk of any measures to ban the iphone. The European Commission met Apple on 14th August and said the incidents were “isolated.”

France Soir reports on the 100 millionth passenger on Eurostar. It will take place today at 9am London time, 10am French. He or she doesn’t know who he or she is yet but there will be pomp and ceremony and champagne either in Saint Pancras Station London and then upon arrival at Gare du Nord in Paris.