Valérie Pécresse, France’s science minister, is to convene a meeting tomorrow with university presidents and senior officials of the national research agencies, to take stock of the number of French students and researchers currently in Japan – thought to be more than 500 – with the intention of “repatriating all members of the university community.” The statement, just in from the ministry, also said that emergency aid would be provided to Japanese students in France whose families had been victims of the earthquake and tsunami – a similar measure was taken last year for student from Haiti following last year’s earthquake there.

Photo: The front page of French newspaper Libération today, which carries a 16-page special on the disaster in Japan.