Louvre blockbuster marking 500 years since artist’s death may end up a casualty
He was a Renaissance master – painter, scientist, engineer and inventor – who was hailed as one of the greatest artists who ever lived.
But as Europe stages a year-long frenzy of events to mark 500 years since Leonardo da Vinci’s death, Italy and France are engaged in a diplomatic tussle over him that threatens a blockbuster exhibition at the Louvre in Paris.
Continue reading...Family group indicted over 8mm pistol used by Cherif Chekatt in Christmas attack that killed five people and wounded 11
Three men have reportedly been charged with supplying the weapon used by Cherif Chekatt in the Christmas market attack that killed five people and wounded 11 in the French city of Strasbourg.
The three suspects, from the same family and aged 32, 34 and 78, were indicted and placed in custody by an examining magistrate in Paris for “possession and transfer of a category B weapon in relation to a criminal terrorist enterprise” and for “conspiracy with terrorist criminals”, according to a judicial source.
Continue reading...Two men sentenced to seven years for rape of Emily Spanton at Paris police HQ
Two police officers from one of France’s elite units have been sent to jail for seven years for the gang rape of a Canadian tourist.
The officers took Emily Spanton back to their headquarters at 36 Quai des Orfèvres after an alcohol-fuelled evening at an Irish bar in April 2014.
Continue reading...Government facing calls to ban riot police’s use of explosives
The French government is under growing pressure to review police use of explosive weapons against civilians after serious injuries were reported during gilets jaunes street demonstrations, including people alleged to have lost eyes and to have had their hands and feet mutilated.
France’s legal advisory body, the council of state, will on Wednesday examine an urgent request by the French Human Rights League and the CGT trade union to ban police from using a form of rubber-bullet launcher in which ball-shaped projectiles are shot out of specialised handheld launchers. France’s rights ombudsman has long warned they are dangerous and carry “disproportionate risk”.
Continue reading...A 73-year-old French sailor has won an unusual, around-the-world yacht race after 212 days alone at sea without modern instruments, in what was his first sailing victory.
Jean-Luc Van Den Heede arrived on Tuesday in Les Sables d’Olonne in western France in his 35-foot yacht Matmut, the first boat to finish the 30,000-mile Golden Globe race. Of the 19 sailors who started out last July, only five were still in the race on Tuesday.
Continue reading...Shots fired in latest dramatic escape, with union accusing authorities of naivety
Two armed men attacked a van carrying a prisoner on his way to a French court on Monday, firing at the vehicle and striking a guard before making their getaway in the southern town of Tarascon, officials said.
The escape follows last year’s dramatic helicopter jailbreak by Rédoine Faïd, a notorious gangster, which led to calls for prison services to improve their security and intelligence gathering.
Continue reading...Wartime aircraft will fly in 6 June event commemorating day that turned tide of war
The skies over the UK and Normandy will be filled with wartime Dakota aircraft as hundreds of parachutists take part in a mass airdrop to mark the 75th anniversary of the D-day landings in June.
The plans, unveiled by Imperial War Museums (IWM), are part of a programme on an “unprecedented scale” for the commemoration of the greatest seaborne invasion in history, to liberate Europe from Nazi occupation, on 6 June 1944.
Continue reading...Mike Pompeo urged countries to disconnect from Maduro’s government financially as Britain issued eight-day ultimatum
Britain has issued the embattled Venezuelan president, Nicolás Maduro, a stark ultimatum, warning him it would throw its weight behind the country’s self-declared interim leader unless he called an election within the next eight days – as the US government called on the world to “pick a side” in the crisis.
Echoing calls from Berlin, Paris and Madrid, Jeremy Hunt, the foreign secretary, said on Saturday it was clear Maduro was no longer the legitimate leader of the Latin American country after last year’s “deeply flawed” election.
Continue reading...Artwork thought to be homage to the 90 people who died in an Islamist attack on Paris venue
A mural by British street artist Banksy on a fire-exit door at Paris’ Bataclan theatre, where Islamist militants killed 90 people three years ago, has been stolen, the venue has said.
The work, one of a series of murals painted last June in the French capital and attributed to Banksy, showed a veiled female figure in a mournful pose.
Continue reading...French composer won three Academy Awards, including for The Windmills of Your Mind
The French composer Michel Legrand, who won three Oscars during a career spanning more than half a century, has died aged 86, his spokesman said.
Related: Soundtrack legend Michel Legrand: 'I've been an adventurer!'
Continue reading...Group of historians and writers publish manifesto warning against rise of populism
Liberal values in Europe face a challenge “not seen since the 1930s”, leading intellectuals from 21 countries have said, as the UK lurches towards Brexit and nationalists look set to make sweeping gains in EU parliamentary elections.
The group of 30 writers, historians and Nobel laureates declared in a manifesto published in several newspapers, including the Guardian, that Europe as an idea was “coming apart before our eyes”.
Continue reading...Jean d’Orléans, descendant of Louis XIV’s brother, inherits a place in a theoretical tussle
The pretender to be French king is dead. Long live the other pretenders, all three.
France might have thought it had done with monarchs, first in 1793 when it sent Louis XVI to the guillotine during the French Revolution, and again when it exiled Napoleon III in 1870.
Continue reading...Romina Sala says she believes he is still alive after plane vanished over Channel Islands
The family of the footballer Emiliano Sala have pleaded for rescuers to continue searching for the player and a pilot after their light aircraft went missing over the Channel Islands.
Sala’s sister, Romina Sala, speaking after the search was called off, said she believed the Argentinian striker and the pilot Dave Ibbotson, from Lincolnshire, were still alive and in the Channel three days after their plane vanished.
Continue reading...Protest group in France says it wants to ‘transform the anger into a human political project’
The gilets jaunes (yellow vests) have named 10 candidates for the European parliament elections in May and called for more of their fellow demonstrators to put their names forward.
The French protest movement that, until now, has had no official leaders or formal organisation, announced on Wednesday that it would take part in the vote on 26 May after 10 weeks of occasionally violent demonstrations across the country.
Continue reading...Voicemail message revealed as police say chances of finding footballer alive are ‘slim’
The search for the plane carrying the Cardiff City footballer Emiliano Sala that went missing over the English Channel has resumed, amid only “slim” hopes he survived.
The aircraft, carrying Sala and the pilot, disappeared off Alderney in the Channel Islands on Monday night.
Continue reading...Macron and Merkel sign update to 1963 Élysée treaty in effort to mitigate populist party gains
France and Germany have renewed their vows of postwar friendship, aiming to show that the traditional engine powering the EU project is still strong but drawing fierce criticism from the nationalist and populist parties advancing across the continent.
President Emmanuel Macron and Chancellor Angela Merkel signed the 16-page update to the 1963 Elysée treaty on Tuesday in the German border city of Aachen, residence of Charlemagne, the “father of Europe” who managed to unite much of western the continent in the ninth century.
Continue reading...Italian deputy PM blames migrant crisis on France’s ‘colonisation’ of Africa
France’s foreign ministry has summoned the Italian ambassador in an escalating row over migrant arrivals in Europe that pits the centrist government of Emmanuel Macron against Italy’s far-right-populist coalition.
Teresa Castaldo was summoned over “hostile” remarks made by the Italian deputy prime minister, Luigi Di Maio.
Continue reading...Twenty-nine-year-old in custody with two others after woman files complaint
The American singer Chris Brown and two other people were held in custody in Paris after a woman filed a rape complaint.
Brown was detained on Monday on potential charges of aggravated rape and drug infractions, a French judicial official said. Investigators have two days to decide whether to let him go or file preliminary charges.
Continue reading...CNIL found that company failed to offer users transparent information on data use
The French data protection watchdog CNIL has fined Google a record €50m (£44m) for failing to provide users with transparent and understandable information on its data use policies.
For the first time, the company was fined using new terms laid out in the pan-European general data protection regulation. The maximum fine for large companies under the new law is 4% of annual turnover, meaning the theoretical maximum fine for Google is almost €4bn.
Continue reading...A collection of vintage ski and winter sports posters up to a century old – some worth thousands of dollars – is about to be auctioned in New York. The resorts advertised range from Europe’s Alpine jewels to the mountains of Canada, and all offer fun in the outdoors
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