Twenty-year-old British student killed by Michel Fourniret, Monique Olivier’s ex-husband, in 1990
The ex-wife of the French serial killer Michel Fourniret has been found guilty of complicity in the murder of British student Joanna Parrish and two other French victims.
Monique Olivier, 75, had admitted the accusations, but a panel of three judges and six jurors still took more than 10 hours to find her guilty after a three-week trial.
Continue reading...Ruth Baza, 51, said previous allegations against Depardieu provoked ‘flashes’ of memory of alleged 30-year-old assault
A Spanish journalist and author has filed a criminal complaint in Spain against Gérard Depardieu, claiming that the film star raped her nearly 30 years ago in Paris.
Ruth Baza, 51, told AFP she filed the complaint with Spanish police on Thursday, saying the alleged rape happened when she interviewed the actor in Paris on 12 October 1995, for the magazine Cinemania.
Continue reading...Couple sold mask to dealer for €150 in 2021 before it was sold to unidentified buyer for €4.2m
A French couple who sold an “extremely rare” African mask for €150 only to discover it was worth millions have had a request to cancel the artefact’s sale thrown out in court.
The couple, in their 80s, sold the wooden mask in September 2021 to a secondhand goods dealer as part of the sale of a number of antiquities including African artefacts that they had kept in their secondary home in southern France.
Continue reading...Likeness on display at Grévin Museum since 1981 is removed as allegations against actor are back in spotlight
A French museum has removed a wax likeness of Gérard Depardieu, the latest measure taken against the actor since he faced allegations of sexual assault.
The Grévin Museum in Paris said on Monday it had taken away the waxwork “following the negative reactions of visitors” passing in front of it, as well as comments on social media.
Continue reading...Owners of gite where formerly missing British boy spent time say he enjoyed sharing in their family life
The owners of a remote French gite where teenager Alex Batty stayed on and off for two years have said he was eager to go to school and “get back to a normal life”.
Ingrid Beauve and Fred Hambye said they treated Alex as part of their family and had no idea of his true identity until last week.
Continue reading...Teenager whose disappearance, aged 11, sparked an international police hunt, flies home after being found in France
Teenager Alex Batty has returned to the UK six years after disappearing while on holiday in Spain with his mother and grandfather, police said on Saturday.
Detectives told a press conference at Greater Manchester police HQ that the teenager, who was 11 when he went missing, met his step-grandfather at Toulouse airport earlier on Saturday before flying back to the UK.
Continue reading...Crane installs weathervane symbolising resurrection, resilience and hope following devastating 2019 fire
The installation by a crane of a new golden rooster on Notre Dame, reimagined as a dramatic phoenix with licking, flamed feathers, goes beyond being just a weathervane atop the cathedral spire.
It symbolises resilience amid destruction after the devastating April 2019 fire – as restoration officials also revealed an anti-fire misting system is being kitted out under the cathedral’s roof.
Continue reading...Teenager believed to have been abducted by mother in 2017 was found in France earlier this week
Alex Batty, the British teenager who has been missing for six years, will return to the UK on Saturday afternoon.
The 17-year-old is expected to be reunited with his grandmother, Susan Caruana, his legal guardian, who has not seen her grandson since he disappeared in 2017.
Continue reading...Nadia Murad and 430 US citizens of Yazidi background suing conglomerate over payments it made to terrorist group
About 430 Americans of Yazidi background and Nobel laureate Nadia Murad accused French conglomerate Lafarge of supporting brutal attacks on the population through a conspiracy with the Islamic State, according to a complaint reviewed by AFP.
The civil suit, filed in a New York court by attorneys that include human rights lawyer Amal Clooney references a $778m US Department of Justice fine and guilty criminal plea in October 2022 by Lafarge, which was acquired by Swiss company Holcim in 2015.
Continue reading...Piedmont town near French border is now best budget ski resort in Europe for adults, figures show
The ski resorts of Bulgaria have long been seen as the best option for British skiers hoping to hit the slopes on a budget. Borovets and Bansko might not have the glitz of Verbier, the after-ski buzz of St Anton, or the picturesque villages of the Trois Vallées, but as the solid, wallet-friendly option, Bulgaria has been unbeatable for more than a decade.
All that has changed, however, with the Bulgarian resorts this year being eclipsed by an unlikely budget rival: Bardonecchia in Italy. The Piedmont town, 96km from Turin and a few minutes’ drive from the border with France, is now the best value ski resort in Europe for adults, according to research.
Continue reading...French president accuses Hungarian PM of being dishonest to the public about his reasons for vetoing aid
Viktor Orbán must not be allowed to take the EU “hostage”, Emmanuel Macron has said, after the Hungarian prime minister blocked a €50bn EU aid package for Ukraine in the early hours of Friday.
As leaders of the European Union start working on the details of Plan B to raise the money through cash and loans, the French president said Orbán was being dishonest to the public about his reasons for vetoing the financial package and would ultimately come around.
Continue reading...British teen allegedly kidnapped in 2017 told passing driver ‘I need a future’ after he was found in remote corner of France
A British teenager allegedly kidnapped by his mother six years ago fled across the Pyrenees after she announced plans to take him to Finland, French police have said.
Alex Batty, 17, told a passing driver “I need a future” after he was found in a remote corner of south-west France in the early hours of Wednesday, carrying only a skateboard and €100 in cash.
Continue reading...Elya Toledano was among estimated 240 hostages taken during Hamas attacks on 7 October
The Israeli army has recovered the body of the French-Israeli hostage Elya Toledano, who was kidnapped and taken to Gaza by militants during the 7 October attacks.
Toledano, who turned 28 in captivity, was among an estimated 240 people taken hostage during the Hamas attacks in southern Israel. A resident of Tel Aviv, he was at the Nova music festival along with his friend and fellow French-Israeli Mia Schem, who was released under a truce agreement at the end of November.
Continue reading...Alex Batty was 11 when allegedly abducted by mother and grandfather to give him ‘alternative lifestyle’
A British boy who has not been seen by his legal guardian since he went missing on a family holiday to Spain in 2017 has been found in France.
Alex Batty, from Oldham, was 11 and under the guardianship of his grandmother Susan Caruana when he was allegedly abducted by his mother, Melanie Batty, and grandfather, David Batty.
Continue reading...Petition demanding station outside Paris does not use singer’s name has received 4,000 signatures
He was a poet-provocateur whose songs transformed French music and whose often outrageous behaviour on TV was shrugged off with a smile.
But plans to name a new Métro station east of Paris after the singer Serge Gainsbourg have sparked a row, with campaigners saying he was a misogynist whose songs glorified child abuse and should not be celebrated.
Continue reading...Emmanuel Macron faces political crisis after opposition parties refused to debate it in parliament
The French government has said it will push on with a planned immigration law in the face of a political crisis after opposition parties from the left to the far right refused to even debate it in parliament.
The president, Emmanuel Macron, and the centrist government were surprised by a humiliating defeat on Monday – the first time in 25 years that a government bill was rejected before even being debated by parliament.
Continue reading...‘Berlin link’ journey hailed as milestone moment in rise of cleaner alternatives to air travel in Europe
The first night train from Berlin to Paris in almost a decade pulled into Paris Gare de l’Est at 10.24am on Tuesday morning, hailed as a milestone moment in the renaissance of cleaner alternatives to air travel in Europe.
The maiden journey of the new “Berlin link” left the German capital at 8.18pm on Monday night, fully booked and carrying the French transport minister, Clément Beaune, who had hugged his German counterpart, Volker Wissing, before departing.
Continue reading...Boss of elite French university Mathias Vicherat has been interviewed by police and denies claims against him
The director of once of France’s most prestigious higher education colleges, Sciences Po in Paris, is to stand down temporarily after being interviewed by police over accusations of domestic violence.
Mathias Vicherat said he would withdraw from his position for a period, the length of which was to be decided by the establishment’s governing bodies. He made the announcement after students at the college – whose alumni include Emmanuel Macron and several other presidents as well as prominent business leaders and top civil servants – staged a sit-in last week calling for his resignation.
Continue reading...Unlikely alliance of opposition MPs deal humiliating defeat to Emmanuel Macron and Gérald Darmanin
Opposition MPs have succeeded in scuppering the French government’s highly controversial immigration bill by having it thrown out before any debate began.
In a humiliating defeat for Emmanuel Macron, a motion to reject the law – known as the Darmanin law after the interior minister, Gérald Darmanin – was passed on Monday by five votes.
Continue reading...Ban comes as jailed Nobel laureate Narges Mohammadi begins new hunger strike before award ceremony
Iran has banned Mahsa Amini’s family from travelling to France to receive the EU’s top human rights prize on her behalf, as the family of the imprisoned Nobel peace prize winner Narges Mohammadi said she had begun a new hunger strike before Sunday’s award ceremony in Oslo.
In Mohammadi’s absence, her 17-year-old twin children, Ali and Kiana, will instead collect the award on her behalf, reading out a speech their mother smuggled out of her cell.
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