Body of former chief of defence staff Jean-Louis Georgelin, 74, found on Mount Valier in Pyrénées
The French army general appointed by Emmanuel Macron to oversee the reconstruction of the fire-ravaged Notre-Dame Cathedral has died while hiking in the Pyrénées.
Mountain gendarmes discovered the body of Jean-Louis Georgelin, 74, the former chief of the defence staff, after he failed to return to a mountain refuge on Friday.
Continue reading...At least two of detained Iraqis and Sudanese suspected to have links to human trafficking networks
Four people have been arrested in France after the deaths of six men whose boat capsized while crossing the Channel.
French judges are considering charges including involuntary manslaughter against the Iraqi and Sudanese suspects, according to reports.
Continue reading...Suspects accused of using chemicals to destroy locks of apartment doors during 90 break-ins
Five people have been charged over 90 burglaries in the Paris region in which acid was used to break the locks on apartment doors.
Four of the suspects have been held in pre-trial detention since Wednesday and the fifth is being monitored by police, prosecutors in Nanterre, north-west of the French capital, told AFP.
Continue reading...French police stress rules on taking blooms of plants such as edelweiss as drought affects some areas of country
French police have warned Alpine hikers they will be fined hundreds of euros if they pick too many blooming plants on their summer walks.
Officers confiscated thousands of génépi sprigs and edelweiss flowers during a week-long enforcement operation this month.
Continue reading...Blaze in popular tourist area in the Pyrenees forced evacuation of 2,000 people before it was brought under control
A fire in the south of France burned through 500 hectares (1,240 acres) of land and destroyed a campsite, with 2,000 people evacuated before the blaze was brought under control on Tuesday.
The French environment minister said the climate crisis was exacerbating conditions of drought that fed the fire. No one was injured in the fire, authorities said.
Continue reading...Protection group appeals for funds after accepting 12,000 animals since beginning of summer
French animals rescue centres say they have reached “saturation” with abandoned pets this summer.
More than 100,000 pets are abandoned to fend for themselves in France every year, more than half of them dumped just before or during long summer holidays when they are often found next to routes heading for the coast or countryside. Last summer, 60,000 pets were dumped, and animal rescuers say the figure is expected to be higher this year.
Continue reading...Improving weather and sea conditions have raised fears of further attempts to reach the UK on small boats
French coastguards have mobilised six patrol boats in the Channel and a helicopter in anticipation of further attempts by migrants to cross as weather and sea conditions improve.
The high alert comes as prosecutors opened an investigation for manslaughter after at least six people died as a result of a small boat capsizing and sinking in the early hours of Saturday. Rescuers are still searching for at least one other missing person presumed drowned.
Continue reading...Hunt is on for survivors after at least six people die, while activists call for more safe and legal routes
The government’s controversial asylum policy faced renewed criticism on Saturday when at least six people died after a small boat crossing the Channel capsized and sank.
Another two people are still believed to be missing after the sinking, prompting fresh calls for the government to urgently introduce safe routes for asylum seekers to prevent further tragedies.
Continue reading...Lack of safe passage described as ‘moral disgrace’ as helpers say legal routes would end dangerous crossings
Calls are mounting in the UK and France for the introduction of safe routes for refugees crossing the Channel after a French organisation said it had received multiple distress calls from people making the crossing in recent days.
At least six people lost their lives early on Saturday trying to cross the Channel in a small boat and the organisation issued warnings that more lives would be lost in future unless there were significant government policy changes.
Continue reading...La Rochelle coach Ronan O’Gara lights up the internet seamlessly blending French with English with a few choice words
French may be the language of Baudelaire, Rimbaud and Voltaire, but sometimes it takes a rugby player from Cork to inject extra oomph.
Ronan O’Gara, a former Ireland international who coaches the French club La Rochelle, has lit up the internet with a pep talk to his team that seamlessly blended French with English swearing, graced with a Cork accent.
Continue reading...Fire service says 17 people escaped ferocious blaze at gîte in Haut-Rhin
Eleven people have died in a fire at a holiday home for disabled people in north-east France.
The death toll was confirmed by a public prosecutor after firefighters spent hours combing the destroyed building – a converted barn – for the bodies of victims.
Continue reading...Institution used concerning approval procedures for hundreds of studies, review says
A major French research centre that produced one of the most widely cited and controversial research papers of the Covid-19 pandemic has been found by an international research team to have used questionable and concerning ethics approval processes across hundreds of studies.
The Institut Hospitalo-Universitaire Méditerranée Infection, or IHU, is a large clinical research centre in the south of France. It was founded by Prof Didier Raoult, who was also director of the centre until August 2022, when he stood down ahead of the release of findings from a government audit that found the institute conducted trials “likely to constitute offences or serious breaches of health or research regulations”.
Continue reading...Ecowas to hold talks on Thursday as west African country ignores demands to reinstate ousted president
The West African bloc Ecowas will meet on Thursday to discuss the coup in Niger, as cracks appeared in its unity and the military junta in Niamey refused to cave in to international pressure to stand down.
The announcement that the Economic Community of West African States would gather in the Nigerian capital, Abuja, came hours after the coup leaders ignored a deadline to reinstate the ousted president after the power grab on 26 July – a move the bloc had earlier warned could lead it to authorise a military intervention.
Continue reading...Defence chiefs demand reinstatement of president after coup, which triggered exodus of foreign nationals
Defence heads from west Africa’s regional political and security bloc have said a military intervention in junta-ruled Niger was “the last resort”, as European countries continued to evacuate foreign nationals after last week’s coup against its democratically elected president.
The 15-nation regional bloc Ecowas – the Economic Community of West African States – has threatened to use force to put down the coup in Niger after giving an ultimatum to those behind it to restore Mohamed Bazoum as president and reinstate the constitution and democratic institutions.
Continue reading...Airlift follows coup that toppled President Mohamed Bazoum, as tensions grow between the two countries
France has started evacuating its citizens and other Europeans from Niger, days after a junta toppled the president, Mohamed Bazoum, and seized power in the west African country.
Tensions between Niger and former colonial power France have escalated after the coup on 26 July overthrew one of the last pro-western leaders in Africa’s Sahel region. France’s decision to swiftly evacuate its citizens goes further than its reaction to putsches in recent years in the other former French colonies of Mali and Burkina Faso, where French citizens were not evacuated after military coups.
Continue reading...Investigation under way after theft at Swiss luxury watch shop on Rue de la Paix in high-end Place Vendôme area
Armed robbers have raided a store of the luxury Swiss watch brand Piaget in central Paris, escaping with between €10m to €15m ( £8.5m to 12.8m) worth of jewellery, the Paris prosecutors office said.
The robbery took place around lunchtime on Tuesday at the store on the Rue de la Paix in the high-end Place Vendôme area, home to several jewellers, watchmakers and luxury brands. The area has seen a spate of armed robberies in recent years.
Continue reading...Miriam Posen, from London, killed in three-vehicle crash on A26 that left five others in a critical condition
A British woman has died along with two other people in a three-car collision on a motorway in northern France.
More than 65 firefighters and nine ambulances attended the crash on Sunday evening, which involved eight children and involved a British nine-seater family vehicle and two other cars on the A26 near Neuville-Saint-Vaast and Thélus.
Continue reading...Junta that seized power claims Paris is aiming to reinstate deposed president as regional tensions grow
The military junta that seized power in Niger has accused France of plotting military intervention to reinstate the deposed president, Mohamed Bazoum, as tensions in the region continued to grow in the wake of the coup.
The junta said on national TV that France was searching “for ways and means to intervene militarily in Niger” and had held a meeting with the chief of staff of Niger’s national guard “to obtain the necessary political and military authorisation”.
Continue reading...Remi Lucidi, 30, who had a large social media following, found dead on a patio at apartment block
A man identified as the French climber Remi Lucidi has been found dead in Hong Kong and is believed to have fallen from a high-rise building while attempting a stunt.
Police said the body of a 30-year-old man believed to have engaged in extreme sports was found on a patio of an apartment block in the city’s Mid-Levels area. He was named in local media as Lucidi, who had gained a large social media following under the name “Remi Enigma” as he posted photographs from tall structures around the world.
Continue reading...Gen Abdourahamane Tchiani appeals to governments who backed democratically elected Mohamed Bazoum
Gen Abdourahamane Tchiani, the Nigerien military leader behind the coup against the country’s democratically elected president, has been declared head of state by soldiers backing him as he made a televised address calling for support.
Tchiani, the head of Niger’s presidential guard, which first acted against President Mohamed Bazoum on Wednesday, identified himself as the leader of the group of soldiers behind the coup.
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