Tougher sentences to be imposed for those causing accidents but activists dismiss alcohol ban as ‘laughable’
The French government has angered anti-hunt campaigners after refusing to ban hunting on Sundays during the season.
Instead, it has declared a ban on drinking alcohol and taking drugs while hunting, a move activists say is unenforceable, and will set up a voluntary application for hunters to indicate where they are active.
Continue reading...Tirailleurs, featuring Lupin star Omar Sy, tells story of father and son during first world war
A new film featuring the Lupin star Omar Sy has highlighted the forgotten heroism of African riflemen from France’s former colonies who fought in the frontline trenches of the first world war.
Tirailleurs was released on Wednesday shortly after a row sparked by an interview the actor had given to Le Parisien in which he contrasted attitudes to conflicts in Europe and Africa.
Continue reading...Light armoured vehicles arriving in Ukraine are good fit for tactics Kyiv has been deploying against Russia
On the roads leading to Ukraine’s frontlines, a striking change has become visible in recent months.
Where once the armoured vehicles being ferried in were familiar from the Soviet era – T-model tanks, BMPs and post-Soviet Ukrainian-built BTRs – they have in recent months been joined by a growing array of western-supplied vehicles.
Continue reading...Publication by French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo ‘will not go without effective response’, says Tehran foreign minister
Iran has summoned the French ambassador over publication of caricatures of the country’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, in the satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo.
The weekly magazine published dozens of cartoons ridiculing the highest religious and political figure in the Islamic republic as part of a competition it launched in December in support of the protest movement that began in Iran last September.
Continue reading...Resorts open hiking trails and lifts for mountain bikes amid unseasonably high temperatures and lack of snow
Europe’s record-breaking warm winter weather has closed ski slopes and forced resorts to open summer trails or shut altogether, as grass and mud replace seasonal snow from Chamonix in France to Innsbruck in Austria.
Eight countries across the continent have recorded their warmest January day ever, with temperatures in parts of Switzerland and southern Germany exceeding 20C and 90 monitoring stations in France setting new records over new year.
Continue reading...Bernard Squarcini and 10 others await magistrates’ decision on hearing charges including influence peddling and forgery
French prosecutors have called for the former head of the country’s internal intelligence agency to stand trial on charges of influence peddling and forgery.
Bernard Squarcini, who was head of the DCRI agency – the French equivalent of MI5 – until 2012, is also accused of complicity in breaches of professional and judicial secrecy.
Continue reading...At least eight countries experience record high temperatures of ‘almost unheard of’ heat, say meteorologists
Weather records have been falling across Europe at a disconcerting rate in the last few days, say meteorologists.
The warmest January day ever was recorded in at least eight European countries including Poland, Denmark, the Czech Republic, the Netherlands, Belarus, Lithuania and Latvia, according to data collated by Maximiliano Herrera, a climatologist who tracks extreme temperatures.
Continue reading...Parisians and tourists from France and abroad celebrate start of 2023 on famous avenue near Arc de Triomphe
An unexpectedly large crowd of 1 million people crammed on to the Champs-Élysées to celebrate the start of 2023, after two years of Covid cancellations – with Paris officials calling it a “renaissance” in people wanting to get together again and a taster for future big gatherings for the 2024 Olympics.
French authorities had expected about 500,000 Parisians and tourists to flock to the avenue, where a vast display of 340kg of fireworks was set off around the Arc de Triomphe at midnight during a special musical medley.
Continue reading...Rush of startups creating alcohol-free spirits, wines and beers is a departure in a country with a vast booze industry
When Nicole, a retired executive assistant, began preparing her new year get-togethers with family and friends, her first purchase was an artisan bottle of French alcohol-free gin.
“There’s something in the air right now,” the 71-year-old said. “Young people in their 20s and 30s drink so much less booze than we did. My generation was rock’n’roll, we drank a lot, smoked a lot. Times have changed. Young people are finding alternatives – and it’s benefiting us oldies too as we try to step back from bad habits.”
Continue reading...Appeal for UK authorities to bring over mother who was left in France after smugglers departed shore with her three children
The Home Office is under pressure to reunite a family of Eritrean asylum seekers after smugglers forced three children, the youngest aged just five, to cross the Channel on a small boat before their mother could get on board with them.
The woman, 31, who was staying in northern France hoping to reach the UK, paid smugglers for places on a dinghy for herself and her three children, a boy aged 14 and two girls aged nine and five, to cross the Channel on 16 December. She said she believed the UK was the place where she would find safety and a respect for the human rights of her family.
Continue reading...Mohammad Moradi posted video online saying he would kill himself to highlight Iran’s crackdown on protests
French authorities are investigating as suicide the drowning of an Iranian man in the south-eastern city of Lyon who had said on social media he was going to kill himself to draw attention to the protest crackdown in Iran.
Mohammad Moradi, 38, was found in the River Rhône that flows through the centre of Lyon late on Monday, a police source told AFP.
Continue reading...14-year-old boy died during celebrations of France’s win over Morocco in World Cup semi-finals
A suspect has been charged over the hit-and-run death of a teenage boy during celebrations of France’s win over Morocco in the World Cup semi-finals, French prosecutors said on Tuesday.
The 14-year-old boy, Aymen, was killed on 15 December in the Paillade district of the southern city of Montpellier.
Continue reading...The man, 69, was held on Friday after killing three people at a Kurdish cultural centre and nearby cafe
The French man detained over the killing of three Kurdish people in Paris last week has told investigators he had a “pathological” hatred of foreigners, the city’s prosecutor said on Sunday.
The 69-year-old man was arrested on Friday after shooting dead two men and a woman in a Kurdish cultural centre and nearby Kurdish cafe in the 10th district of Paris, which the French president, Emmanuel Macron, described as a “vile” attack on the Kurds of France.
Continue reading...Hundreds rally after three people allegedly shot by man awaiting trial for refugee camp attack
Protesters have clashed with police as they call for justice over the killing of three people in a Kurdish neighbourhood in Paris.
Several hundred representatives of France’s Kurdish community gathered at Republic Square on Saturday to demand answers over the killings, which they say have left the community afraid.
Continue reading...Sobhraj arrives in Paris on commercial flight after release from Nepalese prison on health grounds
Charles Sobhraj, a convicted killer known as “the Serpent” who police believe targeted western backpackers on the hippie trail in the 1970s, has returned to France after nearly two decades behind bars in Nepal, BFM TV reported.
Nepal’s supreme court ordered the release of Sobhraj on Wednesday, citing his advanced age and health.
Continue reading...French media say a 69-year-old opened fire on group of people, and government says incident seemed to have been racially motivated
Clashes have erupted in Paris after three people were killed in a shooting at a Kurdish cultural centre that the French government said appeared to have been racially motivated.
French media reported that a 69-year-old man opened fire on a group of people at the Ahmet-Kaya centre on Rue d’Enghien in the 10th arrondissement on Friday morning. Shots were also fired at a hairdresser’s and a restaurant in the street. Three people have been wounded, one critically.
Continue reading...French national suspected of murdering western backpackers on the hippie trail in 1970s and 80s
Charles Sobhraj, the French serial killer known as “the serpent” who targeted western backpackers on the hippie trail in the 1970s, has walked free from a jail in Nepal after he was given early release.
Sobhraj, 78, had been serving a life sentence after he was convicted in 2004 for the murder of an American tourist, Connie Jo Bronzich, in 1975. In 2014, Sobhraj was also convicted of killing her Canadian companion, Laurent Carrière.
Continue reading...Nepalese supreme court orders release on account of old age of man jailed for murders of two tourists
The Nepalese supreme court has ordered the release of the French serial killer Charles Sobhraj, known as “the Serpent”, who preyed on western tourists travelling on the hippy trail in south Asia in the 1970s and was jailed for life for the murder of an American woman.
Sobhraj, who has French citizenship and is of Indian and Vietnamese descent, has been linked to the killings of 20 foreign tourists across Thailand, Nepal and India. He is said to have lured them in before drugging, robbing and murdering them.
Continue reading...Patrons of French capital’s bars go through gamut of emotions as Argentina eventually win out on penalties
It was a rollercoaster. By the end they were standing on the tables outside, roars of “allez les Bleus” and “liberté, égalité, Mbappé” rising hoarsely into the freezing early evening air, hugging each other fiercely, cheering on their heroes.
It was standing room only in le Napoléon and le Mondial cafes, facing each other across the Rue du Faubourg-Saint-Denis in Paris’s 10th arrondissement – both rammed to the rafters inside with flag-waving, face-painted, red-white-and-blue bewigged fans.
Continue reading...Inquiry launched into ‘wilful damage leading to death’ after six adults and four children perished on Friday
French prosecutors have opened an investigation into “wilful damage leading to death” after a pre-dawn blaze killed 10 people in a rundown seven-storey block of flats outside Lyon.
The Lyon public prosecutor’s office said six adults and four children died in the fire on Friday in Vaulx-en-Velin and 24 people had been injured, four of whom remained in a serious condition in hospital. Initial reports said five adults and five children were killed.
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