Paul Signac’s Le Port de La Rochelle was lifted from a museum in 2018 and found a year later by Kviv police in an unconnected raid
A Ukrainian man has gone on trial in France accused of masterminding the theft of a €1.5m (£1.3m) painting discovered in a house in Kyiv a year after it disappeared from a museum in Nancy.
The work by Paul Signac, Le Port de La Rochelle, went missing from the Musée de Beaux-Arts in Nancy, north-east France, in 2018.
Continue reading...Passengers taken to Calais after two vessels got into difficulty near Gravelines on north coast of France
The French coastguard has rescued 83 people from two small boats in the Channel after they got into difficulty.
The two boats were crossing the Channel on their way to England on Sunday when they encountered problems near Gravelines, on the north coast of France between Dunkirk and Calais.
Continue reading...Organisation clarifies initial advice, which included term in list of phrases it thought could be dehumanising
The Associated Press Stylebook, considered one of the most reliable guides to correct use of the English language for journalists, has apologised after producing a list of terms it thought could be dehumanising that included “the French”.
The organisation tweeted advice not to use generic labels for groups of people who share a single common trait, giving as examples the poor, the mentally ill and the college-educated. It also included grouping together everyone from the European nation under the same banner.
Continue reading...YouTuber who posted videos on how to be an alpha male knifed woman 80 times and tried to kill her new partner
A self-styled expert in “seduction” and “masculinity” has been jailed for life for the murder of his ex-girlfriend in a town outside Paris in 2020.
Mickaël Philétas, 41, a former French railworker who retrained as an aerobics coach and posted videos online about living the life of an alpha male, was found guilty of stabbing to death his 34-year-old ex-girlfriend at her home in Ecquevilly.
Continue reading...French law enforcement facing renewed accusations of excessive force in aftermath of widespread protests against pension reform
Doctors had to amputate the testicle of a young man who got clubbed in the groin by a police officer during demonstrations in Paris last week, according the man’s lawyer.
Images and footage from Thursday’s demonstrations circulating online show a policeman hitting a man on the ground between the legs, and then leaving. The man is seen holding a camera.
Continue reading...Arrests at biggest march in Paris while train services halted and many primary schools close for the day
More than 1 million people have taken part in demonstrations across France as transport, schools and refineries were hit by strikes in protest at Emmanuel Macron’s unpopular plans to raise the retirement age by two years to 64.
The interior ministry said 1.12 million people protested nationwide on Thursday, with 80,000 taking part in the biggest rally in Paris. Trade unions said the figure was even higher.
Continue reading...Sister Andrée was born in 1904 and survived an outbreak of Covid-19 in 2021 in her nursing home that killed 10 other residents
The world’s oldest known person, French nun Lucile Randon, has died aged 118, a spokesperson has said.
Randon, known as Sister Andrée, was born in southern France on 11 February 1904, when the first world war was still a decade away.
Continue reading...French boy is practising a gentle form of judo and adapted archery as he continues his recovery
The family of a boy thrown from the 10th floor of London’s Tate Modern art gallery has said he is practising a gentle form of judo and adapted archery as his condition slowly improves.
The French boy was six when he was badly injured in an attack by Jonty Bravery at the tourist attraction in August 2019.
Continue reading...Critics say riders show only cursory respect for the rules of the road
Parisians will be invited to vote on whether to allow electric scooter rental services to continue operating in the French capital as authorities weigh banning the controversial for-hire vehicles, the city’s mayor has said.
The issue is “extremely divisive”, Anne Hidalgo told the weekend edition of Le Parisien newspaper, with critics saying riders show only cursory respect for the rules of the road.
Continue reading...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.
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