Louvre heist suspect is social media star and former museum guard, reports say

Man, identified as Abdoulaye N, is one of four accused over theft of historic jewels worth tens of millions of pounds

One of the men arrested on suspicion of stealing €88m (£77m) of crown jewels from the Louvre museum is a minor social media star with a passion for motorbikes who has worked as a security guard at the Pompidou centre, French media have reported.

Identified by justice officials as Abdoulaye N, the 39-year-old man was arrested at his home in Aubervilliers, the suburb north of Paris where he was born, six days after the 19 October heist. He faces charges of organised theft and criminal conspiracy.

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Five injured after man ‘deliberately’ drives car into people on French island

At least two people in intensive care and suspect arrested after pedestrians and cyclists hit on Île d’Oléron

Five people have been injured, two of them seriously, after a driver rammed into pedestrians and cyclists on Île d’Oléron, a popular tourist destination off France’s Atlantic coast, authorities have said.

The driver has been arrested and an investigation opened into attempted murder, the La Rochelle public prosecutor, Arnaud Laraize, said on Wednesday. France’s anti-terrorism prosecutor’s office said it was observing the case but was not so far involved.

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Facebook’s job ads algorithm is sexist, French equality watchdog rules

Regulator found ads for mechanics skewed towards men while those for preschool teachers targeted women

The French equalities regulator has ruled that Facebook’s algorithm for placing job adverts is sexist, after an investigation found that adverts for mechanic roles skewed towards men while those for preschool teachers were targeted at women.

The Défenseur des Droits watchdog said the Facebook system for targeted job ads treated users differently based on their sex, and constituted indirect discrimination. The regulator recommended that Facebook and its parent company, Meta, took measures to ensure adverts were non-discriminatory, giving the company three months to inform the French body of the measures.

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French taxi driver cleared of stealing from David Lammy after fare dispute

Nassim Mimun, who left with Lammy’s and his wife’s bags after ‘tone escalated’, acquitted owing to lack of evidence

A French taxi driver accused of stealing money and luggage from David Lammy has been acquitted due to lack of evidence, a prosecutor said.

Nassim Mimun, 40, drove the deputy prime minister and his wife, Nicola Green, more than 600km (370 miles) from Forli, near Bologna in northern Italy, to the ski resort of Flaine in the French Alps on 11 April.

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Outrage in Paris as Shein prepares to open its first permanent store

Fast-fashion retailer faces political anger, fury from workers and warnings it will damage city’s progressive image

The online fast-fashion retailer Shein will open its first permanent bricks-and-mortar store in the world in Paris this week amid political outrage, fury from workers and warnings from city hall that it will damage the French capital’s progressive image.

The Singapore-based clothing company, which was founded in China, has built a massive online business despite criticism over its factory working conditions and the environmental impact of low-cost, throwaway fashion.

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Louvre jewel heist by petty criminals, not organised professionals, says Paris prosecutor

Laure Beccuau said ‘upper echelons of organised crime’ unlikely to be involved as one perpetrator remains at large

The brazen daytime heist at the Louvre was carried out by petty criminals rather than professionals from the world of organised crime, the Paris prosecutor has said, describing two of the suspects as a couple with children.

The assertion comes two weeks after thieves parked a stolen truck outside the world’s most-visited museum, used a furniture lift to reach the first floor, then smashed their way into one of the museum’s most ornate rooms. Less than seven minutes later, they escaped on scooters with crown jewels worth an estimated €88m (£76m).

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Veteran actor Tchéky Karyo, star of Nikita and The Missing, dies aged 72

French-Turkish actor appeared in a string of high-profile films, as well as hit BBC series The Missing

Tchéky Karyo, who appeared in some of director Luc Besson’s biggest hits and a string of international films, died on Friday at the age of 72, his family have announced.

A statement from his wife and children sent to AFP said he had “succumbed to cancer”.

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Two more suspects charged over Louvre heist taking total to four

Woman, 38, and man, 37, had been arrested on Wednesday in relation to theft of £76m worth of jewellery in Paris

Two more suspects, a man and a woman arrested this week over the jewel heist at the Louvre, have been charged and remanded in custody, prosecutors have said.

The charges on Saturday brought to four the number of people now charged over the spectacular robbery.

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Russia link suspected as Bulgarians jailed for vandalising Paris Jewish memorial

Four men given prison terms for desecration that was possibly ‘orchestrated by Russian intelligence services’

A French court on Friday jailed four Bulgarians for desecrating a Jewish memorial with red handprints last year, in what prosecutors think may have been foreign interference linked to Russia.

The Paris criminal court gave two-year sentences to Georgi Filipov and Kiril Milushev, described as the perpetrators, and four years and three years respectively to Nikolay Ivanov and Mircho Angelov, considered the operation’s “masterminds”. Angelov is still at large.

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Six arrested after €12m armed raid on gold refining lab in France

Robbery in Lyon left five employees slightly injured after explosion in latest high-profile incident to hit country

Six people have been arrested after thieves used explosives and military-grade weapons to break into a laboratory in Lyon that deals with precious metals, including gold, in the latest, brazen daytime heist to hit France.

Police said that the minutes-long raid, which took place on Thursday, had briefly allowed thieves to get away with an estimated €12m (£10.5m) in loot. At the time, 28 employees were present at Laboratoires Pourquery, five of whom were slightly injured.

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Prince and Princess of Wales win privacy case against Paris Match

French magazine publishes judicial notice after using paparazzi images of family holiday in Alps

The Prince and Princess of Wales have won a privacy case against a French magazine after it published paparazzi photographs of them and their children on a private family ski holiday, Kensington Palace said.

William and Catherine launched legal action after their break was featured in Paris Match magazine in April, with a series of images documenting their activities with their children at a French resort in the Alps.

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Five new suspects arrested in connection with Louvre robbery

Public prosecutor says arrests were made in and around Paris but suspects ‘did not help us find the stolen goods’

Five new suspects have been arrested in connection with the Louvre robbery in Paris, in which thieves stole crown jewels worth an estimated €88m (£76m), the city’s public prosecutor has said, but the gems remain missing.

Laure Beccuau told RTL radio on Thursday the arrests had been made on Wednesday night in the French capital and the surrounding area, particularly the neighbouring Seine-Saint-Denis department. But they “did not help us find the stolen goods”, she added.

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False claims online damaged Brigitte Macron’s quality of life, daughter tells court

Tiphaine Auzière spoke at trial of 10 people accused of harassment by posting claims that French first lady was born a man

Brigitte Macron’s daughter has told a Paris court that false claims online that the French first lady was born a man had damaged her mother’s quality of life, leaving her worrying every day about the clothes she wears and how she stands.

Tiphaine Auzière, 41, a lawyer, was called as a witness at the trial of 10 people accused of online harassment of Brigitte Macron by creating or reposting social media posts falsely claiming she was a man.

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Ten people go on trial in Paris accused of online harassment of Brigitte Macron

Trial is latest phase in legal battle against false claim that French first lady is a man named Jean-Michel Trogneux

Ten people have gone on trial in Paris charged with online harassment of Brigitte Macron – the latest phase of a legal battle on both sides of the Atlantic against the false claim that the French first lady is a man named Jean-Michel Trogneux.

The president, Emmanuel Macron, and his wife filed a defamation lawsuit in the US at the end of July, in connection with a rumour amplified and repeated online that Brigitte Macron was born a man.

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Boy thrown from Tate Modern’s 10th floor can now run and swim, says family

French child, who was six years old at the time of the incident in 2019, suffered life-changing injuries

A boy who was thrown from the 10th floor of Tate Modern in London six years ago can now run and swim limited distances, his family has revealed.

The unnamed French boy, who his parents call their “little knight”, suffered life-changing injuries in the attack in August 2019. Jonty Bravery is serving a minimum 15-year jail term for his attempt to murder the boy.

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French police arrest two men over €88m Louvre jewel heist

One man arrested at Charles de Gaulle airport and another just outside Paris, officials confirm

French police have arrested two suspects believed to have helped steal crown jewels worth an estimated €88m (£76m) from the Louvre museum in Paris, officials have said, a week after one of the country’s most spectacular heists in decades.

The Paris public prosecutor confirmed media reports on Sunday that one man had been detained at about 10pm (8pm UK time) on Saturday at the capital’s Charles de Gaulle airport by officers from the armed robberies and serious burglaries squad.

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Napoleon’s soldiers who died in Russian retreat had unexpected diseases, study finds

Analysis of DNA from teeth of troops buried in mass grave suggests soldiers had paratyphoid fever and relapsing fever

When Napoleon ordered his army to retreat from Russia in October 1812, disaster ensued. Starving, cold, exhausted and struggling with sickness, an estimated 300,000 soldiers died.

Researchers now say they have identified two unexpected diseases among soldiers who died in the retreat – paratyphoid fever and relapsing fever – which provide fresh insights into their plight.

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French biathlon star Julia Simon found guilty of theft and credit card fraud

  • Simon handed three-month suspended sentence and fine

  • Olympic medallist admitted using teammate’s bank card

The French biathlete Julia Simon was found guilty of theft and credit card fraud and handed a three-month suspended prison sentence by a French court on Friday.

Simon was accused of repeatedly using the bank card of her France teammate, Justine Braisaz-Bouchet, and that of a French team staff member to make online purchases totalling more than €2,000 (£1,371).

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Prosecutor has ‘small hope’ of recovering Louvre jewels thanks to gear left by thieves

French investigators are analysing DNA samples and fingerprints on tools and other items found on the scene

French investigators are analysing more than 150 DNA samples, fingerprints and other traces from tools and safety gear left by the thieves who broke into the Louvre museum and escaped with crown jewels worth an estimated €88m (£76m).

Five days after the brazen heist from the world’s most-visited museum, Laure Beccuau, the Paris prosecutor, said she had “a small hope” the jewels could still be recovered and was “optimistic” about the investigation’s outcome.

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Louvre thieves’ slow-motion getaway using furniture lift was caught on video

Footage showing two men appears to have been filmed from nearby window in museum

The slow-motion getaway of two thieves from the Louvre clutching €88m (£76m) of France’s crown jewels was captured on video, it has emerged – the latest dramatic twist to the country’s most spectacular heist in decades.

The 36-second clip, which Le Parisien newspaper said it had verified, shows two men dressed in black, one wearing a yellow hi-vis vest and the other a motorcycle helmet, slowly descending on a furniture lift from the museum’s Apollo gallery.

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