Archaeologists believe 4,000-year-old engravings on Saint-Bélec Slab resemble topological features
Archaeologists in France have uncovered a stone with 4,000-year-old etchings they believe may be the oldest three-dimensional map in Europe.
The engravings on the broken stone appear to resemble topological features including hills and a river network.
Continue reading...Clues in The Golden Treasure of the Entente Cordiale could lead readers in the UK and France to a historic treasure presented by Britain to the French president in 1903
For all the armchair puzzlers for whom sudokus and crosswords have palled over the long months of lockdown, a fiendish new literary conundrum is about to slide on to bookshelves – with a rather lucrative and unusual reward.
Artist Michel Becker tracked down and bought the golden casket given to France by the UK ahead of the signing of the entente cordiale on 8 April 1904, which attempted to end centuries of antagonism between the two countries. Presented to French president Émile Loubet in July 1903, the casket was wrought by Goldsmiths and Silversmiths Company in London and contained a scroll celebrating friendship between the two countries. Valued at €750,000 (£646,000), the intricately decorated box is now the prize for whoever solves the clues in Becker’s forthcoming treasure hunt book, The Golden Treasure of the Entente Cordiale.
Continue reading...Former owner of Adidas and his wife attacked during raid in Combs-la-Ville near Paris
The former French minister and scandal-ridden tycoon Bernard Tapie, once the owner of Adidas, was attacked along with his wife during a night-time burglary of their home, police have said.
The couple were asleep when four men broke into the house in Combs-la-Ville near Paris around 12.30am local time on Sunday, beat them and tied them up with electrical cords before making off with stolen goods.
Continue reading...Dozens of people have died in the attacks launched by Islamic State-linked insurgents
French energy company Total has withdrawn all its staff from its Afungi natural gas site in northern Mozambique, sources say, as clashes between Islamic State-linked fighters and the military rage nearby.
The company, which last week called off the planned resumption of construction at the $20bn development due to the violence, declined to comment when contacted by Reuters.
Continue reading...Bruno Le Maire’s forecast follows imposition of third national lockdown by Emmanuel Macron
A fresh lockdown in France will dent economic growth this year but it is too early to say by how much, the finance minister, Bruno Le Maire, has warned.
Amid concerns that increasing infection rates across much of continental Europe will slow the recovery from the pandemic, Le Maire indicated on Friday that a forecast of 6% GDP growth this year may need to be revised downwards.
Continue reading...From France to Spain, Germany to Greece, tight rules are in place to contain the spread of coronavirus
Europe may not be subject to the drastic lockdown measures introduced to combat the first wave of coronavirus a year ago, but many countries still face another Easter of greatly reduced meeting and movement.
In France, new restrictions come into effect across the country from 7pm on Saturday that limit travel to within 10km (six miles) of home, absent one of the allowed “imperative” reasons. Sworn declarations known as “attestations” will be necessary for anyone travelling outside these rules.
Continue reading...Moscow says leaders discussed possibility of shipments and joint production amid shortage of doses inside Europe
Vladimir Putin, Angela Merkel and Emmanuel Macron discussed Russia’s Sputnik V vaccine and its use in Europe on a conference call on Tuesday, the Kremlin said.
Moscow’s statement said that among other subjects the Russian, German and French leaders discussed prospects for the registration of the vaccine in the EU and the possibility of shipments and joint production in EU nations. It did not say who raised the topic.
Continue reading...Several thousand Germans head to Crete and Balearic islands as pandemic third wave spreads across EU
The first foreign tourists may have landed in locked-down Spain and Greece, but as a third wave of the pandemic accelerates across the EU, few Europeans will be enjoying an Easter break abroad – or even away from home.
German holidaymakers began arriving on Crete on Monday, with six half-empty flights landing at Heraklion airport after the tourist minister, Haris Theoharis, said some visitors could be permitted before the country’s planned reopening on 14 May.
Continue reading...Servier accused of covering up potentially fatal side-effects of the Mediator diabetes drug
A French court has fined one of the country’s biggest pharmaceutical firms €2.7m (£2.3m) after finding it guilty of deception and manslaughter over a pill linked to the deaths of up to 2,000 people.
In one of the biggest medical scandals in France, the privately owned laboratory Servier was accused of covering up the potentially fatal side-effects of the widely prescribed drug Mediator.
Continue reading...Coverage on recent struggles for human rights and freedoms, from Cardiff Bay to Thailand
Continue reading...Activists seek ban on flying horses to Japan with thousands sent every year from Canada and France
Tens of thousands of horses are being subjected to long-haul flights, confined in crates with no food or water, to meet demand for horsemeat in Japan.
Since 2013, about 40,000 live horses have been flown to Japan from airports in western Canada. Under Canadian regulations, the journey can stretch up to 28 hours, during which the animals are allowed to go without food, water or rest.
Continue reading...Report says France did not do enough to halt the 1994 killings but found no evidence of complicity
France bears the burden of “heavy and damning responsibilities” in the Rwandan genocide but was not complicit in the slaughter, according to the findings of an official commission set up by Emmanuel Macron.
As many as 800,000 people, mainly from Rwanda’s minority Tutsi ethnic population, were massacred in a wave of killings in 1994. The report released on Friday confirmed long and persistent accusations that France did not do enough to halt the killings, but said there was no evidence of complicity in the massacres.
Continue reading...EU will not be blackmailed over Oxford/AstraZeneca doses, says foreign minister Jean-Yves Le Drian
The war of words with the EU over vaccines has escalated as France’s foreign minister claimed Britain will struggle to source second Covid jabs but that Brussels would not be “blackmailed” into exporting doses to solve the problem.
Jean-Yves Le Drian, a close political ally of the French president, Emmanuel Macron, claimed that the UK’s success had been built on driving forward with first jabs without having secured the second doses necessary for full vaccination.
Continue reading...Raw-milk product normally sold only to restaurants or visitors to Cîteaux Abbey is marketed online
A French monastery in the heart of Burgundy has launched an emergency online sale to get rid of thousands of its artisanal cheeses, which are languishing in its cellars as Covid-19 keeps buyers away.
The Cîteaux Abbey, just south of Dijon, birthplace of the Cistercian Catholic order, usually sells its raw-milk, semi-soft discs only to restaurants or visitors to its on-site shop. But a drop in demand since the coronavirus crisis erupted last year has left the abbey’s 19 Trappist monks with 4,000 cheeses too many, a 2.8-tonne problem.
Continue reading...More areas of the country get mobility restrictions while Hungary and Poland face crises
Concern is mounting among health experts that France is not doing enough to curb a rise in coronavirus infections, particularly among younger people, as a third wave fuelled by the B117 variant first detected in the UK accelerates across Europe.
Announcing 45,000 new Covid-19 cases in the past 24 hours, the French health minister, Olivier Véran, on Thursday banned outdoor gatherings of more than six people and added three more départements, including the area around Lyon, to 16 already placed under tougher mobility restrictions.
Continue reading...Alarming rates of violence have inspired a poster campaign that has spread beyond France to more than 15 countries
On a weekday evening, in between coronavirus lockdowns and curfews, Camille, Natacha and Cindy are out with a bright yellow plastic bucket of glue, two large brushes and a wad of A4 paper, each sheet covered with a single letter.
The women, all in their 20s, stop on the main road of this Paris suburb by the wall of what looks like a former bank.
Continue reading...Huan Huan, a female on loan from China at the Beauval zoo in France, was ‘put in contact’ eight times on Saturday with partner Yuan Zi
A couple of giant pandas in captivity engaged in a rare weekend of mating, although the hoped-for result, an even rarer panda offspring, is still too early to call, a French zoo has said.
Huan Huan, a female panda on loan from China at the Beauval zoo in central France, was “put in contact” eight times on Saturday with partner Yuan Zi, the zoo said on Sunday.
Continue reading...EMA says benefits outweigh risks but it is continuing to study possible link with very rare blood clotting disorder
Italy, France and several other countries will resume administering AstraZeneca jabs from Friday after Europe’s medicines regulator said the vaccine was “safe and effective” and its benefits outweighed its risks.
Germany and Portugal will resume on Monday, Spain and the Netherlands next week, while Sweden’s public health agency said it would take “a few days” to decide.
Continue reading...Accused will face lesser offence of sexual assault in ‘Julie’ case that has sparked protests across France
France’s highest court has ruled that firefighters accused of raping a girl when she was aged between 13 and 15 should be charged with the lesser offence of sexual assault.
A woman known as Julie claims she was raped over a period of two years after being groomed by a firefighter in 2008, when she was a girl aged 13, and that he later introduced her to his colleagues. Three accused men have admitted having sex with her but say it was consensual. Seventeen others have not been charged.
Continue reading...Decision to pause use of AstraZeneca jab could lead to more deaths as new variant cases increase rapidly
Large parts of Europe are at the start of a third coronavirus wave, experts have said, with warnings that the decision to pause the use of the AstraZeneca vaccine over health concerns is likely lead to a rise in cases and a high number of deaths as more contagious new variants account for the majority of cases.
Christian Drosten, a leading virologist at Berlin’s Charité hospital said Germany’s epidemiological situation was “not good right now”, and was compounded both by the exponential rise in the spread of the B117 mutation which first originated in Britain that now makes up about three-quarters of new cases in Germany, and the decision to temporarily stop using Oxford/AstraZeneca. “We need this vaccine,” he insisted.
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