Willy Bardon, 45, who was on Friday found guilty of taking part in the abduction and rape of a young woman found murdered in northern France in 2002, was reported to be 'emerging from a coma' this weekend after he swallowed a highly toxic pesticide when the court's verdict was announced.
François Bayrou, 68, the leader of France's centre-right MoDem party and a key political ally of President Emmanuel Macron, who he helped to be elected, has been placed under investigation for suspected involvement in the misuse of European Parliament funds to pay for party workers.
With more strikes called for Tuesday by unions opposing his planned reform of France's pension system, President Emmanuel Macron met with ministers on Sunday to discuss details of the draft legislation to be unveiled by his prime minister on Wednesday.
President Emmanuel Macron’s planned reform of the French pension system has run into massive union-led opposition, with a crippling general strike of mostly public sector workers last Thursday, when transport systems were paralysed and an estimated one million people demonstrated nationwide. While some sectors, notably the railways, remained affected this weekend, another national day of action is called for Tuesday. Union officials have declared that nothing less than a total withdrawal of the reform plans can end the dispute, raising the possibility of rolling strikes throughout December. The showdown will depend in part on what support unions can maintain in the key sectors of transport, schools, energy and healthcare.
Demonstrations accompanying rolling strikes against pension reforms that began Thursday and the latest 'Yellow Vest' protests against social inequalities were held over the weekend across France, upping pressure on the government ahead of more walkouts and protests called for next week.
An Italian writer who has extensively researched the death in 1960 at the age of 46 of the politically engaged French author, journalist and philosopher Albert Camus claims in a recently published book that the car crash that killed him was planned by the KGB.
After a general strike on Thursday against planned pension reforms, which were accompanied by massive demonstrations across France, transport systems and education institutions were among the mostly public sectors that continued to be hit by walkouts on Friday, with more strike action called for the weekend and into next week.
Prominent figures in French theatre are vacating their posts amid tough public budget cuts that suggest the country's cultural scene is losing its once cherished status with central and local authorities.
France's trades unions claimed a nationwide turnout of 1.5 million people, estimated at 860,000 by the interior ministry, in marches and demonstrations that marked a general strike on Thursday by mostly public sector, but also private sector, workers in protest against planned reforms to the pension system, and which brought public transport to a virtual standstill.
French transport workers, joined by a large swathe of public employees from teachers to rubbish collectors, and also private-sector staff, are to hold a national strike beginning on Thursday against the govenment's planned reforms of the pension system, expected to be the largest walkout in more than two decades and which is likely to last several days or, in some branches, even weeks.
French interior minister Christophe Castaner announced the creation of a special hate crimes investigation unit on Wednesday when he visited a Jewish cemetery in a village in the north-east Alsace region, which includes the tombs of relatives of Karl Marx and also past French political figures, after 107 gravestones were found daubed with swastikas and anti-Semitic graffiti.
At a press conference in London ahead of a summit to mark Nato's 70th anniversary, US President Donlad Trump said comments earlier this month by his French counterpart Emmanuel Macron who said the military alliance was 'brain dead' were 'very, very nasty' and 'disrespectful', adding a jibe that France was 'not doing well economically at all'.
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Le journaliste français est mort vendredi 3 octobre en Ukraine, victime d’un tir de drone. Il couvrait cette guerre depuis le début de l’invasion russe et avait collaboré avec Mediapart à de nombreuses reprises.
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