The planned Seine-Nord Europe Canal will be 107 kilometres (66 miles) long, and will link the Paris region with the waterway network in northern France, ultimately ensuring navigation between the French capital and the inland waters of Belgium and the Netherlands. This new canal will start at Compiègne north of Paris and end near Cambrai in the north of the country. Mediapart's Margaux Houcine met opponents of the scheme who took to the treetops at Compiègne – before being removed by the police – to highlight what they see as both a pointless and environmentally-unfriendly project.
Nicolas Sarkozy and three former ministers are standing trial in Paris over claims that the former president's successful 2007 election campaign was part-funded by the Libyan regime of Colonel Muammar Gaddafi. And that the North African country – whose leader was one of the most notorious dictators on the planet – received favours in exchange. There are 13 defendants in all. Wednesday's court hearing featured evidence from the former director of intelligence at France's overseas intelligence agency, the DGSE. Alain Juillet said that he had warned the former president's key allies and fellow defendants Brice Hortefeux and Claude Guéant of the risks they were taking by having contact with intermediaries – and also co-defendants - Ziad Takieddine and Alexandre Djouhri. Karl Laske reports
Even before they sign their first permanent employment contract, many Muslim students have already faced Islamophobic job-related discrimination, for example when applying for work experience or internships. And many young women applicants also agonise over whether or not to include a photo of them wearing the hijab or traditional Muslim headscarf with their CV. The discriminatory attitude displayed by potential bosses and employers is now leading these young women to question their future in France, even though this is the country where they were born and have grown up. Marie Turcan reports.
Riad Sattouf, 46, born to a French mother and Syrian father, has sold more than three million copies of his autobiographic series 'The Arab of the Future' which draws from his childhood and raises thorny questions about the compatibility of the Western and Arab worlds.
Immediately after taking office on January 20th, US President Donald Trump has begun his pledged crackdown on undocumented immigrants, with the arrests and deportations of many hundreds of people since last week, some of them on military cargo planes, and a significant hardening of the immigration system. Earlier this month Nejma Brahim travelled to California where she met with undocumented immigrants who spoke of their terror of being deported, some after having lived decades in the country.
Laurence des Cars, the first woman director of the Louvre, the museum with the highest annual number of visitors worldwide, has warned the French government that its decaying state, which is endangering its abundant artworks, requires a decision to launch costly repairs.
French father-of-four Serge Atlaoui, 61, who was arrested in Indonesia in 2005 for working as a welder at a drugs factory near the capital Jakarta, which he said he thought was an acrylics plant, and who has been on death rown since 2007, is expected to be sent back to France early next month.
