An off-duty police officer shot dead his wife and two of his children, aged three and five, before turning the gun on himself on the platform of a train station in Noyon, about 100 kilometres north of Paris, local public prosecutor Virginie Girard told reporters.
The much-trumpeted law to improve morality in public life and restore public confidence in the nation's elected representatives has passed its key hurdle in the French Parliament. The two key measures voted for by Members of the National Assembly were the ban on MPs employing members of their own family, and an obligation to produce receipts for expenses. After 50 hours of sometimes lively debate and 800 amendments, MPs voted overwhelmingly in favour – even if some on the Right called it an act of “masochism”. Mathilde Mathieu reports.
