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Thousands of people joined a demonstration in Paris on Friday to demand greater political action to combat climate change, although estimates of the turnout, ranging from a police figure of 10,000 to the 30,000 claimed by organisers, were well below massive rallies held simultaneously in Germany and the US.

French cosmetics group L'Oreal announced on Friday it had reached a settlement with France's tax authorities to pay around 320 million euros in a correction of tax returns made by three of its subsidiaries between 2014 and 2018.

French foreign minister Jean-Yves Le Drian has said there is not 'any reason' for France to reconsider its decision in 2013 to deny asylum to former US intelligence agency whistleblower Edward Snowden, in contrast to his justice minister colleague who said she was favourable towards Snowden's comments in an interview from Moscow, where he lives with his wife in exile, that 'we would love' to be given an offer of asylum by President Emmanuel Macron.

The owners of France's prized 17th-century Chateau de Vaux-le-Vicomte, Patrice de Vogue, 78, and his wife and Cristina, 90, were tied up in their private apartments during an overnight robbery by a gang which escaped with cash and valuables estimated to be worth a total of 2 million euros.

After the replacement earlier this month of Italy's populist and far-right government for one that is largely Left-leaning and pro-EU, the easing of a previously tense relationship between Rome and Paris was illustrated in a decision by the Italian culture minister to overturn an earlier refusal to lend France works by Leonardo da Vinci for an exhibition marking his death 500 years ago, while France will send paintings by Raphael for a similar exhibition next year in Italy.   

The trial of Jean-Luc Mélenchon, 68, leader of the leftist La France Insoumise (France Unbowed) party, began on Thursday in which he and five other party members are accused of intimidating police and public prosecution officials during a 2018 search of his home and party offices conducted as part of an investrigation into alleged election funding irregularities.

A Belgian air force F-16 fighter jet crashed near Lorient in Brittany, north-west France, on Thursday, tearing the roof of a house and setting fire to a shed, while one of its ejected two-man crew became stuck for two hours when his parachute entangled a high-voltage electricity line.

Speaking at a joint press conference in Rome on Wednesday, Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte and French President Emmanuel Macron called for all 28 member states of the EU to share reception of the numbers of migrants landing in Europe after being rescued from perilous crossings of the Mediterranean Sea, when Macron said those who refused to do so should be 'seriously penalized'.

Following President Emmanuel Macron's pledge to raise 5 billion euros from private-sector investors to help startup businesses flourish in France, the major state investment arm, the Caisse des Dépôts has announced a 100 million-euro programme to help small caps in conjunction with the creation by Euronext of a new index for small tech firms.

French President Emmanuel Macron has told a meeting of MPs from his ruling LREM party that it must shed its middle-class image and adopt a hard line towards illegal immigration which he said was pushing the working class 'who live with it' into the arms of the far-right.