Ruling by top French court marks a major setback for Lafarge, which is accused of paying nearly 13 million euros to jihadist groups including the Islamic State (IS) to keep its cement factory in northern Syria running through the early years of the country's war.
Salah Abdeslam is the alleged lone survivor of the IS group and is expected to be the key defendant in the Paris trial and is the only one charged with murder.
French agriculture ministry has revealed a 29% reduction in output is expected across the industry this year as the harvest season gets into full swing.
British-born singer and actress Jane Birkin, 74, who has spent most of her life living and working in France, and who became a hit with French audiences for her raunchy duos with her late composer and singer husband Serge Gainsbourg, is 'well' after a minor stroke, her agent said on Monday.
Francois Fillon, 67, who served as French prime minister throughout the 2007-2012 presidency of Nicolas Sarkozy, and who has appealed his conviction last year for fraudulently employing his wife, paid out of public funds, as a parliamentary assistant, is again being investigated for the suspected use of a parliamentary assistant to write a book he published in 2015.
French actor and producer Jean-Paul Belmondo, who began playing in theatre before becoming one of his country's biggest cinema stars, whose broken nose and tough build were often set to roguish roles, working under directors Jean-Luc Godard, Jean-Pierre Melville, Claude Chabrol and Claude Lelouch among otehrs, has died at his home in Paris at the age of 88.
