Senegal-born French footballer Jean-Pierre Adams, who fell into a coma in 1982 when he was anaesthetised for a knee operation out of which he never re-emerged, and who has been cared for over 39 years by his wife Bernadette, has died at the age of 73.
The local parliament in France's South Pacific territory of New Caledonia has voted in favour of compulsory Covid-19 vaccinations of all its adult population and visitors to the archipelago over fears of the spread of the Delta variant of the coronavirus that is sweeping French Polynesia.
The trial of 20 defendants accused of carrying out, planning or aiding the November 13th 2015 Paris terrorist attacks which left 130 people dead and more than 490 wounded will open on Wednesday in the French capital and is expected to last nine months.
French President Emmanuel Macron, who on Wednesday began a three-day visit to Marseille, has detailed state financing of around 1.5 billion euros to tackle mounting social and security crises in the Mediterranean port city that is increasingly making headlines for incidents of violent crime to a backdrop of failing schools, high unemployment, insalubrious lodgings and an inadequate transport infrastructure.
The trial opened on Wednesday of Jean-Marie Le Pen, 93, founder of France's far-right Front National party (now renamed Rassemblement National), for an anti-Semitic jibe he made in an online video targeting French Jewish singer Patrick Bruel.
Six French police officers from Roubaix in northern France are under investigation after their five-seat car crashed into a parked vehicle when a woman officer fired a Taser at the driver, apparently as a joke, after which, according to a local prosecutor, they fled the scene.
The infamous turf wars of drugs dealers in the Mediterranean port of Marseille has escalated this year with the killings of ever-younger victims, prompting French President Emmanuel Macron to visit the city on Wednesday.
Employees in France who occupy jobs that bring them in close physical contact with the public, estimated to number around 1.8 million, are from Monday required to present a health pass that shows them to be fully vaccinated against Covid-19, or to have recently been tested negative to coronavirus infection.
A permanent speed limit on traffic of 30 kilometres-per-hour was introduced in Paris on Monday, except for a few arteries that include the Champs Elysées avenue, a measure justified by Mayor Anne Hidalgo on safety and environmental grounds.
Speaking from Iraq, where he is ona 48-hour visit this weekend, French President Emmanuel Macron said Paris was in 'fragile and provisional' talks with Taliban officials about future evacuations of Afghan civilians to France, which have now been suspended, and also pledged that his country would maintain a military presence in Iraq 'no matter what choices the Americans make'.
