Georges Tron, a conservative former minister and mayor of Draveil, a southern Paris suburb, has been handed a sentence of five years in jail, two suspended, after he was found guilty of raping and sexually assaulting a female member of his townhall staff.
France's minister for higher education, Frédérique Vidal, has been rebuked by the country's university heads over her remarks that 'Islamo-leftism' is rife in their establishments and her announcement of the launch of an investigation into research that she said focused on 'everything through the prism of wanting to fracture and divide', including colonialism and racism.
Cyber-attacks against three French hospitals over recent days, the latest in a series that, beginning last year, targeted others in Paris and several towns across the country, have caused patient transfers and the postponement of a number of surgical operations, although Covid-19 patients were reportedly unaffected.
The French parliament's lower house, the National Assembly, has approved by a clear majority legislation presented as a needy curb of the 'separatism' of radical Islamist activities, expanding state powers to close places of worship and religious schools, and to ban extremist preachers, while opponents say it further stigmatises Muslims and limits free speech.
Demonstrators protested in Paris on Sunday against draft legislation to be put to a vote in parliament on Tuesday which the government says is aimed against Islamic 'separatism' and which includes restricting clandestine schooling and foreign funding of religious activities, and increasing powers to crackdown on hate speech both online and in mosques.
Film producer Dominique Boutonnat, 51, president of France's prestigious National Cinema Centre, the CNC, has been placed under investigation on suspicion of sexual assault and attempted rape on his godson after the 22-year-old filed a complaint over events he alleged took place in Boutonnat's villa in Greece last summer.
A plan to build a fourth terminal at Paris Roissy-Charles-de-Gaulle airport which, before the coronavirus pandemic, was forecast to add an extra capacity of up to 40 million passengers per year and was costed at between 7-9 billion euros, has been rejected by the French government on the grounds of now meeting the country's pledges on reducing greenhouse emissions.
France's health authorities reported 21,063 new confirmed Covid-19 cases on Thursday, down from Wednesday's 25,387 figure and last Thursday's total of 23,448, while the number of recorded deaths from the disease rose to 80,803.
Scientists believe a conch shell found in a cave of prehistoric paintings in the French Pyrenees and which since 1931 remained largely forgotten in a French museum, is likely to be a musical intrument dating from around 18,000 years ago due to modifications to the shell which have only recently been studied.
Sister Andrée, who turns 117 on Thursday and who is believed to be the oldest living person in Europe, was infected with the coronavirus in January but developed no illness and has told French media that she had not been scared by the experience.
