Imran Aliev, 44, who used the pseudonym Mansur Staryi and was a vocal opponent of Chechnya's strongman president Ramzan Kadyrov, was found dead with knife wounds to his throat in a hotel close to the central railway station in Lille, north-east France.
A total of 254 people of different nationalities have arrived in France on the second French evacuation flight from the Chinese city of Wuhan, the epicentre of the deadly cooronavirus virus outbreak, with 36 people showing symptoms of infection, 16 of whom left for their respective countries while tests on the remainder finally proved negative.
As a cross-party parliamentary committee on Monday began to examine the draft pension reform legislation, aimed at merging the country’s 42 separate pension schemes into a points-based “universal” system, self-employed professionals, including lawyers and healthcare practitioners, took to the streets of Paris to protest the planned changes, which they argue will increase their social charges, lower their pension rights and drive many out of business.
Following talks in Warsaw with his Polish counterpart Andrzej Duda, French President Emmanuel Macron said he hoped his visit 'will mark a real turning point' in bilateral relations because following Brexit 'fragility and doubt' had gained the EU, in a move to appease previously strained ties with Poland's right wing populist government over judicial reforms, climate goals and criticism of the bloc's powers.
The French government has threatened to veto the sale of British Steel to Chinese firm Jingye in norder to protect the functioning of the collapsed steelmaker's plant in Hayange, north-east France, which is considered a strategic national asset.
Members of France’s large population of south-east Asian and Chinese descent have created a Twitter hashtag 'I am not a virus' to report what appear to be a growing number of incidents of hostile behaviour towards them prompted by the coronavirus outbreak in China and six cases now diagnosed in France.
Two people showing coronavirus symptoms who were among 180 French nationals who arrived back in France on Friday after being evacuated from the Chinese city of Wuhan, the centre of the deadly coronavirus outbreak, have been cleared of infection and rejoined the other evacuees at an isolation camp near Marseille.
Ten-time French ice skating champion and world championships bronze medal winner Sarah Abitbol has said in an interview this week she was repeatedly raped between the ages of 15 and 17 by her former coach who, along with two fellow instructors, is also accused by three other skaters of rape and sexual abuse when they were minors.
An online petition launched in December to urge the French authorities to review their rejection of the naturalisation application by a Brtish man who has lived 27 years in the country has gained more than 30,000 signatures.
French fisherman are demanding their government holds up a new, post-Brexit UK-EU trade deal unless they are guaranteed continued access to British fishing grounds, among the richest in the North East Atlantic zone.
