Gabriel Matznef, 83, an author once fêted among French lietrati who wrote of his enjoyment of grooming girl and boy minors for sex in France and abroad and who was publicly shamed after one of his past victims published an account of her experiences, has said 'if I did something that was not good I regret it', while also denouncing what he called 'a wave of neo-puritanism' following the removal from sale of his books.
A conviction and six-month suspended jail sentence handed last year to Cardinal Philippe Barbarin, 69, archbishop of Lyon, for failing to inform the authorities about evidence of child sex abuse by a priest under his authority was overturned on appeal on Thursday, although an association of victims said they would in turn appeal the ruling.
France is to outlaw from 2021 the practice of mass shredding of live male chicks, still authorised by an EU directive if it causes 'immediate' death, and the castration of piglets without the use of anaesthetics.
While a fourth case of coronavirus infection was diagnosed in France, the government has said the first flights repatriating French citizens from the centre of the outbreak, the Chinese city of Wuang, are due to arrive in Paris as of Friday, and all will be placed in a holding facility where they will be monitored over the 14-day incubation period.
Feminist activists led fierce criticism of the organisers of France's top cinema awards, the Césars, after director Roman Polanski's latest film An Officer and a Spy was nominated this year for 12 awards, including best director, which one group said amounted to acclaiming 'a child abuser and rapist on the run' in a reference to Polanski's fugitive status in the US from where he fled in 1978 after admitting the statutory rape of a 13-year-old girl.
French interior minister Christophe Castaner has announced that police are to no longer use an highly explosive tear gas grenade until now used in crowd-control situations, notably during the past 12 months of rolling 'yellow vest' demonstrations over social grievances, and which has been one of the arsenal of police weapons that have left many people with serious injuries and amputations.
French oil group Total is responsible for 1% of the world’s CO2 emissions and failing to respect its so-called ‘corporate duty of vigilance’ say activists.
Michel Catty, better known as 'Michou' – and also 'the man in blue' for dressing head-to-toe in the colour –, who in 1956 created the Chez Michou cabaret theatre in Montmartre where drag queens amused diners notably with imitations of celebrated singers and which served as model for the film The Birdcage, died from respiratory complications in hospital overnight Saturday at the age of 88.
The number of unemployed in France fell in the final quarter of 2019, down by 1.7% on the third quarter to total 3.309 million people, according to labour ministry figures released on Monday.
