French railways operator SNCF has finally reopened Christmas chaperoned train services for unaccompanied minors which had been cancelled because of continuing strike action against proposed pension reforms, which was notably due to affect children from divorced couples living far apart.
The Mediterranean island of Corsica and the south of mainland France have been swept by strong winds and rain causing severe flooding and power outages, closing down roads and an airport.
As repair work continues on the fire-damaged 850-year-old Gothic cathedral, Midnight Mass on Christmas Eve will be moved to the church of Saint-Germain l'Auxerrois.
President Emmanuel Macron, 42, has announced that he will forgo his future head-of-state pension in an effort to be 'exemplary and coherent' amid the standoff with unions which reject his proposed universal pension reforms that would put an end to some relatively advantageous retirement rights.
French President Emmanuel Macron, visiting Ivory Coast, said French troops killed 33 jihadists early Saturday in an operation in Mali's Mopti region, when one person was taken prisoner and two Malian gendarmes held hostage were freed.
A French public prosecutor on Friday said Joel Le Scouarnec, 68, a former surgeon due to stand trial in March for rape and assault of four children, is now suspected of sexually assaulting up to 349 children according to evidence found in his computer files and a diary, adding that 229 alleged victims have been questioned, of who 197 have filed complaints against Le Scouarnec.
In a landmark legal decision, Didier Lombard, the former chief executive of France Télécom, now renamed Orange, his second in command at the company, Louis-Pierre Wenès and its former human resources director, Olivier Barberot, were found guilty by Paris magistrates on Friday of “institutional moral harassment” which saw a series of staff suicides during a brutal cost-cutting and restructuring plan at the telecoms giant in 2007 and 2008.
The Court of Justice of the European Union has ruled that Airbnb was an online platform and not a property agent, thus rejecting a move by French tourism professionals to force the US online property rental firm to abide by the stiff regulations applied to the broader rental trade.
The strikes crippling French transport systems appeared set to continue through the end-of-year holiday period after talks between government and unions to find a compromise over President Emmanuel Macron's reforms to the pension system failed to reach a conclusion on Thursday.
Official estimates said estimated 150,000 homes, as well as businesses, suffered power cuts during Tuesday's union-led national strikes and protests called against President emmanuel Macron's proposed pensions reform, a strategy that the leader of one of the largest unions defended on Wednesday because 'spitting on the public service can make some of us angry', adding that 'we may amplify these kinds of methods'.
