French President Emmanuel Macron will make a televised address on Monday evening when he is expected to announce new measures, drawn from the results of more than two months of nationwide debates and consultations of citizens' demands, aimed at defusing the social unrest led by the so-called 'yellow vest' movement.
Rolling anti-government, anti-elite nationwide marches by the so-called 'yellow vest' movement, notably in protesrt iover falling living standards for low- and middle-income earners, continued into a 22nd day of action on Saturday, ahead of a much awaited televised address by President Emmanuel Macron on Monday.
In their first return to earth in more than 150 years, bronze statues depicting the 12 apostles and the four evangelists from the New Testament have been removed by a giant crane from Notre-Dame cathedral in Paris for a clean-up of the effects of pollution and weather, part of an 11-million-euro restoration of the Gothic landmark.
French cereal farmer Paul François, 55, has won a decade-long legal battle against US biotech firm Monsanto, now owned by German group Bayer, after a court in Lyon ruled that he was poisoned and left with chronic neurological disorders after accidentally inhaling a Monsanto weedkiller, Lasso, because the company had not sufficiently warned of the danger of the product, which contained monochlorobenzene.
In face of recent poor performances of France's national rugby team, more than 1,700 clubs across the country were asked whether they would accept the appointment for the first time of a foreign coach, to which a thumping majority answered 'no'.
The UN’s special rapporteur for housing, Leilani Farha, has spoken out at the 'inhuman or degrading treatment' of migrants and refugees living without proper shelter in France, notably in and around Calais where, she said, 'people are being compelled to live in really dire circumstances, having already endured harrowing journeys there'.
France's nuclear saftey regulator, the ASN, has ordered utilities giant EDF to repair faulty welding at its EPR reactor under construction at Flamanville, northern France, initially due to enter service in 2012 but which has been dogged by a series of safety issues while also running well over its initial budget.
An online petition is demanding the removal from the French lower house, the National Assembly, of a mural painting by French artist Hervé Di Rosa which commemorates the abolition of slavery with caricatural images of black people, and which the petition's organisers say "constitutes a humiliating and dehumanising insult to the millions of victims of slavery".
A planned European Union statement calling on military strongman Khalifa Haftar to halt his Libyan National Army's offensive against the UN-backed Government of National Accord in Tripoli was vetoed by France, which has provided military assistance in past years to Haftar in his eastern stronghold.
Lawyers acting for Carlos Ghosn, the former Renault-Nissan boss arrested over allegations of financial misconduct five months ago after landing in Tokyo in his private jet, and who was re-arrested last week on further suspicion of financial corruption, have released a video in which the former high-flying executive, 65, denies the accusations against him and denounces a 'very dirty game' of corporate intrigue.
