Fabien Clain, 41, aka 'brother Omar', a veteran leading member of the so-called Islamic State group, who claimed its responsibility for the November 2015 terrorist attacks in Paris that left 130 people dead, has been killed in a coalition air strike in Syria which also wounded his brother Jean-Michel, according to French media reports.
A report by a French Senate commission of inquiry into the implications, and possible cover-up on high, of the unfolding scandal surrounding President Macron's former personal security aide Alexandre Benalla, has ofund top Elysée officials may have withheld information from the commission, that Benalla lied to it and that Macron's security and 'the nation's interests' were compromised by Benalla's business dealings with Russian oligarchs.
François Ozon’s film Grace a Dieu (By the Grace of God), which tells the real-life story of how Catholic priest Bernard Preynat sexually abused young scouts the 1980s and early 1990s, opened in French cinema theatres on Wednesday after a Paris court ruled against a last-minute attempt by Preynat, who has yet to be tried, to halt its distribution, and also against a demand by a psychologist and member of the Lyon diocese that her name should be removed.
A Paris court has ordered Swiss bank UBS to pay a record fine of 3.7 billion euros and another 800 million euros in compensation to the French government after it was found guilty of laundering money for its wealthy clients in France in order for them to evade due tax payments.
Around 80 graves, some dating back more than 200 years, were vandalised and daubed with swastikas overnight Monday at a Jewish cemetery in the village of Quatzenheim, near Strasbourg in eastern France, in the latest anti-Semitic outrage in the country as nationwide rallies denouncing anti-Semitism are due to be held on Tuesday evening.
German-born fashion designer Karl Lagerfeld, nicknamed 'the Kaiser' after his leading role over decades in the world of France's haute couture industry, transforming Chanel into a major money-spinning label, has died in hospital aged 85, it was announced on Tuesday.
Several rallies against anti-Semitism are to be held in France on Tuesday evening following alarming recent incidents of attacks trageting Jewish businesses and symbols, and notably following the verbal abuse by protestors among 'yellow vest' marchers in Paris at the weekend against an outspoken Jewish academic which has tainted and divided an eclectic movement prompted by anger at falling living standards for the lower-paid.
The trial has opened in Aix-en-Provence of nine people, including two former French military pilots, a customs officer and a celebrity bodyguard, accused of running a trans-Atlantic cocaine smuggling scam between the Dominican Republic and France using a Dassault executive jet, in a case marked by intrigue and derring-do escapes.
Veteran French academic philosopher and media commentator Alain Finkielkraut, a member of the prestigious Académie Française, was filmed this weekend being insulted by a group of 'yellow vest' protestors during a chance encounter on the streets of Paris, when he was the subject of anti-Semitic abuse from some marchers of the movement against falling living standards and the political establishment.
Migrants from Africa and the Middle East, desperate to reach a better life, continue to attempt to cross to France from Italy, where they are increasingly evicted from refugee centres by the country's coalition government of populists and far-right, using the deadly route of Alpine passes for which they are ill-equipped to traverse.
