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People-smuggling gang members jailed in France

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The group - which prosecutors described as "merchants of death" - comprised mostly of Iraqi Kurds and were prosecuted after a Europe-wide operation in 2022.

Four wounded in axe-wielding fight on Paris commuter train

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Four people were wounded, including one whose hand was cut off, in a fight reportedly between rival teenage gangs on an RER Paris commuter train at the Ozoir-la-Ferrière station in the south-east suburbs of the capital. 

Kamel Daoud wins France's prestigious Goncourt literary prize

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Algerian-French author and journalist Kamel Daoud, 54, has won France's most prestigious literary prize, the Prix Goncourt, for his novel Houris set in the 1990s war in Algeria between Islamists and the government.

Eight stand trial in Paris over beheading of teacher

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Seven men and a woman stand trial in Paris on Monday accused variously of aiding and abetting a murder and terrorist conspiracy over the beheading in 2020 of Samuel Paty, a school teacher in a Paris suburb who was attacked by an Islamist of Chechen origin following a post of outrage on social media by a Muslim father, one of the accused, whose daughter lied that Paty had discriminated against Muslim classmates.  

Teen wounded in French town drive-by shooting dies

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The death was announced Saturday of a 15-year-old boy who was shot in the head during a drive-by shooting on Thursday in Poitiers, north-west France, which left four others wounded and which was described by the authorities as related to drugs  dealing, while French interior minister said the number of similar shootings across the country has left it at a 'tipping point'. 

Drive-by shooting in Poitiers wounds five, prompts mass brawl

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Five people were wounded, including three minors, in a drive-by shooting against a bar in Poitiers, north-west France, and which was followed by a mass brawl involving up to 600 people, according to local authorities who said the incidents were related to drug trafficking.

Actor who plays illegal immigrant hopes for French papers

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Abou Sangaré, who plays the lead role of illegal immigrant in the recent French film L’Histoire de Souleymane, for which he won a best actor award at the Cannes Film Festival, has seen his applications for a residency permit in France rejected on three occasions, leading to a deportation order, but since his stardom the government has invited him to apply again.

Mass rape trial upturns the sleepy French village of Mazan

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In Mazan, southern France, where Gisèle Pelicot and her ex-husband lived together until it was discovered he spent years sedating her into a comatose state and inviting more than 80 men to rape her on separate occasions, Dominique Pelicot's trial in nearby Avignon has sent shockwaves through the normally tranquil village. 

Macron renews support for Morocco over Western Sahara dispute

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On the second day of his three-day official visit to Morocco, French President Emmanuel Macron ended ambiguity over his approach to the issue of independence for the territory of Western Sahara, telling the Moroccan parliament that French companies 'will support the development' of the former Spanish colony whose 'present and future' belong under 'Moroccan sovereignty'. 

New rules threaten to disrupt French school trips to UK

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An 'electronic travel authorisation' to be introduced in Britain in April and which requires all EU visitors to register before arrival using a passport threatens to end a special arrangement agreed between the UK and France last December whereby French school parties can arrive using identity cards, and non-EU pupils among them are not required to have visas.