Mathilde Edey Gamassou, 17, whose parents are from Poland and Benin, was chosen to represent Joan of Arc in the French town of Orléan's celebrations this year to honour France's historic icon who was a symbol of the resistance that broke the siege of the town by English invaders, but social media trolls from the far-right, which has adopted Joan as a figurehead, have launched a vitriolic campaign against the non-white teenager.
The two soldiers, taking part in France's Operation Barkhane in the West African country where it has deployed about 4,000 troops to contain jihadist groups operating in the region, died after their armoured vehicle ran over an explosive device near the town of Gao.
Environmental group Générations Futures has released a report based on France's official food safety agency figures that show almost three-quarters of fruit and more than two-fifths of non-organic vegetables on sale in the country contain pesticide residues, wand that 3.5 percent of vegetables and 2.7 percent of fruit are contaminated above officially recognised safety levels.
Thomas Cazenave, 39, a former telecoms executive whom President Emmanuel Macron has charged with reforming the public sector, has advised that Chatbots, software that can answer users’ questions with a conversational approach, or algorithms helping the taxman to target potential tax evaders, were some of the possibilities offered by technology to reduce France's bureaucracy.
Marion Maréchal-Le Pen, 27, niece of Front National party leader Marine Le Pen, who is regarded as a future contender for the French far-right leadership despite her recent leave of absence from active politics, and who represents a staunchly Catholic, anti-abortion and anti-Gay marriage stance, is to address take part in the first full day of speeches at the US annual Conservative Political Action Conference, along with Republican lawmakers.
Amid the controversy of sex assault allegations against two of her fellow members of government, French gender equality minister Marlène Schiappa tells The New Yorker why she could not remain in a government with a minister placed under investigation for rape, and why she is determined to see through proposed legislation that makes pressing sexual advances in a public place an offence.
A move by France's environment minister to protect the country's current estimated 350 wolves allows for the animals' total to reach 500 in 2023, to the ire of farmers despite them being offered additional aid for measures to protect animal herds.
Didier Lockwood, whose talent was first discovered by the late Stephane Grappelli and who established a worldwide reputation over four decades as a jazz violinist, and who was dedicated to developing music teaching, creating a school of musical improvisation near Paris, has died of a heart attack just hours after performing at a jazz venue in the French capital.
Laurent Wauquiez, recently elected as head of the conservative Les Républicains party on a hard right policy platform, was secretly recorded during a meeting with business school students denigrating it's former president Nicolas Sarkozy, who he claimed put phone taps on his ministers, and accusing President Emmanuel Macron as being behind a dirty tricks campaign against his conservative election rival François Fillon.
Palma Samamanca, 48, who was given a life sentence in Chile in 1992 for the murder of Jaime Guzman, an academic and right-wing politician who was a key adviser to the country's late dictator Augusto Pinochet, was arrested in Paris on an international warrant issued by the Chilean authorities.
