Paris City Hall has begun a drive to cull an infestation of rats across the city, closing parks to the public to lay poisonous traps, after the rodent population rose significantly following their exodus from sewers after flooding earlier this year.
A man and woman who fraudulently claimed for compensation from a fund set up to help victims of the November 2015 jihadist attacks in Paris, which left 130 dead and hundreds wounded, were jailed after it was found they were in fact at home in southern France during the events.
The European Parliament's chief negotiator on the terms of Britain's exit from the European Union, Guy Verhofstadt, says he will fast track to the negotiations a proposal to offer associate EU membership to British nationals who wish to retain free movement to live and work on the continent.
Front National leader Marine Le Pen, running for presidential office in elections next spring, said her party would refuse public education and health services for illegal immigrants.
The International Court of Justice ruled it had no legal powers to stop a French probe into suspected moneylaundering by Equatorial Guinea's vice-president Teodorin Obiang, who claims his vast assets, including property and luxury cars in France, come from wealth gained legitimately.
The discovery in parts of France of a particularly virulent form of the H5N8 virus, thought to be spread by migrating birds, has led to the slaughter of farmed ducks and geese just as foie gras producers were gearing up for their busiest sales season.
The extreme levels of air pollution in the capital, exacerbated by many days of dry weather and little wind, have prompted a partial vehicle ban, free parking on public roads and free use of the city's public transport system.
Formerly interior minister, Cazeneuve, 53, takes over as prime minister from Manuel Valls who on Monday resigned in order to launch his bid to become socialist candidate in presidential elections next spring.
French Prime Minister Manuel Valls, 54, has announced his resignation in order to stand in primary elections to choose his Socialist Party's candidate for next spring's presidential elections, following President François Hollande's decision last week not to stand.
The return to France of F1 racing is due to begin at the Circuit Paul Ricard in the south of the country, ending France's ten-year absence from the list of international locations of Grand Prix racing.
