Nicolas Lerner, 45, current boss of France's domestic intelligence agency, will in January take up his new post as head of the foreign intelligence services, the DGSE, which has latterly been blamed for failing to anticipate the Russian invasion of Ukraine, and which faces major challenges in West Africa following recent coups in several former French colonies in the region.
Françoise Bettencourt Meyers, 70, whose grandfather Eugène Schueller created the cosmetics giant L'Oréal, has seen her wealth grow this year to 100 billion dollars, the largest fortune of any woman past or present, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.
A 54-year-old British woman and her 22-year-old son have died after being hit by an avalanche while skiing off-piste near the Saint-Gervais resort in the French Alps with a guide, who survived.
Fishing, harvesting and sales of all shellfish from the Bay of Arcachon, close to Bordeaux in south-west France, has been banned until further notice by the regional health authority following a recent outbreak of gastroenteritis among people who consumed oysters, believed to be caused by a spill of sewage into the bay.
Jacques Delors, a former French finance minister who later became president of the European Commission during three terms from 1985 to 1995, who is credited with having been a major driving force behind the creation of the European Union single market and the creation of the common euro currency, died at home in Paris on Wednesday aged 98.
As the scandal over rape and sexual assault accusations levelled against French actor Gérard Depardieu deepened this month, 56 showbusiness celebrities, including Charlotte Rampling and Carla Bruni, have published an open letter defending him and denouncing what they called a 'torrent of hatred' and a 'lynching'.
A man has been taken into police custody after his 35-year-old wife and their four children, aged between nine months and ten-years-old, were found murdered on Christmas Day in the family's flat in the town of Meaux, around 50 kilometres north-east of Paris.
French magistrates have begun interviewing more than 300 Indian passengers, including 11 unaccompanied minors, being held at an airport 150 kilometres east of Paris after a tip-off that their Nicaragua-bound Airbus A340, which had landed for refuelling, was carrying victims of human trafficking.
French health authorities have launched an investigation into a mass outbreak of gastroenteritis among a reported 700 Airbus employees at a staff Christmas dinner which featured foie gras, scallops, lobster and tournedos, followed by desserts of ice-cream logs and hazelnut and chocolate mousse.
France on Friday pulled its last remaining troops out of Niger and closed its embassy in the West African country in what marked the end of French military presence in the region, following its forced departure from Mali and Burkina Faso as the result of local army coups.
