France news

France news

French GDP shrank 0.1 percent in the first quarter, official data showed Friday, a downward revision from previous estimates that analysts warn could herald a recession for the eurozone's second-biggest economy. Statistics office INSEE had initially reported zero growth for the quarter, but a sharper decline in consumer spending than expected was "an unpleasant surprise". Dorian Roucher said the revision reflected weaker demand and pointed to specific areas of contraction.

Italian authorities have seized more than $232m in assets linked to the late Mafia boss Matteo Messina Denaro, targeting a network built on decades of drug trafficking and financial laundering. The operation announced on Thursday and led by Italy's financial police, the Guardia di Finanza, traced the funds across Europe and offshore jurisdictions, dismantling what officials described as a vast criminal fortune accumulated since the 1980s.

A new French migrant detention centre the UK has offered to help fund is facing a legal challenge that could hamper a 660m deal to tackle illegal crossings of the English Channel. The lawsuit could delay the opening of the centre, which the UK has only agreed to contribute money towards once the facility near Dunkirk has opened. The Home Office said funding for the centre from a 160m pot would be withdrawn if the deal was not delivering proven results within its first year.

While Paris is not cheap, the adventure and fun will be worth the cost. However, if you are on a budget, all is not lost with Paris, as you can choose to flatshare and save more for exploration. You will also like the fact that you can easily access all the other major destinations in France and Europe from Paris. It is truly a destination that will

France faced unusually hot weather on Monday, the national weather service said, after enduring record high temperatures for a month of May at the weekend. In the northwestern city of Rennes, 74-year-old Daniele Dupont tried to stick to the shade as she walked her dog in 27C on Monday morning "I'm going to close the shutters. I won't be going out this afternoon," she said in the capital of the Brittany region, across the Channel from the United Kingdom.

At the end of Émile Zola's 1890 novel La Bête humaine, a runaway train careens through the night, an "escaped monster" of astonishing force that advances toward "the future in spite of all, heedless of the blood that might be spilt." Zola's was one of the first novels to seriously consider the social and cultural ramifications of the train, which had yanked Europe into the industrial age and facilitated a great migration of workers from the country to the city.

French police launched a murder investigation Sunday after after a 12-year-old boy was found dead near a city centre with a towel tied around his neck, prosecutors said.

“Supply mustn't exceed demand,” Mr Sylla told Bloomberg News in an interview. “We want to regulate the quantity to raise prices back to reasonable levels.”

The police, who did not name the victim, said several balaclava-wearing intruders broke into the house. Once inside, they threatened the occupants and inflicted minor head injuries upon one family member, under circumstances that remain to be established. Alain Prost's McLaren leads teammate Ayrton Senna at Suzuka in 1989 during the Frenchman's heyday as one of Formula One's greatest drivers.

The 41-year-old woman and the 55-year-old man could potentially be placed in pretrial detention following the hearing in the port city of Setubal as authorities investigate alleged child abuse, endangerment and abandonment. The boys, aged four and five, were found crying on the side of a road on Tuesday evening by a passing motorist near the resort town of Comporta, where they had been left with backpacks containing food and water but no identity documents, according to Portuguese media.

The children, French brothers ages 3 and 5, are the woman's sons. They were found Tuesday along a road near Alcacer do Sal, about 60 miles (100 kilometers) south of Lisbon, carrying backpacks with food, water and a change of clothes. But the boys didn't have identification documents, Portuguese media reported. A passerby and his wife rescued the boys and took them to the police station. They did not have identification documents, Portuguese media reported.

In February, France's National Centre for Scientific Research (CNRS) confirmed that it would be proceeding with a €31-million (US$36 million) expansion of a primate-breeding facility in Rousset.

Around 20 suspected victims had made themselves known after she urged potential victims to speak up in February. Some were already known to investigators, she told the RTL broadcaster. "But we also had new victims come forward, ones we didn't know at all. There are around ten of them," she added. "The choice we've made for the time being is to listen to these victims," she said.

“We have investigations underway in 84 preschools, around 20 primary schools, and about 10 daycare centres,” the city's top prosecutor Laure Beccuau told the RTL broadcaster. Five people have been summoned to court, Beccuau added.

Brigitte Macron has denied claims she slapped her husband in the face last year after reading text exchanges between him and French-Iranian actress Golshifteh Farahani, according to a report. The first lady of France, 73, caused a stir in May last year when she appeared to push president Emmanuel Macron, 48, in front of cameras as they prepared to disembark a plane during a state visit to Vietnam. At the time, her husband insisted they had only been joking, but a new book presented claims this week that Mrs Macron was enraged after seeing an alleged text exchange between Emmanuel and the actress Farahani.

Testing confirmed that the outbreak on the Ambition, a cruise ship anchored in the port of Bordeaux, in western France, was "a gastro-intestinal infection of viral origin," the local government and regional health agency said in a statement. They said there were no severe cases, and that asymptomatic individuals were now free to disembark, but that those infected were required to remain in isolation on board.

When Gabon's media regulator indefinitely suspended major social media platforms in February, citing security concerns during anti-government protests, it became the talk of town literally. Within weeks of the announcement, use of Virtual Private Networks (VPNs) to bypass the restrictions surged in the central African country. When gendarmerie began stopping young men at road checkpoints in the capital Libreville and other urban centres to confiscate mobile phones with VPNs installed or detain the owners, warnings spread by word of mouth.

The Ambassador Cruise Line ship is being held in Bordeaux after more than 49 passengers and crew fell ill from gastroenteritis. The woman, from Belfast, who wished to remain anonymous, boarded the ship, named Ambition, in Belfast on Friday. The ship then travelled to Liverpool the following day. It had originally been due to leave Bordeaux for Ferrol in Spain, before travelling to Gijon and Bilbao.