In first speech to parliament, Valls pledged to 'open a new chapter' for beleaguered Socialist president François Hollande France's new prime minister, Manuel Valls, has announced a package of tax cuts and labour reforms before winning a vote of confidence in the country's national assembly. In his first speech since being appointed last week, Valls laid out his government's priorities and pledged...
The Vatican's reluctance to confront those accused of murder in its midst is rooted in its refusal to face up to the church's complicity in the events of 1994 There is a Roman Catholic priest at a medieval church an hour's drive from Paris who has been indicted by a United Nations court for genocide, extermination, murder and rape in Rwanda. Father Wenceslas Munyeshyaka was notorious during the 1994...
Across the battlefields of the first world war, nothing has ever tested riders more than 1919's Circuit de Champs de Bataille Even as the guns all along the western front fell silent in November 1918, plans were being made to stage an extraordinary bicycle race around the battlefields in the spring of the following year. It was to become known as the toughest race in history, and the extraordinary...
Director is among the high-profile figures to back complaints over reduction in fees for captions on French films Roman Polanski has joined campaigners protesting against difficulties faced by subtitle writers on French language films, according to the Hollywood Reporter . The Carnage director is one of a string of high-profile names to sign a petition calling for an end to a recent reduction of payments...
Emmanuel Giboulot supported by green groups after refusing to spray grapes against flavescence dorée disease in Burgundy A French organic winegrower who refused to spray his Burgundy vineyard with pesticide was ordered on Monday to pay a 500 fine for flouting official regulations. The winegrower, Emmanuel Giboulot, had faced a possible six month jail sentence and 30,000 fine for refusing to spray his...
Les Prêtres, who started in an Alpine cathedral five years ago, have since sold 1.4m copies of their first two albums First came Italy's singing nun . Now a band of priests in France are having their own moment in the spiritual spotlight as they embark on a year-long concert tour to promote their latest album. Since the trio started out five years ago, Les Prêtres have sold 1.7m copies of their...
Landmark research shows 29% of honeybee colonies died in winter of 2012-13, with summer losses also high at 9.7% A landmark study has revealed the UK is suffering one of the worst rates of honeybee colony deaths in Europe. In the cold winter of 2012-13, 29% of honeybee colonies in the UK died, with only Belgium suffering a higher rate of losses (34%) out of the 17 countries surveyed. By contrast, just...
Investment bankers and City lawyers are very happy that deals are back with booming mergers and acquisitions activity City bankers are celebrating the return of a mergers and acquisitions boom with a deal announced on Monday to create a $40bn (£24bn) cement group taking total deals so far this year to $911bn. The proposed combination of Switzerland's Holcim with French rival Lafarge crowned the...
Swiss firm unveils all-share deal to buy French rival to create world's biggest cement maker with combined sales of 32bn Switzerland's Holcim unveiled an all-share deal to buy France's Lafarge on Monday to create the world's biggest cement maker with combined sales of 32bn (£26.5bn). Billed as a merger of equals, Lafarge shareholders will receive one Holcim share for every Lafarge share held...
A French acrobat crosses the river Seine in Paris on Sunday on a 150m-long steel cable. Cheered on by crowds below, Denis Josselin balances on the cable suspended 25 metres in the air. He even covers his eyes halfway. He says he focuses on positive energy to overcome his fear Continue reading... ...
Catholic leaders accused of acting as apologists for the slaughter by helping priests accused of murder in Rwanda evade justice It's hard to find anyone in Gisors with a bad word to say about Father Wenceslas Munyeshyaka. Other priests at the small French town's imposing medieval church, an hour's drive north-west of Paris into the rich Normandy countryside, speak with admiration of his popularity...
French justice minister will not attend commemorations marking 20th anniversary of genocide, after Paul Kagame's comments France has reacted with fury after the Rwandan president, Paul Kagame, renewed accusations of direct French involvement in the 1994 genocide, on the eve of ceremonies marking the 20th anniversary. The French government announced that the justice minister, Christiane Taubira, would...
Will France's new prime minister, Manuel Valls, prove more adept than his namesake from Fawlty Towers? It is not just the British who will see humour in a Manuel from Barcelona trying to revive France's failing socialist government. Fawlty Towers remains popular across the Channel, where it is called L'Hôtel en folie , and there was more than one reference to its bumbling waiter when the Catalan-born...
Former West Brom striker breaks silence over ban 'There was never any religious intent on my part' Nicolas Anelka has insisted that he is not anti-Semitic and the furore over his quenelle goal celebration has been exaggerated. The former West Bromwich Albion striker left the Hawthorns last month after being handed a five-match ban by the FA for making the gesture during the 3-3 draw with West Ham United...
The deep-rooted ritual of French mealtimes sees a daily communion so regular that watches could be set with the tables Every day a small miracle occurs without anyone paying the slightest attention. At breakfast, lunch and supper tens of millions of French people decide to gather round a table at the same time in order to share a meal, as if some invisible conductor raised his baton to mark the start...
US drinks company Brown-Forman reportedly holding 'tentative discussions' on takeover bid for French cognac firm Talk of a marriage between Jack Daniel's and Louis XIII cognac has driven shares in Rémy Cointreau as much as 10% higher. According to the Betaville blog , "tentative discussions" have been held between investment banking advisers to the French cognac maker and Brown-Forman,...
Formula One driver has been in coma since end of December after skiing accident caused serious head injuries The former Formula One driver Michael Schumacher who has been in a coma since suffering serious head injuries in a skiing fall is showing moments of "consciousness and awakening", according to his agent. Sabine Kehm issued a statement saying the German was "making progress on...
Summer-long Petit Palais show reminds gloomy, modern Parisians how their city was once the beacon of the world Pollution, economic woes, political uncertainty and a crisis of confidence have cast a smoggy grey cloud over Paris, like the rest of France, of late. But it was not always this way. An exhibition that opened this week has served as a timely and contrasting reminder to pessimistic Parisians...
Handwritten scroll of The 120 Days of Sodom bought by French manuscript dealer and museum owner for 7m The original scroll on which the infamous Marquis de Sade wrote The 120 Days of Sodom, his novel on sexual depravity, paedophilia, cruelty and murder, has returned to France. Sade's book was written in tiny writing on a narrow 12-metre-long strip of parchment in just 37 days while he was imprisoned...
Switzerland, Iceland and the Netherlands also scored well in Social Progress Index, which takes focus off economic output New Zealand has come first in a global index that ranks countries by social and environmental performance rather than economic output in a drive to make social progress a priority for politicians and businesses. The Social Progress Index (SPI) , published on Thursday, rates 132...