Tag Archives: France

Paris, France | AFP | A Paris court on Thursday fined French journalist and writer Pierre Pean 1,000 euros ($1,170) and ordered him to pay a symbolic one euro in damages in a libel case brought by Gabonese President Ali Bongo. In a 2014 book called “Nouvelles affaires africaines” (“New African …

France’s largest bank, BNP Paribas, faces accusations from three NGOs which on Sept.21 announced filing legal action against it for alleged “complicity in genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity” during the 1994 genocide against the Tutsi in Rwanda. The probe, which does not imply any guilt, will be led …

Paris, France | AFP | Parisians were encouraged to roller-blade, bike or stroll through the City of Light on Sunday for a “car-free” day intended to leave the streets vacant for slower, clean forms of transport. Sunday marks the third time the French capital has experimented with a car ban, but …

Paris, France | AFP | Flamboyant fashion designer Vivienne Westwood revealed the secret of her eternal youth Saturday — only taking a bath once a week. The 76-year-old queen of punk fashion let it slip after watching her husband Andreas Kronthaler’s spectacularly idiosyncratic show at Paris Fashion Week. Asked by reporters …

Paris, France | AFP | Photographers have risen up in revolt at the way fashion labels and influencers are using their street style images without crediting them, highlighting discontent about the “work for free” culture in the multi-billion dollar industry. More than 40 photographers who follow the fashion circuit and …

Vienna, Austria | AFP | For Europe’s nationalist parties, winning votes is the easy bit. The real challenge lies in keeping internal strife at bay. Just ask the Alternative for Germany (AfD) or the French National Front. On Monday, a day after becoming Germany’s third-largest force in parliament, AfD co-chief Frauke …

Paris, France | AFP | L’Oreal heiress Liliane Bettencourt, the world’s richest woman whose old age was clouded by dementia, has died at the age of 94, her family said Thursday. “Liliane Bettencourt died last night at home,” her daughter Francoise Bettencourt Meyers said in a statement. “My mother left peacefully.” …

Kigali, Rwanda | AFP | Rwandan President Paul Kagame has met with his French counterpart Emmanuel Macron in New York for rare talks, Kigali said Tuesday, as diplomatic ties remain icy over the 1994 genocide. Kigali has long accused France of complicity in the genocide of some 800,000 mostly ethnic …

Nairobi, Kenya | AFP | An audit of the electronic system used to tally votes in Kenya’s cancelled presidential poll showed no manipulation of data, the French biometrics firm that supplied the system told AFP Friday. Opposition leader Raila Odinga has accused the company, OT-Morpho, of being complicit in alleged rigging …

Besançon, France | AFP | Tourists visiting a church in the picturesque French town of Chateau-Chalon were surprised to discover that local pranksters had replaced the fonts’ holy water with alcohol, the local tourism office said Friday. A dozen tourists sniffed out the telltale signs of eau-de-vie, a clear fruit brandy, …