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FRENCH bank, Crédit Agricole, looks set to face a settlement fee of $800 million (700 million euros) for breaking US embargoes.
Business journal, Les Echoes, claims that the fee will be paid after investigators looked into the transfer of money through the US to blacklisted countries such as Sudan, Iran, Cuba and Myanmar.
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A LOOK over some of the news headlines from France.
Air France protests: six workers arrested after shirt-ripping scenes
Six Air France workers have been arrested on suspicion of attacking company directors, a week after staff ripped off executives’ shirts in a protest over job cuts.
Police arrived at the homes of suspects on Monday morning after allegedly identifying them from footage of airline staff forcing their way into a directors’ meeting where 2, 900 redundancies were being announced.
Asterix teams up with Assange-like journalist in new opus
Asterix and his friend Obelix are once again poised to set the Roman empire on fire with the global release of a new opus that sees them team up with a journalist modelled on Julian Assange.
After their last escapade in Scotland, the boisterous Gauls will be back in their homeland in "Asterix and the Missing Scroll", fighting alongside a reporter inspired by the real-life WikiLeaks founder to counter a propaganda war launched by their Roman foes.
Brigitte Bardot calls for French presidential pardon for mountain goats facing cull
Brigitte Bardot has called on François Hollande to grant a "presidential pardon" to hundreds of wild mountain goats in the Alps which are due to be culled because many of them are infected with brucellosis.
The former film star turned animal rights campaigner says more "humane" measures such as vaccination should be carried out on the Ibex goats in the Bargy area of the Haute-Savoie region.
Paris catacombs offer on Airbnb: spend the night with six million dead bodies
No one has ever woken up alive in Airbnb’s latest rental offer, but then again, no one has ever spent the night alongside six million dead Parisians in the city’s catacombs.
For Halloween, the home rental website is offering brave travellers a night in the sprawling tunnels filled with skulls and bones that is one of Paris’s most popular – and ghoulish – attractions.
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ON Saturday 17 and Sunday 18 October, 2015, Villefranche du Perigord will be hosting its popular festivities marking the chestnut, and if available the cèpe mushroom.
Over the two days there will be chance to try a variety of chestnut and cèpe delicacies, as well as take in local music and dance, and don't forget the chestnut spitting competition on Sunday - it always draws the crowds.
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NEW rules on the sale of kittens and puppies are to come into force from 1 January 2016 in an attempt to cut trafficking and improve animal welfare.
According to Le Figaro the rules will require anyone wanting to sell a kitten or puppy to register at the Chambre d'Agriculture and publish a Siren business number on any adverts.
Around 50,000 sales are expected to come under the new rules, although the rules do not apply to the sale of existing pets or if you want to give away a pet - although the giving away of pets is fraught with the dangers of providing 'prey' to dog baiting rings.
The authorities say that the rules will ensure animals are not being treated badly and producing too many litters, as well as restrict the sale of kittens and puppies brought into France from overseas.
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A MAN has been accidentally shot dead by a hunter, who mistook him for a deer.
SudOuest reports that the 20-year-old man was shot in the throat and died at the scene, in the commune of Revel, in Isère.
Police have opened a manslaughter enquiry, with the hunter supposedly in deep shock, and a forensic team have conducted an investigation of the area.
Anti-hunting organisation, ASPAS, has longed called for more controls of hunting in France, including the banning of hunts on Sunday and mandatory eye tests for hunters.
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CHRISTIAN Payne wanted to look beyond the screaming newspaper headlines about life in the Calais migrant camp known as The Jungle.
And while his first plan did not exactly work out, he bought a foot passenger ferry ticket across the Channel and with a bag full of electronics he recorded some of the scenes, and the lives, of the three thousand or so people living under canvas.
Here is a collection of video clips, photographs and audio of an afternoon in the camps of Calais.
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By Susan Milner, University of Bath
The British press has been looking askance at events in France, where Air France’s director of human resources and another senior manager were attacked by angry workers and forced to flee over wire fences with their clothing in tatters – all in plain sight of the international media.
The ugly events erupted during the company’s works council meeting, which was convened to consider the fourth “social plan” in three years, outlining how management plans to handle 2,900 redundancies. A number of employees were injured in the incident, including a security guard who was taken to hospital unconscious. The meeting was adjourned, but company management have confirmed that talks will continue.
Continue reading "Air France shirt-ripping incident reveals French unions' lack of muscle" »
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A LOOK over some of the news headlines from France.
Activists promise largest climate civil disobedience ever at Paris summit
Thousands of climate change campaigners have promised to blockade a major UN climate summit in Paris with what they say will be non-violent direct action on a scale Europe has not seen before.
Grassroots groups from 350.org to Attac France are throwing their weight behind the “Climate Games” event for the landmark climate conference in December. The protests will involve 10 blockades, themed around “red lines” which they fear negotiators for the nearly 200 countries inside the summit may cross.
Governments are meeting in the French capital in the hope of reaching an agreement for action on climate change after 2020. Campaigners have shelved earlier plans to prevent delegates leaving the summit until they reach an emissions-cutting deal that matches activist ambitions.
Migrant crisis: Calais mayor seeks tunnel penalties
The mayor of Calais has proposed tough new penalties for migrants who break into the Channel Tunnel in France.
If Natacha Bouchart's suggestions are approved, offenders could be jailed for up to 10 years and face fines of 150 000 euros (£111,100).
She wants breaches of security at the tunnel in Coquelles to be dealt with as "attacks on national infrastructure".
Court upholds decision to keep brain-damaged Frenchman alive
A French court on Friday upheld a hospital's decision to keep a brain-damaged man alive in a case that has divided his family.
The judges said Vincent Lambert's doctors were within their rights, based on their "professional and moral independence," to suspend an earlier court decision that would have seen them cut the intravenous food and water keeping the 38-year-old alive.
France strikes IS in Syria, criticises Russia: defence minister
France said Friday it had carried out a second wave of strikes overnight on Islamic State targets in Syria and accused Russia of failing to target the group.
"Two Rafale jets dropped bombs on an IS training camp. The objectives were accomplished," Defence Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian told Europe 1 radio, adding that more attacks would follow.
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A NEW service between Bergerac Airport and London City Airport will be operated next summer by British Airways.
The airline will operate the four-times a week route from May until September, 2016.
The outbound service will depart London City Airport on Mondays at 11:15, returning at 13:50; on Fridays at 09:30, returning at 12:15; and on Sundays at 17:10, returning at 19:45.
From June 23 until September 1, there will be an additional flight on Thursdays, heading out of London at 11:15, returning at 13:50.
Nouvelles destinations pour @Aerobergerac : #nice #amsterdam et #London city pic.twitter.com/VPkhbFZTTN
— CCI Dordogne (@CCIDordogne) October 9, 2015It has also been announced that new links to Amsterdam, operated by Transavia, and Nice, by IG Avion, will also be on offer.
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Spencer Stone receives la Légion d'honneur from François Hollande in August
Airman 1st Class Spencer Stone, who helped take down a gunman on a train in Belgium, was stabbed four times in the chest in Sacramento early Thursday morning, Air Force Times has learned.
"A1C Spencer Stone has been transported to a local hospital, and is currently being treated for injury," Air Force spokesman Lt. Col. Christopher Karns said in an email in Air Force Times. "The incident is currently under investigation by local law enforcement. He is currently in stable condition."
Air Force Times: Airman 1st Class Spencer Stone stabbed in chest
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