France

Paris (AFP) – France has issued an international arrest warrant for Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, accused of complicity in crimes against humanity over chemical attacks in 2013, a judicial source and plaintiffs in the case said Wednesday.

France’s upper house Senate on Tuesday passed a bill aimed at controlling immigration, toughening the language and measures of the legislation in a manner likely to complicate the government’s search for compromise in the lower house.

Thousands of marchers joined French lawmakers in Paris on Sunday to condemn a surge in anti-Semitism in France during the conflict in the Gaza Strip, but arguments over political participation clouded an intended show of unity. 

French police believe a graffiti campaign featuring Star of David stencils may have been the work of Russian intelligence.

Aleksey Kuzmichev is reportedly being held in custody over alleged tax evasion and money laundering

French police used teargas and water cannon to break up a banned rally in support of the Palestinian people in Paris on Thursday night, as President Emmanuel Macron urged the French to remain united amid fears a spillover of the Israel-Hamas conflict in France, home to Europe's largest Jewish and Muslim communities.

France has begun withdrawing its troops from Niger after being ordered out of the West African nation by the leaders of the July coup that ousted the pro-Paris president, the military said Tuesday. 

Former French president Nicolas Sarkozy was on Friday charged as part of an investigation into possible witness tampering, adding to his long list of legal woes, including over illegal campaign financing.

French troops will begin withdrawing from Niger "this week", Paris said Thursday, after a falling-out with the military junta in power since a July coup.

Niamey has won big against neo-colonialism, but its enemies could now resort to a covert technique they've already used in Africa.

The French government said Tuesday it would host emergency meetings this week to examine surging numbers of reported bedbug cases, which are being increasingly seen as a major potential public health problem.

French rapper MHD has been given a 12-year jail term for the murder of a young man in Paris in 2018.

President Emmanuel Macron announced Sunday that France will end its military presence in Niger and pull its ambassador out of the country after its democratically elected president was deposed in a coup. 

French rapper MHD was sentenced Saturday to 12 years in prison for the 2018 murder of a young man in Paris who was rammed with a car before being set upon by a mob and stabbed.

French Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin announced on Tuesday that France would not be taking in any of the migrants who arrived on the Italian island of Lampedusa last week. FRANCE 24 looks back at six years of French U-turns on immigration policies.

King Charles III on Thursday followed in his mother Queen Elizabeth II's footsteps by addressing lawmakers in the French upper chamber of parliament with a speech calling for strengthened ties to help tackle the world's environmental challenges.

President Emmanuel Macron on Wednesday hosted King Charles III for a glittering banquet at France's former royal residence of the Palace of Versailles, as the British monarch kicked off a three-day state visit aimed at showing the underlying strength of cross-Channel ties even after Brexit.

President Macron lamented that the envoy in Niamey has been reduced to military rations

France's highest administrative court ruled Thursday that a school ban on abayas, traditional over-garments worn by some Muslim women, was legal.

The French education minister has said that nearly 300 pupils arrived at school on Monday wearing the abaya, the long Muslim robe which was banned in schools last week.