The Local - France's news in English

France attacks 'a little' like 9/11 for France: Sarkozy

Fri, 30 Mar 2012 09:53:00 +0200

President Nicolas Sarkozy said on Friday that France was shaken by an Islamist gunman's shootings in and around Toulouse, likening the trauma from the murders to that of the September 11, 2001 attacks in the United States.

France beats deficit target

Fri, 30 Mar 2012 09:40:00 +0200

France beat its public deficit target for 2011, which came in at 5.2 percent of GDP, official statistics institute INSEE said Friday, instead of the 5.7 percent forecast in the budget.

Guerlain guilty of racism

Thu, 29 Mar 2012 14:46:00 +0200

A Paris court on Thursday found Jean-Paul Guerlain, the former "nose" behind the world-famous perfume brand, guilty of racial insults after televised remarks he made about "negroes" and fined him.

Algeria refuses to take gunman Merah's body

Thu, 29 Mar 2012 11:46:00 +0200

The Islamist gunman branded a "monster" by President Nicolas Sarkozy will be buried in France because Algeria refused to let him be buried there, a Muslim official said Thursday.

French luxury shops face curfew

Thu, 29 Mar 2012 11:00:00 +0200

Luxury shops in Paris will soon have to switch off their lights at night to save electricity. The French government is introducing new measures to cut energy consumption.

Fury as executioner's torture collection is sold

Thu, 29 Mar 2012 10:58:00 +0200

A French auction house is auctioning several hundred torture and execution devices, including hanging ropes and hand crushers, collected by one of France’s last executioners. Rights groups have condemned the show as "shocking".

Girl sent home from school - skirt too long

Thu, 29 Mar 2012 10:48:49 +0200

A secondary school student near Paris was accused of wearing provocative clothing and sent back home. The school thought her skirt was too long, and conveyed religious values.

Free chicks for French village people

Wed, 28 Mar 2012 17:06:00 +0200

A village in northwestern France has come up with an innovative way to cut back on local rubbish production – offering each home two free chickens to consume organic waste.

French reveal loathing for 'violent' suburban youth

Wed, 28 Mar 2012 11:42:00 +0200

Nearly 60 percent of the French say they distrust youth from the 'banlieues', France's impoverished, immigrant-dominated suburbs, according to a new survey that has laid bare the country's divisions.

France 'to blame for euro woes'

Wed, 28 Mar 2012 10:50:00 +0200

Italian Prime Minister Mario Monti on Wednesday said the root of Europe's debt woes lay partly in the irresponsible parenting of Germany and France during the bloc's infancy.

DSK courtroom carousel moves back to US

Wed, 28 Mar 2012 10:38:00 +0200

Former IMF chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn, mired in legal trouble in his native France, faces new courtroom worries across the Atlantic on Wednesday, with the first hearing in a US civil suit.

Court to rule on Guerlain 'negro' comment

Wed, 28 Mar 2012 10:20:00 +0200

A Paris court was to decide Thursday whether Jean-Paul Guerlain, for decades the "nose" behind the world-famous perfume brand, was being racist when he said that he "worked like a negro."

Al-Jazeera 'won't air' French killer's videos

Tue, 27 Mar 2012 15:24:00 +0200

Al-Jazeera news channel said on Tuesday it has decided not to air a video shot by an Islamist extremist of shootings in southwest France that it had received by mail.

Uproar over French traffic fine database

Tue, 27 Mar 2012 14:57:00 +0200

The French Interior Ministry is launching a new database to keep track of car owners who challenge fines. A group of French lawyers say the move is illegal and a violation of the rights of citizens.

Police seek 'third man' over Toulouse shootings

Tue, 27 Mar 2012 12:22:00 +0200

French police said Tuesday they were seeking a third person who may have been involved in the theft of the scooter that the Toulouse killer Mohamed Merah used to carry out seven murders.

French worried about jobs - not terrorism

Tue, 27 Mar 2012 11:06:12 +0200

A recent poll shows that the shootings in Toulouse will not change the way the French vote in the upcoming elections. Buying power and unemployment remain top priorities, not national security.

'Rapist' mayor released after grandson's plea

Tue, 27 Mar 2012 10:22:00 +0200

A French court has ordered the release of Christian Iacono, who was given a nine-year prison sentence for raping his grandson Gabriel. For years, Gabriel maintained his grandfather raped him before spectacularly retracting his accusations.

French police: we have copies of gunman videos

Tue, 27 Mar 2012 09:49:00 +0200

French police said on Monday they had copies of videos shot by an Islamist extremist killer during a series of shootings in and near the southern city of Toulouse that shocked the country.

Strauss-Kahn charged in vice ring probe

Tue, 27 Mar 2012 08:43:00 +0200

Disgraced former IMF chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn was charged on Monday with involvement in an organised vice ring that procured prostitutes for top-class clients, lawyers said.

Kate's diet guru faces legal threat

Mon, 26 Mar 2012 12:09:00 +0200

The French College of Physicians has filed complaints against Dr. Pierre Dukan, whose Dukan Diet is supposedly followed by the Duchess of Cambridge among others, for suggesting dieting should be included in the school curriculum.