French | Pakistan

French artist Chifumi unveils ‘Karachi Blooms’

10 face court for harassing French first lady online

The hunt was on Monday for the band of thieves who stole eight priceless royal pieces of jewellery from the Louvre Museum in the heart of Paris in broad daylight. Officials said a team of 60 investigators were working on the theory that the raid was planned and executed by an organised crime group. In France, it reignited a row over the lack of security in France’s museums, which the new Interior Minister Laurent Nunez acknowledged on Sunday was a “major weak spot”. The thieves arrived between 9:30 and 9:40am Sunday, shortly after the museum opened to the public at 9:00am, a source close to the investigation said. They used a furniture hoist to get access to the Apollo Gallery, home to the royal collection, and cutting equipment to get in through a window and open the display cases. A brief clip of the raid, apparently filmed on the phone of a visitor to the museum, was broadcast on French news channels. The masked thieves stole nine 19th-century items of jewellery, one of which — the crown of the Empress Eug...

France’s Interior Minister Laurent Nunez said that jewellery stolen from the Louvre Museum on Sunday in Paris was “priceless”. The minister told French news outlets France Inter, France Info and Le Monde that “three or four” thieves had focused on two displays in the exhibition venue’s “Gallerie d’Apollon” (“Apollo’s Gallery”), completing their broad daylight robbery in just seven minutes. Earlier in the day, France’s Culture Minister Rachida Dati reported a break-in at the Louvre in Paris, as the world-renowned museum said it was closing for the day. “A hold-up took place this morning at the opening of the Louvre Museum,” she wrote on X, using a French word that can also mean “robbery”. “No injuries reported. I’m on site with museum staff and police,” she added. At least one person had entered the museum, a member of her team told AFP, without adding anything about any possible theft. The Louvre said it was closing for the day “for exceptional reasons”. The museum was not immediately available for comment.

India is working with a French company to develop and manufacture fighter jet engines in the country, New Delhi’s defence minister said. Defence Minister Rajnath Singh in May approved the prototype of a fifth generation Advanced Medium Combat Aircraft (AMCA), calling it a “significant push towards enhancing India’s indigenous defence capabilities”. Singh, in a speech at a conference in New Delhi on Friday, gave more details about developing fighter jet aircraft engines in the country. “We are moving forward to manufacture aircraft engines in India itself,” Singh said, in comments broadcast by Indian media. “We are collaborating with a French company to start engine production in India.” Singh did not name the company, but Indian media widely reported the company to be Safran, which has been working in India for decades in the aviation and defence sectors. There was no immediate confirmation. India, one of the world’s largest arms importers, has made the modernisation of its forces a top priority, and made rep...

Of Chinese tiger and French berets

A French couple went on trial on Thursday, accused of planning to “sacrifice” their five-year-old son in the Moroccan desert, accusations they have strongly denied. The two music teachers were arrested in southern Spain in late 2023 as they were about to board a ferry to Morocco after buying a new four-wheel-drive and subletting their apartment near the French city of Bordeaux. An alarmed relative had told French prosecutors that the father intended to “sacrifice” his son in the desert because he believed he was “possessed”, the investigation showed. The father, Florian L, denies ever having said that, his lawyer Audrey Boussillon said. “Never did he have the intention to harm his son in any way,” she added. The couple, who hold “anti-system” and “mystical” beliefs, vehemently reject the charges of being part of a criminal gang and failing in their duties as parents, their defence team has said. The attorney for the mother, Marie L, Aurelie Filippi-Codaccioni, said the couple had been to Morocco two years ear...

French President Emmanuel Macron on Tuesday condemned a “senseless wave of violence” after a teaching assistant stabbed by a 15-year-old pupil outside a school in the east of the country succumbed to her wounds. The secondary school student was arrested after attacking the 31-year-old assistant with a knife during a bag search in Nogent in eastern France, officials said. France has, in recent years, seen a series of attacks on teachers and pupils by other schoolchildren. “While protecting our children, a teaching assistant lost her life, the victim of a senseless wave of violence,” Macron wrote on X, commenting on the latest in a spate of such incidents at French schools. “The nation is in mourning and the government is mobilised to reduce crime.” Education Minister Elisabeth Borne was on her way to Nogent “to support the entire school community and the police”. “I commend the composure and dedication of those who acted to subdue the attacker and protect the students and staff,” she said on X. The pupil is 15...

French authorities detained 79 people in the second such wave of arrests during celebrations following Paris Saint-Germain’s Champions League win, a police chief said on Monday. The PSG thrashed Inter Milan by a record 5-0 in Saturday evening’s final in Munich, flying back to Paris on Sunday for a triumphal parade along the Champs-Élysées, then celebrations in a packed Parc des Princes stadium on the edge of the French capital. The PSG winning the biggest prize in European club football for the first time sparked delirious festivities in France, but was marred by violence. On Sunday, “we saw a resurgence of individuals driven by malicious intent who were not really PSG supporters”, Paris police chief Laurent Nunez told RTL radio. “We arrested 79 people, some of them in the night,” he said, adding that order had been restored before dawn. Some were detained for taking barriers and briefly blocking the ring road around Paris, while others had tried to vandalise businesses or light fireworks on the Champs-Élysée...

A French prosecutor on Friday requested the maximum 20-year sentence for a former surgeon who admitted to sexually abusing almost 300 mostly child patients. An additional trial will also likely be required for Joel Le Scouarnec, 74, to cover the cases of further victims whose abuse is not part of the current process, said prosecutor Stephane Kellenberger as he outlined the sentencing demands. Le Scouarnec has been on trial since February accused of 111 rapes and 189 sexual assaults on 299 people, mostly of minors under 15, at a dozen hospitals in western France, in one of the country’s largest child sex abuse cases. He admitted in March to sexually abusing all 299 victims between 1989 and 2014, many while they were under anaesthesia or waking up after operations. Le Scouarnec, who is already in prison for a previous conviction for child sex abuse, should receive the maximum possible term of 20 years in jail on the single charge of aggravated rape, said Kellenberger. Warning of the “high risk of re-offending” ...