No terrorist link to vehicle that crashed through Paris barricades

A group of gunmen broke into a discount clothing store near Paris yesterday, trapping 18 people inside for hours, before fleeing and prompting a manhunt throughout the area, police said.

A man has shot himself dead at the altar of Notre Dame cathedral, forcing police to evacuate tourists from the 850-year-old cathedral.

French parliament approved a law allowing same-sex couples to marry and to adopt children, a flagship reform pledge by president François Hollande which sparked often violent street protests and a rise in homophobic attacks.

French lawmakers have legalised same-sex marriage after months of bruising debate and street protests that brought hundreds of thousands to Paris.

Police have detained around 100 people protesting against the Group of Eight summit in a Normandy resort.

A long-awaited French corruption trial has opened with former President Jacques Chirac as the star defendant.

Intelligence officials have intercepted a credible Islamist-linked terror plot against European cities in Britain, France and Germany it emerged today.

The Eiffel Tower was evacuated today after officials received a bomb threat from a telephone booth, the second such alert at the monument in two weeks.

France’s National Assembly approved a sweeping retirement reform plan today, including a highly contested measure to increase the retirement age from 60 to 62.

THE Eiffel Tower and its immediate surroundings underneath were evacuated in Paris yesterday evening after an anonymous caller phoned in a bomb threat, the French capital’s police headquarters said.

More than 200,000 people turned out in Paris for Pope Benedict XVI’s outdoor Mass this morning – a jubilant outpouring of faith in a Roman Catholic country that has seen a sharp decline in churchgoing in recent years.

Around 3,000 French police on motorcycles, in jogging gear and on skates will protect the Olympic torch relay today as it departs from the Eiffel Tower and criss-crosses Paris amid threats of pro-Tibet protests.

French President Nicolas Sarkozy is offering no mass mercy to the nation’s prisoners on Bastille Day this year.

“Nicolas!” tens of thousands chanted, kissing and waving French flags and blue balloons to ring in victory for conservative Nicolas Sarkozy, elected president of France after a hotly contested campaign.

THERE are colourful parasols and lounge chairs and the gleeful sounds of the young splashing in clear, blue water or playing volleyball on the fine, white sand.

Three people were shot and killed today in a wealthy Paris suburb, rescue workers said.

A ferry that transported passengers and luggage onto the ill-fated Titanic, was sold for scrap metal and used as a restaurant may get one more life tomorrow when it goes on the auction block.

Paris’ mayor Bertrand Delanoe said he was “saddened and sickened” by anti-Semitic graffiti, including a sign saying “Death to Jews”, found scrawled on a wall on the grounds of Notre Dame Cathedral.

Anti-Semitic graffiti was found scrawled on a wall in the grounds of Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris today.

Parisians who have to spend their summer in the French capital will nonetheless have a chance to stroll on the sand and relax under palm trees in deck chairs.

Heavy snowfall shut down two airports in southern France today while children were given a day off after schools shut down to avoid accidents on icy roads, authorities said.