Paris

Twenty-two defendants, including intelligence agents and police, accused of committing crimes on behalf of Freemason mafiaTwenty-two people are to stand trial in France from Monday on charges of murder and other serious crimes centred on a masonic lodge accused of running hit squads.Seven defendants – including former intelligence agents, soldiers and businessmen – face possible life sentences. Prosecutors allege the group carried out murder, attempted murder, aggravated assault and criminal conspiracy on behalf of a mafia network inside the Athanor lodge in the Paris suburb of Puteaux. Continue reading...

Incident in the city’s 8th arrondissement reportedly involved a homemade explosive deviceFrench police stopped an apparent bomb attack outside a US bank in Paris on Saturday when they arrested a man about to set off a homemade explosive device, officials and sources close to the case said.The incident occurred at roughly 3.30am in front of a Bank of America building in the city’s 8th arrondissement, a couple of streets away from the Champs-Élysées. Continue reading...

Leftwing victor has pledged to cut officials’ expenses and luxuries, but first must turn his attention to a series of crisesWhen Paris’s new leftwing mayor, Emmanuel Grégoire, leapt on a bike for a victory tour along the French capital’s large network of new cycle lanes on Sunday night, he was sending a crucial message to Paris residents.Not only would he continue to build bike lanes and keep limits on cars in the city, keeping the French capital’s pro-cycling focus on environmental issues and reducing its dangerous air pollution., he was also seeking to style himself as humble, frugal – “of an absolute moral rigour”, in his words – after promising to shrink Paris officials’ hefty expenses accounts and end the use of chauffeur-driven cars. Continue reading...

City hall veteran forecast to beat rightwinger Rachida Dati, while Marseille’s leftist incumbent leads far-right opponentThe Socialist Emmanuel Grégoire was on track to be elected mayor of Paris on Sunday night, roundly beating the former rightwing minister Rachida Dati, early projections showed.Grégoire, a Socialist MP with a long track record at city hall, was running for a united left including the Greens. He was projected to have won with about 53%. This would mark a clear win against Dati, who served in government under Emmanuel Macron and Nicolas Sarkozy and had sought to win the French capital for the right after 25 years governed by the left. Continue reading...

Alexandre Dumas was wowed by it and Burt Lancaster starred there. Now the Cirque d’Hiver has a new spectacleFor more than 170 years the Cirque d’Hiver, the world’s oldest circus, has been the scene of many a breathtaking act.In 1859, gymnast Jules Léotard – whose name would become synonymous with the one-piece – captivated audiences by launching himself from one swinging trapeze to another without a safety net for the first time in public. Continue reading...