France

05 Jan 2019; DW: Yellow vest protesters have gathered once again across France to call for tax cuts and pay increases. Some demonstrators clashed with police, with President Emmanuel Macron condemning the violence.

03 Jan 2019; AFP: One of the leaders of the "yellow vest" demonstrations in France was detained by police in Paris, signalling a harder line from the government that sparked a wave of criticism from opponents on Thursday.

Eric Drouet -- who already faces a trial for carrying a weapon at a previous demonstration -- was arrested late Wednesday for organising an unauthorised protest on the Champs-Elysees avenue. He was released Thursday afternoon.

PARIS (AP) — France is deploying more than 147,000 security forces nationwide to gird for New Year’s Eve unrest as yellow vest protesters prepare to join the public revelry.

The Interior Ministry said in a statement issued Sunday that the heavy security measures are needed because of a “high terrorist threat” and concerns about “non-declared protests.”

27 Dec 2018; DW: An estimated 800,000 people were killed during the 100 days of bloodshed following the 1994 assassination of former Rwandan president Juvenal Habyarimana. Kigali accuses Paris of complicity in the genocide.

French judges have reportedly dropped a long-running investigation into the killing of former Rwandan president Juvenal Habyarimana, which triggered countrywide violence and genocide in 1994.

25 Dec 2018; DW: Despite the yellow vests winning a reprieve from a hike in fuel taxes, millions of French people want more done to fight climate change. Their legal case for lower carbon emissions could take several years.

A petition to force the French government to take urgent action against climate change has grown to 1.7 million signatures in just a few days, the organizers' website showed on Tuesday.

23 Dec 2018; DW: Toll booths on the A9 motorway were blocked by demonstrators for several hours. However, fewer than 2,000 people turned out across Paris to protest against rising living costs and the government's pro-business stance.

The French "yellow vest" protest movement was reduced from a roar to a whimper on Saturday as fewer than 2,000 people rallied in central Paris against President Emmanuel Macron's government.

The figure was less than half the number who turned out in the French capital over the previous weekend.

PARIS, Dec. 22 (Xinhua) -- A motorist was killed late on Friday in a road accident linked to "Yellow Vest" movement in southern France, bringing the death toll to 10 since protesters launched demonstrations in mid-November against fuel tax rise, local media reported on Saturday.

The latest victim, a 36-year-old man, was hit by a truck stopped near a motorway where demonstrators had been gathering and blocking the passage, the BFMTV news channel reported.

14 Nov 2018: AFP: The gunman who killed three people at a Christmas market in Strasbourg was shot dead by French police on Thursday as the Islamic State jihadist group claimed him as one of its "soldiers".

More than 700 French security forces had been hunting for 29-year-old Cherif Chekatt since the bloodshed on Tuesday night -- the latest in a string of jihadist attacks to rock France.

14 Nov 2018: AFP: France's interior minister on Friday dismissed a claim by the Islamic State group that a gunman who killed four people at a Christmas market in Strasbourg was one of its "soldiers", as investigators sought to understand his motives.

Attending the reopening of the Christmas market, Interior Minister Christophe Castaner said a Twitter post by the IS propaganda wing saying Cherif Chekatt was one of its "soldiers" was "completely opportunistic".

STRASBOURG, France (AP) — Cherif Chekatt’s criminal career began at age 10. By age 13 he had been convicted. Now, with his third decade still incomplete, he is a fugitive, accused in the deadly shooting at France’s most famous Christmas market.

The 29-year-old has more than two dozen convictions, mostly in France but also in Switzerland and Germany. The rare times he’s been out of jail, he’s moved around. He had lived at his latest apartment, in a grim housing bloc on the edge of Strasbourg, for just a few months before police broke down the door in an unrelated case.