Paris - A French court will open an inquiry into former prime minister Edouard Philippe and two cabinet ministers over their handling of the coronavirus crisis, a prosecutor said Friday.

Paris - By replacing his popular prime minister with a little-known bureaucrat, French President Emmanuel Macron has signalled that he intends to tighten the reins on government ahead of a bid for reelection in 2022, analysts say.

Paris - The new French prime minister Jean Castex is a low-profile civil servant and local politician from the right, who recently gained prominence for drawing up policy to ease the coronavirus lockdown.

Paris - Edouard Philippe served President Emmanuel Macron for three years as a loyal and unshowy prime minister, but his growing popularity put his future on the line.

Paris - French appeals judges on Friday threw out a bid to reopen an investigation into the 1994 assassination of Rwanda's president which sparked a 100-day genocide that killed 800,000 people.

Paris - French President Emmanuel Macron on Friday tapped a senior but low-profile bureaucrat as prime minister to replace Edouard Philippe, the first move in a widely expected cabinet reshuffle after dismal local election showings for the ruling party.

Paris - The head of Ubisoft has promised a "structural shift" to eliminate toxic behaviour following allegations of sexual assault and harassment by managers at the French video game publisher.

Paris - France said Wednesday it was suspending its participation in a NATO Mediterranean maritime security operation owing to the behaviour of Turkey, in a new escalation of a growing dispute between the two alliance allies.

Paris - Doctors, nurses and other hospital staff staged protests across France Tuesday to press for pay hikes and budget increases for a healthcare system that was pushed to the edge by the coronavirus pandemic.

Paris - A Paris court on Monday sentenced French former prime minister Francois Fillon to five years in prison, three suspended, for orchestrating a fake job for his wife in a scandal that cost him his shot at the presidency in 2017.

Paris - A French court is scheduled to give its verdict Monday in the trial of former premier Francois Fillon on charges of setting up a fake job for his wife, although the ruling could be delayed by a controversy over alleged pressure on prosecutors.

Paris - Anne Hidalgo, re-elected Paris mayor on Sunday, is a Spanish-born socialist who has waged a divisive but ambitious campaign to push cars out of the centre of the French capital.

Paris - President Emmanuel Macron on Monday pledged a raft of new commitments to the environment after his ruling party was routed in local elections marked by spectacular gains for the Greens.

Paris - Fifty years on from the first Gay Pride march, the LGBT community and their supporters took many of their events online Saturday, responding to the threat of the coronavirus pandemic.

Paris - Six people have been arrested in France over the theft of an artwork by street artist Banksy commemorating the victims of the 2015 Paris attacks that was stolen from the Bataclan concert hall, sources said Saturday.

Paris - France is increasingly optimistic about the effectiveness of its anti-jihadist campaign in the Sahel, but experts caution that short-term successes will not by themselves bring lasting victory.

Paris - French President Emmanuel Macron is confident of progress in key areas with Russia, including notably the crisis in Libya, his office said on Friday after a video conference summit with Russia's Vladimir Putin.

Paris - Iran will send to France next month the black boxes from a Ukrainian passenger jet that Tehran's armed forces mistakenly shot down in January, killing all 176 people on board, French aviation investigators said Friday.

Paris - A French court gives its verdict Monday in the trial of former premier Francois Fillon on charges of setting up a fake job for his wife that paid her over a million euros in public funds, a scandal that demolished his 2017 presidential bid.

Paris - French President Emmanuel Macron will travel to the Mauritanian capital Nouakchott next week for a summit of West African leaders to discuss the tough campaign against jihadists in the Sahel region, his office said Friday.