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Authorities say the Empress Eugénie Brooch was among the stolen itemsIt is the most spectacular robbery at the Louvre museum since the Mona Lisa disappeared in 1911.And it poses serious questions about levels of security covering French artworks, at a time when they are increasingly being targeted by criminal gangs.According to France's new interior minister Laurent Nuñez, the gang that broke into the Apollo Gallery on Sunday morning was clearly professional.They knew what they wanted, had evidently "cased the joint" in advance, had a brazenly simple but effective modus operandi, and needed no more than seven minutes to take their...

The robbers reached a first-floor window and cut through glass panes to gain access to the museum's gilded Galerie d'ApollonThe Louvre Museum in Paris has been forced to close while police investigate a brazen heist which reportedly targeted France's priceless crown jewels. Thieves wielding power tools broke into the world's most visited museum in broad daylight, before escaping on scooters with items said to be of "incalculable" value. Here is what we know about the crime which has stunned France.How did the theft unfold?The theft occurred on Sunday between 09:30 and 09:40 local time, shortly after the museum opened to...

The broad-daylight heist, which was pulled off in just seven minutes, happened 800m from Paris police headquarters.Robbers wielding power tools scaled a furniture hoist outside the Louvre to make off with priceless jewellery from the world-renowned museum on Sunday (Oct 19), taking just seven minutes for the brazen, broad-daylight heist, sources and officials said. The criminals struck at about 9.30am local time when the museum had already opened its doors to the public. They entered the Gallerie d'Apollon (Apollo's Gallery) building, which is home to the French Crown Jewels, the Interior Ministry said in a statement. It did not say...

Thieves broke into the Louvre museum in Paris and stole priceless jewelry before escaping on motorbikes, French officials said Sunday. Interior Minister Laurent Nuñez called the heist a "major robbery" that "lasted seven minutes." Speaking to France Inter, he said the thieves "entered from the outside using a basket lift" and "a disc cutter" to slice through glass panes containing precious jewels. "The investigation has begun, and a detailed list of the stolen items is being compiled," the ministry said in a statement. "Beyond their market value, these items have inestimable heritage and historical value." The museum posted on X...

What was going on when President Emmanuel Macron and US President Donald Trump engaged in a tense handshake that lasted almost 30 seconds. A lip reader was consulted and came up with a notion of what the two leaders said... After making the apparent concession of suspending the pension reform planned for 2030 for the 18-month period leading to the 2027 Presidential Election Prime Minister Sebastien Lecornu held frantic talks with various political factions. And the weekly Yellow Vests procession in the streets of Paris dozens of people again gathered with French flags displayed also some protest signs...

French screen legend Brigitte Bardot, 91, has reportedly been hospitalised in the south of France with what local media have described as a “serious illness.” According to Le Figaro and Var-Matin, Bardot was admitted to a private clinic in Saint-Tropez earlier this week and is currently under medical supervision. The exact nature of her condition has not been disclosed, but several French outlets have cited close family sources describing her health as “fragile but stable.” A private battle away from the public eye Bardot, who became an international symbol of sensuality and independence in the 1950s and 60s, has largely...

According to figures released by the national statistics agency INSEE, out of 660,787 babies born in France last year, 225,591 – or 34.1 percent – had at least one parent born outside the country. Of these, 125,440 babies – 19 percent of all births – were born to two foreign-born parents, the highest level recorded to date.

MADRID A Saudi cleric funneled money to an Egyptian suspected of being one of the masterminds of the Madrid train bombings in March, Spanish and Italian newspapers reported Thursday. The Egyptian suspect, Rabei Osman Ahmed, arrested in Milan in June on a request from the Spanish authorities, identified Sheik Salman al-Awdah, a former university professor in Saudi Arabia, as his financier while he was living in Spain between 2001 and 2003, El Mundo of Spain and Corriere della Sera of Italy said in a joint report. The March 11 train bombings killed 191 people and have been attributed to Islamic...

MILAN (Reuters) - A group of suspected Islamic militants arrested in Italy and Belgium may have been planning an attack on NATO headquarters or the European Parliament, Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera said on Wednesday. Quoting Italian investigators, Corriere said a suspected planner of the Madrid bombings in March -- among those arrested on Tuesday -- had intended to travel from Italy to Belgium possibly to take part in an attack on a "symbolic" target. Rabei Osman Sayed Ahmed, known as "Mohamed the Egyptian," was seized on Tuesday with a fellow suspect in Milan, and Belgian police, acting on information...

New York magazine wondered aloud about the success of President Donald Trump in achieving a peace deal in the Middle East while the Biden administration was an utter failure in that regard. That puzzlement was reflected in the title of Ross Barkan's Tuesday Intelligencer section column, "How Did Trump Get a Peace Deal Done Where Biden Could Not?"Barkin struggles with the idea of Trump's success by denigrating him as merely a transactional deal maker in the real estate mode as well as being primarily motivated by a desire to win the Nobel Peace Prize. Yes, such mockery is to be...

A multi-institutional research team working at the prehistoric site of La-Roche-à-Pierrot in Saint-Césaire identified the oldest known shell jewelry workshop in western Europe, according to a statement released by the French National Center for Scientific Research (CNRS). Excavations uncovered a number of pierced shells as well as yellow and red pigments. However, it was the absence of wear marks and the presence of unperforated shells that led archaeologists to believe the site was used to manufacture finished products from raw materials. The shells came from the Atlantic coast, which was around 60 miles away at the time, while the pigments...

Hamas appeared to renege on key demands of President Trump’s cease-fire deal just hours after the world celebrated the end of the Gaza war — with a top official saying the terror group will not give up its arms or control over the Gaza Strip. Spokesman Hazem Qassem claimed Monday that Hamas has no need to abide by every word of Trump’s 20-point peace plan, including calls for the terror group to lay down its arms. “We do not need to limit ourselves to the Israeli terms and definitions related to weapons,” Qassem told the Al-Arabiya news channel. “We will...

October 13th is the day that marks the death of one of the most important defenders of Macedonia’s struggle for freedom, the Hellenic Army Officer Pavlos Melas. Melas, born in 1870 in the French city of Marseille, was the son of Michael Melas, an elected MP for Attica and mayor of Athens. At an early age, Melas decided to go to Athens to study and later joined the Hellenic Army, graduating from the Hellenic Army Academy as an artillery lieutenant at age 21. In 1892, he married Natalia Dragoumi, the daughter of a famous politician from Macedonia’s city of Kastoria,...

When I wrote on Saturday that the foreign policy establishment is in utter shambles, I'm not sure I expected them to respond with such utter shamelessness. Yet, here we are, with former Secretary of State Antony Blinken giving Joseph Robinette Biden credit for the recently negotiated Gaza peace deal. No, I'm not kidding, and that's not even the worst of it. As RedState reported, the deal will see the release of the remaining hostages, with Israel not having to vacate Gaza. Instead, they'll pull back to a predetermined line inside the territory, forming a buffer zone to ensure the disarmament...

The US ambassador to Israel has called cabinet minister Bridget Phillipson "delusional" after she told Sky News the UK played a key role in the Gaza peace deal. The education secretary told Sunday Morning With Trevor Phillips that Sir Keir Starmer's presence at a signing ceremony for the ceasefire deal in Egypt on Monday "demonstrates the key role that we have played". She did not say exactly what the UK's role in the ceasefire, largely attributed to Donald Trump, is or was. But she added: "We have played a key role behind the scenes in shaping this. "It's right that...

To sum up the week in French politics one sees the struggle of Emmanuel Macron to maintain political power to keep dragging out the political process out as long as possible. His latest designated Prime Minister Sebastien Lecornu named a cabinet last Sunday night to a storm of rejection a symbolic if not literal middle finger. By Monday in the face of certain rejection in the National Assembly Lecornu...

The reappointment comes as part of Macron 's bid to avoid plunging France into another political crisis. However, it has not been well received.French President Emmanuel Macron has reappointed Sébastien Lecornu as prime minister. This decision comes days after Lecornu announced his resignation from the post. However, this sudden reappointment has been witness to backlash from key political allies as well as the opposition. The reappointment comes as as part of Macron's bid to avoid plunging France into another political crisis. In the past two years, Lecornu is the fifth prime minister to have taken the office. Since Elisabeth Borne's...

International politics can be boring at times, but the one constant in an ever-changing universe is the hubris of the European Union.With President Trump outlining the breakthrough negotiations for a peace agreement in Gaza, Emmanuel Macron (France), Keir Starmer (U.K) and Friedrich Merz (Germany) call an urgent meeting of EU Foreign Ministers to organize their strategy to take over the Gaza “Board of Peace.”EUROPE – Now that Donald Trump’s peace deal has the green light, European powers want a seat at the table.As the news broke that Israel and Hamas had agreed the first phase of a ceasefire plan, French...

Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer has praised US President Donald Trump's leadership in the Gaza peace talks, claiming the deal "would not have happened" without him. On Wednesday, Trump announced Israel and Hamas had agreed to the first phase of his 20-point peace plan, in a major step towards a permanent end to their war. It comes two years and two days after the Hamas-led attack on southern Israel on 7 October 2023, in which about 1,200 people were killed and 251 others taken hostage. Sir Keir said the UK "played an important part behind the scenes" and had seen...

From 7/7 to Manchester 2025 – the story they refuse to tellAfter the Manchester synagogue attack, I began tracing two decades of Islamic terrorism in Britain – uncovering a disturbing pattern hidden in plain sight. This is not prejudice. It’s record-keeping – and a warning about policies putting us all at risk.ManchesterI didn’t learn about the Manchester synagogue terrorist attack until I opened my phone after Yom Kippur had ended. I had also missed messages from my cousin, who had witnessed the event and been evacuated from her home by the police.By 7:30 the following morning, I had already traced...