France's influential economist Thomas Piketty, author of the bestseller Capital in the 21st Century, refused to accept the country's highest award, the Legion d'Honneur, arguing it is not the government's job to decide who is honorable and criticizing policies of the current Socialist administration.
France suspended indefinitely on Tuesday delivery of the first of two Mistral helicopter carrier warships to Russia, citing conflict in eastern Ukraine where the West accuses Moscow of fomenting separatism.
On 21 October 2014, WHO was notified by the National IHR Focal Point for France of 4 cases of chikungunya locally-acquired infection in Montpellier, France. The cases were confirmed by tests conducted by the French National Reference Laboratory for arboviruses on 20 October 2014. This is the first time that locally-acquired transmission of chikungunya has been detected in France since 2010.
The far-right National Front won its first ever seats in France's upper house of parliament, as President Francois Hollande's Socialist party lost its Senate majority. The left still controls the lower house, which is the dominant legislative body in France, but Sunday's ballot underlined the unpopularity of the president and the continued rise of the anti-immigration, anti-Euro National Front.
Germany's Angela Merkel said on Monday after meeting French premier Manuel Valls that she was impressed by the number of reforms Paris had launched, but deferred to Brussels on the halting French efforts to reduce its public deficit.
French President Francois Hollande and Mario Draghi the head of the European Central Bank (ECB) have agreed that European demand must be lifted to head off a risk of deflation, French officials said.
French president Francois Hollande has replaced his maverick leftist economy minister with a former Rothschild partner in a reshuffle intended to reconcile his efforts to revive the stagnant French economy with deficit-cutting orthodoxy.
French President Francois Hollande asked his prime minister on Sunday to form a new government, looking to impose his will on the cabinet after rebel leftist ministers had called for an economic policy U-turn. The surprise move came the day after outspoken Economy Minister Arnaud Montebourg had condemned what he called fiscal austerity and attacked Euro zone powerhouse Germany's obsession with budgetary rigor.
France's largest bank, BNP Paribas, has agreed to a record 9bn dollars settlement with US prosecutors over allegations of sanctions violations. As part of the deal, the bank will plead guilty to two criminal charges of breaking US sanctions against trade with Sudan, Iran and Cuba.
The European Court of Human Rights has upheld a ban by France on wearing the Muslim full-face veil, the niqab. A case was brought by a 24-year-old French woman, who argued that the ban on wearing the veil in public violated her freedom of religion and expression.