French jury upholds jail terms for three rugby players over gang rape

Several thousand people marched through the streets of Paris' largest suburb on Saturday to denounce racism after the town's newly elected black mayor was subject to disparaging comments on social media and national television shows.

Bally Bagayoko, 52, of the hard-left France Unbowed (LFI) party, was elected mayor of Saint-Denis in the first round of municipal elections on March 15.

The Frenchman born to Malian parents and brought up in the neighbourhood was almost immediately targeted by racist disinformation and remarks, some aired on one of the country's most watched news channels.

Demonstrators gathered on the steps of Saint-Denis's town hall, a town of 150,000 is one of France's most diverse, with a large immigrant population. Music bands, trades unions and associations joined the demonstation.

"We come to state firmly and definitively our visceral attachment to the values of the Republic embodied by those who are heirs of immigration," said Bagayoko.

He attacked what he said were "failing, sometimes even complicit institutions".

Also present was LFI leader Jean-Luc Melenchon. He denounced "a sickening wave of racism coming from the political and media elites who, without reservation, without restraint, have displayed their contempt for a part of our people."

- Government minister absent -

Aurore Berge, the government's minister against discrimination did not attend the event.

"If there is one minister who should have been there, it is her," said Bagayoko when he was asked about her absence -- but he did thank her for having reached out by telephone to express her solidarity.

Prime Minister Sebastien Lecornu this week also denounced what he described as the "normalisation of evil and racism" following the campaign against Bagayoko.

Bagayoko has filed a legal complaint against the CNews television channel, often described as France's Fox News, over comments about him made by one guest on the show.

Paris prosecutors announced on Thursday that they had opened an investigation into possible public insults of a racist nature over some of the remarks broadcast on CNews.

A separate investigation had been opened into the racist abuse the mayor received on the X platform, after the comments broadcast on CNews.

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London police announced Saturday they had arrested another man over an arson attack on ambulances run by a Jewish charity in London -- after officers recognised him at a court hearing over the incident.

Two men and a boy charged over the March 23 attack appeared at a court in Westminster on Saturday and were remanded in custody until later this month.

During the hearing, prosecutor Emma Harraway said another person had been arrested, but did not elaborate.

Then London's Metropolitan Police issued a statement saying officers in court had recognised a 19-year-old man as involved in the attack.

They arrested him for "arson with intent to endanger life", the statement added.

Already on Wednesday, two young men and a boy were arrested at separate addresses in east London and charged over the attack.

They have been identified as British citizens Hamza Iqbal, 20, Rehan Khan, 19, and an unnamed 17-year-old UK-Pakistani dual-national.

They will remain in detention until their next hearing on April 24, the court ruled.

The defendants, charged with arson that was "reckless as to whether life would be endangered", spoke only to confirm their identity.

The trio showed "significant premeditation and planning, including actions to hide" their offence, said Harraway.

She told the court there was strong evidence that this was "a premeditated and targeted attack against the Jewish community".

One of the lines of inquiry is to determine "whether this case falls under the National Security Act 2023", she said, referring to anti-terrorism legislation.

The vehicles targeted were run by Hatzola, a volunteer organisation that provides free medical transportation and emergency response in north London.

They were parked next to a synagogue in the Golders Green area of northwest London, home to a significant Jewish population.

The damage caused by the attack was valued at £1 million, the court heard.

Two other men in their 40s were arrested over the attack and then released on bail on March 25.

A little-known Islamist group with possible links to Iran has claimed responsibility.

The Harakat Ashab al-Yamin al-Islamiya (HAYI) group -- the Islamic Movement of the People of the Right Hand -- has also claimed responsibility for similar attacks in Belgium and the Netherlands.

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(The Center Square) – President Trump on Saturday gave Iran a 48-hour deadline to open the Strait of Hormuz to oil cargo or "all hell will reign down."

"Remember when I gave Iran ten days to MAKE A DEAL or OPEN UP THE HORMUZ STRAIT," Trump wrote on social media. "Time is running out - 48 hours before all Hell will reign down on them. Glory be to GOD!"

Iran has mostly blocked the strait for five weeks, since the U.S. and Israel began its bombing operation. The standoff is blocking about 20% of the world's oil supply, keeping it in the Persian Gulf and driving up oil and gas prices across the world.

Trump's Saturday threat comes as search and rescue operations remain ongoing after two U.S. fighter jets crashed in the region. In the first, an F-15E fighter jet with two crew members was shot down. The pilot was recovered but the craft's weapons systems officer remains missing. In the second, an A-10 Warthog aircraft crashed and the pilot was recovered.

A French court on Saturday upheld the prison sentences of up to 14 years imposed on three former rugby players who had appealed their convictions for raping a student in 2017.

Irishman Denis Coulson, 31, and Frenchman Loick Jammes, 31, had been sentenced to 14 years behind bars, and New Zealander Rory Grice, 36, to 12 years in jail.

The jail terms were handed down after a trial in the French city of Bordeaux in late 2024 over the rape of a 20-year-old student during a drunken night out in 2017.

"You are sentenced to the same penalty as in the first instance," said the presiding judge in Angouleme, southwestern France, adding that there was an "absence of significant evolution compared to the previous decision".

There were emotional scenes as the verdict was read as the three defendants, former players with Grenoble rugby club, remained motionless in the dock before speaking with their lawyers and relatives, some of whom were in tears. 

The victim was not present in court. 

In the early hours of March 12, 2017, the student, identified only as V., was in tears as she left a hotel on the outskirts of Bordeaux, where the Grenoble team spent the night after losing a Top 14 game against local side Bordeaux-Begles.

V. filed a complaint with police, saying she had met the players in a bar together with two friends and accompanied them to a nightclub where all of them drank heavily.

The student said she had no recollection of how she got from the club to the hotel where she woke up, naked on a bed and with a crutch inserted in her vagina.

She saw two naked men in the room and others fully dressed.

Coulson, Jammes and Grice stated they had sexual relations with V. but claimed the encounter was consensual and the student had been pro-active in bringing it about.

The lawyers for the three said they will appeal to the Court of Cassation, the highest court in the French judicial system. 

Coulson's lawyer said they were stunned by a "repetition of an excessive and disproportionate punishment". 

Jammes's lawyer Denis Dreyfus said they had been punished for not having confessed.

"If this is how the appeals process is conceived, it's frightening," he said. 

During the proceedings, as in the original trial, the defendants maintained that the act was consensual, relying on a video filmed by one of them. 

The victim's lawyer said they were relieved and described the ordeal as "a terrible journey, marked by repeated setbacks". 

Two other teammates, who witnessed the scene without intervening, Irishman Chris Farrell and New Zealander Dylan Hayes, did not appeal their convictions.

Farrell had been sentenced to four years in prison, two of which were suspended, and Hayes received a two-year suspended term.

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Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky arrived in Istanbul on Saturday for security talks with Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

The visit comes a day after Erdogan spoke with Russian President Vladimir Putin, who accused Kyiv of attempting to target the gas pipeline between Russia and Turkey that also supplies several European countries.

"Arrived in Istanbul, where important meetings are scheduled. Substantive talks have been prepared with the President of Turkiye, Recep Tayyip Erdogan," said Zelensky on X.

"We are working to strengthen our partnership to ensure real protection of people's lives, advance stability and guarantee security in our Europe, as well as in the Middle East," he added.

The Turkish presidency also confirmed the visit, saying that the meeting will focus on "efforts towards a ceasefire and a lasting solution, particularly within the framework of the Istanbul process." 

An AFP correspondent saw a heavy police presence around the lavish Dolmabahce Palace on the shores of the Bosphorus, which also hosted several rounds of talks between Moscow in Kyiv in the past.

Zelensky will also meet Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew, the spiritual leader of most Christian Orthodox churches.

This takes place a week before Orthodox Easter, which is celebrated in both Ukraine and Russia on April 12.

Kyiv has been pushing for a truce over the Orthodox Easter holidays that would include a halt in attacks on energy infrastructure.

Russia, which is seeking a permanent settlement rather than a brief ceasefire, said it had not seen any "clearly formulated" proposals from Kyiv.

Ukraine has struck Russian energy infrastructure throughout the more than four-year war in a bid to weaken Moscow's ability to finance its offensive.

Russian strikes on Ukrainian energy facilities have cut power and heating to millions of people since the beginning the war in 2022.

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(The Center Square) - Analysts and trade experts are calling for the United States to move away from wide-ranging tariffs and embrace strategic trade relationships to counter global adversaries.

The analysts spoke at the American Institute for Economic Research in Washington, D.C., one year after President Donald Trump instituted his “Liberation Day” tariffs in April 2025. The U.S. Supreme Court struck down the president’s authority to institute broad tariffs against other nations in February.

Speakers at the conference said allowing private companies to develop in a free market will advance opportunities for those industries. They argued the Trump administration's broad tariff policies do not enable a competitive, free market.

“When you allow industry to develop in a free market, you get the best processes, the best ideas,” said Donald Boudreaux, an economics professor at George Mason University. “Those cutting-edge ideas, those cutting-edge technologies are almost certainly going to be handy in the event of military hostilities.”

Boudreaux pointed to the U.S. conflict in Iran. He said the U.S. will not be able to achieve its goals in Iran by sheer force of will or trading capabilities.

Boudreaux was joined by Erik Gartzke, a professor of political science at the University of San Diego. The two argued that China has exploited the United States’ openness and free market system of trade.

They criticized President Donald Trump’s wide-ranging tariffs and said it was not a viable strategy to optimize strategic competition against China. Gartzke said the use of wide-ranging tariffs could sacrifice the United States’ relationships with other allies who could help defend against Chinese threats.

“We’ve stumbled badly by losing sight of the ball and losing an initiative in the game,” Gartzke said. “Now the Chinese can point to the fact that we put tariffs on everything.”

While embracing a free trade mindset that avoids tariffs on allied nations, some analysts warned against threats to national security that could come from trading too freely with adversaries. Theresa Campobasso, senior vice president of Supply Chain Security at Aardwolf Global Solutions, said the United States needs to scrutinize what it trades with adversarial nations, like China.

She said ideal supply chain regulation limits trade when absolutely necessary for national security and takes a very targeted approach.

“A serious framework requires a documented threat mechanism that’s scoped assessment of exposure, a defined intervention matched appropriately to that scope, and then the measurable definition of success," Campobasso said.

However, Veronique de Rugy, senior research fellow at the Mercatus Center, cautioned against overregulation for the sake of protecting national security. She said the private sector should be trusted to engage in proper security controls among foreign nations.

“It seems that actually any impediment to the private sector and to the American economy is treated as a national security threat and that’s just problematic,” de Rugy said.

The analysts called on developing a national framework to approach security across the country.

“We can come up with a very sound way to define a framework for national security that will be required to decide whether policy is truly worth the cost to trade,” de Rugy said.

The analysts warned against continued tariff costs. Boudreaux said America would become less wealthy and more vulnerable to foreign threats if it does not engage in trade with its allies.

“By misallocating resources over time, the economy becomes less efficient,” Boudreaux said. “There is unquestionably a positive connection between the wealth of the nation and the ability of that nation’s government to supply adequate national defense.”

Heavy rain and storms have killed at least 121 people over two weeks across Afghanistan and Pakistan, disaster officials in both countries said Saturday. 

Stormy weather has brought rain sweeping across Afghanistan since late March, causing floods, landslides, and hitting homes and crops. 

"Since March 26 till today, 77 people have been killed and 137 wounded across the country because of the floods and rains," Afghanistan's disaster management authority (ANDMA) spokesman Mohammad Yousuf Hammad told AFP on Saturday.

The spokesman added that 26 people were killed and 48 were wounded across the country in the past 48 hours due to rains, floods, landslides and lightning.  

Across the border in Pakistan, 44 people were killed following heavy rains in the last weeks, officials said. 

At least 32 people died in the northern province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa since March 25 and 12 in southwestern Balochistan since March 20, the provincial disaster management authorities told AFP. 

Afghanistan's latest casualties include a child who drowned in a flash flood in southeastern Ghazni on Saturday morning while he was busy playing with other children, provincial police said.

Two more children also drowned in different districts of the same province. 

That came hours after three people died in Kandahar province, southern Afghanistan, when the roof of their house collapsed due to rains, the provincial disaster management authority said.  

- Damage -

ANDMA spokesman Hammad said rainfall since the start of spring "can strengthen the underground sources of water and give growth to the agriculture sector".

But he said it can also cause human suffering and financial loss.

In western Herat province, farmer Abdul Rahim Taimori said: "We don't remember such a flood happening before. It has caused us a lot of damage. 

"It has destroyed the crops of people, their homes. If it continues like this then we would have to leave our homes," the 45-year-old told AFP. 

But relocating is unaffordable for many. 

"Where shall we go? We are forced to stay," said Majal Niazi, a 45-year-old farmer who lives in a one-room house with his family. 

The rain has also led to several road closures, with Kabul police reporting the partial closure Friday of the road between the capital and the city of Jalalabad.

Afghanistan's disaster management authority renewed its warning to people to stay away from "rivers and flooded streams, and follow the weather forecast seriously".

The latest casualties follow more than 60 people being killed in snow and heavy rain that hit Afghanistan in January. 

Afghanistan frequently experiences deadly floods, landslides and storms, particularly in remote areas with fragile infrastructure. 

Among the poorest countries in the world after decades of war, Afghanistan is particularly exposed to the effects of climate change, which scientists say is spurring extreme weather.

"It was drought before and now we have these rains, both are a danger," said Abdul Sattar, a 40-year-old farmer in Herat. 

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A Russian drone hit a covered market in the eastern Ukrainian city of Nikopol on Saturday, killing five people and wounding 19, officials said, as Moscow pressed on with intensified daytime attacks. 

The market, in Nikopol in the Dnipropetrovsk region, was hit at 9:50 am (0650 GMT), the local prosecutor's office said.

Regional governor, Oleksandr Ganja, said in a Telegram post that three women and two men were killed. 

He added that a 14-year-old girl was among 19 wounded and was in a "critical condition".

Five people were also injured on Saturday morning in the northeastern city of Kharkiv, near the front line, regional police said.

The Ukrainian air force said Russia fired 286 drones overnight, of which 260 were intercepted.

In the northern Sumy region, 11 people were wounded in strikes on residential areas and civilian infrastructure overnight, police said.

Images released by Ukrainian emergency services showed a building whose upper floors were engulfed in flames.

Three people were wounded in the eastern Dnipropetrovsk region, including a baby aged five months and a six-year-old boy, Ganja said earlier on Telegram. 

In Russia, a missile and drone attack on the southern Rostov region bordering Ukraine, left one person dead and four seriously wounded in the city of Taganrog, regional governor Yuri Slyussar said. 

He said three local residents and a foreigner were all in critical condition but did not specify the origin of the attacks.

On the Sea of Azov, a foreign cargo ship was damaged by falling drone debris and caught fire, he added.

- Stalled talks -

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky meanwhile arrived in Ankara on Saturday for talks with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. on security cooperation, a Ukrainian official told AFP.

Zelensky this week signalled he was ready for a truce over the Easter holidays, but the Kremlin said it had not received "clearly formulated" proposals.

Ukraine has accused Russia of prolonging the war to capture more territory, and says Moscow is not interested in peace.

Talks between the two warring parties, mediated by the United States, have been stalled by the war in the Middle East.

In comments to reporters, including AFP, published on Friday, Zelensky said he had invited an American delegation to Ukraine to relaunch negotiations with Moscow.

"The delegation will do everything possible in the current conditions -- during the war with Iran -- to come to Kyiv," Zelensky said.

"The American group can come to us and, after us, go to Moscow. If it does not work out with three parties, let's do it this way," he added.

Amid the Middle East war, Ukraine has sought to leverage its expertise in fighting off Russian drones similar to those Iran has been using in retaliatory attacks across Gulf nations.

Last week, Zelensky visited several Middle Eastern countries and signed defence agreements with Qatar and Saudi Arabia.

He also suggested Ukraine could help unblock the Strait of Hormuz, whose effective closure by Iran has rattled the global economy.

He did not specify how Ukraine could contribute, but cited Kyiv's experience in restoring passage through the Black Sea, which Russia had blocked at the beginning of its invasion.

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Artemis 2 astronaut Jeremy Hansen felt like he was "falling out of the sky" as his spacecraft followed its complex flight path to the Moon, the Canadian said in a Saturday video call.

The four Artemis astronauts have passed the halfway point between Earth and the Moon on Saturday morning -- more than 150,000 miles (241,000 kilometers) from home -- as they zipped toward the first crewed lunar flyby in more than half a century.

Hansen, a 50-year-old former fighter pilot on his maiden voyage into space, said he saw "some extraordinary things" during the first hours aboard the Orion.

"By the time we had a bit of a nap and got up, the Earth was just so far away," Hansen, flanked by American crewmates Victor Glover and Reid Wiseman, told a question-and-answer session hosted by the Canadian Space Agency (CSA).

- 'Like falling out of the sky' -

Hansen then described the translunar injection burn -- a maneuver that brought Orion within 200 kilometers of Earth before swinging around onto a new course for the Moon.

"It just felt like we were falling out of the sky back to Earth, and I said to Reid, 'It feels like we're gonna hit it,'" Hansen said.

"It's amazing that we're actually gonna go around and miss this thing. It was just so close and so to take all of that in was really phenomenal."

Hansen, who joined the CSA in 2009 following his career as a fighter pilot in the Royal Canadian Air Force, will be the first non-American to fly around the Moon.

Orion's next milestone, set to take place on day five of the 10-day mission, is to enter the lunar sphere of influence, where the Moon's gravitational pull exceeds that of the Earth, according to NASA.

Hansen said he was looking forward to an up-close view of the far side of the Moon and seeing "an eclipse of the Sun behind the Moon, which will be pretty neat."

Hansen once cited a childhood encounter with a photograph of Neil Armstrong on the Moon as the seed of his passion for space exploration.

Asked about advice for children, the father of three urged youngsters to "follow your passions, but also share your passions with other people."

"To get big things done like we're doing in this capsule, to travel to the moon, to fly around the moon, you need a big team behind you. And that's true for all of us in our lives."

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The price of diesel fuel has rocketed by more than 30 percent across Europe since the start of the Middle East war highlighting the continent's dependence on imported energy and the lingering prominence of  diesel on the car market.

The Easter holiday weekend across Europe is expected to see a surge in demand with queues at petrol stations.

Diesel has been worse hit than other fuels, and was already under pressure before the war. Experts say its cost will rise further -- with a knock-on effect on inflation -- as long as trade through the Strait of Hormuz remains blocked.

The per-barrel price of diesel rose above $200 in Europe on Thursday, the highest since March 2022 when Russia's invasion of Ukraine shook markets.

Diesel is ubiquitous in Europe. While electric cars are making inroads in new sales, diesel is still the most widely used fuel. Trucks, farm tractors, buses, building site machinery and even shipping depend on it.

Diesel accounted for 86 percent of transport fuel sales in Latvia in 2024, 73 percent in France and 66 percent in Germany, according to FuelsEurope, a trade body which represents the refining industry.

The international supply-and-demand balance for diesel "was much tighter than the gasoline balance going into the war and the subsequent market response has been one of strong gasoil (diesel) price escalation while gasoline’s price response has been somewhat muted," Susan Bell, a commodity markets specialist at Rystad Energy, a consultancy, told AFP.

- Russia dilemma -

In Britain, France and other countries, the price of diesel has risen more than 30 percent since the first US-Israeli air strikes on Iran and resulting choking of the Strait of Hormuz.

In France, the price of regular petrol has gone up by just 17 percent, according to government statistics consulted by AFP.

The Netherlands has the most expensive diesel in Europe at more than $2.80 a litre, according to research by the RAC, a British motoring organisation. That is about 20 percent more than Italy, the cheapest country surveyed by the RAC.

Diesel was for a long time cheaper than petrol. At the end of the 20th century, governments and car firms encouraged drivers to buy diesel-engine cars. But not enough refineries were built to keep up with demand for the fuel and in recent years governments have imposed higher taxes on it.

The European Union is now a net exporter of petrol, mainly to the United States and Africa, but an importer of diesel.

Russia was Europe's main source of diesel until Moscow's all-out invasion of Ukraine in 2022 set off international sanctions. 

Now EU nations look to India, Turkey, the United States and Saudi Arabia for supplies.

Middle East states provided more than half of Europe's diesel in 2025 (554,000 barrels a day out of 1.06 million), according to Rystad Energy. About one third of this passed through the Strait Hormuz.

Europe is now struggling to find alternatives. 

Slovakia last month ordered a 30-day restriction on diesel sales while foreigners have to pay more for the fuel there. Ireland and Spain have temporarily cut the taxes they charge on the fuel.

"Refineries are working at full capacity," said an expert at French energy giant TotalEnergies which has six refineries across Europe. 

"Even with maximum adjustment to our settings, the room for manoeuvre remains minimal" for TotalEnergies, he added.

Bell said that if there is a shortage of regular petrol then Europe can cut its exports. But that doesn't work for diesel.

"The most efficient and economical solution for Europe would be to source its diesel from Russia," said Bell. 

The EU will not be lifting its sanctions anytime soon however.

Postponing refinery maintenance, using strategic reserves, and reducing consumption appear to be the only other ways to partially address the imbalance, she said.

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