France

A French court has rejected an appeal by the Church of Scientology, upholding 2009 fraud charges and a 600,000 euro fine for convincing members into spending tens of thousands of euros.

The use of juries in French criminal courts is to be extended from the beginning of January. Magistrates say that they support the greater use of juries, but claim that there is a strong political motivation behind the decision.

Initial charges were filed Wednesday against a photographer accused of taking advantage of the frailty of France’s richest woman, cosmetics heiress Liliane Bettencourt (pictured), to the tune of approximately 1 billion euros in cash and gifts.

Five Somali nationals were sentenced by a French court on Wednesday to between four and eight years in jail on charges including hijacking and armed robbery in the 2008 kidnapping of a French couple in the Gulf of Aden.

A Paris appeals court approved the extradition of former Panamanian dictator Manuel Noriega on Wednesday, who is serving time in France for money laundering. He has been convicted in absentia for corruption and murder in Panama.

Disgraced IMF chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn (pictured), is suing several newspapers and an adviser to the French president over media reports about him, including one linking him to a prostitution probe, his lawyers said Tuesday.

Paris prosecutors said Wednesday they had called off a probe into claims that French former president Jacques Chirac (photo) and other politicians accepted money from African regimes in order to fund political campaigns, citing a lack of evidence.

Dominique Strauss-Kahn and his wife plan to take legal action to protect their privacy after media reports emerged claiming the couple sought a divorce after the ex-IMF chief was linked to a prostitution scandal, their lawyers said on Monday.

Disgraced former IMF chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn vehemently denies French media reports that he hired prostitutes at an upscale hotel in the northern French city of Lille, his lawyer said Sunday.

Former IMF chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn said that he "tried to kiss" a young writer who has accused him of attempted rape, but stopped when she resisted, according to police transcripts. Prosecutors have dropped an inquiry into the allegations.