Heavy prison sentences for Pinochet-era officials
A Paris court on Friday handed out sentences of 15 years to life to officials linked to late Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet accused of involvement in the disappearance of four French citizens.
The court acquitted one of the 14 being tried in absentia who were mostly military officers during the regime that lasted from 1973 to 1990 and who include Manuel Contreras, the former head of Chile’s Dina secret police.
The charges against them were kidnapping, arbitrary detention, torture and barbarous acts.
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Passenger sues French rail company after missing train
The beginning of this story is common place in France, but the ending is unprecedented.
On an early June morning in 2008, Remy Rouquette, a lawyer, boards a train in Melun station is the southeast suburbs of Paris. Bound for Paris’ Gare de Lyon station, the train leaves on schedule at 5:37am. But following a track switch mistake the train belonging to the national SNCF rail company arrives 19 minutes late. Rouquette misses his connecting train, a 7:24 regional to the southern city of Nimes. More importantly, he misses his scheduled 10am court appearance in that city.
Unfortunately for SNCF, that’s not the end of the story.
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Categories: News Tags: Appear, Eurostar, Law/Crime, Rail transport in Europe, Railteam, Remy Rouquette, SNCF, Technology, TER, Transport express régional, Transport in Europe
Anthrax Polluted Heroin Alarms France
The French health ministry released an alert on Tuesday just after eight individuals died and seven became ill in two European countries through using heroin contaminated with anthrax.
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Categories: News Tags: Anthrax, Disaster/Accident, Environment, France, General Directorate for Health, Germany, Heroin, Law/Crime, Livestock, Scotland, substance, Zoonoses