French police said they arrested more than 100 “yellow vest” demonstrators on Saturday in Paris as thousands of protestors took to the streets for a 23rd week of anti-government marches. AFP journalists reported scuffles between police and protesters in the afternoon, after hours of calm, as police used anti-riot grenades and tear gas to disperse marchers in the center of the French capital. Police headquarters reported 126 arrests and 11,000…

British agriculture is going high-tech. Farmers recently tested cutting-edge technology like robots that autonomously tend fields and wireless cattle that may connect faster to the farm than you to your favorite app. Incoming message from Arash Arabasadi. …

U.S. prosecutors say a Russian gun-rights activist who admitted being a secret agent for the Kremlin should serve an 18-month prison sentence. The request came in a sentencing memo filed late Friday in Maria Butina’s case. Prosecutors say Butina was “not a spy in the traditional sense” and wasn’t formally trained as an intelligence officer. Instead, they say she tried to infiltrate conservative U.S. political groups as Donald Trump rose…

There is a still a concern that Britain may leave the European Union without a deal to smooth the way, the bloc’s chief executive said Saturday, urging Britain to take advantage of a six-month delay to work out the details of its departure.  European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker made the comments in an interview with German newspaper FUNKE Mediengruppe, a week after EU leaders gave Britain six months more to exit the EU.  “Nobody knows how Brexit…

Britain’s governing Conservative Party faces an historic loss in next month’s European Parliament elections, warn party insiders and pollsters, as a result of its handling of Brexit and the delay of the country’s departure from the European Union. Half-a-dozen opinion polls suggests the Conservative government of Prime Minister Theresa May could fall off a cliff and the center of British politics could be eroded, benefiting a new Brexit party founded…

On Good Friday, Pope Francis presides over the Passion of the Lord service in Saint Peter’s Basilica taking part in the candle-lit Way of the Cross procession, attended by thousands of faithful at Rome’s ancient Colosseum. The meditations for this celebration have been written by Sister Eugenia Bonetti, an 80-year-old nun who, along with her missionary sisters, has spent the last quarter century fighting human trafficking.   Pope Francis has…

French President Emmanuel Macron is hosting officials from the United Nations’ cultural agency, where he is expected to set out ideas for the reconstruction of Notre Dame Cathedral.  He will meet with state delegates from UNESCO, which oversees global heritage issues, in the Elysee Palace Friday.  Macron’s push for a speedy rebuild indicates he wants the fire-ravaged monument’s reconstruction to be part of his legacy, and is seizing the moment…

A Greek anarchist group on Thursday claimed responsibility for exploding a grenade outside the Russian Consulate in Athens in March.    In a statement on anti-establishment website Indymedia validating the hit, the group calling itself “FAI/IRF Revenge Plot” accused Moscow of torturing arrested anarchists.    They dedicated the attack to Mikhail Zhlobitsky, a 17-year-old anarchist killed in a suicide bombing at the regional offices of federal security service FSB in Arkhangelsk…

Bulgarian customs officials confiscated more than 288 kilograms (635 pounds) of heroin hidden on a truck from Iran, prosecutors announced Thursday.  The haul was the biggest amount of heroin seized at Bulgaria’s borders this year, the customs agency said. Two men — the Iranian truck driver and a Turkish man, who was allegedly to receive the drugs in Bulgaria — were detained and indicted for drug trafficking, the Haskovo regional prosecution said in a…

President Emmanuel Macron might have hoped he was striking a note for modernity and openness in announcing an international competition to design a new spire for Notre-Dame cathedral, but he may have opened a can of worms instead. There was already debate about whether his goal of rebuilding the church by 2024, when Paris hosts the Olympic Games, was overly ambitious, but now he’s unsettled those who would prefer to…