A French campaign group has renewed calls for authorities to take action against homophobic chanting by soccer fans, saying Marseille supporters belted out anti-gay slurs “with complete impunity” during a home game against Monaco.

France's counterterrorism prosecutor says authorities foiled three plots to attack the Olympic Games in Paris and other cities that hosted events this summer.

The first substitution made in the Olympics men’s soccer semifinal match between Morocco and Spain was the referee.

The upcoming Paris Olympics are likely to draw new attention to France's ban on its athletes wearing hijabs.

A Ukrainian gymnast has led a group of European athletes carrying the torch for the Paris Olympics through Marseille, a gesture of European unity and solidarity with her country amid its war with Russia.

Torchbearers are carrying the Olympic flame through the streets of France’s southern port city of Marseille, the first leg of an 11-week journey across the country.

Tens of thousands welcomed the Olympic torch in the southern French city of Marseille, marking another milestone in the lead-up to the Summer Games in Paris.

The Olympic torch will finally enter France.

Since Antoine Dupont broke a cheekbone in a tackle at the Rugby World Cup, France has been feeding crumbs of positivity about its talismanic captain.

The award-winning U.S. guitarist Al Di Meola has suffered a heart attack while performing in Romania’s capital.

Pope Francis is labeling the weapons industry as being a key driver of the “martyrdom” of Ukraine’s people in Russia’s war.

Pope Francis has blasted what he calls the “fanaticism of indifference” that greets migrants seeking a better life in Europe.

France’s national police chief has said that law enforcement officers under investigation shouldn’t be jailed like ordinary citizens amid a walkout by numerous Marseille police over the detention of a colleague for his actions during nationwide riots.

French police say they arrested 13 people after gas and power meters were strewn outside a government building in an unusual trade union demonstration against unpopular pension reforms.

French authorities said the death toll rose to four people after two bodies were found Monday in the rubble following an explosion that collapsed a building in the southern French city of Marseille.

Officials say eight people remain missing after the building they lived in exploded and collapsed early Sunday near the port of Marseille.

A European humanitarian group says its migrant rescue ship is heading toward the French island of Corsica in hopes that France will offer its 234 passengers a safe port.

Industries across France have gone on strike again to push for pay hikes that keep up with rising inflation.

Violent thunderstorms and hurricane-force winds in France and Italy have left at least eight people dead.

European Union lawmakers have approved a proposed ban on selling new cars with combustion engines in 2035 to step up the fight against global warming.

A permanent virtual exhibit of one of France's most famous prehistoric sites, the undersea Cosquer Cave, is set to open its doors as concerns grow that it could be completely inundated as a result of rising tides driven by climate change.

The European Union has slashed its forecasts for economic growth in the 27-nation bloc amid the prospect of a drawn-out Russian war in Ukraine and disruptions to energy supplies.

French voters in the presidential election are using an old-school voting system that has defied calls for more flexibility or modernization.

French President Emmanuel Macron is holding a major campaign rally in Marseille to seek backing from voters who supported a left-wing candidate in the first round of the presidential election.

Experts are watching for a potential new COVID-19 surge in the U.S. — and wondering how long it will take to detect.

Second-seeded Andrey Rublev beat No. 3 Felix Auger-Aliassime 7-5, 7-6 (4) to win the Open 13 tournament and clinch his ninth career title.

France recorded more than 100,000 virus infections in a single day for the first time since the pandemic struck and COVID-19 hospitalizations have doubled over the past month.

The staff is tired, the omicron variant is bearing down and the intensive care unit beds are filling fast at a hospital in the French city of Marseille.

Bernard Tapie, the charismatic president of French soccer club Marseille during its glory era whose reign was marred by a match-fixing scandal, has died.

French doctors and scientists are calling on authorities to take action against the insults and threats — including death threats — that many have received during the coronavirus pandemic.

Sharks and rays have seen declines in their populations since 2014 and more and more are now threatened with extinction.

French President Emmanuel Macron opened a global summit on biodiversity calling for better protection of the high seas, which largely don’t fall under any national jurisdiction but are threatened by fishing and other human activities.

Thousands of people, from families to far-right sympathizers, marched in cities across France for a fifth straight Saturday to denounce a COVID-19 health pass that is now needed to enter restaurants and long-distance trains.

The set-up of Tom McCarthy's “Stillwater” sounds very Liam Neeson.

La directora de los Centros de Control y Prevención de Enfermedades, doctora Rochelle Walensky, dice que la cepa, conocida como B.1.1.7, es “ahora el linaje más común que circula en Estados Unidos”

A police officer guards a Jewish school after a man visibly brandished a knife outside a Jewish school and a kosher market in Marseille, southern France, Friday, March 5, 2021. Police detained a man Friday who was wielding a knife outside a Jewish school and kosher market, and increased surveillance of Jewish sites in the city while they investigate his motives, according to local authorities. (AP Photo/Daniel Cole)PARIS – Police in the French city of Marseille detained a man Friday who was wielding a knife outside a Jewish school and kosher market. A witness said it was a rapid police operation, and described the area as a gathering place for people in the local Jewish community. France saw deadly attacks targeting a Jewish school in Toulouse in 2012 and a Paris kosher market in 2015.

The fourth edition of the global Circus Biennale is demonstrating how the performing arts have a way of flourishing in between the cracks, celebrating the death-defying and spine stretching arts that go behind the storied spectacle. (AP Photo/Francois Mori)MARSEILLE – It’s been a tough year for the performing arts in most countries, with virus lockdowns canceling shows and shuttering venues. But the world's top circus festival has found a way to flourish between the cracks in the rules — even without the huge crowds that would normally have attended. This year it had up to 2,000 visitors, all professionals who work in the circus or are looking to buy shows. No one knows when the performing arts will be allowed to begin again.

This is daily life in La Timone's ICU ward in Marseille, as France grapples with whether to impose a third lockdown and struggles to ramp up the pace of vaccinations. Ad“It’s been tense since the beginning of the second wave, around October or November,” Dr. Julien Carvelli, head of the ICU ward, told The Associated Press. “We’re afraid that, in the coming weeks, we won’t be able to take in and treat all ICU patients,” including those with illnesses other than COVID. But President Emmanuel Macron’s government says it won’t shut down the country again unless its hospitals are again at risk of overflowing with virus patients. His ward was lucky to have a free bed when the hospital’s pediatric department asked for a place for the 16-year-old virus patient.

Students chant slogans during a demonstration in Marseille, southern France, Tuesday Jan. 26, 2021. Teachers and university students marched together in protests or went on strike Tuesday around France to demand more government support amid the pandemic. All rights reservedPARIS – Schoolteachers and university students marched together in protests or went on strike Tuesday around France to demand more government support amid the pandemic. “Sick of Zoom!” chanted university students, frustrated that they've been barred from campuses since October. France has among the world’s highest number of virus infections and deaths.

French authorities have placed Lille on maximum virus alert on Monday, banning festive gatherings and requiring all bars to close but allowing restaurants to remain open, as numbers of infections are rapidly increasing. (AP Photo/Michel Spingler)PARIS – Two more French cities on Sunday joined Paris and Marseille and four others in maximum alert status to fight back the coronavirus, surgical strikes with strict new measures to stop the spread of infections. The prefecture of Montpellier, in the south, announced a maximum alert status for the city and surrounding towns starting Tuesday. Soaring infections and increased hospitalizations put four other cities on the maximum alert list on Saturday: Lyon, Grenoble and Saint-Etienne in the southeast and Lille in the north. National health authorities reported on Saturday nearly 26,900 new daily infections in 24 hours.

(AP Photo/Lee Jin-man)PERTH, Australia — Authorities are concerned by a COVID-19 outbreak aboard a cargo ship off Australia's northwest coast that has infected most of the crew. The Bluegrass State had nearly 5,000 coronavirus cases last week — the most in a single week since the pandemic began, Gov. In recent weeks, Kentucky has repeatedly set record highs for weekly virus cases. New York has reported just over 11,500 new coronavirus infections over the past two weeks. Italy added 1,494 coronavirus infections and 16 deaths to its confirmed COVID toll Monday, in line with its daily increase for the past few weeks.

While France suffered testing shortages early in the pandemic, ramped-up testing since this summer has helped authorities track a rising tide of infections across the country. More than 15,000 new cases were reported Friday, and the Paris hospital system is starting to delay some non-virus surgeries to free up space for COVID-19 patients. France has reported 31,700 virus-related deaths, the third-highest toll in Europe after Britain and Italy. While at least 10% of French intensive care beds are now occupied with COVID patients, Veran said they’re far from saturation. Still, he said hospitals in the Paris and Marseille regions are delaying scheduled surgeries to free up space.

Angry restaurant and bar owners demonstrate in Marseille, southern France, Friday Sept. 25, 2020 to challenge a French government order to close all public venues as of Saturday to battle resurgent virus infections. The protesters, and local officials in France's second-biggest city, are also threatening legal action, to try to block the order via the courts. They argue that Marseille's virus case rise has been stabilizing, and that the central government in Paris is unfairly singling out Marseille for the toughest virus measures in the nation. (AP Photo/Daniel Cole)

Angry restaurant and bar owners demonstrate in Marseille, southern France, Friday Sept. 25, 2020 to challenge a French government order to close all public venues as of Saturday to battle resurgent virus infections. They argue that Marseille's virus case rise has been stabilizing, and that the central government in Paris is unfairly singling out Marseille for the toughest virus measures in the nation. (AP Photo/Daniel Cole)MARSEILLE – Angry restaurant and bar owners demonstrated in Marseille on Friday to challenge a French government order to close all public venues as of Saturday to battle resurgent virus infections. They argue that Marseille’s virus case rise has been stabilizing, and that the central government in Paris is unfairly singling out Marseille for the toughest virus measures in the nation. On a visit to the southern city, French Health Minister Olivier Veran defended the government's decisions.

The new rules also limit the size of large public gatherings to no more than 1,000 people, below the national benchmark of 5,000 people. Drinking alcohol in public is also banned in Bordeaux, a center of the French wine industry. The regional government also asked Bordeaux residents to limit private family gatherings, singling out weddings, to a maximum of 10 people. Shows and other events in public halls, in tents and sports arenas are being limited to 1,000 people, who must be seated and kept apart. France’s health agency announced Saturday that the country crossed the threshold of 10,000 new cases nationwide in 24 hours, a record.

A medical crew works at a patient affected with COVID-19 in a Marseille hospital, southern France, Thursday, Sept.10, 2020. (AP Photo/Daniel Cole)MARSEILLE – All five intensive care beds dedicated to COVID patients are in use at the Laveran Military Training Hospital in Marseille, and its doctors are bracing for more. The 70 ICU beds dedicated to virus patients in France’s second-biggest city and the surrounding Bouches-du-Rhone region were all occupied by Tuesday. The number of ICU virus patients in the region has doubled in the past 10 days and now surpasses 100. Among the new virus patients, Pierre-Yves said, “Some are older but not all.

(Francois Etourneau via AP)PARIS An orange-brown chemical sheet spread over 15 acres (6 hectares) of a nationally recognized marine life area in the French Mediterranean following a leak at a petrochemical plant in southern France, the local fire service said Friday. The leak at the Lavera refinery spilled 200 gallons or more of iron chloride into the sea, American-owned chemical company Kem One, which runs the plant, said. The area of the Mediterranean where the chemical ended up is listed on a French inventory as an ecosystem of outstanding natural fauna and flora for its coral and sea life. About 40 firefighters dispatched to the site where unable to stop the chemical spill, the Marseille fire service told The Associated Press. The association said it suspects that coral and other sea creatures were burned or poisoned by the spilled iron chloride.

Medical workers march during a demonstration in Marseille, southern France, Tuesday, June 16, 2020. French hospital workers and others are protesting in cities around the country to demand better pay and more investment in France's public hospital system, which is considered among the world's best but struggled to handle a flux of virus patients after years of cost cuts. (AP Photo/Daniel Cole)PARIS Hospital workers rallied in cities around France on Tuesday to demand better pay and more investment in the country's public hospital system, and police fired tear gas at troublemakers on the sidelines of the protest march in Paris. Although French hospitals are considered to be among the worlds best, they struggled to handle a rush of COVID-19 patients after years of cost cuts. Emergency room workers held strikes and protests for months last year demanding more hiring and funding after years of job losses.

Professor Caroline Ovaert, left, Doctor Fabrice Michel, center, and Professor Herv Chambost take part in a press conference at La Timone Hospital in Marseille, southern France, Friday, May 15, 2020. The boy then suffered a heart attack at home that night, resulting in brain damage that later led to his death. Details of the case were released Friday by the La Timone hospital in the southern French city of Marseille. But the boy suffered a heart attack a few hours later and was rushed to intensive care at La Timone. The death at La Timone was the first fatality in France linked to the syndrome.

France is seeing a rapid rise in cases of the virus, with the third-largest number of deaths in Europe. Most people quickly recover from the virus after experiencing only mild or moderate symptoms, such as fever and cough. ______The Associated Press receives support for health and science coverage from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Department of Science Education. ______Associated Press religion coverage receives support from the Lilly Endowment through the Religion News Foundation. ___Follow AP coverage of the virus outbreak at https://apnews.com/VirusOutbreak and https://apnews.com/UnderstandingtheOutbreak