Man charged over killing of Paris policeman

PARIS • A man has been charged over his alleged involvement in the killing of a policeman on Paris' Champs Elysees after his DNA was found on the gunman's weapon, a judicial source said.

The man was previously unknown to French anti-terror investigators. He has been charged with criminal terrorist conspiracy and using a weapon linked to terrorism.

AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE

France probes DCNS submarine sale to Brazil

PARIS • French financial prosecutors have launched an investigation into a €6.7 billion (S$10.4 billion) 2008 contract between naval supplier DCNS and Brazil that included the sale of five submarines, a source close to the probe said yesterday.

The investigation, started in October last year, concerns potential "corruption of foreign officials", the source said, confirming a report by French daily Le Parisien.

REUTERS

Swiss voters set to back renewable energy plan

ZURICH • Swiss voters were set yesterday to back the government's plan to provide billions of dollars in subsidies for renewable energy, ban new nuclear plants and help bail out struggling utilities, broadcaster SRG projected.

The level of support in yesterday's referendum "will be above 55 per cent and thus far above any area of doubt", pollster Claude Longchamp said, basing the projection on partial results.

REUTERS

Last rebels leave Syria's Homs district

HOMS (Syria)/BEIRUT • The last buses carrying rebel fighters and their families prepared to leave a besieged district of Syria's Homs yesterday, the provincial governor said, completing a deal to bring the whole city back under government control.

Several hundred fighters left on the weekend in the final phase of the evacuation of insurgents from al-Waer, long besieged by government forces and the last opposition-held neighbourhood in Homs, an early centre of the Syrian uprising.

REUTERS