Unexploded device found near Gare du Nord, France’s busiest train terminal, halting Eurostar and other services

A second world war bomb found on rail tracks north of Paris was successfully defused on Friday after a day of transport chaos in which the Gare du Nord, used by Eurostar trains from London as well as other high-speed and local services, was shut, roads were closed and dozens of residents were evacuated in the suburb of St-Denis.

The unexploded bomb weighing 500kg was found in the middle of a set of tracks during maintenance work in the early hours of Friday morning in the Parisian suburb, about 1.5 miles (2.5km) from the major station.

Caroline Darian says she believes she was drugged and sexually assaulted or raped by her father between 2010 and 2020

The daughter of the convicted French rapist Dominique Pelicot has filed a legal complaint accusing him of drugging and sexually abusing her, months after he was jailed for drugging and raping her mother, Gisèle Pelicot.

Caroline Darian, 46, has said she believes she was sedated and sexually assaulted or raped by her father over a period of potentially 10 years between 2010 and 2020, when she was in her 30s. She said she had filed a legal complaint for sexual abuse with the prosecutor “as a message to all victims” that “you must never give up”.

French president says Europe must prepare for a future without guaranteed US support, warning Russian threat could extend beyond Ukraine

The French president, Emmanuel Macron, has warned that Russian aggression “knows no borders”, will not stop at Ukraine and is a direct threat to France and Europe which must prepare in case the US steps away from its side.

“I want to believe the US will stay by our side,” Macron said in a televised address late on Wednesday. “But we have to be ready if that isn’t the case,” he said.