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Fréjus Tunnel that connects France and Italy to close this weekend
The tunnel will close for 12 hours and not the 56 hours originally announced
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TotalEnergies opens service station for electric vehicles in Paris
It is the first of its kind in the capital and has ultra-fast charging
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Conductors on French public transport will soon be able to check your address
Move is part of anti-fraud plans to prevent people from giving false information during fines including on SNCF trains
Giant worms invade France
They have no known predators
Giant hammerhead worms which eat ordinary earthworms have invaded France.
The worms, which can reach up to 40cm, have wormed their way into French gardens over 20 years from Asia but this went unnoticed until five years ago, when an amateur naturalist sent a photo to scientists.
“Findings strongly suggest the species present in Metropolitan France and overseas territories should be considered invasive alien species,” according to new research published in the scientific journal PeerJ... “As scientists, we were amazed these long and [in some cases] brightly-coloured worms could escape the attention of scientists and authorities for such a long time.”
There have been 111 recorded sightings since 1999, the study noted, and there are five different species. They are able to reproduce asexually and have no known predators.
It is believed they were transported from Asia among consignments of tropical plants.