Suspect on trial over France’s heist

Marseille: The suspected mastermind of France’s “heist of the century” went on trial on Monday nearly half a century after robbers tunnelled through sewers to snatch the equivalent of 29 million euros from a bank vault. The 1976 robbery at a Societe Generale branch in the southern city of Nice confounded the police for decades. Only one person was ever charged with the crime, with most of the gang disappearing, and the loot — 46 million francs, about 29 million euros ($ 36 million) in today’s money — was never found. But in 2010, the case took an unexpected twist when a career criminal wrote a book in which he portrayed himself as the heist’s mastermind.