FRENCH MINISTER QUITS OVER JOBS FOR DAUGHTERS

PARIS: French Interior Minister Bruno Le Roux resigned on Tuesday after revelations that he hired his two teenage daughters as parliamentary aides. Le Roux denied wrongdoing but said he did not want the investigation into the contracts—for which his daughters earned a total of 55,000 euros as parliamentary aides—to “undermine the work of the government”. The allegations prompted comparisons with scandal-hit rightwing presidential hopeful Francois Fillon, who has been charged over claims he gave his wife and children parliamentary jobs paying hundreds of thousands of euros. Le Roux, 51, had been in the Socialist government just 106 days, having taken over the weighty portfolio when Bernard Cazeneuve was elevated to prime minister. The TMC channel reported late Monday that Le Roux’s daughters were still in school when he first hired them, and they continued doing work for him—paid with taxpayers’ money—when they were in university.