FRANCE JAILS EX- PM FOR FRAUD

PARIS, France: A Paris court sentenced former French prime minister Francois Fillon to 5 years in prison, with 3 suspended, after finding him guilty of orchestrating a fake job for his wife, a scandal that cost him his shot at the presidency in 2017. Fillon’s wife Penelope was handed a suspended 3-year sentence for participating in a scheme that saw her paid over a million euros in public funds over a 15-year period. Both were ordered to pay fines of 375,000 euros ($423,000) and also reimburse one million euros to the National Assembly, where Penelope supposedly worked as Fillon’s parliamentary assistant from 1998 to 2013.