Evening News Update Friday 1 March

The body of the missing student has been found this afternoon in Toulon. 17 year old Julien Zeitoun had been missing since Tuesday when he was last seen by staff working on the cable car at Mont Faron.  His body was located on the north-east face of the mountain and a judicial inquiry will now examine the circumstances of his death.

Four men have been sentenced to between eight and twenty years in prison for a robbery at the casino of Aix-en-Provence in February 2016. The men, all in their twenties, had entered the casino in the early hours of the morning while customers were still present and had fired shots into the air before seizing 40,000 euros in cash and about 100,000 euros in gaming chips.

An internet outage affected residences and businesses in parts of Nice today.  Internet service was reported to be down in the Fabron area of west Nice because of a fault in a cable.  Several hundred customers were affected by the outage.

The City of Cannes has taken back the management of eight parking garages in the city. Pricing is said to be cheaper than before the changes and there are 3 free hours of parking on a Saturday and 3 free hours on a Sunday. Mayor David Lisnard has said that the aim is to boost commerce in the downtown area of Cannes as well as save the municipality money.  The car parks also feature hi-tech features such as number plate recognition.

The shared electric scooter service in Nice, the Cityscoot, has announced that it will be in operation 24 hours a day as from tonight. The service, which has been in operation for a year, has 500 shared scooters in Nice.

A large truck which turned over onto its side under a bridge on the route de Grenoble in Nice this morning has been righted. The lorry was carrying a load of perishable food and the operation was particularly complicated. The truck was raised at about 10.45 this morning and traffic was badly affected in the area. Line 2 of the tramway was halted for a brief period to allow the area to be cleared.

BUSINESS

Advertising company WPP has seen profits drop sharply as it continues to restructure the business following former boss Sir Martin Sorrell's departure last year. Pre-tax profits fell almost a third last year to £1.46bn, a drop it blamed largely on restructuring costs. WPP also reiterated that 2019 would be challenging, particularly in the first half as client losses from last year continue to weigh on the business.

UK manufacturers are cutting jobs at the fastest pace for six years with confidence in the sector hit by Brexit uncertainty, according to a closely-watched survey. The research, by IHS Markit/CIPS, also found that companies stockpiled raw materials at a record pace last month.  The output of firms continued to grow but this came as they built up stocks of finished goods ahead of Brexit. It also said growth in new orders slowed to "near stagnation".

A group of New York business, political and community leaders have asked Amazon to reconsider its decision to scrap plans for a new campus in the city. The campaign comes weeks after the firm backed away from the project, citing some local opposition. Amazon had pledged to invest about $2.5bn to create the hub, which would have added 25,000 jobs.

SPORT

Formula 1…It’s been the final day of testing in Barcelona today. Lewis Hamilton says he is braced for his "toughest battle yet" after conceding Ferrari have had the best car in testing. Hamilton said he believes his Mercedes team's deficit to Ferrari is "potentially half a second". Hamilton ended the final test day just 0.003 seconds slower than Sebastian Vettel's leading time. Charles Leclerc, was in third place, was just 0.01secs slower than Vettel.

Football…In the English Premier League this weekend, on Saturday Spurs play Arsenal.Bournemouth host Manchester City.Brighton play Huddersfield.Burnley face Crystal Palace.Manchester United play Southampton.Wolves host Cardiff and West Ham play Newcastle. On Sunday Watford play Leicester.Fulham host Chelsea and Everton play Liverpool. There’s one game in the English Championship tonight.Leeds play West Brom.

Rugby Union.. There’s one game in the Gallagher Premiership in England tonight. Bristol play Gloucester while in the Guinness Pro 14 Leinster host Cheetahs.

Golf…A sandstorm has caused play to be suspended on day two of the Oman Open, with only 11 players finishing their rounds. Calm conditions early today saw low scoring at the European Tour event but winds increased and carried sand across the course, limiting visibility.