- PSG held by Nice to leave Monaco clear at top of Ligue 1
- AC Milan fall at Fiorentina after De Gea's penalty heroics
- Lewandowski treble for leaders Barca as Atletico held
- Fresh Israeli strikes hit south Beirut
- Sucic stunner earns Real Sociedad draw against Atletico
- PSG draw with Nice, fail to reclaim top spot in Ligue 1
- Gudmundsson downs AC Milan after De Gea's penalty heroics for Fiorentina
- 'Yes' vote prevails in Kazakhstan nuclear plant vote: TV
- 'Difficult day': Oct 7 commemorations begin with festival memorial
- Commemorations begin for anniversary of attack on Israel
- Lewandowski hat-trick powers Liga leaders Barca to Alaves victory
- 'Nothing gets in way of team,' says Celtics' MVP hopeful Tatum
- India maintain Pakistan stranglehold as Windies cruise at Women's T20 World Cup
- 'We will win!': Mozambique's ruling party confident at final vote rally
- Tunisia voting ends as Saied eyes re-election with critics behind bars
- Florida braces for Milton, FEMA head slams 'dangerous' Helene misinformation
- Postecoglou slams 'unacceptable' Spurs after 'terrible' loss at Brighton
- Marmoush double denies Bayern outright Bundesliga top spot
- Rallies worldwide call for Gaza, Lebanon ceasefire
- Maresca hails Chelsea's 'fighting' spirit after draw with 10-man Forest
- New 'Joker' film, a dark musical, tops N.America box office
- Man Utd stalemate keeps Ten Hag in danger, Spurs rocked by Brighton
- Drowned by hurricane, remote N.Carolina towns now struggle for water
- Vikings hold off Jets in London to stay unbeaten
- Ahead of attack anniversary, Netanyahu says: 'We will win'
- West Indies cruise to T20 World Cup win over Scotland
- Arshdeep, Chakravarthy help India hammer Bangladesh in T20 opener
- Lewandowski's quickfire hat-trick powers Liga leaders Barca to Alaves victory
- Man Utd fire another blank in Aston Villa stalemate
- Lewandowski treble powers Liga leaders Barca to Alaves victory
- Russian activist killed on front line in Ukraine
- Openda strike briefly sends Leipzig top of Bundesliga
- Goal-shy Man Utd have to 'step up', says Ten Hag
- India bowl out Bangladesh for 127 in T20 opener
- Madueke rescues Chelsea in draw with 10-man Forest
- Beckett's belief rewarded as Bluestocking storms to Arc glory
- Trump on the stump, Harris hits airwaves in razor-edge US election
- Flash flooding kills three in northern Thailand
- Kaur leads India to victory over Pakistan in Women's T20 World Cup
- Juventus held by Cagliari after late penalty drama
- In France's Marseille, teen 'stabbed 50 times' then burned alive
- Ruthless Gauff beats Muchova in straight sets to win China Open
- India restrict Pakistan to 105-8 in Women's T20 World Cup
- England target repeat of Pakistan Test whitewash
- Penrith Panthers win fourth straight NRL title after downing Storm
- Weary Sinner happy for day off after battling into Shanghai last 16
- Pakistan's Masood warns England still a force without Stokes
- Madrid's Carvajal to miss several months after serious knee injury
- Israel pounds Lebanon ahead of Hamas attack anniversary
- Two elephants die in flash flooding in northern Thailand
France tries Chilean accused of murdering Japanese ex-lover
A Chilean man goes on trial in France Tuesday accused of the murder of his Japanese ex-girlfriend, Narumi Kurosaki, who disappeared in 2016 in a high-profile case that has gripped three continents.
The trial of Nicolas Zepeda, who denies killing Kurosaki, is going ahead after he was extradited from his country to France in 2020.
Kurosaki, a brilliant scholarship student then aged 21, arrived in eastern French city Besancon in summer 2016 to learn the language. She disappeared on December 4.
Her former boyfriend Zepeda, whom she had broken up with a year before, was the last person to see her alive.
Prosecutors allege that Zepeda was unable to deal with the breakup, coming to Besancon to kill Kurosaki in her student dorm room before dumping the body in the forests of the rugged Jura region.
But so far no trace has been found of Kurosaki's body.
"Her parents know after five years that their daughter couldn't have vanished or committed suicide... they have no doubt that Mr Zepeda killed her," the family's lawyer Sylvie Galley said.
Kurosaki's mother and younger sister will travel from Tokyo to attend the trial.
- 'Screams of terror' -
Now aged 31, Zepeda has been in custody in Besancon since his extradition from Chile, which French judges had to fight hard to secure.
He denies any link to the disappearance of Kurosaki, whom he met at Japan's Tsukuba university in 2014.
He has been held in solitary confinement because of the case's high profile.
Zepeda's lawyer Jacqueline Laffont said that her client was "almost relieved to finally be able to explain himself, to be heard, he's coming in determined".
The Chilean has admitted spending the night with Kurosaki in December, who he claims he ran into by chance while travelling through France.
But several witnesses reported hearing "screams of terror" and thuds "as if someone was striking" -- although none called the police at the time.
Some of Kurosaki's friends received strange messages in the following days from her social networking accounts, which police believe were sent by Zepeda.
It was more than a week later, on December 13, that a university administrator reported her missing.
The suspect had already left for Chile after spending several days with a cousin in Spain.
- 'Tricky case' -
No sign of blood or a struggle was found in Kurosaki's student room, and all her belongings were still there apart from a suitcase and a blanket.
Zepeda turned himself in to Chilean police and said that Kurosaki had been alive when he left her after spending the night together.
He quickly became the prime suspect after he was found to have gone out of his way via a forest, and to have bought matches and a container of flammable liquid.
His father Humberto Zepeda told French weekly JDD in February that the charges were "a biased accusation with no scientific proof... based on suspicions and conjecture".
But prosecutor Etienne Manteaux said last year that there was "a huge amount of technical data" relating to the case, including phone records, the locations of Zepeda's vehicle and his debit card records.
Prosecutors have also trailed "witness testimony from people close to him that disprove Mr Zepeda's version of events" claiming a chance encounter that ended with the former couple in bed.
"It's a tricky case, like any criminal case where there's no body," said Randall Schwerdorffer, a lawyer for the Japanese student's new boyfriend at the time of her disappearance, who is a joint plaintiff in the case.
Y.Aukaiv--AMWN