French prison hostage standoff ends

A convicted rapist reportedly held five staff captive with an improvised weapon

A convict who held five staff hostage at a corrections facility in Arles, France, surrendered to the police on Friday, the authorities in Paris have said.

The Maison Centrale d’Arles is located in Bouches-du-Rhone in Provence and houses inmates sentenced to lengthy terms, mainly for violent crimes. The suspected hostage-taker has been imprisoned since 2015 for rape at gunpoint...