Six people have been remanded in custody over the killing of a French teenager whose death at a village dance party sparked political controversy in France, prosecutors said on Sunday (Nov 26).

Last weekend a 16-year-old pupil, identified only as Thomas, was stabbed when a group of outsiders descended on a festive crowd gathered in Crepol, in the southeastern region of Drome, for a dance party in the village hall.

He died on his way to hospital. Eight others were injured.

On Tuesday, nine suspects including three minors were detained in connection with the teenager's murder.

Three are minors, the others are aged between 19 and 22.

After 96 hours in police custody, the suspects were transferred to the Valence courthouse on Saturday.

The public prosecutor's office had requested the opening of an investigation into charges including attempted murder and "murder in an organised gang."

Nine people have been placed under investigation "in accordance with the request of the public prosecutor", prosecutor Laurent de Caigny said in a statement, without providing further details.

"Six people, including two minors, were remanded in custody," he added. "Three people, including one minor, were placed under judicial supervision."

On Saturday, the prosecutor said that the motive and the details of the crime had not yet been established in full.

According to the preliminary investigation, an altercation that began inside the dance hall, possibly linked to a remark about the hairstyle of one of the suspects, continued outside. More young people arrived in one or two cars.

What were these armed 'outsiders' doing descending on a village party at 2am?

Nine witnesses reported hearing remarks aimed against "white people", said the public prosecutor.

However, de Caigny said that the investigation cannot at this stage state with certainty that the victims have been targeted on the basis of their race, ethnicity, or religion.

Most of the suspects admit to having been in Crepol, but deny having stabbed anyone.

On Wednesday, more than 6,000 people marched in the southeastern town of Romans-sur-Isere in memory of Thomas.

Around 2,000 people attended the teenager's funeral in the village of Saint-Donat-sur-l'Herbasse on Friday.

Even before the arrests, far-right politicians had been quick to blame the attack on youths from immigrant backgrounds from public housing.

"Now anti-white racism is hitting our countryside," Marion Marechal, the leading candidate for the far-right Reconquete! party of ex-presidential hopeful Eric Zemmour in next year's European elections, has claimed on X, formerly Twitter.

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Previously, the BBC reported, citing data from Poland, Romania, Moldova, Hungary, and Slovakia, that between February 2022 and August 31, 2023, 19,740 men had illegally crossed the Ukrainian border.

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Two African members of the OPEC+ group of oil-producing countries, Angola and Nigeria, have defied the organization's plans to cut output and demanded that their production quotas be raised.

An ensuing dispute forced OPEC+ member states to postpone a scheduled meeting at which they were expected to discuss further output cuts, a development that sent oil prices sliding. Both benchmarks, WTI and Brent, dropped dramatically on Wednesday after the meeting was delayed. As of Friday, WTI was trading at around $76.8 per barrel and Brent at roughly $81.8 per barrel.

Angola and Nigeria are each aiming for higher oil outputs, with Angola's OPEC+ governor Estevao Pedro saying that his country was "fighting" to increase production.

In recent years, the two countries were failing to meet their quotas and at OPEC+'s last meeting, in June, they were given lower production targets as part of the bloc's broad deal to limit supply into 2024.

However, the African countries now reportedly want to have their production quotas raised from those agreed levels. According to Angola's OPEC+ representative, investment was now "being made" to enable the country to raise its oil output.

The OPEC+ meeting about next year's production policy will now take place next Thursday. Several analysts polled by the news agency have predicted that the group will most likely extend or even deepen oil-supply cuts into next year.

OPEC+ members, including major producers Saudi Arabia and Russia, have pledged to cut their oil output, in a series of steps that started in late 2022. This was done in order to stabilize the global oil market, which had a volatile year due to sanctions against major oil producer Russia, and to support crude prices.

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