Agent Orange

Evry, France: An elderly French-Vietnamese woman failed on Monday in her bid to sue Monsanto and other makers of the toxic chemical Agent Orange over its use by the US as a weapon during the Vietnam War, after a French court ruled that the companies had legal immunity because they were working for a sovereign government.

Tran To Nga, born in 1942 in what was then French Indochina, accused 14 agrochemicals firms of causing grievous harm to her and others by selling Agent Orange to the American military, which used the herbicide to devastating effect in Vietnam.