In brief: France bids adieu to YSL

Catherine Deneuve, Claudia Schiffer, France's First Lady, Carla Bruni (left) and his longtime companion and business partner Pierre Berge (right) were among the mourners at the funeral of Yves Saint Laurent, held yesterday at the Eglise Saint Roch, the church of artists, in Paris. The designer died on Sunday, aged 71... Giles Chichester has resigned as leader of the Conservative MEPs in the European Parliament, after admitting that he broke the rules on political expenses. He threw in the towel after facing an ultimatum from David Cameron to justify channelling more than £400,000 in staff allowances to a family business of which he is a paid director… Leonard Nimroy, who played Dr Spock in Star Trek, will attend the Edinburgh Festival in August, where he is staging a self-penned play about Vincent van Gogh… Meanwhile, Nimroy is expected to be among the guests at the wedding of his friend George Takel, who played Mr Sulu, when he marries his long-time partner Brad Altman in a civil gay partnership ceremony in September… Historian David Starkey has lent his weight to a campaign, organised by the Tate gallery, to raise £6m to buy a sketch by Rubens. The work was the original plan for the ceiling of the Banqueting Hall in Whitehall… A manuscript of a Sherlock Holmes short story, written in Conan Doyle's elegant hand, is one of the highlights of the Olympia Antiquarian Book Fair, which opens today. The Disappearance of Lady Frances Carfax, written in 1911, is believed to be worth £250,000...