PARIS - A French soldier patrolling a business neighbourhood west of Paris was stabbed in the neck on Saturday by a man who quickly fled the scene and is being sought by police, President Francois Hollande said.The soldier was patrolling in uniform with two other men as part of France’s ...

PARIS - Top seed Novak Djokovic and seven-time champion Rafael Nadal were set on a French Open semi-final collision course Friday, condemning one of the sport's superstars to certain defeat before the final. The world number one Serb and the third-ranked Spaniard were placed in the same half of the ...

PARIS - French prosecutors grilled IMF chief Christine Lagarde in a Paris court on Thursday to decide if she should be charged over a state payout to a disgraced tycoon during her time as finance minister.Lagarde has downplayed the investigation, but the stakes are huge for both her and the ...

PARIS: France’s Henri Dutilleux, whose modernist and impressionist works ranked him among the leading composers of the 20th century, died Wednesday in Paris aged 97. The internationally renowned Dutilleux, born in Angers in 1916, was a composer of predominantly instrumental works ranging from ...

LE MANS - Spain's Dani Pedrosa claimed top spot in the world championship MotoGP standings when he won his maiden French Grand Prix on a wet Le Mans course on Sunday. The Honda rider took the lead midway through the race to beat Britain's Cal Crutchlow (Yamaha) and Spanish rookie Marc Marquez ...

STRASBOURG, France : Police on Friday deployed across high schools in the eastern French region of Strasbourg following Internet threats by a young man to stage mass killings and shoot himself, a day after a gruesome suicide at a Paris primary school. The police also released photographs of the ...

PARIS: Former James Bond Pierce Brosnan is to portray King Louis XIV in a new fantasy film. The Irish actor is slated to play the French leader, opposite Chinese actress Fan Bingbing, in the movie adaptation of author Vonda McIntyre’s novel The Sun & The Moon, according to Screen Daily. ...

BREST,France: A French test of an M51 submarine-launched ballistic missile failed on Sunday as it self-destructed off the coast ofBrittany, officials said. "It was a failure, the reasons will be determined by an investigation," said Lieutenant Commander Lionel Delort, a spokesman for ...

TRIPOLIA car bomb hit the France embassy in Libya on Tuesday, wounding two French guards and causing extensive damage in the first attack on a foreign mission since militants stormed the US consulate in Benghazi in September.Libyan Foreign Minister Mohammed Abdel Aziz branded the act a ...

  MONTE CARLO - Novak Djokovic can cast his hopes forward a month to the start of Roland Garros with serious thoughts of a Paris title after stunning Rafael Nadal to win a first career trophy at the Monte Carlo Masters. The Serb world number one, who was almost unable to start the prestige ...

A car bomb blasted the embassy of France in Tripoli early Tuesday, injuring two French guards and causing serious damage to the building, embassy and Libyan sources said.An AFP correspondent at the site said the wall surrounding the property was destroyed and the embassy building extensively ...

UPI AVIGNONA worker for a French water-supply company said he was fired for refusing to shut off water for people who couldn’t afford to pay their bills.The man, identified only as Mark, said he was let go by Veolia Eau in Avignon after 20 years on the job in an April 4 letter citing his ...

ST MARGARETS AT CLIFFE: It’s a typical English village overlooking the Channel, complete with traditional pub and parish church. But turn on your phone, and you could be forgiven for thinking you were in France. The only mobile network available in parts of St Margarets at Cliffe, located on ...

YAOUNDE :  A French family abducted while holidaying in Cameroon emerged unscathed from their ordeal on Friday after two months in the hands of extremists.Tanguy and Albane Moulin-Fournier, their four children and Tanguy’s brother, Cyril, were kidnapped in Cameroon on February 19 and ...

BANGUIAFPCentral African Prime Minister Nicolas Tiangaye has appealed for the help of France and of a regional African force to help secure the country following violence in the wake of the rebel takeover last month. In a radio-television address late Tuesday, Tiangaye made the appeal to France and ...

PARIS - French ministers disclosed their personal wealth for the first time on Monday, in a move President Francois Hollande hopes will restore confidence in his scandal-hit Socialist government. The revelations - which aim to help turn the page on a damaging scandal over tax fraud charges laid ...

LILLE, France - French police were on a manhunt Sunday for a notorious armed robber who staged a dramatic prison break in northern France after briefly taking several guards hostage.Lille prosecutor Frederic Fevre said about 100 investigators were involved in the hunt for Redoine Faid, known for ...

GRENOBLE, France - Four cross-country skiers died in avalanches in the French Alps on the weekend, officials said as they warned of snow melting under springtime sun creating a heightened danger. A 60-year-old man died on Saturday in the Haut-Alpes region.  The three others -- part of a group ...

SEQUEDIN (AFP) - One of France's most dangerous gangsters, known for brazen attacks on cash-in-transit vehicles, blasted his way out of jail after taking several wardens hostage, officials said. Redoine Faid, who risked a heavy sentence over the 2010 death of a policewoman, used explosives to blast ...

GAO (AFP) - Mali’s prime minister on Thursday urged France to maintain a military presence in its former colony, as troops began an early withdrawal three months after ousting armed rebels from the country’s north.Diango Cissoko made the plea on a tour of Gao, the first visit to the ...

KABUL – Two Frenchmen held hostage for more than four months in Afghanistan have been freed in a Taliban-troubled area near Kabul, officials said Monday. Firstly, Pierre Borghi, who was trying to establish himself as a photographer in Kabul, was freed in Wardak province outside the capital on ...

PARIS - French Finance Minister Pierre Moscovici said Sunday that France's economy was expected to grow just 0.1 percent this year, revising downward an official target as the country struggles to get back on its feet.The French government had initially forecast 0.8pc growth in 2013 for the ...

PARIS- A French lottery player late Friday hit a whopping jackpot of 132,486,744 euros in the nine-nation Euro Millions, the fifth-biggest jackpot ever. The winner, who has 60 days to make himself known to organisers Francaise des Jeux, beat odds of 116,531,000 to one. Euro Millions is played in ...

BAMAKO (AFP) - Fleeing Islamists torched a building housing priceless ancient manuscripts in Mali's fabled desert city of Timbuktu, which was Monday ringed by French-led troops making a lightning advance north.A building housing tens of thousands of manuscripts from the ancient Muslim world and ...

BAMAKO - French-led troops were closing in on Mali’s fabled desert city of Timbuktu on Sunday after capturing a string of other towns in their offensive against rebel groups in the north of the country.A Malian reconnaissance team has reached the edge of Timbuktu, a senior Malian officer ...

BAMAKO  - French-led troops Saturday seized the airport and a key bridge serving the fighters’ stronghold of Gao in a stunning boost to a 16-day-old offensive on Al Qaeda-linked rebels holding Mali’s vast desert north.In a parallel pincer-like movement, battle-hardened troops from ...

BAMAKO - French warplanes destroyed two militants bases in northern Mali as a leading Al Qaeda-linked group in the region split Thursday, with the breakaway group saying it wanted talks to end a Paris-led offensive against the militants. The French bombing raids overnight targeted Ansongo, about 80 ...

DIABALY, Mali (AFP) - French and Malian troops recaptured the key frontline towns of Diabaly and Douentza on Monday in a major boost to their push north to flush out Al Qaeda-linked rebels.The inroads are a significant advance in the 11-day offensive led by former colonial power France, whose aim ...

BAMAKO  - French troops on Sunday advanced towards Mali’s rebel-held north as more African troops deployed and Russia, Canada and Germany offered key aid for the Paris-led offensive.The French progress towards the rebels strongholds came amid reports that the Al-Qaeda linked militants ...

BAMAKO - The Malian army backed by French troops on Friday wrested the two central towns from the rebels, as the UN warned up to a million people could be driven from their homes by fighting in coming months.As a dramatic hostage siege unfolded in neighbouring Algeria - where Islamists took ...