FRENCH police are hunting a suspected al-Qaida operative who had booked on an Air France flight to the US on Christmas Eve but failed to turn up.

French authorities are searching for a suspected al-Qaida member who failed to turn up for a scheduled Air France flight on Christmas Eve, France’s justice minister confirmed today.

Mercenaries arrested in France told investigators they were plotting to assassinate Ivory Coast President Laurent Gbagbo, Paris prosecutors said today.

AN Iranian opposition group under scrutiny in France planned to assassinate former members suspected of betraying the movement, according to a report by France’s counterintelligence agency.

A woman set herself on fire during protests in Paris today against a police raid on the offices of an Iranian opposition group.

An anti-terrorism investigation was underway in Paris today after a baggage handler was arrested at the city’s Charles de Gaulle airport.

THREE alleged Islamic radicals arrested by French counterintelligence agents had possession of unidentified chemicals they were planning to use in an attack, according to judicial officials and media reports yesterday.

French intelligence agents have arrested eight people in connection with the bombing of a Tunisian synagogue which killed 19 people.