Two men face preliminary terrorism charges in France after hundreds of texts and DNA evidence linked them to the Paris gunman who killed four people at a kosher supermarket and a policewoman.

Media leaks on HSBC accounts held in Switzerland “are only the tip of the iceberg”, Herve Falciani, the former HSBC employee who supplied information on the bank’s clients and their tax situation, has told French daily Le Parisien.

Two rampaging drivers who injured a total of 23 people in nearly identical incidents in France were apparently mentally ill and the attacks are unlikely to be linked to terrorism, government officials said today.

The euro’s depreciation is in line with the divergence of monetary policies around the world, European Central Bank president Mario Draghi has said.

With hopes of a comeback in jeopardy, the former president is accusing magistrates of a vendetta, writes Alexandria Sage

French railway engineers made a costly blunder when they failed to realise that hundreds of new trains are too wide for many older stations.

Francois Hollande planned to announce to the world’s press last Tuesday that he and Valerie Trierweiler had officially split, but his plans were scrapped after his partner was hospitalised, according to reports.

Divers began the recovery of dozens of migrants’ bodies yesterday from a boat that sank last week off the coast of Sicily in one of the worst such disasters to hit people fleeing violence, poverty and oppression in Africa.

Syria hailed an “historic American retreat” yesterday, mockingly accusing President Barack Obama of hesitation and confusion after he delayed a military strike to consult Congress.

The French foreign minister has said there will be a “proportionate response” to the alleged chemical weapons attack in a Damascus suburb that he blamed on Syria’s government.

Inspired by radical Islam and trained in Afghanistan, the gunman methodically killed French schoolchildren, a rabbi and paratroopers and faced down hundreds of police for 32 hours.

FACING a tough election fight in four months, French President Nicolas Sarkozy kicked off the new year warning voters 2012 was full of risks and that France’s future will hang in the balance.

France has agreed to pay for 30,000 women to have potentially faulty breast implants removed, as authorities called for those behind their manufacture to be held responsible.

GERMANY and France stepped up a drive yesterday for coercive powers to reject eurozone members’ budgets that breach EU rules, as a market rout of European debt eased temporarily on hopes of outside help for Italy and Spain.

PRESIDENT Nicolas Sarkozy’s government warned yesterday that strikes against pension reform have cost up to €3 billion and threaten to derail France’s still fragile economic recovery.

AFTER weeks of turmoil over a political donations scandal, French President Nicolas Sarkozy will make a rare summer address to the nation today, before a key pension reform is presented to the cabinet tomorrow.

FLORENT MALOUDA fears the French players may always have to live with the shame of a chaotic World Cup campaign.

FRANCE’s first lady Carla Bruni-Sarkozy has dismissed as “insignificant” rumours of infidelity by her and her husband, French President Nicolas Sarkozy, and brushed off theories that lies were planted in a plot to bring down the glamorous couple.

Lawyers for Roman Polanski clashed today over his legal strategy, with one saying the director will not surrender to US authorities after 31 years on the run and another suggesting that Polanski was ready to consider the move.

A BRUISED teenage girl who is the only known survivor of a Yemeni jet crash clung to wreckage for more than 13 hours before rescuers found her floating in the Indian Ocean, a French official said yesterday.

Nursing staff today said the teenager believed to be the only survivor of a Yemeni jet crash is "doing well" in a hospital in Comoros.

Union leaders failed in talks today to force France’s prime minister to withdraw a divisive new jobs law and said they would go ahead with plans for a nationwide strike next week.

France’s embattled prime minister faced a tough and potentially pivotal meeting today with unions demanding that he toss out a divisive new jobs law after protests turned bloody and left a Paris park littered with shattered glass and ashes.

The French were today wrapping up a tumultuous and divisive campaign about the future of Europe and France’s place in it.

Firefighters sifting the debris of a devastating hotel fire in Paris found the body of a small child yesterday, raising the death toll to 22 – half of them children, police said.

France Telecom, which owns UK mobile phone operator Orange, said today that it would cut 7,500 jobs in its home country this year.

FRANCE and Germany stood firm over their opposition to war with Iraq last night saying Washington had yet to prove to the UN that Iraq possessed banned weapons of mass destruction.