Aides of a leading French presidential candidate have said Russian groups are interfering with his campaign but offered little evidence to back up the claim.

A French company has carried out its first implant of an artificial heart that can beat for up to five years, adding that the operation had gone smoothly.

Hopes for a quiet summer recess, giving much needed time to Spain to organise its broke banks, are fast receding, with many expecting the country to need a bailout and warnings that France could be dragged into the mire.

A French TV cameraman has been killed in Syria during a government-authorised trip to the troubled city of Homs.

FRENCH trader Jerome Kerviel admitted to concealing multi-billion-dollar deals at Societe Generale, a prosecutor said yesterday, as the bank was hit by insider trading allegations and a plunging share price.