CREDIT rating agency Standard & Poor’s could change its outlook on France’s AAA rating to negative within days, a French newspaper reported, adding to fears France may lose its position among the top rank of sovereign borrowers.

Embattled Libyan president Muammar Gaddafi is “prepared to leave”, emissaries have told France.

Laurent Gbagbo is thought to be negotiating his surrender after United Nations and French forces closed in on Ivory Coast's presidential palace early today.

Hundreds of people packed into Cairo’s main airport today hoping for a flight out of Egypt but Western carriers were cancelling, delaying or suspending services after days of violent unrest.

France striker Nicolas Anelka launched an astonishing verbal attack on coach Raymond Domenech at half-time of Thursday’s 2-0 defeat to Mexico, according to reports.

Actor and film maker Woody Allen restated his support for fugitive director Roman Polanski, under house arrest over a 33-year-old child sex scandal.

French President Nicolas Sarkozy was recovering in the hospital today, a day after he collapsed while jogging in hot weather, his office said.

A powerful storm with gusting winds lashed France today, knocking out power to 400,000 homes. One pedestrian was killed when a billboard collapsed in Paris.

A shortage of electricity in mainland Europe’s power grid caused blackouts across the continent, halting trains, trapping people in lifts and plunging millions of homes into darkness.

Talks begin today towards sealing a controversial merger deal between state-owned gas producer Gaz de France and utility company Suez that would create a world energy leader and block a hostile bid from Italy.

Vandals painted about 60 tombstones with anti-Semitic graffiti in Lyon overnight, the third time a Jewish cemetery has been vandalised in France this year.

EUROPEAN economic giants Germany, Britain and France warmly welcomed a deal yesterday to salvage world trade talks.

Two British tourists were believed to be among three people killed in forest fires in southern France today that police said were started deliberately.

An airliner with 67 passengers on board has landed in the French city of Lyon after apparently being hijacked from Italy, French officials said.

An overnight express train heading for Austria burst into flames near a station in eastern France today, killing 12 passengers. Nine people were injured.

Twelve people were killed and nine injured when a train heading for Austria caught fire as it was leaving a city in eastern France.

THE Mayor of Paris, Bertrand Delanoe was recovering in hospital today after being stabbed during an overnight concert at City Hall, city officials and firefighters said.

An unspecified number of people are feared dead after a massive explosion at a petrochemical plant outside the southern French city of Toulouse this morning.