Edging toward a retaliatory strike, the Obama administration bluntly accused the Syrian government of Bashar Assad today of launching a chemical weapons attack that killed at least 1,429 people – far more than previous estimates - including more than 400 children.

International Monetary Fund chief Christine Lagarde faced questions at a special Paris court today over her role in the €400m pay-off to a controversial businessman when she was France’s finance minister.

International envoy Kofi Annan tried to breathe new life into his moribund peace efforts in Syria, saying he has reached a new framework with President Bashar Assad and would discuss it soon with rebel leaders.

FRANCE’S richest woman, the cosmetics heiress Liliane Bettencourt, was ordered to be placed under the legal protection of relatives by a French court yesterday in the latest twist in a family drama worthy of television’s Dallas or Dynasty.

French newspaper Le Monde is to take its controlling ownership stake out of the hands of editorial staff and sell it to an outside buyer.

A French intelligence service learned as early as January 2001 that al-Qaida was working on a plot to hijack US airliners, and it passed the information on to the CIA, it has been reported today.

Ethiopia’s prime minister said in an interview published today that suspected terrorists from Canada, Britain, Pakistan and elsewhere have been among those taken prisoner or injured in military operations in Somalia.

French police today promised increased surveillance on the country’s rail network before nationwide strikes and protests against the government’s new youth employment law.

A modern roadway bridge in France, hailed as the tallest in the world, is to be officially inaugurated today.

Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat suffered from cirrhosis – widespread disruption of normal liver structure usually caused by alcohol abuse – although he was “a true water drinker”, the French newspaper Le Monde reported today.

French Foreign Minister Michel Barnier, in an interview published today, compared Iraq to a “black hole that is sucking up” the world and said France would at no time send in troops.

A European aerospace consortium which includes Rolls Royce slashed its bid to supply engines for a new Airbus military transport after being undercut by a Canadian manufacturer, it was reported today.

The commander of Saddam Hussein’s elite Republic guard defending Baghdad struck a deal with US forces not to fight in exchange for his freedom, it was reported today.