Thousands of dock workers poured into a public square in the French port city of Le Havre, setting off smoke bombs as part of escalating nationwide protests against a labour bill that undermines worker protection.

European Central Bank head Mario Draghi has said the monetary authority will do "whatever is needed" to push up inflation from its dangerously low levels.

A day of protests against French President Francois Hollande’s efforts to tamper with the country’s 35-hour working week was staged across the country.

Several thousand people have marched in French cities to protest against a state of emergency introduced after November’s attacks in Paris and a proposed nationality-stripping law that led France’s justice minister to quit last week.

French president Francois Hollande has pledged to redefine France’s business model and declared “a state of economic and social emergency”.

Ecstatic opposition leaders vowed to use their new majority in Venezuela’s legislature to free jailed opponents of the Socialist government, but also said they would not move to dismantle popular welfare policies.

France’s government last night debated a bill banning excessively thin fashion models as well as potentially fining the agency or fashion house that hires them and sending the agents to jail.

Dominique Strauss-Kahn, the former IMF chief tipped to become French president before a New York hotel maid accused him of sexual assault in 2011, goes on trial in France today in a separate case of alleged pimping.

Greece’s finance minister is holding talks in Paris amid high tensions with international creditors, as his country’s new leftist leadership seeks to renegotiate huge debts.

France’s National Assembly will vote on a largely symbolic resolution in favour of recognising a Palestinian state.

France's Socialist government has detailed a €21bn cost-cutting plan, the biggest in the country's modern history, saying it will focus on trimming welfare benefits.

President François Hollande replaced his maverick leftist economy minister with a former Rothschild partner yesterday, in a reshuffle intended to reconcile his efforts to revive the stagnant French economy with deficit-cutting orthodoxy. 

French president Francois Hollande dissolved the government yesterday after open feuding among his cabinet over the country’s stagnant economy. 

French president Francois Hollande is dissolving the government after an open feud in Cabinet over the country’s economy.

Former French president Nicolas Sarkozy’s car wheeled out of the court parking lot in the dead of night after he was charged in a corruption probe.

Former president Nicolas Sarkozy has accused France’s justice system of trying to “humiliate” and “destroy” him, after he was charged in a corruption probe that could spell trouble for his future political ambitions.

France’s Socialist government will not resign and will press forward with tax cuts and other reforms despite a record victory for the French far right in European parliament elections, the prime minister said today.

France’s deficit shrank less than expected last year and debt continued to grow to 93.5% of GDP, the state statistics agency has said.

Tens of thousands of people marched to Spain’s parliament today to protest against the conservative government’s new law that aims to restrict abortion, allowing the practice only in cases of rape or serious risk to health.

France revised its public deficit forecasts yesterday acknowledging it would take advantage of an extra two years granted by the EU to put its finances back on track while preserving fragile growth.

Tensions over Gibraltar escalated yesterday when the British territory’s chief minister accused Spain of “sabre-rattling” and behaving like North Korea after Madrid floated the idea of a new border crossing fee and airspace controls.

Judges have ordered a Mediterranean villa and other assets to be seized from a French businessman at the centre of a fraud investigation that could weigh on ex-president Nicolas Sarkozy’s hopes of a comeback, sources said.

Portugal’s foreign minister Paulo Portas resigned, the president’s office said yesterday, in a further blow to the centre-right coalition that has kept the country’s international bailout on track.

A French court has fined Gerard Depardieu €4,000 and suspended his driver’s licence for six months in a drink-driving case that started when the actor fell off his scooter in Paris in November and ended up being taken to a police station.

Clashes have broken out between protesters and riot police near France’s National Assembly building, hours after the country legalised gay marriage.

The day after receiving his new Russian passport from President Vladimir Putin, French actor Gerard Depardieu yesterday flew to the provincial town of Saransk, where he was greeted as a local hero and offered an apartment for free.

Gerard Depardieu, the French actor who has waged a battle against a proposed super-tax on millionaires in his native country, has been granted Russian citizenship.

The Pope took his opposition to gay marriage to new heights today, denouncing what he described as people manipulating their God-given gender to suit their sexual choices.

The French parliament has decided it is no longer a crime to help illegal immigrants, scrapping a law that aid groups had long criticised.

A new agreement with Switzerland aimed at ending a long-running dispute over German tax cheats who hide their money in Swiss banks, has been blocked by Germany’s upper house of Parliament.

Moody's Investors Service has downgraded France, stripping it of its prized AAA credit rating amid concerns over its prospects for economic growth and its exposure to Europe's financial cris

French prime minister Jean-Marc Ayrault delighted business and angered labour leaders yesterday by suggesting the 35-hour working week was not sacrosanct, although he stressed the socialist government had no plans to change it.

French president Francois Hollande is blaming a worse-than-expected economic slowdown for a new cut in the government’s growth forecast this year and next.

French prime minister Jean-Marc Ayrault has slashed his country’s official growth forecasts, paving the way for a slew of cuts next year that are bound to anger many after the new Socialist government promised to avoid austerity.

The French government will shelve €1 billion of planned spending this year, on top of a three-year spending freeze that kicks in in 2013, said Budget Minister Jerome Cahuzac.

France’s new Socialist government will need to find between €7bn and €10bn for the 2012 budget to meet its deficit-cutting goals, the country’s finance minister said today.

Greek athletics has suspended all operations because of funding cuts, a month before the country holds the Olympic flame lighting ceremony.

Spain is facing a general strike today as unions challenge a conservative government not yet 100 days old.

Spain said today that its budget deficit for 2011 has come in at 8.5% of GDP, even worse than the new conservative government's own already pessimistic prediction.

Spain is to reform its abortion law to make parental permission mandatory for 16- and 17-year-olds seeking to end pregnancies.

Spain is to reform its abortion law to make parental permission mandatory for 16- and 17-year-olds looking to end pregnancies.