A secondary school maths teacher sprayed herself with a flammable liquid and set herself alight in a playground in southern France at break time, France’s education minister said.

FRENCH police yesterday freed five nursery school pupils and their teacher taken hostage by a suicidal sword-wielding teenager.

FRENCH President Nicolas Sarkozy yesterday ordered legislation that would ban women from wearing Islamic veils that hide the face in the street and other public places.

A FRENCH “right to die” advocate who was refused permission for an assisted suicide has been found dead in the latest twist to a drama that has reopened a euthanasia debate the country thought it had concluded three years ago.