The chief suspect in an al Qaida-linked killing spree who is holed up in an apartment wants to “die with weapons in his hands”, according to France’s interior minister.

Three explosions were heard last night outside the home of the gunman wanted for shooting seven people dead.

As Mohammed Merah’s stand-off with French police came to a climax late last night, French television released a picture of the gunman wanted for shooting seven people.

The gunman wanted for shooting seven people dead plans to turn himself in to French police surrounding him at night “to be more discreet,” the Interior Minister says.

Police raided the French school gunman’s home as he was poised to carry out another series of shootings, a prosecutor said.

French police have said they will storm the flat where the suspected Jewish school massacre gunman is holed up if he does not surrender.

A police raid on the home of the Jewish school shooting suspect turned into a gun battle then a stand-off today.

French police officers have exchanged gunfire and are negotiating with a man who claims connections to al Qaida and is suspected of killing three Jewish schoolchildren, a rabbi and three paratroopers in three attacks.

The bodies of three children and a rabbi gunned down at a Jewish school in France were flown to Israel today for burial, as French police raided a house in Toulouse and engaged in a gunbattle with a suspect in the killings.

French police stepped up the search for a gunman who filmed his carnage as he shot dead three children and a rabbi at a Jewish school, fearing the killer could strike again.

Thousands of French police were today hunting for the Jewish school killer described by the country’s president as “a monster on the loose”.

A gunman who killed four people at a Jewish school in southern France may have filmed the attack, the French interior minister said today.

France was gripped by fears of a serial killer on the loose after a gunman opened fire at a Jewish school, killing a teacher, his two sons and another child.

Surveillance videos aired publicly for the first time show former IMF chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn leisurely checking out of a New York hotel where he was accused of sexually assaulting a chambermaid, and his accuser appearing to act out the alleged attack.

FRENCH President Nicolas Sarkozy’s party has rejected as “grotesque” suggestions that Dominique Strauss-Kahn was the victim of a plot to ruin his presidential ambitions.

EGYPT’s army ruler warned yesterday he would not tolerate any pressure ahead of new protests demanding that he step down on the eve of the country’s first elections since the January revolution.

Conservative President Nicolas Sarkozy’s party took a drubbing in local elections, seen as a test ahead of next year’s presidential vote, and the far-right National Front left its first footprint in France’s smallest administrative districts.

FRENCH President Nicolas Sarkozy prepared yesterday to shake up his government after a humiliating defeat by the left in regional elections pressured him to recast his reform programme.

French President Nicolas Sarkozy is meeting his prime minister first thing today to work out a response to their conservative party’s crushing defeat in regional elections, a vote that informally kicked off the 2012 presidential race.

FRANCE’S opposition Socialists and their allies handily defeated President Nicolas Sarkozy’s conservatives in regional elections yesterday according to partial official results after a vote that helps set the stage for the 2012 presidential race.

French President Nicolas Sarkozy collapsed suddenly while jogging today on the lush grounds of the Chateau of Versailles, then was rushed by helicopter to a military hospital where he will remain overnight, his office said.

Germany became the latest country to act over the financial meltdown, with a new rescue plan for its second biggest commercial property lender and a 100% guarantee on private bank accounts.

Former hostage Ingrid Betancourt arrived in France to a hero’s welcome today after six years as a captive in the Colombian jungle.

France will rejoin Nato’s military command, President Nicolas Sarkozy’s top adviser confirmed today.

France is cutting off talks with Syria until Damascus shows its willingness to let Lebanon elect a new president, Nicolas Sarkozy says.

President Nicolas Sarkozy named a radically-revamped Cabinet today, with humanitarian crusader Bernard Kouchner as France's new foreign minister.

FRENCH centrist Francois Bayrou, whose voters hold the key to next month’s presidential election, accused front-runner Nicolas Sarkozy yesterday of subverting free speech by stifling a televised debate with a rival.