Iraq’s government has plunged into a political crisis at a time it is fighting advances by Islamic State militants.

An army general in Burkina Faso who is involved in the search for the missing Air Algerie flight carrying 116 people, claims that a witness saw a plane coming down in Mali.

French foreign minister Laurent Fabius has attacked plans to raise by more than five times hotel taxes paid by tourists, saying the move would be dangerous for tourism and France’s stumbling economy.

Islamic militants who prompted global outrage over the kidnapping of more than 270 schoolgirls have opened fire on a busy marketplace, killing hundreds in a new spasm of violence in Nigeria’s north-east.

Senior diplomats from the major players trying to find an end to the crisis in Ukraine are gathering in Paris.

France raised questions today about whether a proposed deal to temporarily curb Iran’s nuclear programme goes far enough, complicating negotiations with the Iranians and casting doubt on whether an agreement could be reached during the current round of negotiations in Switzerland.

Divers began the recovery of dozens of migrants’ bodies yesterday from a boat that sank last week off the coast of Sicily in one of the worst such disasters to hit people fleeing violence, poverty and oppression in Africa.

The United Nations chief has said his organisation's report into the use of chemical weapons in Syria is "indisputable".

China has welcomed the Russia-US agreement on securing and destroying Syria’s chemical weapons, saying it was a peaceful solution to the stockpile issue.

European Union officials have agreed that the August 21 chemical attack outside Damascus appears to have been the work of Syria’s regime, but that any potential military attack against it should wait for the UN inspectors’ report.

The French foreign minister has said there will be a “proportionate response” to the alleged chemical weapons attack in a Damascus suburb that he blamed on Syria’s government.

Syrian state media has accused rebels of using chemical arms today against government troops trying to storm a contested area of Damascus.

THE images emerging from Syria — from the hysterical young girl to the rows of corpses — should be a turning point in a conflict that has killed 100,000 people. The deaths, if proven, demonstrate either the depravity of Bashar al-Assad — or the rebels fighting him.

The United Nations yesterday demanded Syria give its chemical weapons experts immediate access to rebel-held Damascus suburbs where poison gas appears to have killed hundreds just a few miles from the UN team’s hotel.

France’s foreign minister says the international community may have to use force if it is proven that Syria used chemical weapons in an attack the opposition says killed more than 100 people.

Tests have confirmed that sarin gas has been used multiple times in Syria, according to France’s foreign minister.

London and Paris are seeking to lift an EU embargo to enable them to arm Syrian rebels, said the French foreign minister.

Radical Islamists have fled a key Malian town on foot following French air strikes.

A French magazine ridiculed the Prophet Mohammed by portraying him naked in cartoons, threatening to fuel the anger of Muslims around the world who are already incensed by a film depiction of him as a womanising buffoon.

Western powers are preparing a tough response in case Syrian president Bashar al-Assad’s regime deploys chemical or biological weapons, France’s foreign minister said.

Government warplanes bombed a town in northern Syria today, killing at least 18 people, activists said, while the new UN envoy to the country acknowledged that brokering an end to the nation’s civil war will be a “very, very difficult” task.

France’s foreign minister has said western powers are preparing a tough response in case Syrian president Bashar Assad’s regime deploys chemical or biological weapons in its civil war.

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton pleaded once more for global sanctions against the Syrian regime as president Bashar Assad was rocked by the defection of a top aide.

France will propose giving the United Nations the power to enforce Kofi Annan’s Syrian peace plan, Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius said, adding a no-fly zone was an option under consideration to stem what was now a civil war.

French President François Hollande named a government dominated by moderate left-wingers yesterday after Socialist Party boss Martine Aubry, overlooked for the post of prime minister, said she no longer wanted to be part of the new cabinet.

Segolene Royal began her campaign to become France’s first woman president in style, decisively beating two rivals to wrap up the nomination for the main opposition Socialist Party in a single round of voting.

FRENCH President Jacques Chirac is seeking to recover momentum by reshuffling his cabinet after the humiliating rejection of the EU constitution.

TWO new opinion polls yesterday suggested France was firmly on course to reject the EU’s new constitution, increasing pressure on President Jacques Chirac, who made a final plea to voters to back the charter.

President Jacques Chirac was making a last-ditch push today for a “yes” vote on the European Union’s first constitution, as speculation mounted that he will fire his prime minister if France votes down the landmark treaty.

The French referendum on Europe’s first constitution is proving a nail-biter. With less than two weeks to go, opponents and supporters are effectively tied in polls – a dead heat expected to continue until every vote is counted.

FRENCH President Jacques Chirac asked his unpopular Prime Minister Jean-Pierre Raffarin to stay on despite the regional poll disaster for the centre right, but ordered him to form a new government.