EU environment ministers edged closer to agreeing a climate change package that they hope will lead the rest of the world to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

YOUR report on Environment Minister John Gormley’s anti-GM comments in Paris (July 5) says France has “banned all GM” crops.

Six people were injured during a test flight of an Airbus A330 when it suddenly lost cabin pressure, it emerged today.

Former lawyer Christine Lagarde was named finance minister and Jean-Louis Borloo, her predecessor, took over as the environment and energy minister in a reshuffle today of France’s month-old government.

French President Nicolas Sarkozy was expected to reshuffle his Cabinet today following the governing Conservative party’s poor performance in legislative elections last weekend.

FRENCH President Nicolas Sarkozy unveiled a broad-based cabinet yesterday, naming popular leftist Bernard Kouchner as foreign minister in a slimline government that radically reshaped the finance ministry.

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

French President Jacques Chirac today urged immediate negotiations between the government and students and unions to defuse escalating anger over a new labour law that sparked nationwide marches and clashes with police.

RAMPAGING youths shot at police and firefighters yesterday after burning car dealerships and public buses and hurling rocks at commuter trains, as eight days of riots over poor conditions in Paris-area housing projects spread to 20 towns.

The French government faced mounting pressure today as suburban unrest took on dangerous new momentum, with shots fired at police and fire crews as they battled youths who torched car dealerships and public buses and hurled rocks at commuter trains.

Police were today preparing to evacuate Paris’ most dilapidated apartment buildings and squats, a response to three deadly fires that killed 48 African immigrants in recent months.

Foreign minister Dominique de Villepin, a relentless critic of the US war in Iraq, will head the Interior Ministry under a major French government shake-up.

FOREIGN Minister Dominique de Villepin, a relentless critic of the US war in Iraq, will head the Interior Ministry under a French government shake-up announced last night.

Foreign Minister Dominique de Villepin, a relentless critic of the US war in Iraq, will head the Interior Ministry under a major French government shake-up announced tonight.