Russia and Iran will be guilty of war crimes if they do not put pressure on Syrian President Bashar Assad to stop escalating violence in the country, says France's foreign minister.

The United States, Russia and more than a dozen other countries have declared that Syria's ceasefire is not dead despite increasing violence on the ground.

Brexit offers the UK the opportunity to “intensify” its relationships with European allies, Theresa May has insisted. Britain’s new prime minister said she wanted the European Union to be “strong and successful” once the UK had left the bloc.

Boris Johnson insisted Brexit will not see the UK "abandon its leading role" in Europe as the UK's new Foreign Secretary made his debut on the international stage.

Syrian government troops are moving in against rebel-held positions in the Syrian city of Aleppo. 

The United States and France have accused the Syrian government of disrupting a new round of peace talks, which are to begin today. 

Fast-changing Nantes has transformed itself into a lively, buzzing, spacious city that sparkles with creativity and a strong Celtic-meets-Gallic culture, writes Conor Power.

France’s government has resigned ahead of a reshuffle that comes 24 hours after President Francois Hollande’s Socialists suffered losses in nationwide municipal elections seen as a referendum on his leadership.

France’s far-right National Front made gains in municipal elections, sparking calls for left and right-wing parties to stop its advance.

Under pressure French president François Hollande has faced the media over accusations that he is having an affair but he coolly side-stepped giving any details on his personal life.

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 Syria are expected to dominate a summit of the world’s major economies being held in Russia in the run-up to an expected US military assault which host Vladimir Putin has warned would be an act of aggression.

The French government has alleged there was a “massive use of chemical agents” by the Syrian regime in last month’s attack – and warned of other strikes of a similar nature in the future.

Syria hailed an “historic American retreat” yesterday, mockingly accusing President Barack Obama of hesitation and confusion after he delayed a military strike to consult Congress.

The eurozone slipped deeper than expected into recession in the last three months of 2012 after its largest economies, Germany and France, shrank at the end of a wretched year in the bloc.

Europe's financial woes deepened today as its two largest economies reported faltering economies.

French actor Gerard Depardieu will not turn up at a Paris court to face charges of drink-driving, his lawyer said today.

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.

Resolving the euro crisis and tackling national competitiveness and the fiscal deficit are vital for its future, writes Pierre Moscovici.

French actor Gerard Depardieu has said he is turning in his passport after insults from France’s prime minister, Jean-Marc Ayrault, for taking up residence in tax-friendly Belgium.

A French newspaper is quoting actor Gerard Depardieu as saying he is turning in his passport after insults from France’s Socialist prime minister for taking up residence in tax-friendly Belgium.

French president François Hollande’s approval rating declined for the sixth month in a row in November, a poll has showed, as he wrestles with a sickly economy and rising unemployment.

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.

The European Food Safety Authority has stalled a dual study which linked tumours developed by test rats to potential toxicity in one species of genetically modified maize and a herbicide containing glyphosate.

The French government is to introduce a 75% income tax rate for top earners as part of what it called a “fighting budget” to boost jobs and help growth.

France will seek an immediate EU ban on imports of a genetically-modified maize made by Monsanto, if a study linking it to cancer in rats is deemed credible, said Prime Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault last week.

France’s prime minister said today that a planned demonstration by people angry over a film produced in the United States which insults the Prophet Mohammed will not be allowed to go ahead.

The return of the school run is only days away, but already hard-pressed motorists will have no escape from soaring fuel prices after the Government ruled out following France’s lead and cutting taxes on petrol and diesel.

With the price of petrol and diesel set to reach a record high within days, it’s time the Government gave hard-pressed motorists a break.

France is to cut tax on petrol to ease the pain of rising prices on households.

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.

France’s new Socialist prime minister said the country’s debts have become “crushing”, laying the groundwork for expected spending cuts and tax hikes.

SOME 40 MPs in Zimbabwe have undergone a mass circumcision — please insert your own joke here about Coalition TDs already being castrated.

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.

President Francois Hollande’s Socialist Party, bolstered by left-wing allies, is poised to take control of France’s lower house of parliament so he can revamp a country his partisans see as too capitalist and push to save the eurozone through growth.

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.

There was drama during Socialist Francois Hollande’s first day as French president when his plane was struck by lightning as he travelled to his first foreign engagement.

POLICE yesterday probed allegations that President Nicolas Sarkozy’s election campaign received illegal donations from France’s richest woman throwing up the biggest crisis of his mandate.

France’s lower house of parliament voted to extend a state of emergency for three months, after the government said the extra powers were still needed to end the country’s worst civil unrest in four decades.

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.

French Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin presented a bill yesterday that would bypass parliament and urgently push through the government’s new jobs plan, a move that enraged the opposition.

PRESIDENT Jacques Chirac, shaken by the defeat of the European Union constitution, appointed Dominique de Villepin, a loyalist who jetted around the globe galvanising international opposition to the Iraq war, as prime minister to lead a new government yesterday.