Four French journalists kidnapped and held for 10 months in Syria have returned home to France.

MORE than 100 cyclists left Dublin yesterday for a 500km bike ride to Paris to raise vital funds for the hospice movement.

French President Jacques Chirac called a security meeting of his top ministers tonight after urban rioting spread – with arsonists striking from the Mediterranean to the German border and into central Paris for the first time.

Riots which have rocked France for the past 10 days reached central Paris for the first time today in an orgy of destruction and violence.

France was hit by a 10th night of rioting as the urban unrest reached Paris for the first time.