France's government is pushing one of Europe's toughest laws against prostitution and sex trafficking, and other countries are watching closely.

French spies plotted to pose as neo-Nazis to assassinate Abu Hamza, the extremist cleric, in London because they were so frustrated with Britain's failure to deal with him.

Could it be au revior to the Magic Kingdom in France? Disneyland Paris is still reeling from a worker's attempted suicide, a strike and a continuing financial losses.

The suspect in a shooting at a French newspaper office and three other attacks had written a "confused" letter criticising media manipulation and capitalism and including a vague reference to Syria, authorities said.

The suspect in a Paris newspaper office shooting that left a photographer gravely wounded and other attacks that triggered a two-day nationwide manhunt has been arrested, French authorities said.

He's been turned down by planes, trains and even a cruise ship in his quest to return home - and his family says it's because of he has been deemed too fat to travel. Now Frenchman Kevin Chenais' long and fitful journey is coming to an end.

Sex, politics and morality: Put the three together, and you are sure to end up with a steaming tub of trouble.

If your mind's slowly turning to the Christmas holidays and you're after something different, consider these top ski resorts.

Police investigating the murder of a British man killed along with three other people in the French Alps have released an image of a male motorcyclist they would like to track down.

'It was an execution.' Questions remain about the deaths of two veteran French journalists - including how such an attack was carried out near a UN base.

By many measures, to be Interior Minister in France today is to have the country's toughest job.

The Greeks brought wine to Provence, but the Romans have left an incomparable mark on the landscape, finds Pamela Wade.

Barack Obama has spoken to France's President Francois Hollande as a row rages over claims that a US spy agency eavesdropped on millions of phone calls of French citizens.

France wants answers from the US after it was revealed the NSA swept up - and in some cases recorded - 70.3 million French phone calls and emails over a month.

Deborah Telford plunges into polishing up her command of French with practical lessons in a Provence village.

Anthony Peregrine sees the best of Nice, a magnet to the rich for centuries.

After his jaunt with royalty, Prime Minister John Key will return to business with a thud tonight.

This amazing GoPro cam footage captured some amazing scenes as it was placed upon an eagle flying through Mer de Glace glacier and Montenvers Railway on northern slopes of the Mont Blanc massif, in the French Alps.

In a televised address, French President Francois Hollande says he hasn't ruled out the "military option" against Syria.

An 84-year-old man has been killed near Paris after an elephant belonging to a local circus escaped from its pen and hit him with its trunk.

French and British investigators probing a quadruple murder in the French Alps say they are looking at a dispute over a multi-million-dollar family inheritance as a motive for the slayings.

An enormous hand-sculpted rock carving in France nearly six years in the making could be the largest work of Maori art in the Northern Hemisphere.

At a remote spot deep in the French countryside, Britons Bob and Diane Kirkwood have created an eco-friendly refuge that is like taking a step back in time.

Judges have described Dominique Strauss-Kahn as "king of the party" and the "linchpin" of soirees with prostitutes that resembled "carnage on a pile of mattresses", in a damning indictment of the disgraced former International Monetary Fund chief.