France

France’s Interior Minister Claude Gueant (pictured) has drawn angry criticism from opposition members after suggesting in a speech to a right-wing student group that all civilisations are “not of equal value”.

France’s Minister of Interior Claude Gueant (pictured) drew angry criticism from left-wing parties after he said that all civilisations were “not of equal value”, speaking at a conference organised by a right-wing student group.

French President Nicolas Sarkozy made a visit to a social housing building site Thursday to highlight his work on this key election issue - but according to builders at the site, many of the ‘workers’ Sarkozy met on the tour had been bussed in.

A French court has rejected an appeal by the Church of Scientology, upholding 2009 fraud charges and a 600,000 euro fine for convincing members into spending tens of thousands of euros.

Some 130 French parliamentarians have lodged an appeal with the country’s constitutional court to overturn a controversial bill that would criminalise denying that the 1915 mass killing of Armenians in Turkey was genocide.

Former French defence minister and Socialist Party nationalist Jean-Pierre Chevenement dropped out of the presidential race on Wednesday, with the latest polls showing him with zero percent of the vote.

India's decision to choose France's Dassault Aviation firm to supply 126 fighters is just the start of a long path strewn with red tape, analysts say, as India will likely insist on participation from its defence industry.

A group of French senators have asked the constitutional council to review a law passed last week outlawing the denial of a genocide recognised by French law, namely the Holocaust or the 1915-1916 massacre of Armenians by Ottoman Turks.

A French judge is to continue his probe into the deaths of 10 French soldiers in an ambush in Afghanistan in 2008, following an appeals court ruling Monday. The families of the victims claim the soldiers were ill-equipped at the time of the attack.

France’s plans for an early withdrawal from Afghanistan drew criticism from Kabul on Saturday, with experts and lawmakers accusing French President Nicolas Sarkozy of putting politics ahead of Afghans' safety.