French actress Julie Gayet, whose affair with President Francois Hollande made headlines worldwide, opened the Beirut International Film Festival on Wednesday and criticised “fundamentalism” in neighbouring Syria.

France conducted its first airstrike against the Islamic State militant group in Iraq Friday, destroying a logistics depot, French President Francois Hollande announced. Although some countries have contributed humanitarian aid or military equipment to the Iraqi army in its battle against the advancing jihadists, France is the first nation to join the US-led air campaign against IS.

President of the Republic of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev has received director of the international development department at the French General Directorate for Armament Stephane Reb.  The parties exchanged views on the issues related to cooperation opportunities in the field of defense industry.

Gérard Araud, France's newly minted ambassador to the United States, arrived in Washington this month with a reputation for speaking his mind, a potentially perilous distinction for a career diplomat. A recent convert to Twitter, Araud has skirmished with human rights activists over French policy in Western Sahara, defended France's controversial burqa ban, denounced Russian aggression, and poked fun atWashington's Iraq war hawks.

When top Netflix Inc. executives arrived in Paris earlier this year to help prepare a European expansion, they were greeted with an open letter from a group of French film producers warning of an "implosion of our cultural model." Netflix's response was a charm offensive. In a series of meetings with French government officials, executives said they planned to inject tens of millions of euros into France by marketing the Netflix service...

This was the most significant Western arms sale to Russia and its postponement - the exact terms of the suspension of the deal are not clear - marks a very visible rebuff to Moscow on the eve of Nato's Wales Summit. The Mistral assault ships can carry up to 16 heavy helicopters, land troops and armoured vehicles. Their delivery would have resulted in a marked improvement in Russia's amphibious capability.

Aircraft from the United States, Australia, France and Britain on Saturday dropped humanitarian supplies to the Iraqi town of Amerli, which has been under siege by "Islamic State" jihadist militants for almost two months, the US Pentagon says.  In a statement, Pentagon press secretary Rear Admiral John Kirby said the airdrop, made at the request of the Iraqi government, had been supported by US airstrikes on the besieging militants.

This year also marks the 50th anniversary of the opening of diplomatic relations between France and Communist China. Urged on by President Charles de Gaulle, in 1964, the French became the first Western nation to recognize the new government in Beijing, much to the disgust of the Americans. A long established diplomatic bond of trust exists between the two nations, albeit a bond that has been stretched on one or two occasions.