France said Tuesday a 30-year-old woman working for the World Bank was kidnapped by unidentified gunmen in the Yemeni capital and urged its citizens to quickly leave the country.

"We unfortunately confirm the kidnapping this morning in Sanaa of a French citizen," the foreign ministry said in a statement, urging "all our compatriots to leave the country as fast as possible."

French Defense Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian held talks with his Indian counterpart on Tuesday on his second visit to New Delhi in as many months as he tries to salvage a deal to sell 126 Rafale fighter jets.

France is hoping to save the deal, which has been snagged for three years and now faces new questions over cost, before a visit to Paris by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in April.

French President Francois Hollande vowed Monday to introduce tougher penalties for "racist, anti-semitic or homophobic" remarks in the wake of last month's terrorist attacks in Paris.

Speaking at an annual dinner hosted by the country's Jewish community, Hollande called for "faster, more effective sanctions" against hate speech and added: "I want such speech to come under criminal law rather than press laws."

More than a month after jihadist gunmen massacred much of the Charlie Hebdo editorial staff, the magazine is back at work with another savage swipe at its favorite enemies.

The cover of the latest issue due out Wednesday depicts the Pope, a jihadist, former president Nicolas Sarkozy and far-right politician Marine Le Pen as a pack of enraged animals chasing after a dog with a copy of Charlie Hebdo clamped in its jaws.

The United States and Iran said Monday they had made some progress in the latest round of talks on Tehran's nuclear program, but warned there was still a long way to go to reach a final deal.

Negotiators for Iran and six world powers have held a range of meetings in Geneva since Friday, and plan further talks in the city next week, a senior U.S. administration official said.

Six French citizens have had their passports confiscated and 40 more will be banned from leaving the country after allegedly planning to travel to Syria and Iraq, Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve said Monday. 

It is the first time the measure has been used in France following its introduction as part of a raft of new counter-terrorism laws in November. 

A French aircraft carrier launched operations in the Gulf against the Islamic State group Monday as the new Pentagon chief summoned top generals and diplomats to Kuwait to review war efforts.

U.S. Defense Secretary Ashton Carter vowed the jihadists would suffer a "lasting defeat" as he convened the extraordinary meeting of more than two dozen senior military officers, ambassadors and intelligence officials at the sprawling U.S. Army base of Camp Arifjan.

The Lebanese state has accomplished most of the contracts under a $1 billion aid by Saudi Arabia as a batch of the arms is expected to be handed over “soon” to security agencies.

A prominent security source stressed in comments published in al-Mustaqbal newspaper on Monday that the Lebanese military finalized all the deals linked to its $500 million as a batch of light arms is “on its way” to be delivered.

Nigeria must commit fully to fighting Boko Haram, French French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius said on Sunday, on a tour of west African countries involved in fighting the Islamist group. 

"It is necessary that there be full commitment from Nigeria in the fight against Boko Haram," Fabius told reporters. 

Sensors at the Fukushima nuclear plant have detected a fresh leak of highly radioactive water to the sea, the plant's operator announced Sunday, highlighting difficulties in decommissioning the crippled plant.

Tokyo Electric Power Co (TEPCO) said the sensors, which were rigged to a gutter that pours rain and ground water at the Fukushima Daiichi plant to a nearby bay, detected contamination levels up to 70 times greater than the already-high radioactive status seen at the plant campus.