He labels gas chambers a "detail of history", believes Nazi occupation of France was not all bad, wants to join with Russia to save the "white world" and says he understands why some fight democracy.

Jean-Marie Le Pen, a former paratrooper whose inflammatory speeches has made him the figurehead of France's far right for more than four decades, has not once veered away from the role he loves best -- master provocateur.

France's far-right was in disarray Wednesday after National Front leader Marine Le Pen openly split with her father and party founder after gas chamber comments she described as "political suicide".

Jean-Marie Le Pen, the outspoken 86-year-old founder of the FN party, has dominated headlines in recent days, repeating his view that Nazi gas chambers were a "detail of history" and defending war-time French leader Petain, who collaborated with Hitler's regime.

The U.S. and French military are assisting in the search for a Romanian mineworker kidnapped in Burkina Faso and believed to have been taken into Mali, Burkina Faso's security minister has said.

Both the France and U.S. have drones based in Niger, which neighbors Burkina Faso, as part of efforts to combat Islamist extremists in the region.

A Dutch hostage freed after being held by al-Qaida-linked extremists in Mali for more than three years was due to arrive in the capital Bamako on Tuesday, Dutch and Malian diplomatic sources said.

Train driver Sjaak Rijke, abducted while on holiday in Timbuktu in November 2011, was freed in a raid on al-Qaida in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) by French special forces on Monday.

The United States admitted Monday that it has no immediate plans to rescue its nationals stranded in war-torn Yemen and urged them to flee the raging conflict by sea.

State Department spokeswoman Marie Harf could not tell reporters how many American civilians are thought to be caught up in the conflict, as citizens of other nations take to ships.

French special forces on Monday rescued a Dutch train driver kidnapped nearly four years ago in Mali by Al-Qaida's north Africa arm in an operation that killed several jihadists.

France's defense ministry said Sjaak Rijke, kidnapped in Timbuktu in northern Mali in November 2011, was freed during "military action carried out by the French army's special forces."

One of France's top Muslim leaders has called for the number of mosques to double over the next two years to remedy a shortage of places of worship for the country's millions of faithful.

Speaking at a weekend gathering of French Islamic organisations, where participants asked for respect in the face of a rise in anti-Muslim attacks, Dalil Boubakeur said the 2,200 mosques in the country did not adequately represent Europe's largest Muslim community.

Germany's aviation regulator said Sunday it had no previous knowledge of Germanwings co-pilot Andreas Lubitz's struggle with severe depression before the disaster in the French Alps.

A spokeswoman for the Federal Aviation Office (LBA) told Agence France Presse that parent company Lufthansa had given it "no information about the medical background" of Lubitz, who prosecutors allege deliberately crashed the plane last month, killing all 150 people on board.

The lights fade and rapid-fire images flash across a large screen to the sounds of war: marching men, the flaming afterburner of a fighter jet, radio traffic and adrenaline-pumping music.

Cue multilingual Brigadier General Ahmed Assiri and his nightly media briefing on Operation Decisive Storm, the Saudi-led coalition which began air strikes against Shiite militia in neighbouring Yemen on March 26.

France will release a man accused of involvement in the 1994 Rwanda massacre after the Paris appeal court ruled in his favor on Friday, his lawyer said.

Claude Muhayimana, who obtained French nationality in 2010, was arrested a year ago in the northern city of Rouen.