An exiled son-in-law of deposed Tunisian president Zine El Abidine Ben Ali returned to the capital Tuesday to challenge a jail sentence for having a gun, his lawyer told Agence France Presse.

Businessman Slim Chiboub, who has been living in the United Arab Emirates since Ben Ali fled Tunisia in January 2011 during a popular uprising, had been sentenced in absentia to five years in jail for illegal possession of a firearm.

Francois Hollande on Tuesday became the first French president to make a state visit to Australia, pushing to strengthen ties almost two decades after nuclear tests in the South Pacific sparked fierce criticism of Paris.

The president, welcomed with a 21-gun salute in parklands on Sydney harbor, said his visit was also designed to underline France's presence in the Pacific and its intention to remain there.

French prosecutors said Monday they were investigating two Frenchmen suspected of taking part in the beheading of Syrian prisoners shown in an Islamic State video.

The prosecutor's office confirmed the first was 22-year-old Maxime Hauchard from Normandy in northern France.

Authorities were on Monday investigating the involvement of several suspected Western jihadists in the brutal video by the Islamic State group claiming the beheading of U.S. aid worker Peter Kassig.

The killing of Kassig and the simultaneous beheadings of at least 18 Syrian military personnel in the video sparked global horror, with President Barack Obama calling it "an act of pure evil".

French President Francois Hollande insisted Sunday that a gay marriage law was increasingly being accepted, after his predecessor Nicolas Sarkozy called for the highly divisive law to be scrapped.

Waging a closely-watched political comeback, Sarkozy made his strongest comments yet against the law during a debate with two rival candidates vying to lead the center-right UMP into the 2017 presidential election.

The United States Embassy in Lebanon denied on Sunday a report saying that Washington had filed an official complaint to the Lebanese government for attempting to strike a deal with Russia on supplying the army with used T-72 tanks.

The embassy stressed in comments to Naharnet that “the report is false.”

French President Francois Hollande said Sunday he would not be pressured into delivering two warships to Russia, after delaying their handover due to the Ukraine crisis.

Russian President Vladimir Putin on Sunday shrugged off a hail of Western fire over the Ukraine crisis as G20 leaders wrapped up an annual summit focused on a drive to overhaul the global economy. 

At the summit in Brisbane, Putin broke protocol by delivering remarks to the media before the host leader's closing news conference, and then flew out a little early. 

Russian President Vladimir Putin on Saturday called on French President Francois Hollande to "minimize the risks" between their countries after months of growing tensions.

"There are a lot of turbulent moments in world affairs and not on all issues do our positions converge," Putin said on the margins of the G20 summit.

A Canadian academic was charged on Saturday over the deadly 1980 bombing of a Paris synagogue after losing his six-year legal battle against extradition over the notorious attack.

Hassan Diab, a Canadian of Lebanese descent, appeared before an anti-terror judge just hours after arriving in Paris from Montreal.