Lebanese Forces leader and presidential hopeful Samir Geagea traveled on Friday on a work trip, the party said in a press release.

Geagea's destination wasn't formally revealed but sources close to LF told LBCI that the Christian leader traveled on an Arab and European tour.

An appeals court Thursday upheld a judge's decision that a Canadian-Lebanese man should be extradited to France in connection with a 1980 Paris synagogue bombing that killed four people.

The Ontario Court of Appeal ruled that the lower-court judge and the federal justice minister made no legal errors in concluding Hassan Diab should be handed to French authorities.

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry reiterated Washington's opposition to France's sale of warships to Russia during a meeting with French counterpart Laurent Fabius earlier this week, U.S. officials said Thursday.

Under a 1.2-billion-euro ($1.6 billion) deal agreed in 2011, France is to sell two Mistral-class helicopter carriers to Russia, despite criticism from several allies.

Alain Juppe, the popular former French prime minister who is seen as a possible candidate to be the country's next president, left hospital Thursday after an unscheduled overnight stay.

Juppe, 68, was admitted to the Val-de-Grace hospital in Paris on Wednesday evening for a routine examination which led to him being kept in overnight and his diary being cleared for the rest of the week, an aide in Bordeaux told Agence France Presse.

Russia's state arms exporter on Wednesday praised France for sticking by a contract to build two Mistral warships for the Russian navy despite U.S. objections to the project.

Work in the 1.2 billion euro ($1.6 billion) deal for two Mistral-class helicopter carriers is proceeding on schedule, demonstrating "France's reliability as a partner," a spokesman of Rosoboronexport was quoted by ITAR-TASS as saying.

The allure of superstar Nicole Kidman was not enough to salvage "Grace of Monaco" from the scathing wrath of critics Wednesday, just hours before the movie opens the Cannes Film Festival in a star-studded world premiere.

Kidman, "Gravity" director Alfonso Cuaron and Chiara Mastroianni are just some of the big names due to walk up the red carpet under what promises to be a clear, sunny sky as the 12-day film fest officially gets going in the glamorous Riviera resort.

France's prestigious daily Le Monde plunged further into crisis Wednesday with the resignation of its managing editor who is faced with a newsroom rebellion over the paper's digital strategy.

The resignation of Natalie Nougayrede comes after most of the paper's chief editors stepped down last week, angry at top management's lack of communication as the paper struggles to chart its way into the digital era.

The U.N. Security Council has condemned the killing of a French journalist in the Central African Republic, and stated those responsible "shall be held accountable." 

The body of 26-year-old Camille Lepage, described by her mother in French media as "an exceptional girl" who wanted to be "a witness to people that are not talked about and who are in danger", was found Tuesday by a patrol of French peacekeeping troops.

An "inappropriate response" from stressed pilots was responsible for the 2009 crash into the Atlantic of an Air France plane flying from Rio to Paris that killed all 228 people on board, a new experts' report said.

The report, seen by Agence France Presse on Tuesday, was ordered by investigators. It said there was "an inappropriate response from the crew" after the plane's speed sensors malfunctioned.

The Syrian regime is believed to have used chemical weapons including chlorine in 14 attacks since late 2013, French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius said Tuesday.

Fabius, who is on an official visit to Washington, also voiced France's regrets that U.S. President Barack Obama had failed to carry out threatened U.S. strikes on the Syrian regime as punishment for a sarin gas attack near Damascus in August in which hundreds died.