French police arrested a Bosnian Serb former soldier suspected of detaining civilians inside a house and then setting it on fire, killing 59 people during Bosnia's 1992-1995 war, officials said Friday.

Bosnian officials have requested Radomir Susnjar's extradition following his arrest, the war crimes prosecutor's office said in a statement.

French forces deployed in the strife-torn Central African Republic began moving into the east of the country this week, the head of the operation General Francisco Soriano said Thursday.

"The third phase (of the intervention) began this week and we started deploying in the east," he told reporters in Paris during a video conference.

France and Germany announced a new plan at an EU-Africa summit Wednesday to work as allies in Africa on three fronts -- security, development and climate change.

"France and Germany can act on these three subjects," said French President Francois Hollande speaking alongside German Chancellor Angela Merkel. "We want to deploy our friendship on the ground" in Africa.

French President Francois Hollande on Wednesday recalled his former partner Segolene Royal from the political wilderness to join a new streamlined government, days after his Socialist Party suffered an election drubbing.

Sunday's stinging setback in nationwide municipal elections prompted Hollande to sack former Premier Jean-Marc Ayrault and replace him with tough-talking interior minister Manuel Valls.

France will organize a meeting to push for reforms to restrain the use of Security Council vetoes in cases involving mass crimes, the French ambassador to the United Nations said Monday.

Gerard Araud said the ministerial-level meeting would be held on the sidelines of the U.N. General Assembly meeting in September among all foreign ministers who wish to take part.

The French are gradually accepting the far-right National Front (FN) into the mainstream even if many are still hostile to the anti-immigration party that made historic gains in local elections, analysts said Monday.

The FN took the mayorship in at least 11 towns and won over 1,400 seats on municipal councils in Sunday's polls.

French President Francois Hollande on Monday reacted to a humiliating electoral rout for his Socialist Party by naming popular Interior Minister Manuel Valls as the country's new prime minister.

Valls, 51, replaces Jean-Marc Ayrault at the helm of a new government which will not include the two Green ministers who were part of the outgoing administration.

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry was holding late-night talks with the leadership in Jerusalem and Ramallah on Monday on his latest mission to salvage the crisis-hit peace process.

He flew in from Paris for what was expected to be little more than a 15-hour visit to push both sides to resolve a lingering dispute over Palestinian prisoners which is threatening to derail the negotiations ahead of an April 29 deadline.

France's minister in charge of relations with French-speaking countries is suspected of lying about her assets, a state-appointed transparency watchdog said Monday, referring the case to the courts.

The High Authority for Transparency in Public Life said there was "serious doubt on the... accuracy and sincerity" of Yamina Benguigui's assets declaration last April, when ministers were forced to publicly reveal what they owned following a tax fraud scandal.

The mayor of a Belgian industrial town cut off ties with a sister city in southern France on Monday after the far right won its city hall in weekend local elections.

The far-right National Front will take control of about a dozen French towns after elections Sunday, including Beaucaire, a sun-soaked bullfighting town where 30-year-old Julien Sanchez, a party official, is to become the next mayor.