The Eiffel Tower was evacuated Friday over a bomb alert, management at the Paris tourist spot said, but was reopened to the public several hours later.

Visitors to the Paris landmark were all asked to leave at 1230 GMT after the unspecified alert, and the monument was reopened at 1430 GMT after police determined it was safe.

France on Wednesday condemned the "unjustified" expulsion of 20 U.N. refugee agency staff from Sudan's Darfur region, calling on Khartoum to renew their permits immediately.

A foreign ministry spokesman said the move would hamper the ability of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) to provide aid to the two million displaced people in Darfur, 1.2 million of whom were living in camps.

Authorities have foiled a plot by al-Qaida militants to seize a Canadian-run oil terminal in Yemen and then kill or kidnap foreigners working there, the New York Times reported Wednesday.

The Times said the development was the first indication of the nature of an al-Qaida threat that prompted mass closings of U.S. diplomatic missions in the region from Sunday.

Learned and serious like the ancient Greeks or casual like 1950s "Beats"; the full beard is back in fashion in France to the delight of the nation's barbers.

After years in the style wilderness, the sort of bushy beard that takes weeks rather than days to grow -- from the plain old full beard to mutton chops or a chin curtain -- has finally displaced designer stubble and other barely-there styles of recent years.

The country that gave us the words restaurant, bistro and cuisine is changing how it eats.

For the first time in France, fast food overtook traditional restaurant receipts as the economic crisis deepened, and the share of people who pack a lunch for work is rising faster by the year. Meanwhile, lurid reports of the increasing number of traditional restaurants resorting to frozen pre-packaged meals to hold down their prices have shaken France's sense of culinary identity.

Germany said on Tuesday it had cancelled a 1960s surveillance pact with France after annulling similar accords with the U.S. and Britain in the wake of revelations about U.S. online spying.

The 1969 accord was axed "in mutual agreement", the foreign ministry said, four days after the Washington and London accords were nixed amid the debate on data privacy protection sparked by the snooping scandal.

Supporters of two French journalists kidnapped in Syria launched an impassioned call for their release Monday to mark the two-month anniversary of their disappearance.

Didier Francois, a seasoned war reporter for Europe 1 radio, and Edouard Elias, a photo-journalist, were detained on June 6 by unknown men at a checkpoint while travelling to Syria's second city of Aleppo.

You think French women don't get fat, their kids never throw food, couples have lots of good sex and families eat gourmet dinners every night? Think again.

A new book by British writer Piu Marie Eatwell seeks to debunk "myths" about a country that is sometimes idealized abroad, but leaves some visitors sorely disappointed when they realize it is actually... normal.

French President Francois Hollande said Saturday that France would close its embassy in Yemen over security fears for "several days", after Germany and Britain took the same precaution.

"We are informed directly and indirectly of threats concerning our installations overseas and even our nationals, threats coming from al-Qaida," Hollande said.

French authorities are investigating a money laundering case that targets Gulnara Karimova, the Uzbek leader's daughter, among others, a judicial source said Friday.

The glamorous eldest daughter of Islam Karimov, who has ruled Uzbekistan with an iron fist since the collapse of the Soviet Union, Karimova was educated at Harvard and is closely watched as a possible successor to her 75-year-old father.