Iran's former foreign minister Ali Akbar Velayati would "cooperate" with France to resolve the conflict in Syria should he win the June 14 presidential election, he said in an exclusive interview with Agence France Presse.

"My offer, if I am victorious, is that Iran and France sit together to talk, and work together, to find a political solution to the Syrian crisis," Velayati said. "I am ready to do it."

The earliest evidence of wine in France suggests that it came from Italy, and that it was mixed with basil, thyme and other herbs, according to research published on Monday.

This early wine may have been used as medicine, and likely was imbibed by the wealthy and powerful before eventually becoming a popular beverage enjoyed by the masses, researchers said.

The European Parliament will examine in the first week of July whether to lift the immunity of far-right French MEP Marine Le Pen, as France seeks to prosecute her over remarks likening Islamic prayers to the Nazi occupation, the parliament's judicial affairs committee said Monday.

"The European Parliament will vote July 2 or 3" on lifting the immunity of the leader of France's National Front, said a spokesman for the deputy leader of the committee, French Socialist Francoise Castex.

The Czech capital Prague was on high flood alert Monday with businesses shut and transport coming to a halt after torrential rains left at least six people dead and forced thousands from their homes across central Europe.

Czech rescue crews were searching for four others believed to have died in the flooding which cut power to tens of thousands of households across the Czech Republic, Austria and Germany.

France is willing help Libya secure its borders from militant Islamist groups fleeing Mali, Defense Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian said Sunday.

Security officials say the vast deserts of southern Libya are becoming the latest safe havens for al-Qaida linked fighters who fled neighboring Mali after France sent troops there in January to prevent a Islamist coup.

French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius said Sunday that a peace conference on Syria in Geneva could take place in July, later than previously expected.

Amid desperate diplomatic efforts to bring Syria's regime and opposition to the table for talks, Fabius said it was unlikely the conference would take place this month as hoped.

Paris investigators placed the French branch of Swiss bank UBS under formal investigation Friday on suspicion it helped try to persuade rich French clients to open undeclared accounts in Switzerland, a legal source said.

UBS was also named as an "assisted witness" in an investigation into a money laundering ope ration that was part of a tax fraud, the source added.

French authorities charged a Franco-Lebanese businessman Friday at the center of a high-profile political scandal, a day after detaining him on suspicion he was trying to flee the country, a legal source said.

On Thursday, police detained Ziad Takieddine on suspicion that he was making plans to flee the country, despite a ban on foreign travel, by trying to obtain a diplomatic passport, said a source close to the case.

France wants to work with Libya against militant groups on its territory but will not take military action in the country without U.N. backing, President Francois Hollande said on Friday.

Asked about media reports of France preparing an intervention against Islamist groups in southern Libya, Hollande told interviewers from broadcasters France 24, RFI and TV5Monde there were no plans in the works.

Arab League Deputy Secretary General Ahmed bin Hilli described on Friday Hizbullah's involvement in battles in Syria as “dangerous development,” calling on the party to reconsider its stance.

“Hizbullah's involvement in Syria battles complicates the matters,” Hilli said in comments published in As Safir newspaper.