The Taliban are fighting a lost cause and must accept peace talks, the father of Malala Yousafzai said Wednesday, accepting a key French award for the Pakistani schoolgirl shot for campaigning for girls' education.

In an impassioned speech after accepting the Simone de Beauvoir Prize for Womens' Freedom on behalf of the 15-year-old, Ziauddin Yousafzai said his daughter was supported by the world and by God.

Carla Bruni-Sarkozy, France's former first lady, will release a new album entitled "Little French Songs" in the spring, the singer-songwriter's agent said on Tuesday.

The record, whose title track pays hommage to France's great songwriters, is "practically finished", Bertrand de Labbey told RTL radio.

French Budget Minister Jerome Cahuzac is under investigation for tax fraud after a media report that he had an undeclared UBS account in Geneva which he then moved to Asia, prosecutors said Tuesday.

Cahuzac, who is in charge of battling tax evasion, welcomed the investigation, which he said would prove his "complete innocence".

Malian soldiers fired warning shots at Islamist fighters overnight amid fears that they are planning to advance on the government-controlled south of the impoverished country, a military source said Tuesday.

The fighters retreated after the firing near the town of Kona in the central Mopti region, the source told Agence France Presse.

Bahrain's highest appeals court on Monday upheld prison terms for 13 prominent activists on charges of plotting to overthrow the monarchy, lawyers said, in a verdict that sparked protests.

Hours after the Court of Cassation's ruling, hundreds gathered in the Shiite village of Malkiya in support of the prisoners, in response to calls for demonstrations by activists on social networking websites.

French actor Gerard Depardieu arrived in Russia on Saturday to meet with President Vladimir Putin after getting Russian citizenship to avoid paying higher taxes in France.

"Mr. Depardieu arrived in Sochi as part of a private visit. We expect him to meet Vladimir Putin tonight," Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told AFP, adding that it was possible that Depardieu, 64, would receive his new passport during the meeting.

A Moroccan couple and their three children died Saturday when their private plane crashed a few moments after taking off from the Grenoble airport in southeastern France, local police said.

"There were five" people aboard the plane. "Five people died," a police spokeswoman told AFP, adding that one of the parents was piloting the aircraft.

Entertainment retailer Virgin, which employs 1,000 workers in France, is to declare itself insolvent, a management spokesman said on Friday.

The company, which has struggled to maintain sales of CDs and DVDs in the face of increasing digital distribution of music and films, is to hold a works council meeting with employees on Monday to announce the insolvency, the spokesman said.

One of France's best-known comic book creators, Jacques Tardi, has refused the country's highest honor saying he does not want to fall under any political influence.

Tardi, best known for his works on the horrors of war and his Adele Blanc-Sec fantasy series, said he had learned this week that he was to receive the Legion d'Honneur medal.

A French satirical magazine whose offices were firebombed after it published cartoons mocking the prophet Mohammed on Wednesday published a comic book biography of Islam's founder.

The editor of Charlie Hebdo weekly has insisted that the new book, titled "The Life of Mohammed", is a properly researched and educational work prepared by a Franco-Tunisian sociologist.