Paris - French Interior Minister Michele Alliot-Marie on Tuesday described as "stupid and revolting" an apparently anti-Semitic attack in which a car was sent hurtling against the gates of a synagogue in the city of Toulouse and then set on fire.
Alliot-Marie told RMC radio that the perpetrators would be found quickly but she refused to say that the attack was related to the ongoing conflict in Gaza.
France has Europe's largest Muslim and Jewish communities, and strife between Palestinians and Israel has in the past provoked a wave of anti-Semitic attacks.
Ramallah - French President Nicolas Sarkozy called Monday night for an urgent truce between Israel and militants in the Gaza Strip, and blamed Hamas for the violence which has seen 550 Palestinians killed and over 2600 wounded in 10 days of Israeli attacks.
Beirut - French President Nicolas Sarkozy, due to arrive in Beirut on Tuesday, promised to exert more effort to resolve lingering issues between Lebanon and neighbouring Syria.
"Lebanon and Syria are now cooperating to restore relations based on trust and mutual respect," Sarkozy was quoted by Lebanese televisions on Monday.
"I am not naive and I realize that there are still several stages that need to be crossed," he said.
Paris - French President Nicolas Sarkozy left Paris on Monday on a two-day visit to the Middle East in a unilateral attempt to negotiate a ceasefire in the fighting in Gaza.
Traveling in his capacity as co-president, with Egypt, of the Union for the Mediterranean, Sarkozy is scheduled first to meet Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak in the resort of Sharm el-Sheik.
He will then travel on to West Bank city of Ramallah to hold talks with the president of the Palestinian Authority, Mahmoud Abbas, before meeting Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert late Monday in Jerusalem.
Paris - The man who helped plot the 9/11 terrorist attacks and two others went on trial in Paris on Monday for their alleged involvement in the 2002 suicide bombing of a Tunisian synagogue that killed 21 people.
Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, who has admitted being the main architect of the 9/11 attacks, German citizen Christian Ganczarski and Tunisian Walid Nauar, the brother of the suicide bomber, are charged with accessory to murder and face a maximum sentence of life in prison if convicted.
Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, who is currently imprisoned in the US detention facility at Guantanamo Bay, is being tried in absentia.
Paris - French Interior Minister Michele Alliot-Marie on Tuesday described as "stupid and revolting" an apparently anti-Semitic attack in which a car was sent hurtling against the gates of a synagogue in the city of Toulouse and then set on fire.
- Pirates off the Nigerian coast have seized a French ship and taken its nine crew members hostage, the ship owners said Monday in Paris.
Ramallah - French President Nicolas Sarkozy called Monday night for an urgent truce between Israel and militants in the Gaza Strip, and blamed Hamas for the violence which has seen 550 Palestinians killed and over 2600 wounded in 10 days of Israeli attacks.
Beirut - French President Nicolas Sarkozy, due to arrive in Beirut on Tuesday, promised to exert more effort to resolve lingering issues between Lebanon and neighbouring Syria.
Paris - French President Nicolas Sarkozy left Paris on Monday on a two-day visit to the Middle East in a unilateral attempt to negotiate a ceasefire in the fighting in Gaza. 
Paris - The man who helped plot the 9/11 terrorist attacks and two others went on trial in Paris on Monday for their alleged involvement in the 2002 suicide bombing of a Tunisian synagogue that killed 21 people.
