Paris - Segolene Royal, the defeated Socialist Party candidate in last year's French presidential election, is expected to announce later Wednesday that she is a candidate to replace her former partner as party chief, French media reported.

The party will elect a successor to its current head, Francois Hollande, during its next congress, which is due to begin Friday in the city of Reims.

Royal's heavy defeat at the hands of President Nicolas Sarkozy in May 2007 threw the Socialists into disarray, with many of the party's old guard, such as former prime minister Lionel Jospin, harshly criticizing the campaign she ran and her attempt to forge an alliance with centrist Francois Bayrou.

Paris - Both houses of the Algerian parliament are due to meet Wednesday to decide whether to change the constitution to allow President Abdelaziz Bouteflika to stay on for a third term.

If passed, the 71-year-old president could take up a third five- year term in the spring of 2009.

Parliament would also vote on cutting some of the prime minister's powers in favour of the president.

London/Paris - Commemorations to mark Armistice Day, the day the guns fell silent at the end of World War I 90 years ago, were held in Britain and France Tuesday.

In London, Prime Minister Gordon Brown attended the solemn ceremony and two-minute silence which were led by the three remaining survivors of the Great War, now all well over 100 years old.

In France, ceremonies held at Verdun, the major Franco-German battlefield, were led by President Nicolas Sarkozy and attended by Britain's Prince Charles and his wife, the Duchess of Cornwall.

Paris  - Following a series of mysterious attacks on railway infrastructure in the past week, police in France have arrested eight suspects, the Interior Ministry announced on Tuesday.

More than 40 high-speed trains between Paris and London, Brussels, Amsterdam and Cologne had to be transferred to traditional tracks on Saturday, resulting in more than 150 trains running late, after metal pipes were placed atop overhead powerlines at four separate locations.

Paris - Afghan-born Atiq Rahimi was on Monday named winner of France's most prestigious literary prize, the Prix Goncourt, for his novel Synge Sabour.

The title of the novel - Rahimi's fourth, but the first to be written in French - is taken from the Persian name of a magic black stone that represents patience and which absorbs all suffering and pain.

The book is in the form of a monologue of an Afghan woman addressing her soldier-husband who lies in a coma in their house.

The monologue ultimately becomes an outcry for all Afghan women - indeed, all women - about wishing to become free of domestic, social and religious oppression and a tirade against the man whom she is nursing.

Paris - A poll released on Monday showed that French President Nicolas Sarkozy's forceful handling of the financial crisis and his calls to reform capitalism have given his popularity a substantial boost.

According to the survey, which was conducted by the Viavoice institute for the daily Liberation, 48 per cent of respondents said they had a "positive opinion" of Sarkozy, a jump of 8 percentage points over one month ago and his best showing since January.

Sarkozy's popularity surge was due in large part to left-wing voters, among whom he gained 10 points, to a positive rating of 29 per cent.