France will in the weeks ahead begin reconfiguring its military presence in the Sahel region of West Africa where it has been on the frontline of the fight against militants, President Emmanuel Macron said.

The French government denied any cover up on Friday over radiation levels in the Pacific following its nuclear testing in the region, as discussions were held in Paris about the legacy of the explosions.

France's competition regulator fined Google 220 million euros ($267 million) on Monday after finding it had favoured its own services for placing online ads at the expense of rivals, as US tech giants face growing pressure in Europe.

Hundreds of revellers were booked for breaking coronavirus restrictions as an illegal rave in northwestern France ended on Saturday after more than two days of partying that saw clashes with police.

France and Britain reopened cross-Channel travel on Wednesday after a 48-hour ban to curb the spread of a new coronavirus variant but London has warned it could take days for thousands of trucks blocked around the port of Dover to get moving.

Three police were shot dead in Puy-de-Dome in central France on Wednesday after being called out to a domestic disturbance, sources in the public prosecutor's office told AFP.

French President Emmanuel Macron has tested positive for Covid-19, the French Presidency said on Thursday, although it was not clear at this stage where he had contracted the virus.

Former French president Valery Giscard d'Estaing, a leading advocate of European integration who led his country into a new modern era, has died of Covid-19, his family said. He was 94.

Four French police officers have been charged in connection to the beating and racial abuse of a black music producer, a judicial source said Monday, days after the incident in Paris ...

Qatar participated on Friday in the 3rd Paris Peace Forum, which was inaugurated by HE President of the French Republic Emmanuel Macron with more than 60 heads of state, government, and organisation participating.

Europe risks being hit with further waves of coronavirus infections next year, France's scientific council has warned, as the continent scrambles to cope with a second deadly spike in Covid-19 cases.

France headed into a second lockdown on Friday as the resurgent coronavirus pandemic hit new heights in the United States with a daily record of more than 90,000 cases, just five days before the presidential election.