France

Axe-wielding robbers stole jewellery possibly worth more than $US5 million from a store in the famed Ritz Paris hotel, police said.

In tight-knit groups, Chinese tourists walked around Paris on their guard, alarmed by a recent mugging and other attacks targeting Asian visitors.

Two women were stabbed to death and their assailant shot dead by a soldier in the southern French port city of Marseille in what officials described as a "likely terrorist act".

France's Winter Olympics team will not travel to the 2018 Games in South Korea if its security cannot be guaranteed, showing the first major doubts by a participating nation about growing North Korean tensions.

More than 220,000 people have signed a petition against French President Emmanuel Macron's plans to create a formal First Lady role for his wife Brigitte.

French prosecutors launched a terrorism investigation after a man wielding a knife and shouting the Arabic phrase "Allahu Akbar" (God is great), tried to force his way in to the Eiffel Tower in Paris.

A man armed with a hammer shouted "this is for Syria" and wounded a policeman before being shot and wounded by other officers outside Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris, one of France's most famous tourist sites.

French presidential candidate Marine Le Pen renewed her attack on the European Union's euro single currency on Sunday, a day after saying that ditching it might not be her top priority.

The killing of a policeman by a suspected Islamist militant pushed national security to the top of the French political agenda, two days before the presidential election.

Presidential candidate Emmanuel Macron urged French voters to turn the page on the last 20 years and bring a new generation to power, as he stepped up attacks against resurgent far-left and conservative rivals.

Facebook Inc said it suspended 30,000 accounts in France as the social network giant steps up efforts to stop the spread of fake news, misinformation and spam.