A German and French plan to send military-surveillance drones to monitor the fragile cease-fire in eastern Ukraine is running into a thicket of security and legal problems, underscoring the obstacles facing Europe as it tries to tamp down violence in the region.

Mr. Baudry, the cultural counselor for the French Embassy, is presenting a gift in two packages to his adopted city. The first is a bookstore, Albertine, named after the elusive love object of Proust’s “Remembrance of Things Past.”(...)The second is Festival Albertine, a six-night celebration of ideas that begins on Tuesday, matching French and American thinkers and writers in a wide variety of fields (...)

Social media companies and governments in the United States, France and the United Kingdom have struggled to quell the noxious online presence of the Islamic State group. Twitter, YouTube and Facebook have undertaken a systematic effort to purge accounts affiliated with the militant organization.

The French development aid budget has been reduced by almost 20% since 2012. France hopes to cover this reduction with a tax on financial transactions, but the yields are uncertain, EurActiv France reports. 

French actress Julie Gayet, whose affair with President Francois Hollande made headlines worldwide, opened the Beirut International Film Festival on Wednesday and criticised “fundamentalism” in neighbouring Syria.

France conducted its first airstrike against the Islamic State militant group in Iraq Friday, destroying a logistics depot, French President Francois Hollande announced. Although some countries have contributed humanitarian aid or military equipment to the Iraqi army in its battle against the advancing jihadists, France is the first nation to join the US-led air campaign against IS.

President of the Republic of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev has received director of the international development department at the French General Directorate for Armament Stephane Reb.  The parties exchanged views on the issues related to cooperation opportunities in the field of defense industry.

Gérard Araud, France's newly minted ambassador to the United States, arrived in Washington this month with a reputation for speaking his mind, a potentially perilous distinction for a career diplomat. A recent convert to Twitter, Araud has skirmished with human rights activists over French policy in Western Sahara, defended France's controversial burqa ban, denounced Russian aggression, and poked fun atWashington's Iraq war hawks.