European Union foreign ministers will discuss end of May a British request to brand Hizbullah's military wing a terrorist organization despite reservations in Paris that are also shared by several other EU states, informed French sources said.

The sources told pan-Arab daily al-Hayat published Sunday that Britain asked the EU presidency to designate the military wing a terrorist organization over the party's involvement in the war in Syria.

A senior Mali army officer accused France Saturday of picking favorites among the country's warring militias after its troops attacked Arab rebels who had captured a village from armed Tuaregs.

The intervention came on Friday after the Arab Movement of Azawad (MAA) took the northern desert settlement of Anefis from the National Movement for the Liberation of Azawad (MNLA), a Malian and another African military source said.

Lawyers for the founder of French firm PIP whose faulty breast implants sparked a global health scare denied wrongdoing Friday as the court said it would deliver a verdict in December.

In closing arguments, the defence called for a lighter sentence than the four-years imprisonment requested by prosecutors.

France became the 14th country to legalize same-sex marriage Saturday after President Francois Hollande signed the measure into law following months of bitter political debate.

Hollande acted a day after the Constitutional Council threw out a legal challenge by the right-wing opposition, which had been the last obstacle to passing the bill into law. The legislation also legalizes gay adoption.

French President Francois Hollande was set to sign a gay marriage and adoption bill into law on Saturday after it was cleared by the Constitutional Council which turned down a challenge by the right-wing opposition.

Hollande, who had made "marriage for all" a key election pledge, made the announcement saying it was "now time to respect the law and the Republic" after the top French institution cleared the bill on Friday.

France said Friday it is opposed to having Iran attend a peace conference on Syria despite Damascus's ally Russia wanting Tehran's presence at the event expected in the first half of June.

Foreign ministry spokesman Philippe Lalliot said: "We do not want Iran. The Syrian crisis is contagious and affects the entire zone. Regional stability is at stake and we cannot see how a country (Iran) that threatens this stability can participate in this conference."

The U.N. General Assembly on Friday put French Polynesia on the global body's decolonization list at a meeting boycotted by France.

The resolution, passed by consensus in the 193 member assembly, was called for by the Solomon Islands and other Pacific states who back the Pacific territory's pro-independence parties.

A 5.9-magnitude quake struck off a remote area of the Solomons Islands Friday, but no tsunami warning was issued for the Pacific nation and a seismologist said there was no cause for concern.

The United States Geological Survey said the tremor, at a depth of 13 kilometers (eight miles), struck in the Santa Cruz Islands at 06:43 GMT about 93 kilometers southwest of Lata.

French President Francois Hollande said Thursday that more efforts were needed to convince Moscow to drop its support for Syrian leader Bashar Assad.

"We must have a frank discussion with Russia to convince it that it is in its interests, in the interests of the region, in the interests of peace, to finish with Bashar Assad," Hollande told a press conference.

Angered over Bashar Assad's brutal repression of peaceful protests in Syria two years ago, Paris closed its embassy in Damascus, virtually cutting off the lifeline to the capital's once-thriving French school.

But tenacious parents and staff, driven by their love for French culture and despite financial hardship, have kept the Charles de Gaulle school open, and children continue to study their grammar despite encroaching war.