Lebanon has a reputation as the most liberal country in the conservative Middle East, but even a night on the town for gays can end in arrest and humiliating sexuality "tests".

They might be less persecuted than elsewhere in the region, but outside a few areas of the capital Beirut, Lebanese homosexuals are largely stigmatized and discriminated against.

France's health ministry on Wednesday reported the country's first case of a SARS-like virus that has killed 18 people so far, mostly in Saudi Arabia.

An unidentified person who came back to France from a trip to the United Arab Emirates was diagnosed with the deadly novel coronavirus, the ministry said.

President Francois Hollande said Tuesday that France was taking seriously a call by al-Qaida's north African wing for Muslims worldwide to launch attacks against the country's interests over its military operation in Mali.

An AQIM leader called on Muslims to "attack French interests everywhere" in a video message posted online.

A decision by the European Commission to give France two more years to meet its deficit target of three percent will not come "for free", EU President Herman Van Rompuy said on Tuesday.

"The decision is not (formally) taken, neither by the commission nor by the council," he told reporters at a press conference in Stockholm.

France said Tuesday it had arrested six members of ETA, as authorities continue to hunt down those who belong to the Basque separatist group over a year after it ended all armed activity.

The arrests come after a suspected top commander of ETA -- considered a terrorist group by the European Union and United States -- got a life sentence in April for the 2007 murder of two Spanish police officers in France.

Under fire from right and left, French President Francois Hollande on Monday spent the first anniversary of his election triumph hunkered down with ministers to thrash out a comeback strategy.

Hollande, Prime Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault and most of the embattled Socialist government's ministers held talks at the Elysee Palace to set the administration's reform agenda for the coming months.

French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius called Monday for "a political solution" to the conflict in Syria, after its regime was suspected of using chemical weapons and after two Israeli raids on the country.

Israeli raids on Sunday hit three military sites outside Damascus, the second such reported attack in 48 hours, reportedly targeting weapons bound for Lebanon's Hizbullah which is an ally of President Bashar Assad's regime.

A French test of an M51 submarine-launched ballistic missile failed on Sunday as it self-destructed off the coast of Brittany, officials said.

"It was a failure, the reasons will be determined by an investigation," said Lieutenant Commander Lionel Delort, a spokesman for the Atlantic Naval Prefecture.

France wants to boost its relations with Japan all the while maintaining strong ties with China, despite simmering diplomatic tensions between the two Asian giants, France's top diplomat said in an interview published on Saturday.

Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius told Japanese daily Asahi Shimbun that "Asia occupies, and will occupy, an important place" in French diplomacy.

The head of France Telecom complained on Thursday of interference after the state blocked plans by U.S. Internet firm Yahoo! to buy a majority stake in French video-sharing website Dailymotion.

In an interview with business newspaper Les Echos, chief executive Stephane Richard said the firm's management -- and not the government -- should be deciding the strategy for Dailymotion, owned by France Telecom, which uses the brand name Orange.