President Nicolas Sarkozy is hitting the streets this week as the start of formal campaigning has kicked off. His challengers, including Francois Hollande, Marine Le Pen and Jean-Luc Melonchon are hoping to make the economy issue number one, while Sarkozy is hoping it's anything but.
A police siege in the French city of Toulouse ends with a man suspected of killing seven people now dead, officials say.
Mohammed Merah, the 23-year-old French citizen of North African descent, died during a police raid Thursday morning, some 32 hours after a standoff began with police. Merah is suspected of killing seven people in Toulouse in a series of violent shootings.
The Frenchman suspected of a spate of shootings in the Toulouse area planned more killings, prosecutors have said.
Hundreds of French police surrounded the home of a 24-year-old man in France suspected of being behind the shooting at a Jewish school on Monday, as well as the killing of three French soldiers last week. They spent hours in an stand-off with him Wednesday morning