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Six French tourists, along with their driver and guide, are reported to have been shot dead by unidentified gunmen on motorcycles in a suspected terrorist attack during a safari in Niger, which lies in a region of West Africa where Boko Haram and groups linked to al Qaeda and Islamic State operate.

More than 30 international leaders and government officials took part in a video conference co-organised by France and the United Nations on Sunday to raise emergency aide funding for Lebanon after devastating explosions in its capital Beirut last week added further hardship for a population suffering a harsh economic and social crisis.

Champagne producers estimate sales losses to now caused by the public restrictions to contain the Covid-19 pandemic, notably affecting group partying, the restaurant sector and entertainment businesses, amount to around 2 million dollars.

After a steady rise in numbers of people testing positive with Covid-19 virus infection in Paris and its suburban ring, where the percentage of those testing positive is also above the national average, the wearing of face masks in 'crowded zones' has been made compulsory as of Monday.

A man reported to be aged 34 and carrying a handgun who on Thursday took six people hostage in a bank in the northern French port town of Le Havre, where former prime minister Édouard Philippe is mayor, surrendered hours later to police and released his captives apparently unharmed.

French President Emmanuel Macron visited blast-torn Beirut on Thursday, the first foreign leader to do so, when he announced that France will organize an international fundraising conference with other international donors to provide food, medicine, housing and other urgent aid, but warned  that 'if reforms are not made, Lebanon will continue to sink'.

The French scientific committee set up to monitor and advise on the Covid-19 virus epidemic in the country has warned that the current spread of the virus could 'at any moment' spin out of control and concluded that it was 'highly likely that we will experience a second epidemic wave this autumn or winter'.

French President Emmanuel Macron will visit Lebanon on Thursday to meet with the country's political leaders, 48 hours after a huge explosion devastated parts of Beirut where France has already sent teams of rescuse workers, engineers and medical equipment.

Buildings and vehicles were destroyed and almost 3,000 people evacuated in the area surrounding the southern town of Martigues, near Marseille, where forest fires spreading at a speed estimated by firefighters as 8kph erupted on Tuesday before being finally contained on Wednesday.