France condemned Wednesday a bloody armed attack on a museum in the Tunisian capital in which 17 tourists from Poland, Italy, Germany and Spain were killed.

"I condemn this terrorist attack in the strongest terms. There has been a hostage-taking, without doubt tourists have been affected, killed," French Prime Minister Manuel Valls said in Brussels after talks with European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker.

Fourteen companies, including Renault Trucks and Legrand, went on trial Wednesday, accused of siphoning off cash to Saddam Hussein's Iraqi regime during the "oil for food" program.

The United Nations program, which ran from 1996 to 2003, allowed the regime in Baghdad to export some oil in return for basics such as food and medicine.

A French court handed controversial French comedian Dieudonne a two-month suspended jail sentence on Wednesday for condoning terrorism after a comment suggesting he sympathized with one of the jihadists who attacked Paris.

The polemicist was arrested on January 14 after writing "I feel like Charlie Coulibaly" on Facebook, a mix of the slogan "Je suis Charlie" that became a global rallying cry against extremism and Amedy Coulibaly, one of the assailants who killed a policewoman and four Jews.

The Eiffel Tower disappeared behind a brown smog on Wednesday as Paris and much of northern France suffered a spike in pollution.

"The pollution levels are consistent. If we don't go over the alert level, we won't be far away," said Airparif, the body responsible for monitoring air quality in the greater Paris region. 

France's government is due to propose a raft of measures on Thursday aimed at improving the surveillance of potential jihadists, two months after gunmen killed 17 people in Paris.

The draft legislation will allow French authorities to watch over people suspected of preparing "terrorist" acts without prior authorization from a judge.

"She's my queen!" gushes Patricia, waiting for the arrival of Marine Le Pen, leader of France's far-right National Front.

"Marine represents everything the people of France want. I don't know what to say –- she's wonderful, magnificent."

A French appeals court sentenced a man to six years behind bars Tuesday for trying to fight alongside Islamist militants in Mali, his most recent attempt at waging jihad abroad.

Ibrahim Ouattara, a Frenchman of Malian origin, was arrested in central Mali in 2012 as he tried to join up with the jihadists who had captured the north of the country.

French officials are keen to press the Lebanese rivals to reach a settlement regarding the presidential standstill within a comprehensive package, As Safir newspaper reported on Tuesday.

According to the daily, visitors of the Elysee Palace said that France is seeking to resolve the crises that are weakening the Lebanese political system.

France has blocked five websites accused of condoning terrorism, in the first use of new government powers that came into force in February, the interior ministry said on Monday. 

One of the sites -- al-Hayat Media Center -- is accused of links to the Islamic State group, the ministry said. 

The long-awaited trial of two police officers was to start Monday over the deaths of two youths that triggered weeks of deadly rioting across France's housing projects nearly 10 years ago.

Officers Sebastien Gaillemin and Stephanie Klein will face a court in Rennes, west of Paris, on charges they failed to prevent the electrocution deaths of Bouna Traore, 15, and Zyed Benna, 17.