French President Francois Hollande called on Tuesday for abolition of the death penalty, speaking in Saudi Arabia which this year has seen a large rise in the number of executions.

The ultra-conservative Gulf kingdom has executed 78 locals and foreigners, compared with 87 during all of 2014, according to an AFP count.

A French mayor backed by the far-right National Front was accused of racism on Tuesday after using the names of school children in his town to decide how many were Muslim. 

Under France's strict secularism laws, the government does not keep statistics on people's religion or ethnicity. 

France's far right patriarch Jean-Marie Le Pen viciously turned on his daughter on Tuesday after being suspended by the National Front party which he founded and handed over to her.

A family feud that has rocked the far right party with all the twists and turns of a Greek tragicomedy came to a head on Monday when the 86-year-old, who led the FN for four decades, was suspended by its top officials.

Head of al-Mustaqbal Movement and former Prime Minister Saad Hariri met on Tuesday with French President Francois Hollande in Riyadh.

The meeting comes in light of Hariri's shuttle diplomacy to safeguard Lebanon from the conflict raging in the region.

France and Saudi Arabia are discussing economic projects worth tens of billions of euros, French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius said Tuesday.

"If concluded, these 20 projects would be worth tens of billions of euros," Fabius told reporters in Riyadh.

A Papal envoy will arrive in Beirut at the end of May to press forward the election of a new head of state amid the sharp rift among the political arch-foes over a consensual candidate.

Local newspapers reported on Tuesday that the Vatican’s dispatched envoy comes in light of Maronite Patriarch Beshara al-Rahi's recent visit to Paris, where he met with French President Francois Hollande.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel on Monday insisted her country needed to work with American intelligence agencies, in the wake of claims Berlin helped the US spy on EU leaders and companies.

Merkel's government has faced growing pressure over the allegations, and while analysts expect the popular leader to weather the scandal, her interior minister has drawn media and opposition fire over the "BND affair", referring to Germany's foreign intelligence service.

France's National Front founder Jean-Marie Le Pen was suspended from the far-right party his daughter Marine now leads after a disciplinary hearing Monday, the party said.

A special meeting of party members will be called "in three months" to decide whether to strip him of the title of honorary president, a statement said.

India's defense minister said Monday that final negotiations to buy 36 Rafale fighter jets from France would start this month and end as soon as possible, after leaders of the two nations announced the deal last month.

On the eve of a visit by his French counterpart Jean-Yves Le Drian to India, Manohar Parrikar said a bilateral committee would iron out details of the multi-billion dollar long-delayed agreement "in a time-bound manner."

Iran is determined to end the "manufactured crisis" over its nuclear program and drafting of a final deal with world powers, though hard, is progressing, Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said Monday.

The remarks, on Zarif's official Twitter account, came two days after U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry denounced what he said was "hysteria" from opponents of an agreement, which is due by June 30.