Technology helps France beat gritty Australia 2-1 in Group C

Technology twice helped France at the World Cup on Saturday as the 1998 champions labored to beat a gritty Australia 2-1 in their opening game.

The French team was given a controversial penalty kick, eventually converted by Antoine Griezmann in the 58th minute, after the referee watched the replay of a foul on the sideline.

Paul Pogba later scored the winning goal in the 81st minute, and goal-line technology was used to confirm the ball had crossed the line after bouncing down off the crossbar.

Paris police shot on Champs-Elysees; IS group claims attack

A gunman opened fire on police on Paris' iconic Champs-Elysees boulevard Thursday night, killing one officer and wounding three people before police shot and killed him. The Islamic State group quickly claimed responsibility for the attack, which hit just three days before a tense presidential election.

Security already has been a dominant theme in the campaign, and the violence on the sparkling avenue threatened to weigh on voters' decisions. Candidates canceled or rescheduled final campaign events ahead of Sunday's first round vote.

Le Pen refuses headscarf, nixes talks with Lebanon cleric

France's far-right presidential candidate Marine Le Pen refused to don a headscarf for a meeting with Lebanon's top Sunni Muslim cleric on Tuesday and walked away from the scheduled appointment after a brief squabble at the entrance.

The debacle topped Le Pen's three-day visit to Lebanon, where she held her first campaign meeting with a head of state. It drew the focus to her strong support for secularism and a proposal in her presidential platform that promotes banishing headscarves and other obvious religious symbols in all public spaces.

Peugeot buys iconic Indian car brand

French car manufacturer Peugeot has bought India's most iconic car brand from its maker Hindustan Motors in a deal that signifies the passing of an era in India's motoring history.

Over the weekend, the C.K. Birla Group that owns Hindustan Motors said it had signed an agreement with Peugeot SA to sell the Ambassador for 800 million rupees ($12 million).

Miss France crowned Miss Universe in Philippines

A 24-year-old dental student from France won the Miss Universe crown Monday in a pageant held in the Philippines, saying her triumph will make the beauty contest more popular in Europe and help her efforts to put more underprivileged children in school.

Iris Mittenaere from Lille city in northern France buried her face in her hands in shock and joy as the outgoing winner from the Philippines, Pia Wurtzbach, crowned her and the crowd erupted in cheers at the packed Mall of Asia Arena by Manila Bay.

Oscar-nominated Emmanuelle Riva dies in Paris, age 89

Emmanuelle Riva, a French star of screen and stage who was nominated for an Academy Award for best actress in 2013, has died. She was 89.

Riva died Friday afternoon in a Paris clinic after a long illness, her agent, Anne Alvares Correa, told The Associated Press.

Riva was Oscar-nominated for her role in "Amour, " Michael Haneke's brutal depiction of an aging couple.

Eyewear giant to emerge from tie-up of Luxottica, Essilor

A new European eyewear giant worth more than 50 billion euros ($52.5 billion) is set to emerge as Italy's Luxottica — owner of Ray-Ban and Oakley glasses — merges with French lens manufacturer Essilor.

Essilor International SA said Monday it had reached a share exchange deal with Luxottica's main shareholder, Delfin, to create a combined company making both frames and lenses.

Shares jumped in both Luxottica, which is based in Milan, and Essilor, headquartered near Paris.

Georges Pretre, conductor in NY, Vienna, Milan, dies at 92

Georges Pretre, who conducted renowned orchestras from Vienna to Milan and New York and beyond and was instrumental in Maria Callas' singing career, has died. He was 92.

Still conducting until the final months of his life, "the Maestro Georges Pretre" died at his home in southern France on Wednesday, according to a statement from Milan's La Scala hailing his 50-year relationship with the theater.

Bollywood actress tear gassed during botched Paris robbery

Bollywood actress Mallika Sherawat and partner Cyrille Auxenfans were the targets of a botched robbery attempt involving tear gas in a wealthy area of Paris, the Paris prosecutor's office said Thursday.

Suspected robbers attacked the couple last Friday night in the building where Auxenfans lives in Paris' 16th arrondissement but fled empty-handed, according to spokeswoman Agnes Thibault-Lecuivre.

Frenchwoman who got world's 1st face transplant dies at 49

Isabelle Dinoire, a Frenchwoman who received the world's first partial face transplant, has died more than a decade after a complex and daring operation that set the stage for dozens of similar transplants worldwide. She was 49.

Her life with a new face was a miracle to many, but was also marred by infections, kidney trouble and hypertension linked to her treatment. In announcing her death Tuesday, the Amiens University Hospital in northern France said Dinoire's experience "illustrates perfectly the high stakes of face transplants."

World's biggest cruise ship sets sail from France

Tens of thousands of French well-wishers waved goodbye to the largest cruise ship in the world as it set sail on its maiden voyage to the U.K. after 32 months in a French shipyard.

The $1 billion Harmony of the Seas cut a gargantuan silhouette Sunday as it left the western port town of Saint-Nazaire.

Facebook nude-painting case can face trial in France

If you post a 19th-century nude painting on Facebook, is it art or impermissible nudity? That question is now cleared for trial in France, after an appeals court there ruled that an aggrieved user can sue the social network over the issue.

Five years ago, Facebook suspended the account of Frederic Durand-Baissas, a 57-year-old Parisian teacher and art lover, without prior notice. That was the day he posted a photo of Gustave Courbet's 1866 painting "The Origin of the World," which depicts female genitalia.

French taxis, air traffic controllers, schools on strike

Paris police fired tear gas and taxi drivers lit bonfires on a major highway Tuesday amid nationwide strikes and protests over working conditions and competition from non-traditional services such as Uber.

Prime Minister Manuel Valls met with taxi drivers in an apparent attempt to defuse tensions. He condemned the drivers' violence but promised to strengthen a police crackdown on the competing taxi services the drivers are protesting. He is also forming a panel of taxi company representatives and government ministers to discuss reforms in the sector.

French president in India to strengthen strategic ties

French President Francois Hollande began a three-day visit to India on Sunday that could push a multibillion-dollar deal for combat airplanes and closer cooperation on counterterrorism and clean energy.

Hollande landed in the northern city of Chandigarh where Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi joined him at official engagements and lauded France's decision to invest $1 billion every year in India in various sectors.

Lewis Hamilton shows softer side at Paris Fashion Week

Formula One driver Lewis Hamilton showed off his softer side at Louis Vuitton's menswear show in a pastel silk bomber and shades Thursday. He joined the front row celebrity-pack, which included director Xavier Dolan, actor Michael B. Jordan and model Georgia May Jagger who rocked a black Louis Vuitton bodysuit and assorted choker. 

Here are the highlights of Thursday's fall-winter Paris Fashion Week shows with reports from Dries Van Note, Issey Miyake, Louis Vuitton and Rick Owens.

Belgian jihadi ID'd as mastermind of Paris attacks

Once a happy-go-lucky student at one of Brussels' most prestigious high schools, Saint-Pierre d'Uccle, Abdelhamid Abaaoud morphed into Belgium's most notorious jihadi, a zealot so devoted to the cause of holy war that he recruited his 13-year-old brother to join him in Syria.

The child of Moroccan immigrants who grew up in the Belgian capital's scruffy and multiethnic Molenbeek-Saint-Jean neighborhood, the fugitive, in his late 20s, was identified by French authorities on Monday as the presumed mastermind of the attacks last Friday in Paris that killed 129 people and injured hundreds.

120 dead in Paris attacks, worst since WWII

A series of attacks targeting young concert-goers, soccer fans and Parisians enjoying a Friday night out at popular nightspots killed at least 120 people in the deadliest violence to strike France since World War II. President Francois Hollande condemned it as terrorism and pledged that France would stand firm against its foes.

France: 3 Americans subdue gunman on high-speed train

A gunman opened fire on a high-speed train traveling from Amsterdam to Paris on Friday, wounding two people before three American passengers subdued him, according to officials and one of the Americans involved.

French Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve, speaking in Arras in northern France where the suspect was detained, said one of the American passengers was hospitalized with serious wounds.

Dozens killed in attacks in Tunisia, Kuwait and France

A young man pulled a Kalashnikov from a beach umbrella and sprayed gunfire at European sunbathers at a Tunisian resort, killing at least 39 people — one of three deadly attacks Friday from Europe to North Africa to the Middle East that followed a call to violence by Islamic State extremists.

AP PHOTOS: French security forces end 3 days of terror

In this Jan. 7, 2015, file photo, an injured person is transported to an ambulance after a shooting, at the French satirical newspaper Charlie Hebdo's office, in Paris. Masked gunmen stormed the offices of a French satirical newspaper Wednesday, killing at least 12 people before escaping, police and a witness said. French police hunted down the two heavily armed brothers suspected in the massacre on Friday.