Mexico City  - French President Nicolas Sarkozy met with Mexican President Felipe Calderon Monday, to discuss the global financial crisis and several bilateral issues, including a French citizen imprisoned in Mexico for kidnapping.

On Monday, the two leaders discussed the case of Florence Cassez, a French citizen who has been condemned to a 60-year prison term in Mexico for her role in a triple kidnapping.

Paris - A man who took his mother hostage and then began shooting at pedestrians in Paris from his apartment has been killed by police, BFM television reported on Monday.

The man, who was said to be about 50 years old, took his mother hostage for about an hour early Monday. After releasing her, he began to shoot at police and other pedestrians with what French media described as a small-calibre handgun.

One man was reportedly shot in the back and taken to hospital. His condition was said to be stable.

London, March 9: French justice minister Rachida Dati has defended her decision to return to work five days after giving birth, saying that that it was her personal choice and not an attempt to prove herself to be a "high-performance" superwoman.

The 43-year-old minister, who has fallen from grace with President Nicolas Sarkozy, made this statement during her first interview since her maternity leave, which was published on International Woman’s Day.

Paris  - Three French cross-country skiers have been killed in an avalanche in the French Alps, police said on Sunday.

Paris- A group of celebrating football fans were hit by a train in Paris, leaving two dead including a 10-year-old child, a railway spokesman told French radio on Sunday.

The group had apparently been celebrating Lille's victory over league leaders Lyon at the Stade de France, according to a Lille club spokesman, and got lost crossing a railway bridge in an attempt to get back to their supporters' bus.

Eleven people were injured, three seriously.

Paris - German cyclist Stefan Schumacher was on Friday banned by the ruling body UCI for two years over doping at the 2008 Tour de France.

The UCI imposed a worldwide ban until January 20, 2011, two weeks after the French Anti-Doping Agency banned him for two years in France.

Schumacher was found using the latest generation of the blood booster EPO, known as CERA, during retests of the Tour samples after a test method for CERA was available.