French Foreign Minister Alain Juppe said on Tuesday that Iran was continuing to develop nuclear weapons and called for stronger sanctions against Tehran.

"Iran is pursuing the development of its nuclear arms, I have no doubt about it," he told French television I-Tele. "The last report by the International Atomic Energy Agency is quite explicit on this point."

France said on Monday that Iran's testing of missiles near the strategic Strait of Hormuz was regrettable and reminded Tehran of the need to keep the vital oil transit waterway open.

"We regret the very bad signal sent to the international community by the latest missile tests announced by Iran," foreign ministry spokesman Bernard Valero said, reminding Tehran of the "freedom of navigation in straits and the need to maintain a favorable climate in respect to this freedom."

French breast implant manufacturer PIP used an untested fuel additive in its now-banned implants that have triggered a worldwide scare, French radio station RTL reported Monday.

RTL said it obtained an exact breakdown of the materials used in the faulty implants, including Baysilone, Silopren and Rhodorsil, all of which are industrial products never tested or approved for clinical use.

The home of former Iranian president Abolhassan Bani Sadr near Paris was burgled overnight and cash stolen, police and his daughter said Sunday.

Police were called to Bani Sadr's Versailles home which was empty at the time of the break-in early on New Year's Day, police said.

French defense Minister Gerard Longuet held talks with Afghan President Hamid Karzai Saturday on a two-day visit to Afghanistan to meet troops over the New Year.

Longuet touched down in Kabul two days after the death of two French Foreign Legion soldiers who were shot dead by a man wearing an Afghan army uniform in eastern Kapisa province.

Turkey's foreign minister on Thursday hit back at French lawmakers who passed a bill last week criminalizing denial of the disputed Armenian genocide.

French lawmakers voted last Thursday to jail and fine anyone in France who denies that the 1915 killings of Armenians under the Ottoman Empire amounted to genocide, prompting Turkey to suspend political and military cooperation with Paris.

Brother Jean-Jacques spends most of his time in quiet contemplation and solitude, but once a week the white-robed Carthusian monk leaves his cloistered confines on an important mission.

His task is to test a highly potent and somewhat mysterious green liqueur that is enjoying renewed popularity in New York's hippest bars and elsewhere in the United States.

Regime forces fired on protesters at a protest hub near Damascus and killed at least 39 people around Syria on Thursday, even as peace monitors spread out across the country, activists said.

Fourteen people were shot dead in several restive Damascus suburbs, 10 in the central flashpoint province of Homs, 13 in the central province of Hama and two in the northwestern province of Idlib, the Local Coordination Committees, the main activist group spurring protests on the ground, said.

The U.S. warned Iran on Wednesday against any attempt to disrupt shipping in the Strait of Hormuz, after Tehran issued threats over the vital oil route, as France called on Iranian authorities to respect international law and navigation rights.

"Interference with the transit ... of vessels through the Strait of Hormuz will not be tolerated," said Pentagon press secretary George Little.

This year was the hottest in France since the start of the 20th century, Meteo France said Tuesday, with average national temperatures 1.5 degrees Celsius warmer than the norm.

The average national temperature in 2011 was 13.6 degrees Celsius (56 degrees Fahrenheit), Meteo France's Francois Gourand told AFP, 0.2 degrees Celsius warmer than the previous hottest year, 2003.