Something happened in prison to Omar El-Hussein, the 22-year-old identified by police as the gunman who killed two people in a weekend shooting spree in Copenhagen.

His transformation from small-time criminal to cold-blooded killer is fuelling a debate about whether a radicalised environment in Danish prisons is pushing smalltime gangsters into the arms of Islamic extremism.

France's Socialist government braced Thursday for a parliamentary vote of confidence over its economic reforms that could in theory bring it down.

Analysts believe the government is highly likely to survive the vote, despite a significant rebellion from a group of Socialist MPs angry at the country's pro-business direction.

A 14-day strike by Air France pilots had a devastating effect on the results of Europe's second-largest airline, the group said Thursday, as it published its annual figures.

Air France-KLM booked a net loss of 198 million euros ($226 million) in 2014, the Franco-Dutch group said in a statement.

Inflation in France, the eurozone's second-biggest economy, was negative in January for the first time in more than five years, the national statistics agency said on Thursday.

Prices declined by 0.4 percent in January compared to the same month last year, INSEE said, noting that France has not seen negative inflation since October 2009.

French prosecutors called Wednesday for five teenagers suspected of vandalizing hundreds of Jewish graves to be charged, arguing there was a clear "anti-Semitic motive" behind their alleged act.

Some 250 tombs were vandalized last week at a Jewish cemetery in the northeastern town of Sarre-Union.

French Prime Minister Manuel Valls on Wednesday accused opponents of a contested economic bill of "conservatism, irresponsibility and childishness", a day after the government forced it through parliament in a rare move.

Struggling to win a majority for the set of reforms seen as vital to pep up the sluggish French economy, Valls on Tuesday resorted to a little-used constitutional device to push the contested bill through parliament without a vote.

French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius said Tuesday that "fundamental" parts of the ceasefire deal in Ukraine were not being followed, despite a reduction in fighting between government and rebel forces. 

"We can say the ceasefire is being generally respected, but there are two major 'buts'," Fabius told the French parliament. 

A French prosecutor on Tuesday called for Dominique Strauss-Kahn to be acquitted of pimping charges in a trial which has seen lurid details of the former IMF chief's sex life exposed in court.

"Neither the judicial inquiry nor the hearing have established that Mr. Strauss-Kahn is guilty" of procuring prostitutes for sex parties he attended in Paris, Brussels and Washington, said prosecutor Frederic Fevre.

President Francois Hollande vowed the state would protect French Jews with all its force as he led a ceremony Tuesday at a Jewish cemetery where hundreds of graves were vandalized. 

"I know some are asking if they can live in peace in their country, and ask who will protect them against those who wish them harm," Hollande said at the ceremony in Sarres-Union in the eastern Alsace region.

Tens of thousands of Danes have gathered for a torchlit vigil in Copenhagen to commemorate the victims of two shootings that shocked the nation and heightened fears of a new surge in anti-Semitic violence.

Stunned citizens in what is usually one of the world's most peaceful countries flocked to Monday's rally in a square near the cultural center where the first attack took place. Many held flaming torches aloft, illuminating the chilly winter night.