Jean-Marie Le Pen, France's elderly, far-right master provocateur, was booted out of the National Front (FN) he founded on Thursday after a high-profile feud with his daughter and party leader Marine.

The party said 87-year-old Le Pen would be "notified shortly" of the dramatic decision, which came after the FN's executive committee questioned him for hours and voted to exclude him over inflammatory comments that had proved too much for his daughter, pushing him out of a party he led for close to four decades.

Britain and France announced a new "command and control center" Thursday to tackle smuggling gangs in Calais, as Europe grapples with its biggest migration crisis since World War II.

Under a deal signed by Home Minister Theresa May and her French counterpart Bernard Cazeneuve, British teams will help bust smuggling gangs and reduce nightly attempts by desperate migrants and refugees to break into the Channel Tunnel.

Germany said Wednesday it could not rule out Russian President Vladimir Putin would take part in a future round of talks over conflict-torn eastern Ukraine after speculation that Western leaders were snubbing him.

Chancellor Angela Merkel is hosting talks with France's President Francois Hollande and Ukrainian leader Petro Poroshenko on Monday, and analysts said the conspicuous absence of Putin underlined that relations were deteriorating as new violence flares in eastern Ukraine.

Imagine opening your hotel room window to gaze upon the lavish grounds and famous palace of Versailles after spending a night on the estate itself.

That prospect could soon be reality -- at least for some of the wealthier visitors to France -- after a government body that manages Versailles put out a tender to build a hotel alongside the fabled grounds.

Weary and disheartened after failing in desperate attempts to cross the Channel, many migrants in the French port of Calais are looking to asylum in France as a fallback.

"England would be good, but I'm tired," said Sadam, a 24-year-old Sudanese migrant who has decided to apply to stay in France.

A Paris beach event celebrating Tel Aviv attracted a handful of visitors but a huge number of journalists, riot police and security guards on Thursday, as well as a much larger "Gaza Beach" protest.

Bemused locals who headed down to "Tel Aviv Sur Seine" had to maneuver through bag checks, security pat-downs and metal detectors to reach the small stretch of sand on the banks of the Seine. 

Al-Mustaqbal Movement leader ex-PM Saad Hariri and Progressive Socialist Party chief MP Walid Jumblat have discussed ways to “remove the obstacles” facing state institutions, Hariri's press office announced on Thursday.

The statement said the meeting took place at Hariri's residence in France on Wednesday night.

An MH370 families organization said Wednesday it would not accept the Malaysian government's declaration that wreckage found on an Indian Ocean island came from the ill-fated flight until more analysis is completed, and called for an impartial investigation.

The statement by Voice 370, an international next-of-kin group, adds to doubts over the debris that have been expressed already by a number of individual family members.

Iran's Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif began a two-day visit to Lebanon on Tuesday by meeting Prime Minister Tammam Salam.

“We discussed cooperation between the two countries and bilateral ties,” said Zarif after the Grand Serail talks.

The U.N. Security Council on Monday demanded that Burundi's government immediately reopen talks with the opposition to put a halt to a spiral of violence that is pushing the country to the brink.

The 15-member council backed plans by Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon to send a high-level U.N. official on an urgent mission to ease the Burundi crisis.