Five people, including a child, were killed and 18 others slightly hurt in a pre-dawn fire Wednesday at an apartment building in the suburbs of the French capital Paris, rescue workers said.

The five lived in the same flat on the fifth floor of the six-storey building in a disadvantaged area of Gennevilliers, northwest of Paris, they said, adding that the cause of the fire remained unknown.

French electronic composer Jean Michel Jarre has held talks with Downing Street officials in recent months, the British premier's office confirmed Tuesday, about setting up business operations in London.

The talks come after France's highest court struck down a proposed 75 percent tax rate on individual income above a million euros ($1.3 million) a year, a plan which saw the republic's biggest film star Gerard Depardieu relocate to Belgium.

In France's rundown suburbs, it has become as much of a New Year tradition as champagne and fireworks in more affluent neighborhoods.

Every year, the night of December 31-January 1 sees more than 1,000 cars set ablaze across the country in an orgy of vandalism to which the authorities have, until now, largely turned a blind eye.

Several dozen protesters occupied the offices of the Vatican's embassy in Paris on Monday to support a group of undocumented migrants on a hunger strike who were this month thrown out of a church.

The embassy, known as the Apostolic Nunciature, confirmed the occupation but made no other comment.

A French weekly known for publishing cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed to the ire of conservative Muslims said Sunday it plans to release a comic book biography of Islam's founder that will be researched and educational.

Satirical newspaper Charlie Hebdo has on several occasions depicted Islam's prophet in an effort to defend free speech and defy the anger of Muslims who believe depicting Mohammed is sacrilegious.

France said on Thursday that President Bashar Assad should not have any role in Syria's political transition as he had too much blood on his hands.

"Bashar Assad, who is still ferociously repressing his people and bears responsibility for the 45,000 victims of this conflict cannot be part of the political transition," foreign ministry deputy spokesman Vincent Floreani said.

The U.N. is evacuating staff from the Central African Republic and the U.S. has warned its citizens to leave as rebel fighters close in on the tense capital Bangui.

France also deployed troops to protect its embassy after it was attacked by demonstrators calling for the former colonial power to help push back the rebels who have already seized several towns in the north of the resource-rich but poverty-stricken nation.

President Francois Hollande Wednesday ordered tightened security for French nationals in the Central African Republic after violent protests denouncing the former colonial ruler for failing to help stem a rebel offensive.

He also called for the protection of the French embassy in the capital Bangui, which was attacked by protesters who tore down the French flag, Hollande's office said in a statement.

Paris will take in a "few dozen" Afghans who have worked alongside French troops in the war-ravaged country for 11 years and whose security is at risk at home, the defense ministry said Wednesday.

The ministry did not give exact numbers but said the bulk comprised people who had worked as translators on the ground.

Angry demonstrators hurled projectiles and tore down the French flag at France's embassy in the Central African Republic capital Bangui on Wednesday, protesting at a lack of help to deter rebels who have occupied a large swathe of the country.

Former colonial power France "has the tendency to abandon us," a protester said as the group arrived from an earlier sit-in outside the U.S. embassy. "We no longer need France, France may as well take its embassy and leave."