The U.S. Internet giant Amazon said on Monday that it would open a fourth dispatch center in France with the likely creation of 2,500 jobs, as it negotiates a tax dispute with the French government.

The facility would improve the handling of orders from customers in northern France but also in Europe and the world, Amazon said.

Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev slammed as "unacceptable" the recognition and support by France and other states of the Syrian opposition battling the regime of President Bashar Assad.

In a wide-ranging interview with Agence France-Presse and Le Figaro ahead of a visit to Paris starting Monday, Medvedev also spoke of the EU economic crisis as a "serious threat" and did not rule out returning to the Kremlin in the future.

France on Friday raised concerns Egypt was not moving in the "right direction" after President Mohamed Morsi assumed sweeping powers decried by the opposition.

"After decades of dictatorship... the political and democratic transition cannot take place in a few weeks or a few months.

Investigators probing the shooting of a British-Iraqi man's family in the French Alps are to request information from Iraqi authorities about his father, a prosecutor told AFP Friday.

Investigators are to send a rogatory letter, a formal request for judicial assistance, in the next few days in the hope of shedding light on the possible motives for the shooting, Annecy prosecutor Eric Maillaud said.

Former French president Nicolas Sarkozy has escaped indictment but will continue to be investigated over allegations that his 2007 election campaign was financed with funds secured illegally from the country's richest woman.

After more than 12 hours of interrogation, a panel of three examining magistrates decided late Thursday to treat Sarkozy as a witness under caution rather than formally charging him.

Supporters of a pro-Palestinian Lebanese militant who has spent 28 years in French jails on Wednesday welcomed a Paris court decision that granted him parole.

But the group denounced in a statement an appeal by French prosecutors that effectively keeps Georges Ibrahim Abdallah, a former guerrilla in the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), behind bars.

France's ex-president Nicolas Sarkozy appeared before a judge Thursday to respond to charges that his 2007 electoral campaign was financed with funds secured illegally from France's richest woman.

Sarkozy arrived for the hearing in a dark grey Renault minivan just before 9:15 am (08:15 GMT), an Agence France Presse correspondent said.

Former guerrilla in the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) George Ibrahim Abdallah was granted parole Wednesday but remained behind bars following an appeal by the state.

Abdallah, who has spent 28 years in French jails, was arrested in 1984 and sentenced to life in prison three years later for his alleged involvement in the 1982 murders of U.S. military attache Charles Robert Ray and Israeli diplomat Yacov Barsimantov.

French President Francois Hollande said on Wednesday that his country will not meddle in Lebanon's internal politics, urging all politicians to cooperate together to overcome the current crisis.

"We call on the Lebanese people to be aware of the importance of their country's stability and unity,” Hollande said after meeting with Lebanon's Prime Minister Najib Miqati in Paris.

The United States condemned a bus bombing that injured 17 people in Tel Aviv on Wednesday and undermined attempts to mediate a ceasefire in Gaza, branding it a "terrorist attack."

"These attacks against innocent Israeli civilians are outrageous," the White House said, reaffirming Washington's "unshakeable commitment to Israel's security and our deep friendship and solidarity with the Israeli people.