Prime Minister Najib Miqati is set to travel to the Democratic Republic of Congo this week to represent Lebanon at the Francophonie summit before heading to France on an official visit in November, al-Liwaa newspaper reported on Thursday.

Miqati will head the Lebanese official delegation to the international grouping of French-speaking nations which opens its 14th summit on Friday.

Former French president Nicolas Sarkozy is set to address a New York banking conference on Thursday, but the visit is so hush-hush his entourage refuses to confirm the politician's appearance.

The Brazilian investment bank BTG Pactual is organizing the conference that runs Tuesday through Thursday at the Waldorf Astoria hotel.

French police have uncovered bomb-making material during a probe into a group of Islamic extremists detained at the weekend for allegedly targeting Jews, prosecutors said Wednesday.

Describing the group as a serious threat, Paris prosecutor Francois Molins said the detention of the 12 suspects pending charges would be extended beyond the usual four-day maximum to at least a fifth day.

The United States will support France if it intervenes militarily in its former colony Mali, where Islamist forces control the north of the country, a top U.S. diplomat said in an interview Tuesday.

"We back France and if it decides to intervene militarily, it can count on the support of the United States," Assistant Secretary of State for European and Eurasian Affairs Philip Gordon told Le Monde newspaper.

Serge Haroche of France and David Wineland of the U.S. won the Nobel Prize on Tuesday for work in quantum physics that could one day open the way to revolutionary computers.

The pair were honored for pioneering optical experiments in "measuring and manipulation of individual quantum systems," the Nobel Physics jury said in its citation.

France will provide logistical, political and material support for U.N.-backed African military intervention in Mali, President Francois Hollande promised on Tuesday.

France is pushing for a U.N. Security Council resolution which will authorize west African countries to establish a force capable of reclaiming control of northern Mali from Islamic radicals.

Three people were dead and 13 missing Monday after a boat carrying illegal immigrants capsized in the Indian Ocean off the French overseas territory of Mayotte, the local prefect's office said.

Eight others survived the accident on the boat, which had departed from the Comoran island of Anjouan, about 100 kilometers (60 miles) from Mayotte.

A man was shot and fatally wounded Saturday in Strasbourg while being arrested by French police in connection with a nationwide anti-terrorist operation, judicial and police sources said.

According to initial reports, when police entered the suspect's home, the man shot at police who returned fire and fatally wounded him, a source close to the inquiry said without giving further details.

France on Thursday said a Syrian attack on Turkey which killed five civilians was a serious threat to global security and peace and called for an immediate halt to such strikes.

"This violation of international law constitutes a serious threat to global security and peace," Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius said in a statement.

Interior Minister Marwan Charbel criticized on Thursday the adoption of the French model to decided whether or not the security agencies would be allowed to obtain the telecom data as the security situation in Lebanon is different.

“We can't dispense the telecom data in the meantime... The security agencies should be able to obtain it without violating the privacy of citizens,” Charbel said in comments published in As Safir newspaper.