A French-Turkish university student went on trial on Wednesday accused of links to an outlawed far-left extremist group in a case that has sparked criticism from human rights groups.

Sevil Sevimli, who was arrested in May and spent three months in jail until her conditional release in August, appeared in court in the northwestern city of Bursa along with five other defendants.

France's President Francois Hollande showed a fine understanding of American politics Tuesday when he refused to endorse a U.S. presidential candidate.

Asked by a reporter at the U.N. General Assembly in New York whether he backed Democratic incumbent Barack Obama or his Republican rival Mitt Romney for the White House, a smiling Hollande shot back: "Who do you think?"

France, facing a 30-billion-euro gap in public finances, announced its latest austerity move Tuesday with the parliamentary budget frozen for five years and lawmakers' expenses cut by 10 percent.

National Assembly president Claude Bartolone from President Francois Hollande's Socialist party said he wanted a parliament that was "more exemplary, more open and more useful" as he announced the budget freeze.

Britain, France and Germany urged their European Union partners "to further step up the pressure" on Iran by agreeing new sanctions to undermine its nuclear drive, in a joint letter seen by Agence France Presse on Monday.

Foreign ministers of the three nations called on their EU counterparts to quickly agree punitive action in the areas of energy, finance, trade and transportation, with sanctions set to be formally adopted October 15.

Around 400 people demonstrated in front of the French embassy in Tehran on Sunday to protest inflammatory depictions of Islam's Prophet Mohammed in an American-made film and in a French satirical magazine.

The crowd, shouting "Death to America," "Death to Israel," "Death to Britain" and "Death to France," was kept away by police in anti-riot gear, witnesses told Agence France Presse.

French police enforcing a ban on on protests over an anti-Islam film and cartoons mocking the Prophet Mohammed made 21 arrests in Paris on Saturday and thwarted plans for a march in a northern city.

Those arrested in the capital, who included several veiled women, were detained near the Place de la Concorde, where a week ago an unauthorised demo against the film led to 150 arrests.

Mali's government must apply Islamic sharia law before armed Islamist groups who control the north of the country will negotiate, an Islamist official said Saturday.

Alioune Toure, a security chief in the city of Gao held by the Movement for Oneness and Jihad in West Africa (MUJAO), was responding to an offer of talks made late Friday by Mali's interim president, Dioncounda Traore.

At least 14 people were killed and more than 200 wounded in Pakistan during violent protests Friday condemning a U.S.-made film insulting Islam, defying a government call for only peaceful demonstrations, officials said.

Ten people were killed in Karachi, the country's largest city, and four in the northwestern city of Peshawar, hospital officials said.

France will seek an immediate EU ban on imports of a genetically-modified corn made by Monsanto if a study linking it to cancer in rats is deemed credible, Prime Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault said Thursday.

But the French scientist leading the study said he would not let the European Union's food safety watchdog, EFSA, verify his results because it had approved the NK603 corn in the first place.

France would provide logistical support for any military intervention in northern Mali, which was overrun by Islamist militants this year, Defense Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian said Thursday.

He said the initiative for any such action would come from African states, saying "clearly, that is being developed". A west African regional grouping has been considering sending more than 3,000 troops into northern Mali.