Do you take your champagne brut or rose? Around the world the French sparkling wine is still the ultimate festive drink, but these days it often comes in shades of golden pink to pomegranate.

First seen as a quirky variation on classic white bubbly -- even dismissed as a "woman's drink" -- rose champagne has grown into far more than a fad, with a market share that has been rising steadily for 10 years.

France has decided to decrease the number of its troops serving with UNIFIL despite pledges by French Prime Minister Francois Fillon that last week’s attack on his country’s peacekeepers would not dampen Paris’ commitment to the mission, An Nahar daily reported Tuesday.

The newspaper said consultations are underway between French army generals to set the number of the downsize before informing the U.N. peacekeeping leadership that is reviewing UNIFIL’s strategic mission about their decision.

French Prime Minister Francois Fillon on Monday paid homage to the French U.N. peacekeepers who were wounded in a bombing last week against their patrol in southern Lebanon, saying the attack would not dampen France's commitment to the mission in Lebanon.

Speaking at a military base in the northeastern French town of Saint Dizier, Fillon said: "I want to send a thought to the five French UNIFIL peacekeepers who were injured Friday in the south of Lebanon, in an attack whose cowardice will not shake our determination."

Progressive Socialist Party leader MP Walid Jumblat said Monday that the recent firing of rockets from Lebanon against Israel “may be a message addressed from our neighbors to France,” hours after the French foreign minister accused Syria of involvement in Friday’s bomb attack on French peacekeepers in southern Lebanon.

At a ceremony to honor PSP veterans in al-Mukhtara, Jumblat said: “We received yesterday the message of the rockets, and this is a dangerous message which may be addressed from our neighbors to France, via the Lebanese territory and at the expense of Lebanon’s stability, the South and entire Lebanon.”

The security unrest witnessed in Lebanon in recent weeks, most notably Friday’s attack against the French unit in the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon, requires diligent governmental work that would prevent future instability, reported the daily An Nahar on Monday.

Security sources told the daily that the attack will likely increase tensions between France and Syria in light of French Foreign Minister Alain Juppe’s accusation on Sunday that Syria was “undoubtedly” behind the assault.

French Foreign Minister Alain Juppe said Sunday that Damascus was “undoubtedly” behind Friday’s bomb attack against a French UNIFIL patrol in southern Lebanon.

However, the top French diplomat noted that he had no evidence to substantiate his claim.

France's ambassador to Israel, Christophe Bigot, met Sunday with a senior rabbi to seek his approval for the release of a French-Palestinian convicted of trying to assassinate the religious leader.

Bigot met with Rabbi Ovadia Yosef, spiritual leader of the ultra-Orthodox Shas party, along with interior minister and Shas chief Eli Yishai, to discuss the early release of Salah Hamouri.

Activists called a general strike on Sunday to step up the pressure on Syrian President Bashar Assad's regime as fears grew of an "invasion" of the besieged protest hub of Homs.

In a civil disobedience campaign, anti-regime protesters were organizing sit-ins, the closure of shops and universities, and the strike.

The bomb that targeted the French unit in the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon on Friday was detonated a few moments before the soldiers arrived at the scene, reported the daily An Nahar on Sunday.

Security sources told the daily that casualties may have taken place had the bomb been detonated at the appropriate time, given the size and method in which it was detonated.

Explosives experts from the French contingent serving with the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon on Friday inspected the scene of the blast that injured five of their peacekeepers and launched an investigation, the National News Agency reported.

NNA said that later in the day, the vehicle that was targeted in the blast in the southern city of Tyre was taken to the UNIFIL headquarters in Naqoura.