A French diplomat working for the European Union in Papua New Guinea was airlifted to Australia on Monday after a shark attacked him when he was kite-surfing near Port Moresby.

Thomas Viot, 30, was bitten on the right leg by what he believed was a two-meter tiger shark on a reef at Hula, south of the PNG capital on Sunday afternoon.

Maronite Patriarch Beshara al-Rahi asserted on Sunday that the statements he made in France “were taken out of context and therefore they were misinterpreted,” reported the daily An Nahar on Monday.

He announced upon his return to Lebanon from his visit to France that his talks with French officials focused on reform in the Arab world.

Maronite Patriarch Beshara al-Rahi arrives in Beirut on Sunday at the end of an official visit to France, as his controversial positions on Syria weren’t positively received by French officials and were strongly criticized by the March 14-led opposition.

A high-ranking U.S. official expressed his astonishment and dissatisfaction with al-Rahi’s speech in France regarding the popular uprising in Syria against President Bashar Assad and Hizbulla’s arms.

French President Nicolas Sarkozy informed Maronite Patriarch Beshara al-Rahi during his visit to France earlier this week that the “regime of Syrian President Bashar Assad is over,” reported An Nahar daily on Saturday.

The patriarch received assurances from various French officials that “Lebanon and Christians minorities will not be sacrificed” for regional interests.

A former justice minister in Tunisia, Bechir Takkeri, has been detained for alleged witness nobbling in the case of a yacht stolen in France in 2006, the TAP news agency reported Friday.

A judicial source confirmed to AFP that Takkeri was arrested early on Thursday evening.

Iran Thursday warned it would "not hesitate" to hit back following a foreign strike on its soil in a formal complaint to the United Nations over a warning from French President Nicolas Sarkozy.

Sarkozy said last week that Iran's "military, nuclear and ballistic ambitions constitute a growing threat that may lead to a preventive attack against Iranian sites that would provoke a major crisis that France wants to avoid at all costs."

French Foreign Minister Alain Juppe sought Thursday to reassure Asian countries that the Eurozone would not collapse "despite the current crisis" as he began an Asia-Pacific tour in Hong Kong.

"Rest assured that in the face of this crisis, we are taking action," he said in a speech to members of the French community in the southern Chinese city.

Maronite Patriarch Beshara al-Rahi on Wednesday asked France and other world powers why doesn’t the international community force “the implementation of resolutions issued by the U.N. Security Council in order to strip Hizbullah of excuses” to possess arms, LBC television reported.

LBC quoted al-Rahi as saying that “Syrian President Bashar al-Assad must be given a chance because he is implementing reforms in Syria.”

France on Wednesday accused Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's regime of committing crimes against humanity and expressed hope that Russia would soon join sanctions against its old regional ally.

"The Syrian regime has committed crimes against humanity," French Foreign Minister Alain Juppe said during talks with his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov.

Maronite Patriarch Beshara al-Rahi stressed the need for the Lebanese to reach a “new understanding” based on the country’s national contract.

He said: “Given the current circumstances, no Lebanese faction can force a certain fate on the country.”