Constitutional Council

The French authorities want to adopt a new immigration law next year, a spokeswoman said, as the new right-wing government seeks to crack down on immigration.

"There will be a need for a new law," government spokeswoman Maud Bregeon told broadcaster BFMTV on Oct. 13.

France's top constitutional authority on Thursday rejected parts of a controversial immigration bill adopted under pressure from the right, in a ruling applauded by government but slammed by the far right.

French President Emmanuel Macron's highly unpopular pension law passed another hurdle after the Constitutional Council rejected the opposition's second proposal to hold a referendum to limit the retirement age to 62, Reuters reported.

Macron has defied fierce union opposition and weeks of sometimes violent protests against his plan to raise the retirement age from 62 to 64.

Turkey's communications director on July 24 criticized France's parliament for passing a controversial bill, stressing that it would further marginalize Muslims and other religious minorities.

A co-operation programme in the field of vocational training between the Romanian and Algerian ministries of education has been signed in Algiers in the presence of Romanian Foreign Minister Teodor Melescanu, on an official visit to Algeria.

Emmanuel Macron was inaugurated as France's youngest ever president on May 14, saying the country had chosen "hope" and that he would relaunch the flagging European Union.

Macron, a 39-year-old centrist, took the reins of power from François Hollande a week after he won a resounding victory over far-right leader Marine Le Pen in a tumultuous election.

French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius has said he is leaving office, AFP news agency says.

The report has not been immediately confirmed.

#BREAKING French foreign minister Fabius says he is leaving government

? AFP news agency (@AFP) February 10, 2016

France's Constitutional Council on July 23 broadly approved a law giving state intelligence services more scope to eavesdrop on the public to tackle what authorities have described as an unprecedented terror threat.