North Korea's latest rocket engine test showed "meaningful progress" in its missile capabilities, Seoul said on Monday, as the nuclear-armed state steps up its controversial weapons development programmes.

France’s presidential election moves into high gear on Monday when the top five contenders face off in a TV debate that could help sway legions of undecided voters, a month before they go to the polls.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel and Japan's Prime Minister Shinzo Abe issued a staunch joint defence of free trade on Sunday, as the United States pushes towards greater protectionism.

The man shot dead at Paris's Orly airport after attacking a soldier was under the influence of drugs and alcohol at the time, a judicial source said on Sunday.

President Donald Trump braced Thursday for a long legal battle over his ban on travel from six mainly-Muslim countries after two federal judges ruled against the measure, saying the Republican's own comments suggested religious bias.

Investigators suspect a Greek anarchist group was behind a letter bomb that injured an IMF secretary in Paris on Thursday, the day after an explosive device was found in Berlin, sources close to the probe said.

Finance ministers from the world's top nations gather in Germany on Friday as fears grow of a looming trade war over US President Donald Trump's America First policy.

Washington's top diplomat arrived in the Demilitarised Zone dividing the two Koreas to gaze on the North for himself Friday, a day after he declared 20 years of efforts to denuclearise it had failed.