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French legislators huddled behind closed doors to investigate an issue of national importance — not terrorism or recession, but the French football team's meltdown at the World Cup.

Lawmakers taking part in a closed-door hearing about France's World Cup fiasco said Wednesday that coach Raymond Domenech refused to take any responsibility for his team's misbehavior and offered no real explanation for their debacle.

Le Monde said Monday it would hold talks with a team of three businessmen seeking a controlling stake of the iconic but cash-strapped French newspaper, a move that would end the financial control that its journalists now have over it.

"Catastrophe!" says one French commentator.

Dozens of Malian troops rush through the sweltering desert, yell war cries and open fire, spitting hundreds of bullets from rifles and machine guns. It's all part of a training session — run by the United States.

The Turkish Islamic charity behind a flotilla of aid ships that was raided by Israeli forces on its way to Gaza had ties to terrorism networks, including a 1999 al-Qaida plot to bomb Los Angeles International Airport, France's former top anti-terrorism judge said Wednesday.

After a 24-year absence from soccer's biggest tournament, Algeria's last-minute qualification for the World Cup sent shock waves of glee through a country still reeling from a decade of civil war, persistent al-Qaida-linked terrorism, and massive unemployment and graft.