However, his decision to have an Irish tricolour on display in his office alongside the Union flag angered some unionists.

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In the eastern hinterland, rebels have hoisted the old tricolour that was the national flag before Colonel Qaddafi took power in 1969.

ECONOMIST: The battle for Libya

The days of the tricolour on Dzaoudzi, Mayotte's capital, could be numbered.

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Flanked by the Iraqi Kurdish president, Masoud Barzani, and the Kurdish tricolour, Mr Davutoglu announced that Turkey would open a consulate in Erbil.

ECONOMIST: Turkey and the Kurds

People in the Champs-Elysees watched as the French Tricolour streamed from the fuselage of the aircraft and floated down on to the Arc de Triomphe.

BBC: Daring World War II pilot Ken Gatward's medals auctioned

Medals awarded to a World War II pilot who risked his life to drop the French Tricolour over the Arc de Triomphe in occupied Paris in 1942 are being auctioned.

BBC: Daring World War II pilot Ken Gatward's medals auctioned

As he stepped on to the podium, an Italian tricolour in his right hand and a wide grin across his face, the home fans let out a huge roar of appreciation.

CNN: Di Centa gives Italy fairytale end

Sinn Fein's two ministers on the Northern Ireland Executive, Martin McGuinness and Bairbre de Brun, might refuse to work in the buildings should the Union flag be flown without the Irish tricolour at its side.

BBC: Debate over Union flag issue

The same study revealed that 83 per cent of people in Northern Ireland do not support the flying of flags from lampposts in their area and that over half of respondents believed the Union flag and Tricolour were usually put on lampposts by paramilitary groups.

BBC: Number of paramilitary flags in NI in July half