BBC reports: United States Secretary of State John Kerry will travel to France after the White House was criticised for not sending a senior official to the Paris unity rally.

Kerry defended his absence, citing prior commitments and saying the US relationship with France "is not about one day or one particular moment".

The rally, which follows three terror attacks, was attended by an estimated 1.6m people and some 40 world leaders. The US ambassador to France was the highest ranking US official attending. Seventeen people died in attacks in Paris at a satirical magazine, another on a police officer, and a third at a kosher supermarket.