Paris - French-Dutch carrier Air France-KLM said on Thursday that it expects to register an operating loss of about 200 million euros (270 million dollars) for fiscal year
2008-2009 because of the effects of the economic crisis and variations in the cost of crude oil.

If confirmed, it would represent the first such negative result for the company since it was formed in 2003.

Air France-KLM is also pessimistic for 2009-2010, "which will begin in the context of an unprecedented crisis," the company said in a statement.

Paris - A 300-year-old history book from the private library of Adolf Hitler was auctioned off for 1,800 euros (2,430 dollars), the French weekly L'Express reported on Thursday.

The book, which was published in 1712, was part of the Nazi dictator's library in his beloved mountain residence Der Berghof in Obersalzberg, near the Bavarian resort of Berchtesgarten.

Washington  - President Barack Obama's administration, in a massive overhaul of the US financial regulatory system, is seeking the power to keep watch on all types of financial firms and to seize failing companies integral to the health of the system.

US Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner unveiled the plans in congressional testimony on Thursday, arguing that the current financial turmoil has proven the system is "too unstable and fragile" to be allowed to manage itself.

Nairobi/Kinshasa - French President Nicolas Sarkozy on Thursday called for a new momentum for peace in the Democratic Republic of Congo during a speech to lawmakers in the central African nation.

Sarkozy, who travelled with a delegation of ministers and business representatives, said that there was a need to unite various rebel factions and regional governments in order to avoid further chaos.

Rebel groups have in recent years continued to cause trouble in the east of DR Congo, with last year seeing a flare-up in fighting that displaced over 250,000 people.

Paris - Gas tanker workers for the French utility GDF-Suez are going on strike to protest the awarding of more than 1.1 million stock options to the company's two senior executives, the online edition of the daily Le Figaro reported on Thursday.

The attribution of 830,000 stock options to company head Gerard Mestrallet and 300,000 to his vice president, Jean-Francois Cirelli, has provoked anger among employees, who are in the process of negotiating with the firm about a pay rise of 7.5 per cent and a one-time payment of 1,500 euros.

Paris  - A