Paris - French bank BNP Paribas disclosed Thursday that it is postponing its planned takeover of the troubled bank and insurance company Fortis, citing a Brussels court ruling.

On its website BNP Paribas cited a December 12 ruling by a court in Brussels ordering a 65-day freeze on any transaction involving Fortis in a case involving a suit filed by some 2,000 shareholders challenging the selloff of the bank.

BNP Paribas also called off an extraordinary shareholders meeting which had been set for Friday to vote on the Fortis takeover.

In late September, a joint rescue plan by The Netherlands, Belgium and Luxembourg was announced effectively to nationalize Fortis and then break up the company into separate units in each of the countries.

Paris- One day after five sticks of dynamite were planted in a large Paris department store, French Interior Minister Michele Alliot-Marie on Wednesday announced a series of measures intended to increase public security.

Parking regulations will be made stricter around department stores and airports, and customers in large stores and passengers at airports could be searched more often, Alliot-Marie said.

In addition, more police officers will be deployed in Paris and other large cities, with about 2,200 more police in the streets than usual over the Christmas period, she said.

Strasbourg - The European Parliament on Wednesday awarded its Sakharov Prize to jailed Chinese human rights activist Hu Jia, rebuffing warnings from Beijing that doing so might damage the European Union's relations with China.

The prize, which each year honours worthy human rights activists around the world, was given to Hu in absentia.

"I would like to express my deep concern that our laureate Hu Jia could not be here today with us and receive the award in person as he remains imprisoned for defending human rights in China - freedom of speech, freedom of thought and the basic right of access to the health service," said Laima Andrikiene, the conservatives' spokesman on human rights issues.

Paris /Oran, Algeria - Members of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) are expected to approve a cut in oil production of up to 2 million barrels per day when they meet later Wednesday in the Algerian city of Oran.

With global oil demand falling this year for the first time since 1983, the 12-member cartel has already found consensus that a drastic production cut is necessary to shore up the price of oil, OPEC President Chakib Khelil said.

The price of a barrel of crude oil has fallen by some 70 per cent in five months because of the global economic slump.

Strasbourg, France - Nicolas Sarkozy on Tuesday defended the European Union's watered-down deal on climate change, saying the compromises that have been agreed by leaders will avoid imposing unbearable sacrifices on its citizens.

"We didn't want to impose constrictions which no country in the world could have survived socially," said the French president in his final address to the European Parliament at the helm of the bloc's rotating presidency.

Paris - French police have defused five explosive devices planted in a large downt