Paris, Sep 20 - Hollywood star couple Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie have hired former guards of Britain's Special Air Service (SAS) to protect their home in France from organised crime gangs.

The couple - who raise six kids - have enlisted ex-servicemen and installed a 150- million-pound state-of-the-art security system after they came to know that gangs from Russia and Italy were targeting rich foreigners in their Provence area, southern France.

Paris, Sept 5 : Former International Monetary Fund chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn was reportedly questioned by police over allegations of sexually abusing a French writer, when he arrived in Paris.

A police escort rushed Kahn and his wife Anne Sinclair through customs and into a waiting limousine after they landed at Charles de Gaulle airport yesterday, Express. co. uk reports.

Paris, Aug 20 : Marine scientists would soon meet at the Paris-based Unesco to discuss measuring the impact of noise on marine life, the UN agency said.

The main agenda of the meeting - to be held Aug 30-Sep 1 - would be to discuss the programme of the International Quiet Ocean Experiment, Xinhua reported.

"This decade-long project aims to fill the considerable knowledge gaps in this area, so that management of ocean noise can be more informed and effective," Unesco said in a statement.

There is no impending threat to the oil supply in the world despite social and political disturbance in parts of the Middle-East and some African countries.  United Arab Emirates Energy Minister Mohamed Al-Hamli said that recent rise in oil price is mainly because of geopolitics and natural disaster and there is hardly any change in the fundamentals.

While speaking in an oil conference in Paris, Mohamed Al-Hamli said, “We have spare capacity. We can always supply to the market. The market should pay more attention to real supply rather than imagined shortages.”

French officials have informed that five paintings by Picasso, Matisse and other great artists were stolen from The Modern Art museum in Paris. The estimated cost of those paintings is $123 million. As per the official reports, the paintings were most probably stolen yesterday morning or at Wednesday night.

Officials have said that the activity was very well planned. The museum near to the Eiffel Tower has been sealed by the investigators after this issue.

Bollywood perfectionist Aamir Khan has decided to get closer to his blog buffs in Paris when the actor is there on May 2.

On his blog, the actor wrote, “I am going to be in Paris on May 2 and would very much like to meet up with those of you who are interested. Will restrict the group to five.”

"Each one of you can bring one more person with you. If you happen to be below 18 years of age, you will have to accompanied by an adult."

The actor also requested his buffs to post their contact details on his blog page.

According to the official reports, three auto giants, Renault, Nissan Motor and Daimler, signed a cost-sharing agreement in Paris on Wednesday, they said was required to increase competitiveness.

Daimler Chief Executive Officer Dieter Zetsche at a signing ceremony in Paris, said, "Right away, we are strengthening our competitiveness in the small and compact car segment and are reducing our CO2 footprint."

The New York Times has reported that the three auto companies agreed to share technology related to smaller cars and power trains.

In a simulation drill at Paris, a crew of six will soon initiate a simulated mission to Mars. The program includes an interplanetary spaceship, Mars Lander and Martian landscape. The test called the Mars500 experiment is of human endurance.

The objective of the mission is to mimic the supposed happenings in Mars whilst staying on Earth.

Paris, Jan 12 - Director Eric Rohmer, one of the giants of modern French cinema, has died at age 89, his production company Campagnie Eric Rohmer said Monday.

With other groundbreaking filmmakers, such as Jean-Luc Godard and Francois Truffaut, Rohmer was one of the founders of French New Wave cinema that in the 1950s and 1960s transformed French and world cinema forever.

Paris, January 8 : In a new research, astronomers have shown that in spiral galaxies containing a central bar, which is an elongated structure composed of stars, a vigorous mixing of stars in the disk takes place.

The research was done by two CNRS (National Center for Scientific Research) researchers at the Strasbourg Observatory in France.

Until now, astronomers have attributed this mixing process, named “radial migration,” solely to spiral structure, while ignoring the effects of the bar.

Paris, Jan 6 - A delegation of Sikhs from France will land in New Delhi Thursday for the Pravasi Bharatiya Divas (PBD), the annual gathering of the Indian diaspora, to highlight the continuing problem of the ban of Sikh turbans in France.

As all their attempts to resolve the issue with the French and European authorities have failed, the Sikhs are now turning to not only the Indian government but also the entire Indian diaspora to help them resolve a problem that threatens their religious identity.

Paris, Jan 4 : Airplane manufacturer Airbus sold more planes in 2009 than in its entire history, despite the harsh conditions surrounding the economic crisis, reported the La Tribune business newspaper Monday.

The company delivered 498 airplanes in 2009, beating its 2008 record by 15 airplanes, the newspaper reported, citing informed sources.

However, the company reportedly fell short of its goal for the A380, the world's largest passenger plane, delivering only 10 of the 13 promised.

Paris, Dec 30 - France's Constitutional Council ruled that a planned carbon tax cannot come into force as it includes too many exemptions.

The tax, which was planned to enter into effect Jan 1, was a centrepiece of President Nicolas Sarkozy's climate initiative. The rejection represents a setback for the government.

The council said in a statement late Tuesday that the exemptions included in the carbon tax ran counter to the aim of fighting climate change and created taxation inequalities.

French consumers were meant to be encouraged by the tax to use less fossil fuels.

Prime Minister Francois Fillon announced there would be an amended version, taking into account the ruling, by Jan 20, French radio reported.

Paris, December 22 : An European Space Agency (ESA) led effort is all set to use silicon technology to enable astronomy’s clearest X-ray view yet of the most violent regions of space.

“ESA has been working with specialist European firms to develop this new optical technique and build up a supporting industry,” said Marcos Bavdaz, Head of ESA’s Advanced Technology Section.

Paris, Dec 22 - The three-day shutdown of the Eurostar rail service linking Paris and London ended early Tuesday as a train once again left the French capital for the Channel Tunnel and Britain.

Two of three scheduled Eurostars were to be operating from the French capital Tuesday. Service from London to Paris was also set to resume.

However, confusion reigned at the Gare du Nord train station in Paris early Tuesday as the first train prepared to leave.

Paris, Dec 21 :Two million people lost electricity for nearly two hours in southern France Monday because of the effects of the cold snap, energy provider RTE said.

RTE said it undertook a partial blackout after a technical malfunction threatened to cripple the entire system.

The incident occurred in a region of France which is vulnerable to partial blackouts during unseasonably cold weather because of its high electricity consumption, RTE said.

Paris, Dec 19 - France has launched a military satellite from the Kourou launch site in French Guiana.

The Helios 2B satellite was launched atop Arianne 5 rocket by the Arianespace centre in South America, Xinhua reported. The rocket lifted off at 1626 GMT Friday.

The 4.2-tonne satellite, heading into sun-synchronous polar orbit, is part of the second-generation observation system for security and defence applications developed by France in collaboration with Belgium, Spain, Italy and Greece. (IANS)

Paris, December 12 : ESA’s (European Space Agency’s) Mars Express has caught together on camera for the first time the Martian moons Phobos and Deimos.

The images were acquired with the Super Resolution Channel (SRC) of the High Resolution Stereo Camera (HRSC).

The camera took 130 images of the moons on November 5, over a period of 1.5 minutes at intervals of 1s, speeding up to 0.5-s intervals toward the end.

The image resolution is 110 m/pixel for Phobos and 240 m/pixel for Deimos.

Paris, Dec 11 (IANS) European aerospace and electronics giant Thales has unveiled an action plan to increase productivity by 1.3 billion euros in five years to bring its operational performance closer to that of its continental competitors and strengthen its growth in the medium term.

It has also unveiled a new organisational plan under which the group would be structured around three large regions and seven divisions.

London, Dec 11 : A Paris auction will see some historic articles from the city, including 40 iron steps from the Eiffel Tower, a lamp post and park bench, going under the hammer.

The auction titled, "Paris Mon Amour," will be held at the renowned French house Drouot.

"I have been thinking for many years about organizing an auction concerning Paris," the Telegraph quoted Christophe Lucien, who put the sale of the 301 items together, as saying.