Paris - With investors apparently encouraged by the wide-ranging bank rescue plan announced by euro-zone leaders late Sunday, French shares rebounded strongly in early-Monday trading.

One hour after trading began, the CAC 40 index was up a healthy 6.78 per cent, to 3,391.82, with all 40 listed stocks gaining ground.

The surge was led by steel giant ArcelorMittal, which was up 13.14 per cent, to 24.79 euros.

Paris - The leaders of the 15 nations using the euro as a single currency are to meet later Sunday in Paris to discuss common responses to the finance crisis.

As the crisis has spread from the United States, European nations have largely acted unilaterally to contain the damage.

Britain has undertaken a 60-billion-euro (80-billion-dollar) plan to partly nationalize four large banks, Ireland has guaranteed deposits in its six largest banks and other countries have acted on a case-by-case basis to bail-out struggling banks.

Paris - Some 64 years after the massacre by German soldiers of 124 people in the village of Maille in western France, the alleged perpetrators have been identified, a press report said Saturday.

A German Waffen-SS batallion stationed in neighbouring Chatellerault was responsible for the attack during World War II, Le Figaro reported, quoting prosecutor Ulrich Maass.

Pari

Paris  - The financial crisis is having a deep impact on the global demand for oil, as the economies of the industrial nations teeter on the brink of a recession, the International Energy Agency (IEA) reported on Friday in its Monthly Oil Report.

Paris - French authorities have excluded a Muslim woman from a language course necessary for citizenship because she was wearing a burqa, the French daily Le Figaro reported on Friday.

In a decision rendered last month, the High Authority Against Discrimination and for Equality (HALDE) said that in certain regards the wearing of a burqa "is detrimental to republican values."

The decision was based on an assessment that wearing an all-body veil, such as the burqa which covers the entire body except for a slit for the eyes, hinders the teaching of language because
the instructor is unable to look at the student's face "to observe the expressions... accompanying the words."