Paris - Following big losses on Wall Street and Asian markets, French shares plummeted in early trading on Friday, with the benchmark CAC 40 tumbling more than 10 per cent before recovering slightly.

After one hour of trading, the index had given up 7.68 per cent, to 3,178.42, with all 40 listed shares in the minus column.

According to Benoit Debroissia, market analyst at Richelieu Finance in Paris, "We are going through a systemic shock in which risk propagates itself through the entire financial system like a virus."

Paris  - Winning a literary prize gives you time and the desire to continue writing, the winner of the 2008 Nobel Prize for Literature, JMG Le Clezio, said Thursday.

"Winning a prize represents time, you gain time," the 68-year-old Le Clezio told France Inter radio just hours before he was named the winner of the prestigious award.

"It also gives you the desire to continue writing," he went on. "One writes to be read, to get a response. (A prize) is a response."

Paris - Fre

Paris - The French government will provide funds to subsidize the development and construction of environmentally friendly automobiles, President Nicolas Sarkozy said on Thursday.

"We will earmark more than 400 million euros (550 million dollars) of state funds over the next four years," Sarkozy said in an address at the Paris Automobile Fair.

The money will be used "exclusively" to fund the research and development of "carbon-free cars, that is vehicles with the least possible emission of carbon dioxide, whether electric cars or hybrids," Sarkozy said.

Paris - The city of Paris has taken a page from the book of Nobel Prize-winner Muhammad Yunus and will be providing microcredits for individuals not qualified to hold traditional credit cards, Paris City Hall said on Thursday on its web site.

Loans of 300 to 3,000 euros (413 to 4,130 dollars) - and up to 5,000 euros in exceptional cases - will be provided for a period of from 6 to 36 months, at a 4 per cent interest rate.

The money is to be used to finance such existential necessities as a driving licence, a job training programme, or a divorce or funeral.

"We will not finance the purchase of a new plasma television," said the director of a bank working with the city on the program.

Paris - Leaders of major international and European trade union federations on Wednesday urged the Group of Seven nations to take actions which go beyond those taken so far to deal with the current global financial crisis.

The call comes two days before the G7 finance ministers meet, with the general secretaries of the ITUC, ETUC and TUAC in their open letter urging a major recovery plan to stave off the risks of a global recession that goes beyond the coordinated cuts in interest rates announced by six central banks.