Paris - French bank Credit Agricole said on Wednesday that its profits for 2008 fell by 74.7 per cent over the previous year, to 1.024 billion euros (1.28 billion dollars).

The sharp downturn was primarily caused by risk provision write-offs of 3.2 billion euros, up nearly 70 per cent over 2007.

"This large increase reflects the deterioration of the global economic environment," Credit Agricole said in a statement.

Paris, Mar 4 : Francois Perol, French President Nicolas Sarkozy''s Chief Economic Adviser, poked fun at British Prime Minister Gordon Brown''s failed attempts to eat Savoyard Fondue, a French cheese dish laid on for him by Sarkozy and his wife Carla Bruni.

Savoyard Fondue is a mixture of Alpine cheese and white wine eaten by spearing pieces of bread with a skewer and dipping them in the hot pot.

Paris - French telecommunications giant France Telecom said on Wednesday that its profits for the year 2008 fell by 35.4 per cent over 2007, to 4.07 billion euros (5.1 billion dollars).

The reasons for the downturn was a decline of 527 million euros in operating income, an increase of 337 million euros in expenses due to one-time items and a jump of 1.5 billion euros in corporate taxes, the company said in a press statement.

Paris  - French President Nicolas Sarkozy and several other conservative politicians have in recent days been the targets of letters threatening their lives, French media reported on Tuesday.

Sarkozy, Interior Minister Michele Alliot-Marie, Justice Minister Rachida Dati, Culture Minister Christine Albanel and the mayor of Bordeaux, Alain Juppe, have all received letters containing implicit threats to their lives and 9mm bullets.

Paris  - In the future, no country, no institution and no financial product must be allowed to remain beyond market regulation, the French and German finance ministers said in Paris on Tuesday.

France's Christine Lagarde and her German counterpart Peer Steinbrueck also agreed that action must be taken in the future against any financial centre that does not cooperate in the fight against tax fraud and money laundering.

The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) is to prepare a "black list" of uncooperative countries for the next G20 summit, to be held in London on April 2.

Paris - In a turn of events worthy of Hollywood, a 17-year- old illegal immigrant from Afghanistan will receive his French residency permit after winning the national amateur boxing championship, French media reported on Tuesday.