Paris - Because of the worsening economic outlook, the International Energy Agency (IEA) on Friday revised downward its global oil demand for 2009.

If the forecast contained in the IEA's monthly Oil Market Report is confirmed, it would mean that demand for oil around the world would shrink for two consecutive years, the first time this has occurred since 1982 and 1983.

Toulouse, France - European aircraft manufacturer Airbus beat out rival Boeing in 2008 by booking 777 orders for its aircraft, compared to 662 registered by its US competitor, Airbus head Thomas Enders said on Thursday.

The 777 orders have an approximate value of 100 billion dollars. In addition, Airbus delivered 483 aircraft last year, surpassing its goal for the year of 470 as well as the 375 aircraft delivered in 2008 by Boeing, which was handicapped by a crippling strike.

However, Enders said that 2009 was likely to be a "horrible" year in which the global recession could lead to the number of orders slipping below the number of aircraft delivered for the first time since 2003.

Paris - French President Nicolas Sarkozy and his wife Carla Bruni became stars of France's comic book scene last year.

The cover of the recently published book, Carla and Carlito, depicts the French first lady carrying an image of Sarkozy in a baby sling.

It has sold 100,000 copies and demand continues, the newspaper Le Parisien reported in late December. The book depicts Bruni as the real power in the Elysee Palace and reveals that her control over him is so strong that the staff refer to him as Carlito or little Carla.

Paris - A Paris court on Wednesday acquitted six people accused of negligence in the deaths of 117 young people from Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease, the human form of Mad Cow disease, after being treated with contaminated human growth hormone in the 1980s.

The six doctors and pharmacists on trial belonged either to the Pasteur Institute or the association France Hypophyse, which was in charge of collecting the glands containing the growth hormone from human cadavers.

London, January 14 : Controversial French Justice Minister Rachida Dati has dismissed suggestions that her cabinet days are numbered, saying that she will keep her post this year.

She was reacting to reports that said that tipped her to step down, and represent President Nicolas Sarkozy''s Right-wing UMP party in June elections for the European parliament.

It was recently said that the minister was at loggerheads with magistrates, prison officials and lawyers, who thought that she was unable or unwilling to dialogue with them on reforms.

Paris - French consumer prices fell by 0.2 per cent in December compared to the previous month, owing largely to falling energy prices, the government's statistical office INSEE said on Wednesday.

Year on year, inflation stood at 1 per cent, INSEE said, after energy prices fell by 5.6 per cent in December, driven by a drop of 9.4 per cent in the cost of petroleum products.

Over 12 months, the price of petroleum products declined by nearly 15 per cent.