Paris - Art collectors and museum curators from all over the world are expected to fill the 1,200 seats in the Grand Palais in Paris later Monday when the 733-piece collection that belonged to the late fashion designer Yves Saint Laurent goes under the hammer.

Billed as the "sale of the century," the three-day auction organized by Christie's offers works by such giants of modern art as Picasso, Matisse and Mondrian as well as Art Deco masterpieces, ancient Egyptian and Roman sculptures, German silver beer steins and a wealth of other artworks and artifacts.

Paris - The European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg confirmed Friday that it had halted the extradition of radical Muslim cleric and suspected al-Qaeda member Abu Qatada from Britain to Jordan.

The Court decided to halt the extradition to examine Qatada's claim that, contrary to declarations by the Jordanian government, he would be exposed to treatment, such as torture, that was in breach of the European Convention on Human Rights if extradited.

In 2000, Qatada was sentenced in absentia to life imprisonment in Jordan for his involvement in a plot to bomb hotels during the Millennium celebrations.

Paris - French President Nicolas Sarkozy, angered by protest incidents in the past, is now paying visits to local communities with protection provided by hundreds of police and gendarmes, officials confirmed Thursday.

A visit to the Loire valley town of Daumeray with a population of 1,600, took place with 700 police providing security, the gendarme office in Angers said.

Sarkozy visited a farm there, where he made remarks about modernisation taking place in French agriculture.

Paris - French Prime Minister Francois Fillon said Thursday in Paris that

Paris - Some 2,500 of the world's 6,000 languages are currently threatened with extinction, according to the Atlas of the World's Languages in Danger, launched by UNESCO on Thursday in Paris.

"The death of a language means at the same time the disappearance of a cultural heritage, from stories through legends to proverbs and jokes," UNESCO head Koichiro Matsuura said.