Paris - An appeals court in the eastern French city of Colmar on Thursday confirmed a 200,000-euro (292,000-dollar) fine imposed on Volvo for the deaths of two children in a 1999 accident.

The court found that the Volvo 850 TDI driven by a French teacher ran over the two children, aged 9 and 10, because its brakes had not functioned correctly.

The children had been on the way to school when the fatal accident occurred. A third child was seriously injured.

Paris- One day after five sticks of dynamite were planted in a large Paris department store, French Interior Minister Michele Alliot-Marie on Wednesday announced a series of measures intended to increase public security.

Parking regulations will be made stricter around department stores and airports, and customers in large stores and passengers at airports could be searched more often, Alliot-Marie said.

In addition, more police officers will be deployed in Paris and other large cities, with about 2,200 more police in the streets than usual over the Christmas period, she said.

Paris /Oran, Algeria - Members of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) are expected to approve a cut in oil production of up to 2 million barrels per day when they meet later Wednesday in the Algerian city of Oran.

With global oil demand falling this year for the first time since 1983, the 12-member cartel has already found consensus that a drastic production cut is necessary to shore up the price of oil, OPEC President Chakib Khelil said.

The price of a barrel of crude oil has fallen by some 70 per cent in five months because of the global economic slump.

Paris - French police have defused five explosive devices planted in a large downt

London, Dec 16 : A huge number of models in Paris, who pose in the buff and perform as muses for artists, took to the streets in a nude march on December 15 to protest the fact that they are not respected or paid enough.

The models went on strike and posed naked in freezing temperatures in front of Paris city hall''s culture department to shame the state, and their demand was a pay increase, proper contracts and, most of all, respect for their craft.

Paris, Dec. 16: French President Nicholas Sarkozy on Monday escaped an attempt on his life, when a man armed with a knife and Taser stun gun was arrested.

According to The Sun, police wrestled the 25-year-old to the ground as he tried to break into the Elysee Palace, the French President's official residence. Cops found the weapons inside his military-style jacket.

Sarkozy was inside at the time, meeting Montenegro's Premier Milo Djukanovic.

His security guards are treating the lunchtime incident as an attempt on his life.