Paris - The EU Thursday called for cooperation between all "conflict parties" to investigate a shooting attack on unarmed peace observers near the city of Gori close to the breakaway republic of South Ossetia.

The EU presidency, currently held by France, strongly condemned the attack and said it expected cooperation from all sides.

Nobody was wounded in the attack on Wednesday, which was reported by Georgian media. The television channel Rustavi-2 showed images of an off-road vehicle belonging to the OSCE with several bullet holes in the side.

Paris - French-Dutch airline Air France-KLM said Thursday it had deposed a formal complaint at the European Commission over the sale of Austrian Airlines to the German carrier Lufthansa.

"The agreement concluded on December 5, 2008, between Austrian authorities and Lufthansa does not conform to the conditions that were imposed on Air France-KLM during the procedure of choosing a strategic partner (for Austrian Airlines)," the company said in a press statement.

Paris - French authorities were wary of violence spilling over from Greek youth protests as thousands of secondary-school students protested Thursday throughout France against a proposed education reform plan.

Some 3,500 students took to the streets in the western city of Rennes, while in Brest youths tossed stones at police, who responded with tear gas, the online edition of the daily Ouest France reported.

Demonstrations of several hundred students to a few thousand took place in many French cities Thursday, continuing a week of protest against the proposed cutting of more than 13,000 teaching posts next year.

Paris - As the world economy slides deeper into recession, global oil demand will shrink in 2008 for the first time in 25 years, the International Energy Agency (IEA) said on Thursday.

"Global oil demand has been revised down in both 2008 and 2009, given a much starker contraction in the OECD than expected, and early signs of weakness in non-OECD countries, notably in Asia," the IEA said in its Monthly Oil Report, issued in Paris.

Paris - After last-minute adjustments to secure EU approval, France on Thursday began implementing its bank bail-out plan.

Under the plan, the state will subscribe to subordinated five-year debt totalling 10.5 billion euros (13.75 billion dollars) issued by the country's six largest banks.

The debt subscription concerns the banks Credit Agricole (3 billion euros), BNP Paribas (2.55 billion), Societe Generale (1.7 billion), Credit Mutuel (1.2 billion), Caisses d'Epargne (1.1 billion and Banques Populaires (0.95 billion), the French Finance Ministry said.

In exchange, the French banks have committed themselves to increasing their loans to individuals and companies by 3 to 4 per cent by the end of 2009.

Paris - The French co-author of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, Stephane Hessel, was on Wednesday awarded a UNESCO prize for his life's work.

The 91-year-old Hessel, who was honoured on the 60th anniversary of the document, said that it remained difficult today to implement human rights in the world.

As one example, he criticized France for its handling of illegal immigrants.

"Immigrants are not treated as they should be," said Hessel, whose mother was German. "The problem will be be even more important in the future, because climate change will provoke more migration."