Paris - Because of the crisis in the auto market, global sales for French car maker Renault plunged in October, forcing it to reduce its production levels, the company said on Friday.

The three makes produced by Renault - Renault, Dacia and Renault Samsung - sold 188,116 vehicles last month around the world, down 14.1 per cent compared to October 2007.

In Europe alone, sales were off by 16 per cent, Renault said in a statement.

Because of slumping sales, Renault said it would reduce its production levels so that its stock of vehicles at the end of 2008 will be similar to what it was at the end of last year.

Paris  - A four-day strike called by unions representing pilots for French carrier Air France was severely disrupting domestic and international flights on Friday.

Air France said at least 40 per cent of scheduled long-haul flights and half of its short- and medium-distance flights would be cancelled. The company warned that last-minute flight cancellations were also possible.

The job action was called to protest the increase of the retirement age for pilots from 60 to 65, and is to last until midnight on Monday.

On Thursday, in an open letter to the pilots, company head Jean-Cyril Spinetta said the job action would cost the company up to 100 million euros (125 million dollars).

Paris  - Defying predictions of a recession, the French economy grew by 0.1 per cent in the third quarter of 2008, the government's statistical office Insee said on Friday.

Following a GDP drop of 0.3 per cent in the second quarter of this year, most analysts - including Insee - had foreseen more negative growth for the period July to September, which would have represented a technical recession.

But consumer spending unexpectedly grew by 0.2 per cent in the third quarter, which helped fuel the rise in GDP, Insee said.

Paris - A four-day strike called by unions representing pilots for French carrier Air France will cost the company up to 100 million euros (125 million dollars), company head Jean-Cyril Spinetta said Thursday in an open letter to the pilots.

"Four days of strike is a diminution of 100 million euros of our profits and therefore of our capacity to invest at a time when ... banks are not eager to finance companies," Spinetta wrote.

The company said that the strike, which is to begin on Friday, will lead to the cancellation of at least half of its 760 middle-distance and 73 long-distance flights.

Paris - French President Nicolas Sarkozy convinced Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin not to attack the Georgian capital Tbilisi and overthrow Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili this summer, the weekly Le Nouvel Observateur reported on Thursday.

Citing Sarkozy's foreign policy advisor, Jean-David Levitte, the magazine said that the incident occurred at the Kremlin on August 12, when Sarkozy - as president of the European Union - was trying to negotiate an end to the Russia-Georgia conflict.

Paris - The United States and the nations of the euro zone have entered an economic recession that will be long and could be severe, the Organization of Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) said in a preliminary forecast released Thursday in Paris.

"Economic activity is expected to fall by 0.9 per cent in the US next year, by 0.5 per cent in the euro area and by 0.1 per cent in Japan as OECD countries enter a protracted slowdown," the OECD said.