Paris - After several delays caused by bad weather, Swiss adventurer Yves Rossi - also known as Fusionman - on Friday became the first person to fly solo across the English Channel between Britain and France using a single jet-propelled wing, French media reported.

Rossy, 49, leaped from a plane at more than 2,500 metres above the French port of Calais, fired up the jets on his home-made wing and landed 13 minutes later at Dover in southern Britain.

Rossy, a former Swiss airline pilot, followed the flight path of French aviation pioneer Louis Bleriot, who became the first person to fly across the Channel in a plane in 1909.

Paris - The French economy contracted by 0.3 per cent in the second quarter of the year, the first quarter of negative GDP growth since 2002, the government's statistical office INSEE announced on Friday.

The announcement could be the first of a series of bad news for France's economy. French radio reported Friday that the unemployment figures to be made public on Monday will be the worst in 10 years, with up to 40,000 adults added to the jobless rolls in August.

On Thursday, in a speech on the current economic crisis, French President Nicolas Sarkozy said that the turmoil in the American finance sector would affect French economic growth, joblessness and purchasing power.

Paris  - The European Union plans to send more than 300 observers to Georgia, substantially more than had been foreseen, a French foreign ministry spokesman said on Wednesday.

Asked during an electronic press conference about media reports that the mission could comprise 340 observers, instead of the 200 originally called for, Frederic Bouillon said, "We confirm that the EU observation mission in Georgia could comprise 300 observers, to which must be added the logistical support personnel."

Paris - Other industrial nations besides the United States should begin drawing up plans to shore up their financial sectors, the head of the International Monetary Fund, Dominique Strauss-Kahn, said in an article published Tuesday in the French daily Le Monde.

Madrid - Two suspected members of the militant Basque separatist group ETA were detained Tuesday in central France, media reports quoted Spanish police sources as saying.

The man and woman were captured as they were about to steal a car, the sources said, while other reports said they were arrested in a tent as they camped in a forested area west of Lyon.

The couple, armed and carrying false identity documents and tools for stealing cars, did not resist arrest. Police seized two stolen cars, reports said.

The woman was believed to be Maria Lizarraga Merino, a former member of the pro-ETA youth organization Segi. The man's identity was not immediately known.

The two are believed to be linked with the logistical branch of ETA.

Paris - About one-fourth of the 300,000 people working for the French Post Office were striking on Tuesday against the government's plan to turn it into a public corporation, French radio said, citing numbers provided by management.

Post Office director Jean-Paul Bailly has said that the post office needs some 3 billion euros (4.4 billion dollars) to modernize.

However, trade unions and a majority of the French public are firmly against his plan because they fear it will lead to a complete privatization of postal services.