Paris - French shares shrugged off Wall Street's weak opening and were holding on to modest gains in mid-afternoon trading on Tuesday.

Paris - Following big losses overnight on Wall Street and in Asia, French shares slumped on Thursday as fears of a deep recession turned investors bearish.

The Paris Bourse's CAC 40 blue-chip index ended the day off by 5.92 per cent, at 3,181, as declining issues outpaced advancing shares by 9 to 1.

Insurance giant Axa was the day's biggest loser, plunging by 12.51 per cent to 16.33 euros. Industrial group Bouygues and transport manufacturer Alstom gave up 11.1 and 10.15 per cent, respectively.

Paris, Oct. 16 : French police are probing whether Russia''s leading human rights lawyer was poisoned by a suspicious substance found hidden in her car.

Detectives in the town of Strasbourg were examining whether Karinna Moskalenko, the country''s most prominent defender of Kremlin opponents, had been deliberately poisoned.

Moskalenko said on Monday her husband discovered "large" quantities of a mercury-like substance hidden under her car seat.

Moskalenko had been due yesterday to attend the Moscow trial of three men accused of involvement in the murder of the crusading Russian journalist Anna Politkovskaya.

Politkovskaya, a fierce critic of Vladimir Putin, was shot dead two years ago outside her Moscow flat.

Brussels - The French government on Thursday was pushing for a European Union deal on fighting climate change in December, despite persistent opposition from Poland, official documents revealed.

Poland on Wednesday threatened to veto a draft EU summit statement if it involved a pledge to approve a sweeping package of laws on fighting climate change in December.

But after a night of intensive negotiations, the French government, which currently holds the EU's rotating presidency, set out a new draft summit statement insisting that EU member states "reaffirm that (their) objective is to reach agreement in December."

Paris - After losing more than 6 per cent of their value shortly after opening, French shares mounted a spirited fightback early Tuesday despite big losses on Wall Street and in Asia.

One hour after trading opened, the Paris Bourse's CAC 40 blue-chip index was down 2.09 per cent, at 3,310.52, as declining issues outpaced advancing shares by about 12 to 1.

Because of mounting fears of a recession, industrials were hardest hit, with steel giant ArcelorMittal and steel maker Vallourec both down more than 5 per cent.

Paris - The French Senate was due Wednesday to debate and vote on the government's 360-billion-euro (490-billion-dollar) bank rescue plan after the bill passed the lower National Assembly by a huge margin.

The bill passed its first hurdle late Tuesday when the National Assembly approved it by 224 to 23 votes, sending the plan for final approval in the Senate.

The plan, announced Monday by President Nicolas Sarkozy, will make available up to 320 billion euros to guarantee interbank loans and another 40 billion euros for the recapitalization of struggling banks.

Opposition Socialist lawmakers said they supported the plan but abstained from voting because they said it only addressed the financial crisis, not the economic crisis.