Paris - The France-based media rights group Reporters Without Borders on Thursday named jailed Cuban journalist Ricardo Gonzalez Alfonso its 2008 Reporter of the Year.
The award was bestowed on the dissident Cuban "for helping an independent press to survive in Cuba," the group said on its web site.
Paris - French President Nicolas Sarkozy on Thursday unveiled a plan with massive state investment and aid to the housing and auto industries worth some 26 billion euros (32.84 billion dollars).
Speaking in the northern French industrial city of Douai, Sarkozy announced a broad variety of measures, including a vast public works program worth 10.5 billion euros over the next two years and a series of state refunds to private enterprise worth 11 billion euros.
In addition, the plan earmarks 1.8 billion euros for the French housing sector. That would cover the construction of 70,000 new housing units, half of them public.
BALTIMORE, Dec. 3 -- French utility giant Electricity de France is preparing an offer to buy half of Constellation Energy Group's nuclear power business, sources said.
The French concern is set to offer $4.5 billion, nearly equal to the $4.7 billion offer made by MidAmerican Energy Holdings Co. for the entire company. Shareholders are scheduled to vote on the MidAmerican offer on Dec. 23, The Baltimore Sun reported Wednesday.
EDF's offer values Constellation at $52 a share, while the MidAmerican offer values the company at $26.50 a share bid, sources told the Sun.
"It definitely clouds the picture and gives the shareholders something to contemplate," said analyst Paul Justice said.
Paris - Former French international striker David Trezeguet said he has changed his mind and wants to play for the national side again.
In an interview published Wednesday in the daily L'Equipe, the injured Juventus Turin forward said: "I have always missed les Bleus, and I miss them today as well."
Asked if that meant he had changed his mind about retiring from international football, the 31-year-old Trezeguet said, "Yes, I'm thinking especially about the (2010) World Cup. I haven't excluded it."
Paris - French utility giant EDF has taken on US billionaire Warren Buffett over US energy supplier Constellation Energy Group, the online edition of the daily Le Figaro reported on Wednesday.
According to the report, EDF has offered to purchase half of Constellation's nuclear energy activities for 4.5 billion euros (5.7 billion dollars).
The bid values Constellation at 52 dollars per share. That is almost double the offer by Buffett's MidAmerican Energy of 4.7 billion for the entire firm.
PARIS, Dec. 4 - French President Nicolas Sarkozy Thursday unveiled a $33 billion economic stimulus plan aimed at jump starting France's economy.
Paris - The France-based media rights group Reporters Without Borders on Thursday named jailed Cuban journalist Ricardo Gonzalez Alfonso its 2008 Reporter of the Year.
Paris - French President Nicolas Sarkozy on Thursday unveiled a plan with massive state investment and aid to the housing and auto industries worth some 26 billion euros (32.84 billion dollars).
Paris - Former French international striker David Trezeguet said he has changed his mind and wants to play for the national side again.
Paris - French utility giant EDF has taken on US billionaire Warren Buffett over US energy supplier Constellation Energy Group, the online edition of the daily Le Figaro reported on Wednesday.
