Paris - French shares shrugged off a substantial interest rate cut by the European Central Bank and ended Thursday's session with a big loss.

The Paris Bourse's CAC 40 index closed off by 6.38 per cent, at 3,387.25, as all 40 listed stocks lost ground.

The sell-off was led by steel giant ArcelorMittal, which lost nearly 20 per cent, to 16.75 euros, on fears that the recession will be deeper and more stubborn than expected.

Paris - French transport equipment manufacturer Alstom said Thursday it had registered record orders and a healthy profits rise in the first half of its current business year.

Paris - A 24-hour strike by train conductors protesting new working hours severely disrupted French train service throughout the country on Thursday.

The French national rail service SNCF said only about half of all scheduled regional trains were running, while an average of two of three high-speed TGV trains were operating.

Suburban rail service in and out of Paris was also affected by the job action, with about one of two scheduled trains running on average.

Paris - An overwhelming majority of the French people think that the election of Barack Obama is good for the image of the United States, according to a poll made public on Thursday.

In the survey, conducted by the OpinionWay institute for the daily Le Figaro, 85 per cent of respondents said that Obama's election as US president was either very good or good for the country's image.

That sentiment was the same across the entire French political spectrum, with even a majority of supporters of the anti-immigrant right-wing extremist Jean-Marie Le Pen agreeing with it.

French scientists claim to have discovered a drug that could burn body fat though the person is on high - fat diet. A team from The University of Louis Pasteur has tested the drug on mice. They found that it protected mice against weight gain and insulin resistance.

The drug is still in the experimental stage and thus doesn't have a brand name. It's called SRT1720 as it targets the SIRT1 gene. It boosts the fat metabolism in mice in a similar fashion as in case of scarce calorie diet. 

Mogadishu/Paris - A group of armed Somali men have kidnapped six foreigners - four aid workers and two pilots - near the town of Dusamareb in central Somalia on Wednesday, the French government confirmed on Wednesday.

In a statement issued in Paris, the foreign ministry said that two French citizens working for a French NGO were among those abducted.

The Belgian State Department had said earlier that one of the kidnap victims was a Belgian national.