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By James Coomarasamy BBC Paris correspondent

French wines may have gone out of fashion - and the French football team may have gone out in the first round of the World Cup - but there's still one area where France is in a league of its own: making babies.

Extra leisure time means extra time to make more babies

While birth rates in the rest of Europe are in decline, French women are having more children every year.

The average number of children per woman is now 1.9.

Part of the reason for this may be cultural, but there are other important factors, including a financial one.

Added benefits

The French state classifies a couple with three or more children as a "famille nombreuse" a status which opens the door to all kinds of benefits.

Benoit De Froberville: The deal is pretty good

Take father of four, Benoit De Froberville. He lives with his wife, Nicole, and their children - Gonzague, Solene, Armelle and Aurore - in the central French town of Tours.

Although Benoit is a banker, he doesn't pay a euro in income tax, has government help with his rent and a 40% reduction on train fares.

Nicole, meanwhile, has spent the past six years on state-funded parental leave and is guaranteed her job back when she wants.

"Of course we don't have children to make money", Benoit jokes, "but the deal is pretty good. I think other Europeans are looking at us and thinking that this is a good way."

His wife believes that another important factor is France's 35-hour working week.

"My husband has plenty of free time to spend with the children - it means he can enjoy their company and wants to have more of them," Nicole says.

"It's totally different to a father who only sees his kids in the evening or at the weekends when all he wants to do is rest."

She didn't say it, although others have, but extra leisure time also means extra time to make more babies.

Nurse shortage

But there is a flip side to this combined baby and leisure boom, as I discovered at the Saint Vincent De Paul Hospital in Paris.

The more children that are born, the better it is for our pension system and for our economy, in general Christian Jacob, French Family Minister

The head of the maternity unit there, Professor Michel Tournaire, showed me a ward, devoid of both patients and beds.

It's a strange and worrying development, at a time when more and more women are waiting to give birth.

The problem, as the professor sees it, is simple. The shorter working week has led to a shortage of nurses.

The state is feeling the strain in other areas.

The babies of today are tax payers of tomorrow

The logical consequence of the baby boom is a school children boom.

It means that nursery and primary schools now find themselves having to cope with far greater classroom numbers than expected.

So will France's right-wing government, which promised a leaner, more efficient economy when it came to power last year, be cutting back on benefits and calling for couples to tone down their reproductive zeal?

Not a bit of it. Not only does the administration pride itself on being family-friendly, but its Family Minister, Christian Jacob, wants to encourage an even higher birth rate.

"Of course the state must step in and help" he says.

"The more children that are born, the better it is for our pension system and for our economy, in general".

And so the baby boomers of today are the tax payers and consumers of tomorrow.

France hopes that investing in them now will pay dividends.

The European Court of Human Rights has announced that for the first time it will hear lawsuits brought forward by Chechens against the Russian army.

An estimated 20,000 Chechens have died in the conflict

The landmark ruling paves the way for the Strasbourg-based judges to hear six Chechens argue that Moscow has breached the European convention on human rights it is a signatory to.

The cases accepted by the court on Thursday centre on allegations of torture, summary execution and indiscriminate bombing of civilians in 1999 and 2000.

Russia has been waging what it terms an "anti-terrorist campaign" against a separatist insurgency in Chechnya since October 1999.

Although it has often been criticised over human rights abuses in the province, it is thought the court's decision will nonetheless shock Moscow, which has recently enjoyed a less critical attitude from Western governments.

The Russian authorities are likely to see the court ruling as interference in the country's internal affairs.

Co-operation required

Lawyers for the Russian Government said the complaints should not be heard by the rights court, which usually considers cases only after all domestic avenues have been exhausted.

Russia maintains a large military presence in Chechnya

But the judges rejected this, arguing that criminal investigations opened by the Russian authorities had closed without identifying the culprits.

There are about 100 Chechen complaints still to be investigated by the court, whose decisions are binding.

But their outcome depends on Moscow's co-operation in allowing investigations, including fact-finding missions to Chechnya.

Thousands dead

In its annual report, the US-based Human Rights Watch has described Russia's war in Chechnya as Europe's most intense human rights crisis.

The report, released on Tuesday, said any positive steps at reform in Russia were eclipsed by continued atrocities committed in Chechnya.

Russia has fought two wars to rein in the breakaway republic.

About 20,000 Chechen guerrillas - and 4,500 Russians - have died in the conflict so far.

Russia describes the rebels as terrorists.

Signs that international terrorism is becoming more active in European countries have been interpreted by Russian officials as proof that their policies are correct, a BBC correspondent says.

IVF babies are more likely to suffer from a rare gene disorder and scientists say the finding is another good reason not to make human clones.

Beckwith-Wiedemann syndrome is a rare condition which causes too much growth, kidney abnormalities and a raised chance of tumours.

The syndrome is the result of errors in a process called "imprinting" - which happens when the DNA from mother and father are combined when the embryo is first conceived.

Every embryo is a combination of two sets of genes - one from its mother and one from its father.

It's not unreasonable to think that human cloning would put children at risk of this condition Dr Wolf Reik, University of Cambridge

However, certain genes perform differently, and are more or less active, depending on whether they come from the father or the mother.

This "imprinting" is a key control which makes sure the foetus develops correctly while it is in the womb.

Scientists believe that fertility techniques such as IVF and ICSI - in which a single sperm is injected into an egg - may be disrupting this imprinting process.

Although in the vast majority of cases the baby would be healthy, in some cases the problem would have an effect on their future health.

Higher risk

The researchers from the Universities of Birmingham and Cambridge looked at 149 babies diagnosed with the syndrome.

They found that six out of the 149 had been conceived via IVF or ICSI, or 4%.

The proportion of babies born using IVF in the UK is only 1%, meaning that IVF babies are more likely to fall prey to the disorder than those conceived naturally.

Dr Wolf Reik, from the Babraham Institute at the University of Cambridge, said: "The genes themselves are not necessarily any different but imprinting controls how active the gene is.

"If the imprinting goes wrong, control is lost, and this can result in unregulated growth.

"Imprinting is set when the sperm or egg is produced and we believe that IVF and ICSI interfere with the process just after fertilisation, increasing the risk that a child will develop Beckwith-Wieemann syndrome."

Clone damage

However, he said that the result was bad news for supporters of human reproductive cloning.

There is significant evidence that cloning techniques also interfere with imprinting.

In animal experiments, many foetuses spontaneously miscarry at various stages of pregnancy, and scientists are still not sure why, although miscarriage is often a safety mechanism that halts a foetus which is not developing correctly.

Dr Reik said: "Evidence is emerging that imprinting is also faulty in cloned animals so it's not unreasonable to think that human cloning would put children at risk of this condition and others like it."

Sir Paul Nurse, the chief executive of Cancer Research UK, said: "Cancer Research UK is opposed to reproductive cloning and this research highlights just one of the severe problems that may result."

United Nations weapons inspectors in Iraq say they have found a dozen empty chemical warheads while searching an ammunition storage depot.

The warheads, which would be used to carry chemical warfare agents, are currently being examined by experts, a UN spokesman said.

"The warheads were in excellent condition and were similar to ones imported by Iraq during the late 1980s," said Hiro Ueki.

He did not elaborate on the significance of the find, but the UN office in Baghdad has since told the BBC that they did not consider the discovery to be a "smoking gun" at the present time.

Iraq has insisted throughout the current crisis that it does not possess chemical weapons.

The US has threatened military action against Iraq if the country is found to have breached a recent UN resolution which obliged Baghdad to list all its weapons and provide unfettered access to arms inspectors.

Warning

The find comes shortly after the chief weapons inspector Hans Blix called on Iraq to do more to substantiate its claims that it has destroyed banned weapons, or risk a US-led war.

Iraq must do more than they have done so far Hans Blix Chief UN inspector

Mr Blix was speaking in Brussels where he briefed EU officials on the progress of his inspection teams.

Mr Blix - who is going to Baghdad at the weekend - said the message he was sending to Iraqi leaders was that "the situation is very tense and very dangerous".

UN inspectors also made surprise visits to two private homes, interviewing Iraqi nuclear scientists.

They took physicist Faleh Hassan to inspect what appeared to be a man-made mound of earth and thoroughly searched the home of nuclear scientist Shaker El-Jibouri.

Calling it a "provocative operation", he said inspectors looked at everything in his home, "including beds and clothes" as well as research papers.

It was the first time inspectors had gone to private homes.

General Amin did not criticise the inspectors

Iraq's chief liaison officer to the inspectors said the two men were not on a list of scientists given to the United Nations.

But General Hossam Mohammed Amin said that the inspectors were doing their jobs and had behaved properly.

"All is going well so far," another top aide to Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein said at the same news conference.

"There are some complaints here and there and there but we expect to resolve [them] on Sunday," Amir al-Saadi said, referring to the upcoming visit of Mr Blix to Baghdad.

Concern

"We feel that Iraq must do more than they have done so far in order to make this a credible avenue," Mr Blix told reporters in Brussels earlier in the day.

He said Iraq had to either provide evidence that it had destroyed the suspected weapons of mass destruction - such as archives and budgets - or surrender what they might have for destruction under supervision.

IRAQI MATERIEL UNACCOUNTED FOR

Nearly four tons of VX nerve agents Growth media for 20,000 litres of biological warfare agents 15,000 shells for use in biological warfare 6,000 chemical warfare bombs Nuclear information

He said inspectors had found illegally-imported conventional weapons materials in Iraq, some dating from two years ago.

These were being examined to see whether they were destined for banned weapons programmes.

Supporting the chief inspector, EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana said war could still be averted and the responsibility was "basically on the side of Saddam Hussein".

The EU has made it plain that it does not want a war, the BBC's Chris Morris says, but there are clear divisions in its ranks.

		Iraq navigator: Click here to explore Saddam Hussein's Iraq for yourself.

President George W Bush is due to meet his main European ally, UK Prime Minister Tony Blair, on 31 January.

That is four days after Mr Blix submits his first report on inspections to the UN Security Council, which could be a possible trigger for military action.

'Important date'

President George Bush's spokesman Ari Fleischer said the submission of that report was "an important date".

"Beyond that, events will dictate timetables," he said on Thursday.

Mr Blix has sought to downplay the significance of 27 January, saying he expected the Council to demand another report in February.

KEY DATES

16 Jan - Chief UN inspector Hans Blix briefs EU 19 Jan - Blix meets top Iraqi officials in Baghdad 27 Jan - First full report on inspections presented to UN 29 Jan - UN discusses report 31 Jan - Bush meets Blair 15 Feb - Anti-war protests across Europe 27 Mar - Blix submits new report to UN

Next steps in full

The US is reportedly increasing pressure on Mr Blix to scrap plans for another report on 27 March.

Thousands of UK and US troops are being deployed to the Gulf.

On Wednesday, the US formally asked for help from its allies in Nato in the event of a war.

But US Secretary of Defence Donald Rumsfeld said the request did not mean that a strike against Baghdad was imminent.

Russia role

Mr Blix is travelling to Baghdad with the head of the UN's nuclear watchdog, Mohamed ElBaradei.

We are concerned by the growing pressure being exerted on the international inspectors... by particular circles in Washington Russian Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov

Mr ElBaradei has been visiting Russia where he received support for inspectors to be given several more months to complete the work.

Russian Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov has expressed concern about pressure being exerted on the inspectors by "particular circles in Washington".

Russia has sent a senior envoy to Iraq to seek to defuse the confrontation with Washington.

Edible bananas may disappear within a decade if urgent action is not taken to develop new varieties resistant to blight.

A Belgian scientist leading research into the fruit loved by millions, and a staple for much of the world's poor, has warned that diseases and pests are steadily encroaching upon crops.

One thing we can be sure of is that the Sigatoka won't lose in this battle Emile Frison plant pathologist

The problem is that the banana we eat is a seedless, sterile article which could slip the way of its predecessor which was wiped out by blight half a century ago.

But Dr Emile Frison, who heads the French-based International Network for the Improvement of Banana and Plantain (INIBAP), says the biotechnology and genetic manipulation it might take to save it could put off consumers with GM concerns.

The Cavendish banana now being eaten across the globe lacks genetic diversity, he argues in an article in New Scientist magazine, and its survival is threatened by:

• Panama disease, caused by a soil fungus, which wiped out the Gros Michel variety in the 1950s
• Black Sigatoka, another fungal disease which has reached global epidemic proportions
• Pests invading plantations and farms in central America, Africa and Asia alike.

New Scientist compared the current threat to bananas to the potato blight which caused the devastating Irish famine of the 1840s.

GM fears

Fungicides are proving increasingly ineffective against the diseases, and black Sigatoka especially.

Favoured fruit

First edible bananas date back 10,000 years to South-East Asia Half a billion people in Africa and Asia depend on them as a staple food One hybrid developed with great difficulty turned out to taste more like an apple

"As soon as you bring in a new fungicide, they develop resistance," Dr Frison said.

"One thing we can be sure of is that the Sigatoka won't lose in this battle."

A global consortium of scientists led by Dr Frison last year announced plans to sequence the genetic blueprint of the banana within five years.

They will focus on largely inedible wild bananas, which are full of hard seeds, since many of these are resistant to black Sigatoka.

But the team's work is being hampered by a lack of support from the large producers, who fear that consumers will not accept a GM banana.

The Belgian scientist, who is based in Montpellier in southern France, pointed out that the research would be directed towards bananas eaten in Africa, where consumption is up to 50 times greater than that in a nation like Great Britain.

"Work on the banana genome will be concentrated on finding ways to improve the varieties on which Africans depend for their survival, rather than the one you and I buy off supermarket shelves," he said.

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The first ever Israeli has gone into space, with the successful launch of the space shuttle Columbia on Thursday.

Colonel Ilan Ramon, an Israeli fighter pilot, blasted off with six other crew members on a mission which will undertake a series of scientific experiments.

The most calm and relaxed person is Ilan Rona Ramon, wife of Israeli astronaut

Extra security measures, including a large security cordon, sniffer dogs and swat teams, were brought in as Mr Ramon's presence, along with a delegation of 300 Israeli officials, heightened security fears.

The mission is carrying a special pressurised laboratory into space for 16 days of experiments, principally on microgravity.

Israeli excitement

Mr Ramon's wife and children were among those present for the launch.

ISRAEL'S FIRST ASTRONAUT

Fought in 1973 Arab-Israeli War Makes Israel 30th nation in space Son of Holocaust survivor Questions over space Sabbath

Click here for more on Colonel Ramon

Mrs Ramon admitted to some nervousness and said she could not wait for the 16-day mission to be over, the Associated Press reported.

"I don't want to talk about fear. We're not talking about fear. I'm sure Nasa is doing everything that is possible not to take any risk and any chances," she said.

"The most calm and relaxed person is Ilan."

The launch has caused great excitement in Israel - dominating newspaper headlines and TV reports.

Although Mr Ramon is not particularly religious, as the first representative of the Jewish state in space, he said he would carry a Bible and eat only Kosher food.

Extra security measures were brought in

His desire to keep the Sabbath on Saturday was a potential problem as the sun sets and rises several times a day in space.

However, a Florida rabbi ruled he should adhere to the same time as Houston, where Nasa Mission Control is based.

"This is such an exciting time for us... he makes us so proud," said Israel's ambassador to the United States, Danny Ayalon.

Extensive testing

Weather conditions were near perfect for the launch of flight STS-107, with a clear, cool morning.

The mission is dedicated purely to scientific experimentation as the shuttle will not be ferrying any parts to the growing International Space Station (ISS).

The crew of seven will work in shifts for 24 hours each day to complete an extensive programme of tests.

The shuttle's lab will test microgravity

However, the mission could be of great benefit to the ISS, as it will test a new technology which could enable the permanent recycling of water there.

The so-called Spacehab laboratory riding on the orbiter will be the venue for experiments on combustion in microgravity.

The scientists will also be looking at a number of experiments involving the compression of granular materials which may help improve construction techniques.

Many other experiments will examine physiological changes in the human body as a result of microgravity.

Cell cultures will be grown on the shuttle to see how these respond to the off-Earth environment.

Other projects, from students in several countries, involve examining the effects of spaceflight on spiders, silkworms, fish, bees and ants.

French sailors taking part in the round-the-world Jules Verne Trophy say they have come across one of the most elusive monsters of the sea - the giant squid.

We didn't have anything to scare off this beast [...] We weren't going to attack it with our penknives