Partygoers worldwide have unusually cheap Champagne to help them forget economic pain of 2009

PARIS - Partygoers worldwide have at least one good reason to forget the economic pain, job fears and mortgage woes of 2009: unusually cheap Champagne for New Year's.

Champagne houses and retailers have had a tough year, forcing some to make aggressive price cuts. But the discounting is causing divisions among vintners, and analysts warn the move could threaten the bubbly's premium reputation.

In supermarket chains such as Carrefour SA and Auchan, French shoppers were snapping up real Champagne for less than C10 ($14) a bottle, as even high-end producers such as Laurent Perrier compete with cheaper bubbly such as Italian prosecco and Spanish cava.

To see the full story click here.

Air France crash still a mystery: new search for black boxes

Le Bourget, France
French aviation investigators said Tuesday they are optimistic about finding the black boxes of Air France Flight 447, which crashed in the Atlantic last June en route from Rio to Paris, when a third phase of research begins in February.

All 228 people aboard the plane were killed.
Jean-Paul Troadec, chief of the French Accident Investigation Agency, said an international team of experts will reduce the search area for the black boxes to 2,500 square kilometers (965 square miles) — a fifth the size of previous efforts to recover them from the depths of the Atlantic Ocean.
That should make it easier to locate the debris from the plane, and the flight recorders.
To read the full story click here.

It Flies! Airbus' Hulking A400M Has Maiden Flight

The A400M military transport plane that has been causing Airbus and European defense ministers budgetary and logistical headaches finally took to the skies for its maiden flight on Friday.

But even as the hulking gray airlifter took off from the Spanish city of Seville, defense officials are meeting on the sidelines of the event to decide how to continue with the much delayed and over budget project.

Louis Gallois, head of Airbus parent EADS, said he found the takeoff "more moving than I expected. It's enormous. We've been waiting a long time."

To see the full story click here.

U.S. drinkers of cheap wine keep global market buzzing

PARIS — Is the world drowning its sorrows in cheap wine?
An industry group said Thursday that more wine could be consumed globally this year, thanks to crisis-fueled demand for cheaper or discounted tipples, particularly in the United States.
While that might benefit some low-end producers, the organization's director cautioned wine growers to resist what he called the "massive pressure on prices," which erodes profits."If you cut too much, it's difficult to go back to your original price," Federico Castellucci told The Associated Press.
After years of steady growth, global wine consumption started to retreat last year, along with the rest of the world economy.
The International Organization of Vine and Wine said that erosion may have halted as wine growers battled to maintain sales volumes by cutting prices and as more wine is sold in bulk.
To read the full story, click here.

Businesses Fear Europe Recovery Will Remain Timid

From his upstairs office, Jerome Frantz can hear the delivery trucks as they rumble into the yard of the auto parts business his grandfather founded 90 years ago.

In better times, each day Frantz would have as many as 60 big trucks pulling into the forecourt of Frantz Electrolyse just outside Paris, loaded with metal parts to be heat treated and coated in a protective covering.

But demand for auto parts fluctuates with the fortunes of the auto industry including major customers such as Renault SA and PSA Peugeot Citroen SA — and then with little warning. The summer was weak, but September and October saw a slight pickup, with as many as 35 trucks rolling up each day.

Now Frantz is counting only 25 on a good day.

To see the full story click here.

G-20 leaders promise tighter regulations

PITTSBURGH -- World leaders took credit Friday for pulling the economy "back from the brink," and promised a new world order of tighter financial regulation and more inclusive global governance to protect the world from future meltdowns.
The gathering of the world's 20 top economies cautioned that the recovery remained fragile and agreed to keep stimulus plans, which include government spending and low interest rates, in place in their respective countries.
Turning from the crisis-management of previous summits, the Group of 20 leaders pledged to set up more rigorous financial rules that would cut down on some of the risky behavior and excesses that have been blamed for rocking the global economy. And they vowed better coordination over economic policies.
To see the full story, click here.

Pilots question airspeed sensors' troubled history

PARIS — Airbus knew since at least 2002 about problems with the type of speed sensor that malfunctioned on an Air France passenger plane that went down in June, the Associated Press has learned. But air safety authorities did not order their replacement until after the crash, which killed all 228 people aboard.
The tubes, about the size of an adult hand and fitted to the underbelly of a plane, are vulnerable to blockage from water and icing. Experts have suggested that Flight 447's sensors, made by French company Thales SA, may have iced over and sent false speed information to the computers as the plane ran into a thunderstorm at about 35,000 feet (10,600 meters).
The exact role the sensors – known as Pitots – played in the crash may never be known without the flight recorders, which have not been recovered and which have stopped emitting signals. Investigators insist sensor malfunction was not the cause of the crash, but many pilots think false speed readings may have triggered a chain of events that doomed the plane.
Fernando Alonso, head of Flight Operations at Airbus, maintains the doomed Airbus A330 plane was "totally airworthy."
To read the full story click here.