SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) – U.S. prosecutors have launched a criminal probe into whether eBay Inc employees misappropriated confidential information from classified ad service Craigslist, according to a copy of a grand jury subpoena obtained by Reuters.

The two companies have been feuding for years in civil court over allegations that online giant eBay used its Craigslist board seat to glean confidential information about the classified ad business as eBay prepared to launch a rival service.

SAN FRANCISCO, Sept 13 (Reuters) – U.S. prosecutors have
launched a criminal probe into whether eBay Inc (EBAY.O: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz)
employees misappropriated confidential information from
classified ad service Craigslist, according to a copy of a
grand jury subpoena obtained by Reuters.

The two companies have been feuding for years in civil
court over allegations that online giant eBay used its
Craigslist board seat to glean confidential information about
the classified ad business as eBay prepared to launch a rival
service.

By Alexandria Sage

PARIS (Reuters Life!) – Duck fat has a rich history in French cuisine as the key ingredient in savoury cassoulets and confits, but now industrious farmers are turning the grease into biodiesel and biogas.

A farm cooperative based in St. Aquilin, a rural village in the southwestern region of the Dordogne, is powering a tractor and two other vehicles with biodiesel made from duck fat and hopes to convince others to do the same.

PARIS (Reuters) – A French court ordered an investigation on Thursday into the role of IMF head Christine Lagarde in a large settlement paid to a businessman friend of President Nicolas Sarkozy when she was finance minister.

The investigation will get under way at once into Lagarde’s alleged complicity in the misuse of public funds in her approval of a 285 million euro ($407 million) arbitration payout to Bernard Tapie in 2008, the court’s prosecutor said.

PARIS (Reuters) – A French court ordered an investigation Thursday into the role of IMF head Christine Lagarde in a large settlement paid to a businessman friend of President Nicolas Sarkozy when she was finance minister.

The investigation will get under way at once into Lagarde’s alleged complicity in the misuse of public funds in her approval of a 285 million euro ($407 million) arbitration payout to Bernard Tapie in 2008, the court’s prosecutor said.

PARIS (Reuters) – A French court ordered an investigation on Thursday into the role of IMF head Christine Lagarde in a large settlement paid to a businessman friend of President Nicolas Sarkozy when she was finance minister.

The investigation will get under way at once into Lagarde’s alleged complicity in the misuse of public funds in her approval of a 285 million euro (249 million pounds) arbitration payout to Bernard Tapie in 2008, the court’s prosecutor said.

PARIS (Reuters) – A pleat is just a pleat — unless, of course, your name was Madame Gres.

For this celebrated couturier, who pleated and draped her way through a half-century career in fashion, the art of meticulously folding fabric over the body to create dramatic sculpted forms elevated craft to art.

MONACO (Reuters) – Tragedy and scandal have chipped away at the fairy tale principality of Monaco but locals hope a long-awaited wedding between Prince Albert and his South African fiancee will revive a faded gem on the Cote d’Azur.

His Serene Highness Prince Albert II, the 53-year-old ruler of the tiny city-state of Monaco and head of the centuries-old House of Grimaldi, will wed Charlene Wittstock, 33, this weekend in the palace courtyard during a lavish three-day celebration.

By Alexandria Sage

PARIS (Reuters Life!) – The work of Serge Gainsbourg, the large-nosed, Gitanes-smoking French icon whose jazzy, bohemian songs exemplified a sexually liberated France of the 1960s and 1970s, is enjoying a resurgence in the most unlikely of places — perfume ads.

Two upscale brands, Christian Dior and Guerlain, both controlled by luxury giant LVMH, have chosen Gainsbourg’s rasping voice for television ad campaigns currently running on French TV for the perfumes Miss Dior and Shalimar.

WASHINGTON/PARIS (Reuters) – France’s finance minister Christine Lagarde is set to declare on Wednesday she wants to be the next head of the IMF even though big emerging economies have decried Europe’s “obsolete” grip on the top job.

Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa sharply criticized European officials in a joint statement for suggesting the next International Monetary Fund head should automatically be a European, a convention that dates back to the founding of the agency at the end of the Second World War.