Paris  - A 14-year-old girl infected with the A(H1N1) virus has died in France, the first death in the country linked to swine flu, the French Health Institute (InVS) said Thursday.

The teenager had been suffering from an unspecified grave illness when she contracted the virus that causes swine flu and which aggravated her condition by provoking a serious lung infection.

Briton's Gemma Spofforth broke the world championship record Tuesday in the women's 100 metre backstroke in Rome.

The 21-year-old swam 58.78 seconds in the heats to beat the previous best-mark held by American Natalie Coughlin, who swam 59.44 in Melbourne two years ago.

Paris  - The last stage of the 2009 Tour de France got under way Sunday in the city of Montereau-Fault-Yonne, south-east of Paris, with 26-year-old Spaniard Alberto Contador set to be crowned Tour champion.

The closing stage of the Tour is traditionally a leisurely ceremonial parade into Paris, with no real racing until the riders reach the Champs Elysees.

Three children under the age of five and their mother died early Tuesday when a fire swept through their house at Mantes-la-Jolie, near Paris, the online edition of the daily Le Parisien reported.

Rescue workers were able to pull the father of the family and another child out of the house. Both were hospitalized.

A radio communications ban for Friday's 13th stage of the Tour de France has been lifted, the world governing body UCI said on its website on Thursday.

The UCI's Management Committee had approved a request by Tour organizers to ban radios contact between riders and their team managers during two stages of this year's race on a trial basis.

Authorities have identified the body of the pilot of the doomed Air France aircraft that plunged into the Atlantic on June 1 with 228 people aboard, the online edition of the French daily Le Figaro reported Thursday.

The Paris public prosecutor's office has demanded that a court trying the French section of the controversial Church of Scientology for organized fraud order the dissolution of the self-styled religion, Paris media reported Tuesday.

The struggling French economy provided some unexpected good news on Tuesday as the government's statistics office Insee reported that household spending on manufactured goods had increased by 1.8 per cent in January.

The rise was especially marked in durable goods, with a rise of 5.7 per cent over January 2008, sparked by a 7.8 per cent jump in spending on automobiles, Insee said.

However, another measure of the mood of French consumers declined in February as the index of consumer confidence fell across the board, Insee said.