French winemakers are complaining about the increasingly difficult business environment they face caused by the rise of anti-alcoholism sentiment in the country. They fear the French wine would one day go the way of the cigarette, which was banned in public places.

At the heart of their anxiety is a government proposal last week to raise the legal age for purchasing alcohol to 18 from 16. Aside from hiking the legal age, the proposal will also prohibit the sale of alcohol at highway gas stations and will not allow all-you-can-drink open bar evenings at French high schools.

Mathematicians at the University of California Los Angeles claim that they have found a 13-million-digit prime number long sought by computer users.

The Los Angeles Times reported the discovery of the first verified Mersenne prime number with more than 10 million digits qualifies UCLA for a $100,000 prize from the Electronic Frontier Foundation. The discovery is the 46th known Mersenne prime number and the eighth Mersenne prime discovered at UCLA.

Two French nationals held hostage by Somalian pirates since September 2 were rescued by the French army, in an operation that also resulted in the death of one pirate and the capture of six others.

The office of President Nicolas Sarkozy said Jean-Yves and Bernadette Delane are safe. Sarkozy gave the green light on Monday for the French army to carry out the operations.

Bark extract from French maritime pine tree can act as an anti inflammatory and strong antioxidant that can help lower pain in knee arthritis, a new study has found.

The study conducted at Slovakia's Comenius University School of Medicine selected 100 Slovakian adults with mild knee arthritis.

In the world's most expensive science experiment, 5,000 scientists, engineers and technicians from nearly three dozen countries will attempt to test the Big Bang theory to understanding the beginning of time.

The tests, to re-create what happened immediately after the Big Bang, will be conducted using the Large Hadron Collider (LHC), located underneath the French-Swiss border, in the European Organization for Nuclear Research laboratory -- better known by its French acronym CERN.