Paris, Dec 19 : With Venus Express making the first detection of an atmospheric loss process on the planet's day-side, scientists have come closer to understanding where did all the water on Venus vanished, which is suspected to have once been as abundant as on Earth.

The spacecraft's magnetometer instrument (MAG) detected the unmistakable signature of hydrogen gas being stripped from the day-side.

"This is a process that was believed to be happening at Venus but this is the first time we measured it," said Magda Delva, Austrian Academy of Sciences, Graz, who leads the investigation.

Paris - The French government is preparing to deploy reinforcements to Afghanistan to comply with the wishes of US president-elect Barack Obama to carry out a military "surge" there, the online edition of the daily Liberation reported on Thursday.

The new deployment is likely to consist of several hundred soldiers and will eventually form part of a "French brigade" that will be stationed near the valley of Kapissa, the daily reported.

Paris - The French government is preparing to deploy reinforcements to Afghanistan to comply with the wishes of US president-elect Barack Obama to carry out a military "surge" there, the online edition of the daily Liberation reported on Thursday.

The new deployment is likely to consist of several hundred soldiers and will eventually form part of a "French brigade" that will be stationed near the valley of Kapissa, the daily reported.

Paris - The French nuclear energy supplier Areva said Thursday it had signed an agreemen

Paris - A court in the Paris suburb of Saint-Denis on Thursday ruled that a company on the island of La Reunion must pay French First Lady Carla Bruni-Sarkozy
40,000 euros (58,400 dollars) in damages for having used her nude photo on a line of shopping bags, French media reported.

The court found that the Pardon company had used Bruni-Sarkozy's image without authorization and had caused her "moral and patrimonial damage," the online edition of the daily Le Monde reported.

The company is also prohibited from selling or otherwise distributing the bag and must pay 3,000 euros in court fees.

Paris - An appeals court in the eastern French city of Colmar on Thursday confirmed a 200,000-euro (292,000-dollar) fine imposed on Volvo for the deaths of two children in a 1999 accident.

The court found that the Volvo 850 TDI driven by a French teacher ran over the two children, aged 9 and 10, because its brakes had not functioned correctly.

The children had been on the way to school when the fatal accident occurred. A third child was seriously injured.