Paris - The French government has climbed down after widespread protests over a new police database, French media reported on Friday.

Interior Minister Michele Alliot-Marie is to present a new version of the Edvige database later Friday, on the demand of Prime Minister Francois Fillon, who bowed to complaints from human rights groups, opposition politicians and members of his own UMP party.

Edvige - which stands for Documentary Exploitation - was created by government decree on June 27 to replace a 1991 database used by France's domestic security agency RG to track public figures, such as politicians and labour leaders, who could resort to violence and threaten the security of the state.

Paris, September 19: XMM-Newton has uncovered a well-tuned periodic signal from a super-massive black hole lodged at the centre of a galaxy, ending a long quest for such an object.

These periodic signals originating from the black hole are emitted in X-rays, which are blocked out by the Earth’s atmosphere. So, the team used data from ESA’s orbiting X-ray observatory, XMM-Newton, to make the discovery.

Paris, September 19 : The European Space Agency’s (ESA’s) Venus Express has for the first time, put together a 3-D picture of the Venusian winds for an entire planetary hemisphere, which would help estimate how windy is it on Venus.

The most powerful atmospheric investigator ever sent to Venus, Venus Express has an advantageous orbit around the planet and a unique set of instruments.

The spacecraft has the ability to peer through Venus’s thick atmospheric layers and obtain a truly global picture.

Paris - Buoyed by the intervention of major central

Paris - Buoyed by the intervention of major central banks in foreign exchange markets, French shares on Thursday were resisting the downward pull created by Wednesday's Wall Street sell-off.

One hour after opening, the Paris Bourse's benchmark CAC 40 was up 0.19 per cent, at 4,007.60. Shortly after trading began, the CAC 40 sank to its lowest level in three years before recovering.

The resistance was led by Franco-Belgian bank Dexia, which gained 5 per cent to 8.64 euros. French bank BNP Paribas was up 2.16 per cent, at 57.40 euros.

Paris - The first EU-Central Asia Forum on security issues opened Thursday in Paris.

The forum has brought together ministers from the 27 EU member nations, the Central Asian states of Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Kyrgyzstan and EU member candidate nations, such as Turkey, Croatia and Macedonia.

Representatives from Russia, China and Japan are also taking part. Afghanistan is attending as an observer country because of its geographical proximity and the problems it shares with regional neighbours.

Discussions at the one-day meeting will focus on three main issues: the threat of terrorism, the fight against human and drug trafficking, and energy and environmental security.