Paris, August 26: ESA’s (European Space Agency’s) orbiting X-ray observatory XMM-Newton has discovered the most massive cluster of galaxies seen in the distant Universe until now.

The newly-discovered cluster, known only by the catalogue number 2XMM J083026+524133, is estimated to contain as much mass as a thousand large galaxies. Much of it is in the form of 100-million-degree hot gas.

The galaxy cluster is so big that there can only be a handful of them at that distance, making this a rare catch indeed.

Paris  - Four armed men commandeered a 55-metre luxury yacht near the French island of Corsica, looting the vessels' safe, French media reported Monday.

Paris - French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner Monday ruled out th

Paris, August 24 : The European Space Agency (ESA) is about to launch the most sophisticated mission ever to investigate the Earth''s surface, core, and, gravitational field, with unprecedented resolution and accuracy.

Known as the Gravity field and steady-state Ocean Circulation Explorer (GOCE), the satellite will be placed onto a low altitude near sun-synchronous orbit by a Russian Rockot vehicle launched from the Plesetsk Cosmodrome in Northern Russia, some 800 km north of Moscow. 

Lift-off is scheduled to take place on Wednesday, September 10. 

Paris - French Defence Minister Herve Morin on Thursday rejected accusations that the French military's response to a Taliban attack on its troops in Afghanistan which killed ten soldiers was too slow.

Morin told RTL radio that the exact circumstances of the attack must be clarified before criticisms can be made.

The French newspaper Le Monde had written on Thursday that support troops were sent to the combat zone too late, and that the patrol in which ten soldiers were killed had been under fire for four hours without help.

But Morin told RTL that a rapid reaction force was despatched "15 to 20 minutes after the firefight began" although it did take about an hour for them to reach the battle site.