Moscow  - Just seconds before blast off, Russia delayed the launch Monday of one of Europe's most technically advanced space missions, a Space Forces spokesman said.

Lieutenant Colonel Alexei Zolotukhin was quoted by news agency Interfax as saying the launch was delayed for 24 hours for "technical reasons."

The 450-million-dollar European Space Agency (ESA) satellite is to reach orbit strapped to the back of a modified Russian ballistic missile from the Plesetsk Cosmodrome in north-west Russia.

Paris - French physicist Bernard Espagnat was awarded the prestigious Templeton Prize, worth 1 million pounds (1.41 million dollars), the John Templeton Foundation announced in Paris on Monday.

The 87-year-old Espagnat was named the recipient of the world's most generous individual scientific award for his work in the field of quantum mechanics, particularly for his experimental proofs on Bell inequalities.

Bell inequalities concern measurements made on pairs of particles and were derived from the original Bell's inequality, devised by the late physicist John Bell, regarding an apparently inherent contradiction in quantum mechanics.

Paris - French physicist Bernard Espagnat was awarded the prestigious Templeton Prize, worth 1 million pounds (1.41 million dollars), the John Templeton Foundation announced in Paris on Monday.

The 87-year-old Espagnat was named the recipient of the world's most generous individual scientific award for his work in the field of quantum mechanics, particularly for his experimental proofs on Bell inequalities.

Bell inequalities concern measurements made on pairs of particles and were derived from the original Bell's inequality, devised by the late physicist John Bell, regarding an apparently inherent contradiction in quantum mechanics.

London, Mar 16 : New images providing fundamental insights into how cancer cells die have revealed that there is a dramatic increase in the viscosity, or ''gloopiness'', of different parts of cancer cells, when they are blasted with light-activated cancer drugs.

London, March 16 : In a new research, a statistician in the US has suggested that every individual is not only liable for the greenhouse gas emissions caused by him, but also for his children, and further descendants.

According to a report in New Scientist, the statistician in question is Paul Murtaugh, from Oregon State University in Corvallis, US.

"If you have a child, you and you partner are each responsible for half its emissions. If that child has kids, one-quarter of their emissions are down to you, and so on," said Murtaugh.

"How it adds up depends on population trends and emission changes in the future," he added.

Hanoi (Vietnam), March 16 : Archaeologists have found more than 4,000 ancient artifacts of stone and bone in an archaeological site in Vietnam.

The treasure trove of artifacts was discovered at the Xom Trai archaeological site in Tan Lap commune, Lac Son district in northern Hoa Binh province, by archaeologists from the Hoa Binh Museum and the Southeast Asia Prehisory Centre.

According to VOV News, scientists said that Xom Trai Cave, recognized as a national archaeological site in 2001, is believed to be a tool workshop as well as a habitat for people of the Hoa Binh civilization.