Paris, July 18 : Spacecraft controllers have started executing a series of manoeuvres to gradually bring Venus Express closer to its host planet, which would enable it to observe unexplored regions and investigate phenomena that were not within its reach before.

The operational manoeuvres to bring the spacecraft closer will be executed through the month of July, settling it into its new orbit by 4 August.

Until now, Venus Express has occupied a highly eccentric polar orbit: at its closest point (pericentre), the spacecraft is between 250 km and 400 km from the planet, and at its farthest (apocentre), it is about 66,000 km away.

The pericentre is located at 84 degrees north.

Dublin - French President Nicolas Sarkozy, who generated controversy by saying Ireland should hold another referendum on the Lisbon Treaty, is likely to meet opponents of the deal when he visits Dublin next week, media reports said Thursday.

Irish Foreign Affairs Minister Micheal Martin said Sarkozy would be in a "listening mode" during his brief trip on Monday, and would not be imposing any solutions.

Paris - Ten days after the leak of radioactive uranium from a nuclear power plant in southern France, Environment Minister Jean-Louis Borloo said he wants all of France's reactors and the surroundi

Paris  - French consumer prices rose by 0.4 per cent in June, bringing year-on-year inflation to 3.6 per cent, the government's statistical office INSEE said Wednesday.

Paris  - French President Nicolas Sarkozy wants Ireland to hold another referendum on the Lisbon Treaty, which Irish voters rejected last month, the French daily le Figaro reported on Wednesday.

Paris - A 2-year-old French boy has died of the heat because his father forgot him in the family car, France Info radio reported on Wednesday.

Pedestrians in the south-eastern town of Pont de Cheruy noticed the unconscious boy in the car late Tuesday afternoon and called rescue workers. However, attempts to revive the child failed, and he died later in hospital.

According to reports, his father had forgotten all about the child's presence when he parked and locked the car, which was exposed to intense sunshine.

Temperatures in the town reached 25 degrees Celsius in the streets, but police estimated that it was as hot as 45 degrees in the car.

Authorities said that the child had been locked in the car for nearly three hours.