Paris - French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner was quoted Wednesday as saying that he had made a mistake in asking President Nicolas Sarkozy to create a ministry for human rights.

"I think I was wrong to ask for a junior minister for human rights. It's a mistake. Because there is a permanent contradiction between human rights and a nation's foreign policy, even in France," Kouchner said in an interview published in the daily Le Parisien on the 60th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

Melbourne, Dec 10 : French scientists are trying to develop self-cleaning windows and windshields – with the help of butterfly wings.

Butterfly wings – and lotus leaves – can repel water with ease because of the microstructures on their surface.

The waffle-like structures found on butterfly wings can make it difficult for water droplets to spread out.

Paris  -

Paris - A French web surfer who advised a young girl on the internet how to commit suicide has been sentenced to one year in prison, the daily Le Parisien reported on Tuesday.

The 23-year-old resident of the eastern region of Haute-Savoie, identified only as Joel A., was convicted of advising 16-year-old Florence, who lived in western France, how to use morphine to take her own life.

Florence's body was found on September 5, 2005, in a forest near her home in Brittany. Her parents then examined her computer and discovered traces of her chat room exchanges with Joel.

Paris - French President Nicolas Sarkozy on Monday joined the growing international chorus of voices urging Zimbabwe's controversial president, Robert Mugabe, to leave office.

"The president of Zimbabwe, Robert Mugabe, must go," Sarkozy said during a speech commemorating the 60th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which is on Wednesday.

Paris, Dec 6: The European Space Agency''s (ESA''s) Cluster satellites have studied the mysterious magnetic substorms on Earth and compared it with similar phenomenon on the giant planet Jupiter for a better understanding.

Magnetic substorms on Earth disrupt orbiting satellites, including telecommunication satellites and global positioning systems.

During a magnetic substorm on Earth, particles located tens of thousands kilometres on the nightside are energised and hurled earthward within a few minutes.