PARIS - MANKIND'S quest to peer ever deeper into the cosmos gained a massive boost on Thursday as Europe released two mighty observatories into space and the US pressed ahead with refurbishing the acclaimed Hubble telescope.

The two European instruments comprise Herschel, the most powerful infrared space telescope ever built, and Planck, designed to delve into the remnants of the 'Big Bang' that created the Universe some 14 billion years ago.

CHICAGO - WHILE a collapse of the West Antarctic ice sheet will have devastating impacts on global sea levels, a study published on Thursday found the anticipated impact has been seriously overestimated.

Using new measures of the ice sheet's geometry, British and Dutch researchers predict its collapse would cause sea levels to rise by 3.2 meters rather than previous estimates of five to seven meters.

MOUNTAIN VIEW (California) - TECHNICAL problems at Google are preventing an unknown number of people from using its Internet search engine, e-mail and other services.

In a Thursday post on its Web site, the Mountain View-based company reports that a 'small subset of users' hasn't been able to get into their e-mail accounts.