The team includes David Charbonneau and David Latham from the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, Massachusetts, Timothy Brown from the National Center for Atmospheric research, Colorado, and Michel Mayor from the Geneva Observatory.

BBC: We saw it too, say astronomers

Since the discovery in 1995 of a planet around the star 51 Pegasi by Michel Mayor and his colleague Didier Queloz, more than 270 exoplanets have been found - mostly around Sun-like stars.

BBC: Trio of 'super-Earths' discovered

One reason is that the limited devolution of power from Paris to the provinces in the 1980s has increased regional politicians' powers of patronage: hence the fall into temptation in the 1990s of Alain Carignon, mayor of Grenoble, and Michel Noir, mayor of Lyons, both of whom went to prison.

ECONOMIST: France��s secret loves

Michel Bezuijen, mayor of the Haarlemmermeer municipality under which Schiphol airport falls, said the passenger list was being studied to establish the nationalities and identities of those on board.

BBC: Turkish plane crash in Amsterdam