.The World Health Organisation and the pharmaceutical industry have been criticised for their handling of last year’s swine flu pandemic.
At a hearing of the Council of Europe - the European Union’s human rights body - the WHO faced accusations that it exaggerated the danger of the virus under pressure from drug companies.
When a pandemic was declared last June, most European countries changed their health priorities to accommodate thousands of expected patients. .
A number of European governments had signed contracts with the drug companies to buy back vaccines, believing a flu pandemic long predicted by health experts would be a virus-like bird flu with a very high death rate.
- BBC
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The organisation denies any conflict of interest
.A French parliament report called for a ban on the full Islamic veil in all schools, hospitals, public transport and government offices, saying the burqa was an affront to French values.
“The wearing of the full veil is a challenge to our republic. “We must condemn this excess. .
The commission called on parliament to adopt a formal resolution stating that the burqa was “contrary to the values of the republic” and proclaiming that “all of France is saying ‘no’ to the full veil.”
After six months of hearings, the panel of 32 lawmakers recommended a ban on the face-covering veil in all state-run institutions and offices, the broadest move yet to restrict Muslim dress in France.
The panel however stopped short of proposing broad legislation to outlaw the burqa on the streets or in shopping centres after cautioning that such a move would have to be reviewed by the courts to establish its legality.”
Women who turn up at government offices wearing the full veil should be denied services such as a work visa, residency papers or French citizenship, the report recommended.
“There are scandalous practices hidden behind this veil,” said Mr Gerin who vowed to fight the “gurus” seeking to export a racial brand of fundamentalism and sectarianism to France.
“The wearing of the full veil is the tip of the iceberg,” said communist lawmaker Andre Gerin, the chair of the commission.
President Nicolas Sarkozy set the tone for the debate in June when he declared the burqa “not welcome” in France and described it as a symbol of women’s “subservience” that cannot be tolerated in a country that considers itself a human rights leader.
Home to Europe’s biggest Muslim minority, estimated at about six million, France is being closely watched at a time of particular unease over Islam, three months after Swiss voters approved a ban on minarets.
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.Visionary film director Tim Burton says his selection to head the jury at this year’s Cannes film festival is “a dream come true”.
“After spending my early life watching triple features and 48-hour horror-movie marathons, I’m finally ready for this,” he said in a statement.
Burton, 51, has created some of the darkest and most evocative movies in cinematic history, including Beetlejuice, Edward Scissorhands and Planet of the Apes.
The other eight members of the jury, who decide on the winner of the Palme d’Or for best film, will be announced in April, as will the movies selected to contend for the coveted prize. .
“He’s a magician,” said festival president Gilles Jacob, hailing Burton’s talent for bringing to life hauntingly beautiful filmscapes and edgy characters.
Warner hired him for the first Batman in 1989, which enabled him to move on to more personal projects, including Edward Scissorhands the following year and Nightmare before Christmas, which he produced.
Born Timothy Walter Burton, the first of his 14 feature films was Pee-Wee’s Big Adventure in 1985, but it was Beetlejuice in 1988 that threw the doors of Hollywood wide open.
His next feature, a 3D adaptation of Lewis Carroll’s Alice in Wonderland, starring his emblematic actor Johnny Depp and Helena Bonham Carter, will be released in theatres in March.
Burton is also an illustrator, painter and photographer, and New York’s Museum of Modern Art currently features an exhibition of his work.
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.Leonardo Da Vinci’s remains are to be exhumed to allow scientists to establish whether the Mona Lisa is a disguised self-portrait.
Scientists and historians from Italy’s National Committee for Cultural Heritage have sought permission to open the artist’s tomb in France’s Loire Valley.
They hope to find his skull which they can use to reconstruct his face to discover whether his famed masterpiece, the Mona Lisa, is in fact a self-portrait in disguise.
Scholars have suggested Da Vinci’s presumed homosexuality and love of riddles led him to paint himself as a woman.
Mystery has surrounded the identity of the Mona Lisa for centuries.
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Speculation on the sitter has also ranged from Lisa Gherardini, the wife of a Florentine merchant, to Da Vinci’s mother
.The US Supreme Court has refused to stop the extradition of Panama’s former leader Manuel Noriega to France.
Manuel Noriega has served a 17-year sentence in a US prison for drug charges.
The former Panamanian dictator appealed to the US Supreme Court to block that extradition, but the court has today decided not to hear the appeal.
The United States now wants to extradite him to France to face money laundering charges.
But he says he has no doubt she will send Noriega to France.
Noriega’s lawyer Frank Rubino says the final decision on France’s extradition request rests with US Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton.
.More than a dozen foreign ministers, including secretary of state Hilary Clinton, are in Montreal this morning for a donor conference on Haiti. .
The Paris Club of creditor nations, which includes the US, Canada, Britain and France have already agreed to speed up the process of debt relief.
The foreign ministers, non governmental agencies, the United Nations and banks will try to lay the groundwork for a long-term plan for the rebuilding and recovery of Haiti.
Another option is to start by forgiving Haiti’s debt load, estimated at just over $1 billion.
It has also been suggested that international donors create a $10 billion, five-year assistance program for Haiti.
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But today’s meeting will focus more on what the country’s long-term needs are and also decide where and when a more more substantive pledging conference will take place
.The Black Eyed Peas were mistakenly declared best international group at France’s top music awards.
Choreographer Kamel Ouali presented the US band with the prize at the NRJ Awards in Cannes on Saturday. .
Last year Katy Perry was mistakenly given the trophy for best international song when it should have gone to Rihanna.
The prize was then given to the real winners, German band Tokio Hotel.
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.New Manchester City recruit Patrick Vieira says he has a “100 per cent chance” of playing for France at next summer’s World Cup finals, despite having not represented his country since June 2009.
“As I’m an optimist, I’m going to say 100 per cent,” he said in response to a question about his chances of playing in South Africa on the Canal Football Club television show overnight.
“The desire is there, it’s my goal.”
Vieira, who has yet to play for his new club, admitted that he had received “no guarantees” from France coach Raymond Domenech, who he met shortly before Christmas, and conceded that the situation “is not as simple as that”. In my head, I don’t see myself missing the World Cup.
“You have to play, which is the important thing for me.
“But he said that as soon as I’m playing, there’s no reason why I shouldn’t be selected,” said Vieira, whose last France appearance saw him captain Les Bleus to a 1-0 defeat against Nigeria in Saint-Etienne last June. I have five months.
He joined City from reigning Italian champion Inter Milan on January 8.”
Vieira, 33, was a member of the France team that won the 1998 World Cup and the 2000 European Championship and has 107 caps.
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.Stade Francais prop David Attoub has appealed against his 70-week ban for gouging in a Heineken Cup match against Ulster the previous month, competition organisers said overnight.
“David Attoub has today lodged an appeal against both the finding of foul play and level of sanction imposed by an independent disciplinary hearing last Tuesday,” said a statement posted on the ERC website.”
The 28-year-old, who played for France in 2006, was suspended for gouging flanker Stephen Ferris’s eyes in an ill-tempered game won 23-13 by Ulster in Belfast.
“The independent appeal committee will be appointed as soon as practicable.
“This is the worst act of contact with the eyes I have had to deal with,” judge Jeff Blackett said in a statement posted on the ERC website at the time. .
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.An Imam in Paris has given his support for a law against full-face veils and burqas in France. .
The report will be handed to the national assembly on Tuesday after which the French Government is likely to pass a law banning clothing that covers the face while they are in public.
Hassen Chalghoumi, who heads a mosque in a northern suburb of Paris, said women who wanted to cover their faces should move to Saudi Arabia or other Muslim countries where that was a tradition.
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President Nicolas Sarkozy supports a ban calling the veils an affront to women’s dignity