Two a penny

Donors discuss Haiti’s long-term needs

NZ News — Mon, 25 Jan 2010 11:00:00 +0000

.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

Black Eyed Peas lose out in awards mix-up

German News — Sun, 24 Jan 2010 21:09:00 +0000

.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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Vieira confident on World Cup chances

admin — Sun, 24 Jan 2010 20:00:00 +0000

.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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Attoub fights lengthy gouging ban

Sydney News — Fri, 22 Jan 2010 22:33:00 +0000

.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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Imam lends support to French burqa ban

French News — Fri, 22 Jan 2010 19:09:00 +0000

.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

French kiss all-male boardrooms goodbye

French News — Thu, 21 Jan 2010 22:00:00 +0000

.The French government has passed a radical affirmative action plan that will force publicly-listed companies to hire more women in their boardrooms.
At the moment women hold fewer than 10 per cent of boardroom seats in publicly-listed companies, but the new laws will see that figure rise to 40 per cent.
Women hold a certain place in French society - they are famed writers, musicians and supermodels.
Avivah Wittenberg Cox, the CEO of 20-first, one of Europe’s leading gender consultancies, has welcomed the new legislation.
Men adore them in the bedroom, but not, it seems, in the boardroom.
“What we’ve had until now, I would suggest, is actually a pretty established millennium of affirmative action in favour of masculine leadership styles, networks and norms.
“I think this is the beginning of what we might actually consider true meritocracy,” she said. . It too recently introduced a similar, though voluntary, scheme.”
In Spain, women fill just 4 per cent of board seats.
According to the Norwegian government, the quota is not simply a strike for equality - it makes sound economic sense in a country that has weathered the economic storm better than most.
In 2003 Norway became the first country to pass a law requiring boards to have at least 40 per cent of seats occupied by women.
“From my perspective, in a country where 50 per cent of the population is women, where they have had 50 per cent of the students in higher education for decades, there was no reason to keep them out of the boards,” he said.
The minister of trade and industry in the Norwegian government at the time, Ansgar Gabrielsen, says the quota system ensures women are no longer disadvantaged.
“What is the reason that only 6 per cent of the members of the board are women? I have been in the business world, so I know how it works, how they elect people to the boards and how they elect friends, how they elect people from the same schools, from the same hunting or fishing club or golf club or whatever, there was no reason to go on with that.
“What is the reason that only 6 per cent of the members of the board are women? I have been in the business world, so I know how it works, how they elect people to the boards and how they elect friends, how they elect people from the same schools, from the same hunting or fishing club or golf club or whatever, there was no reason to go on with that.”

. It will change all over the world, I’m sure

Alix creator dead at 88

NZ News — Thu, 21 Jan 2010 19:43:00 +0000

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French cartoonist Jacques Martin, creator of the popular comic book hero Alix and a collaborator on the Tintin books, has died aged 88.
Martin collaborated with Tintin creator Herge for 19 years on numerous cartoon books featuring the famous boy reporter and his faithful dog Snowy. .
Enjoying success in his own right after his creation Alix sprang from the pages of Tintin to become its own brand, Strasbourg-born Martin plundered Imperial Rome, Egypt and the Napoleonic era for the backdrops to his stories.
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He died on Thursday (local time) in Switzerland

Forgiven Bastareaud returns for France

admin — Wed, 20 Jan 2010 13:09:00 +0000

.France coach Marc Lievremont has forgiven Mathieu Bastareaud for lying about being attacked after a loss to New Zealand last year and named him in a 30-man squad for the Six Nations championship.
The 21-year-old centre had said he was attacked by up to five people as he returned to the team hotel following a 14-10 defeat by the All Blacks in Wellington last June. .
Back in France, after being told CCTV footage showed him entering the hotel uninjured, he admitted lying and said he had fallen in his bedroom because he was drunk.
“Bastareaud deserves to be back because he is performing well with his Stade Francais club and because he has started to do the community service he has been sentenced to.
“The unhappy episode of this summer is forgotten,” Lievremont said.
Half-back Frederic Michalak, winger Cedric Heymans, centre Florian Fritz and full-back Maxime Medard were left out of a squad already without suspended scrum-half Julien Dupuy plus prop Fabien Barcella and centre Damien Traille, who are both injured.”
The France coach also recalled 32-year-old scrum-half Jean-Baptiste Elissalde, fly half Benjamin Boyet, wings Aurelien Rougerie and Julien Malzieu and full-back Clement Poitrenaud. It doesn’t mean they are too old or forgotten or rejected,” Lievremont said.
“There are some players we rely on, we appreciate but who have not performed as well in recent weeks.
France will start its Six Nations campaign against Scotland at Murrayfield on February 7.
Another surprise was the call-up of newcomer Fabrice Estebanez, a 29-year-old former rugby league international, who plays either at centre or fly half with Brive.
Backs: Jean-Baptiste Elissalde, Morgan Parra, Benjamin Boyet, Francois Trinh-Duc, Mathieu Bastareaud, Fabrice Estebanez, David Marty, Yannick Jauzion, Vincent Clerc, Benjamin Fall, Julien Malzieu, Aurelien Rougerie, Alexis Palisson, Clement Poitrenaud.
Forwards: Thomas Domingo, Luc Ducalcon, Sylvain Marconnet, Nicolas Mas, William Servat, Dimitri Szarzewski, Sebastien Chabal, Romain Millo-Chluski, Lionel Nallet, Pascal Pape, Julien Bonnaire, Thierry Dusautoir (c), Imanol Harinordoquy, Alexandre Lapandry, Fulgence Ouedraogo, Louis Picamoles.
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Space rocks land tourists in Sudanese jail

admin — Tue, 19 Jan 2010 23:00:00 +0000

.Three European tourists have been detained in Sudan for acquiring the remnants of a rare meteorite that hit a remote region in 2008, their lawyer said. .
Mr Ahmed says the trio were “just tourists, who had no intention of committing a crime”.
“They were arrested two weeks ago in Abu Hamad and were transferred on Sunday to the Bahri prison,” he said.
Sudan’s interior ministry previously released a statement confirming French and Belgian tourists had been arrested “for acquiring .
A Western diplomat confirmed the arrest of the three, without giving further details…
The meteorite, named 2008 TC3, struck north Sudan in October 2008, close to the Egyptian border. the remains of meteorites, which constitutes an offence” under Sudan’s laws governing archaeological activity.
The arrests come in the context of tense relations between Sudan and France, which is harbouring Abdel Wahid Nur, the exiled leader of a key Darfuri rebel group.
Space rocks that make it through the Earth’s atmosphere can be extremely valuable and this rare example has been the object of research by Sudanese and United States scientists.
But Mr Ahmed says the case is criminal, not political.
Paris is also a fervent supporter of the decision in March by the International Criminal Court to issue a warrant for the arrest of Sudan’s President Omar al-Beshir on charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity in Darfur.
He added the Sudanese authorities still had to determine the nature of the rocks in their possession.
“They are doing well, they are being well treated, they have been able to speak to their families, and I hope to be able to secure their release tomorrow,” he said.
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Polanski wins damages over photos

German News — Tue, 19 Jan 2010 19:46:00 +0000

.Filmmaker Roman Polanski won more damages on Tuesday (local time) from French publications that printed photographs of him at his Swiss home where he is confined pending extradition proceedings in a child sex case.
A Paris court convicted the magazines VSD and Voici and the weekly newspaper Journal de Dimanche of breaching Polanski’s privacy by publishing zoom-lens pictures of him and his children without permission.
Polanski is under house arrest while Swiss authorities consider a demand by the United States to deport him to face charges of having unlawful sex with a 13-year-old girl in California in 1977.
It ordered them to pay a total of 16,000 euros ($24,700) in fines, costs and compensation to him and his wife, French actress Emmanuelle Seigner.