Two a penny

.The health ministry in France has issued a warning after eight people died and seven fell sick in two European countries from using heroin contaminated by anthrax.
“Since December 6, there have been 15 confirmed cases of anthrax among heroin users, 14 in Scotland and one in Germany,” the ministry’s General Directorate for Health (DGS) said in a statement. “The likeliest source is heroin contaminated by anthrax spores.
“Eight people died,” it said.
Anthrax is a potentially lethal bacterium that exists naturally in the soil and can also occur among cattle. .
The ministry said the contaminated drug may also be circulating in France and other European countries. It is also, more notoriously, a potential bio-terror weapon.
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“There is no outward sign or colour enabling the user to tell whether the heroin has been contaminated by anthrax, and contaminated heroin dissolves or is used in the same way as uncontaminated heroin,” it said

.Former French midfielder Zinedine Zidane is glad he was sent-off for his head-butt in the 2006 World Cup final because he has not had to live with regret over escaping punishment.
Zidane received a red card for head-butting Italy defender Marco Materazzi in the 2006 final, the last match of his career, which Italy won 5-3 on penalties after a 1-1 draw.
“It [the sending off] was a very good thing,” the former Real Madrid and Juventus playmaker told France Football magazine. I don’t know how I could have lived with it had France become world champions and I had stayed on the pitch.
“It’s good that [Italian keeper Gianluigi] Buffon signalled what I had done to the referee because it was not pretty.
“Many people outside football got involved, people who love you when you lift trophies and let you down when things go wrong.”
Zidane, who helped France lift the World Cup in 1998, thought there had been an over-reaction to Thierry Henry’s handball that led to France beating Ireland in November and securing a 2010 World Cup place. .”
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.Former French president Jacques Chirac has been placed under formal investigation for misuse of public funds while he was mayor of Paris.
There are now two judicial cases hanging over Mr Chirac.
The first and larger of these cases will go to trial next year.
Both concern his long period as mayor of Paris from 1977 to 1995 and both centre on claims he paid senior members of his political party the RPR with funds that belonged to city hall. That means a trial in this case is more likely.
Now Mr Chirac has been told he is under formal investigation in the second. .
Mr Chirac has long protested his innocence in both affairs and he says he will be happy to explain his side of the story before a judge

.France’s first lady, ex-supermodel Carla Bruni-Sarkozy, has agreed to star in Woody Allen’s next movie.
“He suggested I appear in his next film. I don’t know what the role would be, but I said yes,” the 41-year-old Italian-born singer-songwriter told the main evening entertainment show on the Canal+ network.
“I’m not an actress at all.
“I go into everything blindly or I’d never do anything at all,” she added, apparently referring to her showbiz career rather than to her sudden marriage last year to President Nicolas Sarkozy. When I’m a grandmother I’d like to be able to say I made a film with Woody Allen. Perhaps I’ll be completely hopeless, but I can’t miss an opportunity like this one.
“Woody Allen kindly asked me not to do a film with anyone else before him.”
New York filmmaker Allen visited the French first couple in June this year during a trip to Paris to promote his last movie, Whatever Works.
“If anything concrete ever comes of it, it’ll be a great experience for me. She has charisma and she performs, so she’s not a stranger to an audience. .”
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.French star Thierry Henry considered ending his international career following the furore that surrounded his handball against Ireland in the World Cup play-off in Paris last Wednesday.
Speaking to the L’Equipe newspaper, the Barcelona striker says that he felt abandoned and alone in the days after the match, which saw the French qualify for South Africa on the back of a goal set up by Henry’s sleight of hand.
Asked if he had considered calling time on his international career Henry replied: “Oh yes.
“I was really upset, and not for the first time. On Friday when everything had gone too far.
“After Euro 2008 also but it was not the right moment. After the World Cup in 2006, I considered that but it was too early. There was a new generation who needed me.
“Despite everything that happened last week, the way I felt abandoned, I will never let my country down. It just wasn’t possible.
That led to calls from Ireland and from some sectors in France for the fixture to be replayed, but world governing body FIFA ruled out any such eventuality ahead of the World Cup draw, which takes place in Cape Town on December 4.”
Henry freely admitted at the end of the Ireland clash that he had used his hand in setting up the French equaliser for William Gallas, which was enough to send the Irish crashing out of the tournament in extra-time.
He did regret having celebrated the goal but says that he had been taken up by the emotion of the moment in what had been a tense encounter.
Henry, who himself stated it would be best to replay the match, says he feels great sympathy for the Irish having suffered a similar fate when playing for Arsenal against Liverpool in 2001 FA Cup final.
“I shouldn’t have done that, but quite honestly it was just out of my control,” he said. .”
Asked if he thought the incident would leave a lasting stain on his career, Henry said. After that we did not celebrate, not even in the dressing rooms. I don’t think that all I have achieved in my career up until now will be be spoiled by this. “Quite honestly no.”
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.The Australian Transport Safety Bureau (ATSB) has ruled out any connection between an incident on a Qantas jet last year, which left over 100 passengers injured, and the crash of an Air France Airbus into the Atlantic Ocean.
The ATSB has released its second interim report into what may have caused the Qantas jet to nosedive twice on its way from Singapore to Perth.
Investigators say they are yet to determine what caused sensors on the plane to fail, but they say interference from cosmic rays is among the issues being investigated.
“We verified .
The ATSB’s Martin Dolan says the cause of the incident has not been found, although the plane was tested in a flight over a radio transmitting station in Western Australia to see if cosmic waves were to blame… that the station was transmitting and there were no anomalous effects, so it was an interesting idea but not relevant to what happened here,” he said.
The bureau says international aviation authorities have worked out a protocol to override the problem, which is now part of general procedure. .

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The bureau says although the Qantas plane and an Air France jet were similar aircraft, the sequence of events leading up to each failure was different, and the sensors involved were different models from different manufacturers

.President Nicolas Sarkozy awarded US actor and director Clint Eastwood one of France’s top honours, hailing him as a cinema legend and a symbol of the type of America that the French adored.
It is unusual for a foreigner to be elevated to the rank of commander of the French Legion of Honour but Eastwood, who went from playing tough guy roles like Dirty Harry to directing highly praised films, said he saw France as his second home.
“My wife chastised me saying if that was true, why don’t I speak French,” he told friends and officials gathered at the Elysee Palace for the ceremony, promising to take lessons.
“As a commander of the arts and letters, I think I will go out on the streets of France today and throw my weight around,” said Eastwood, 79, who recently finished making supernatural thriller Hereafter in France. .
“When one loves the cinema of a people, one loves the people,” the president said.
Mr Sarkozy said French admiration for US cinema helped transcend any problems the two countries might have had in the past - a veiled reference to France’s fierce opposition to the US-led invasion of Iraq in 2003.
He called Eastwood - whose line “Come on, make my day” from Dirty Harry became a global catchphrase - “a myth, a giant, an example of the admiration we have for American culture”.
“You, you have never let us down,” he added.
He added that problems between the two countries had only arisen “when America was not as big as we would have liked in our dreams”.
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.Rafael Nadal has silenced a partisan crowd by knocking out local favourite and Paris Masters title holder Jo-Wilfried Tsonga 7-5, 7-5 with an impressive performance to reach the semi-finals.
World number two Nadal, who has won the French Open on the other side of town four times but never this event at the Bercy hall, will meet Novak Djokovic for a place in Sunday’s final.
Gael Monfils, seeded 15th, later made sure there would be a French presence in the last four by recovering from a set down to oust 12th seed Marin Cilic of Croatia with a 3-6, 6-4, 6-4 win.
The Serbian world number three earlier ruined Robin Soderling’s hopes of making the World Tour Finals in London by beating the Swede 6-4, 1-6, 6-3.
Czech Stepanek, the 13th seed, qualified the easy way when US Open champion Juan Martin del Potro, who was hampered by an abdominal strain and was trailing 4-0, retired.
The gifted but erratic Monfils worried his fans at first with clumsy errors, but then stepped up a gear and thrilled a raucous 14,000 crowd with astonishing winners to set up a semi-final against Radek Stepanek.
Spaniard Nadal, who still has an outside chance of finishing the year as number one, had the crowd against him and faced a strong challenge from the powerful Tsonga, who loves fast indoor courts.
Argentine Del Potro, the world number five who had survived seven match points before Chilean Fernando Gonzalez retired in their third-round match, clearly struggled to move around the court before quitting.
“I played a lot better today,” said Nadal, who struggled in his previous two matches, saving five match points in the first. But he showed more composure when it mattered. This is positive and gives me a lot of confidence.
“I was really focused all the time and played well at important moments.
The energetic Spaniard underlined his determination by winning his last game to love and finishing with a service winner, putting Tsonga out of the race for the Nov.”
Nadal made very few unforced errors and seized his chances, managing breaks with perfect timing in the 11th game of each set.
World number 10 Soderling’s defeat by Djokovic means the French Open runner-up, like Tsonga, will not go to London and Spaniard Fernando Verdasco grabs the last ticket to the finals. 22-29 season finale featuring the world’s top eight players.
“It looked tense because physically I didn’t really feel 100 per cent there,” Djokovic said.
Djokovic, who beat world number one Roger Federer in the Basel final last week, looked tired at times, notably in the second set, which Soderling took in just 28 minutes.”
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Kiwis heading into Labour Weekend have been warned to expect mixed weather, and told to take care on the roads.

Transport Minister Steven Joyce issued a statement today calling formotorists to take care on the roads over the long weekend.

”Please act responsibly to ensure your own safety as well as that of your passengers and other road users.

More people were choosing to holiday in New Zealand this year and the roads will be unusually busy, he said.”

In the lower North Island, the New Zealand Transport Agencyclosednorthbound passing lanes on State Highway 1 at Waikanae and Te Horo from midday todaybecause of expected heavy traffic.

”Enjoy the weekend break but please use commonsense and patience on the road. The delays were due to a minor crash close to Waikanae.

However, police said shortly after 4pm that traffic was already extremely heavy between Paraparaumu and Waikanae and, at times, not moving at all. But the southbound passing lane north of Otaki will be closed on Monday for the same reason.

The Waikanae and Te Horo passing lanes willbe reopened late on Saturday afternoon.

Senior Sergeant Kris Burbery of the Central District Highway Patrol said additional units would be drafted in for the weekend.

Police are also planning a heavier presence north of Wellington.

Meanwhile, Metservice forecaster Ian Gall said the remnants of a cold southerly wind were easing over the country and were expected to give way to temperatures from 16 to 20 degrees across the country for the start of Labour weekend.Police will betargeting speed and alcohol related offences, as well as the behaviour of drivers around passing lanes and intersections.

“We’re getting rid of cool times so generally speaking we’re going to see maximums in the top half of the tens.

“Nationwide we’re talking about mostly fine weather, possibly a few afternoon showers in a few places and quite a lot of clear patches with some morning frosts,” he said.

However, showers were possible around the central North Island and eastern parts of the South Island.”

Mr Gall said they expected temperatures to be consistently luke-warm across the country.

It was expected to remain “pretty good” over the North Island, he said.

Mr Gall said the sun was expected to give way to cloudy patches later in the weekend, in particular over the South Island on Sunday with the wind expected to slowly turn into a north-easterly.

“We’re still in unsettled spring conditions so any good spells we’re getting have been fairly brief and are likely to be fairly brief for a while yet,” he said. .

.The only surviving Union Jack from the Battle of Trafalgar has sold at auction in London for close toly $700,000 after being found tucked away in a drawer in a Sydney home.
The battle-scarred flag, which was flown from the mast of HMS Spartiate during the battle, was given to Lieutenant James Clephan by his crew mates 204 years ago as a reward for his bravery during the fighting.
Lieutenant Clephan’s relatives moved to Australia in the 1960s and the flag was tucked away in the bottom drawer of a home in Castle Hill, Sydney for safe-keeping.
The 1805 naval engagement pitted the British fleet under Lord Nelson against the combined French and Spanish fleets, and the ensuing British victory was seen as a turning point in the Napoleonic Wars.
During a fierce bidding war the price climbed more than 30 times the original estimate, setting a new world record for a British flag.
Overnight a London auction house was stunned when the flag sold for a world record of 384,000 pounds ($687,774). .
The buyer is an American collector who wants to remain anonymous.
“So this is a passion I’ve had for history and many of these artefacts people often do not keep the story and the history together.
“I’m a collector and I’ve been collecting flags for over four decades, and I work on keeping the story and the relic together,” he said.
“In the United States it would have a nice home and if we’re not able to work something out with the British government, we of course will give it a good home in the US.
“We understand the concern people may have in the United Kingdom about the flag going to America, but we’re working on a plan to work with the British government to accommodate that concern.”
The buyer says he finds the story of Lieutenant Clephan “intriguing”, which is what attracted him to the flag. I’m sure it will be on view in the US for people to see.
“We’re familiar with the history of the lieutenant who was given the flag at the time right after the battle.
“It’s one of the most historical flags, certainly in the Western world, that’s well documented from a historical event,” he said.”

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“This is a man who worked himself up through the ranks of the British Navy and became one of only 16 captains to do that in the history of the Royal Navy