.US singer-songwriter Stevie Wonder has been awarded one of France’s top cultural honours, 30 years after he was tapped to receive it.
“I receive this honour in memory of my mother and in memory of all of those that have made it possible for me to stand here today,” said an emotional Wonder, clad in marine-blue striped suit, as he received the Commander of Arts and Letters award from French culture minister Frederic Mitterrand..
“As I was. listening to what you were saying, I had a flash in my memory, the memory of 1964, when I came to Paris, France for the first time.. His mother died in 2006. I came with my mother,” 59-year-old Wonder told Mr Mitterrand.
The accolade has been bestowed over the years to personalities ranging from South African writer Nadine Gordimer, British actor Roger Moore and Lebanese diva Fairuz.
Standing next to Mr Mitterrand was former culture minister Jack Lang, who first named Wonder for the medal.
Mr Mitterand praised Wonder as “music’s familiar genius”.
“As citizen, administrator and culture minister I just called to say we love you,” Mr Mitterrand told Wonder, mixing French and English and referring to one of Wonder’s biggest hits, which featured in the film The Woman in Red.
During the ceremony, he made a pitch for Mr Obama’s push to extend health coverage to millions of uninsured Americans.
A political activist who fought for national day to honour slain civil rights leader Martin Luther King, Wonder more recently backed US President Barack Obama’s run for office in 2008. “Don’t change.
“I’m very encouraged you have it here, in this country,” he said, referring the France’s close to-universal coverage.”
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.France legend Zinedine Zidane says he would “rather die” than apologise to Marco Materazzi for his infamous headbut of the Italian defender in the 2006 World Cup final.
“I will ask forgiveness from football, from supporters, from the team,” he told Spain’s El Pais newspaper. It won’t change anything, but I’m asking for your forgiveness.
“After the match, I entered the dressing room and I told them ‘I’m sorry. Never, never.’
“But as for him (Materazzi) I cannot…. it would be dishonourable. I would rather die..
“A lot of things happen on the pitch,” he said.”
After a verbal altercation, Zidane was sent off for headbutting Materazzi during the World Cup final in Berlin, which France eventually lost in a penalty shoot-out. But in this case I couldn’t contain myself. . More than once they have insulted my mother and I said nothing.
“It’s not an excuse, but my mother was ill, she was in hospital.. But in this case.”
Zidane retired from professional football after the tournament and now works as an advisor to Real Madrid chairman Florentino Perez..
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.A storm that killed at least 47 people in France on the weekend has been officially declared a national disaster.
French President Nicolas Sarkozy has visited the storm-battered Atlantic coast, where most of the storm’s victims drowned. . Others were killed by falling buildings or trees.
France’s Prime Minister Francois Fillon declared the storm a national disaster and said money would be allocated to help communities rebuild.
The Atlantic storm hit the western coasts of France, Portugal and Spain on Sunday, then swept towards Germany, Belgium and the Netherlands.
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He said the focus would now turn to protecting those left homeless and those threatened by rising waters
.Russia’s Elena Dementieva has won the Paris Indoors WTA tournament for the first time in her ninth attempt, defeating Lucie Safarova of the Czech Republic 6-7 (5-7), 6-1, 6-4 in the final.
The top seed dropped a tightly-contested first set when Safarova, 23, powered a forehand past her to take the tie-break 7-5, but she was in total command in the second as her heavy ground strokes kept Safarova pinned back.
She had been the losing finalist here last year, going down to the now retired Amelie Mauresmo of France
“I have been trying to win this tournament for so many years - it’s been one of the most difficult wins of my career and I am so happy,” she said.
The 28-year-old Russian, who won the Olympic title in Beijing in 2008, grabbed an early break in the third set and held on to win her second WTA title of the year after Sydney. .
“You have to fight to the very end and if you fight for every point anything can happen.
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Dementieva, who has yet to win a grand slam title, was one of the favourites at the Australian Open in January but she was drawn against wildcard Justine Henin in the second round and lost in straight sets to the Belgian
.A probe has strongly criticised cross-Channel train operator Eurostar for failing to prepare its trains to cope with winter weather that led to breakdowns and mass disruption in December.
Eurostar also had “no plan in place” to deal with the chaos created when five trains broke down in the Channel Tunnel with more than 2,000 passengers aboard in the busy pre-Christmas period.
Passengers stuck on the trains endured overflowing toilets and darkness and stuffy conditions for hours on end, the report said, adding that “provision of information to customers was inadequate”.
The maintenance of the trains came in for particular criticism - one of the broken-down trains had no snow screens on its power cars allowing a fine form of snow to cause the electrical systems to fail.
The poor quality of information offered to passengers waiting to take cancelled or delayed trains was also highlighted.
Services were cancelled and disrupted following the breakdowns, throwing the travel plans of thousands of passengers trying to travel between London and Paris and Brussels into disarray.
“The review.
The study, by former train company boss Christopher Garnett and French civil engineer Claude Gressier, said the weather in northern France on December 18 was “extremely severe with heavy snowfall”.. .
The first train to break down in the tunnel was recovered “quickly” but “four further trains then broke down in rapid succession and passengers from two of them had to be evacuated onto Eurotunnel passenger shuttles inside the tunnel. found that Eurostar trains had not undergone sufficient winter weather preparations to withstand these conditions and that maintenance procedures should be revised,” it read.
While the evacuations of trains inside the tunnel were carried out “safely and efficiently”, the report highlighted concerns about conditions in the trains after they lost air conditioning and lighting.
“This was the first time this had happened in 15 years of operation,” the review said.
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Eurostar says it will spend more than 30 million pounds ($53 million) upgrading its infrastructure and equipment
.Mathieu Bastareaud’s rugby redemption has been completed at Murrayfield as Six Nations favourite France kicked off its campaign with an 18-9 win over Scotland.
Bastareaud was the difference between the two sides, his two first-half tries putting the French in control of an open contest and justifying coach Marc Lievremont’s decision to hand the giant centre the opportunity to resurrect a career he had done his best to destroy.
The bizarre episode quickly spiralled out of control with diplomatic relations between France and New Zealand becoming strained and Bastareaud himself, a shy 21-year-old, was hospitalised after an apparent suicide attempt on his return to France.
The 110-kilogram centre was starting his first Test since his ignominious involvement in last year’s tour of New Zealand, during which he falsely claimed to have been beaten up by All Black fans in order to cover up a drunken fall in his hotel bedroom.
Robinson, who cuts a happier figure than during his unsuccessful stint as England coach, said there were positives to be taken out of the match ahead of next week’s clash with 2008 Grand Slam winner Wales, which lost to England yesterday.
Scotland, as so often in recent seasons, was let down by its failure to convert openings and phases of pressure into tries although, in Andy Robinson’s first Six Nations match in charge, it posed the French enough problems to suggest it could yet make an impact on this tournament.
“Also we got behind the French defence several times but the French defence scrambled very well and Imanol Harinordoquy made two or three great tackles.
“We conceded two soft tries, but I thought we were in control defensively,” said Robinson, who was assistant coach when England won the 2003 World Cup final. We have a number of positives to take out of this match and I was especially pleased by the performances of Sean Lamont and Johnnie Beattie. .
“We are of course very happy to win, it was a very tough match out there,” said the 29-year-old, who was winning his 58th cap.”
Harinordoquy, who belied his nickname bestowed on him by some Anglophine commentators of ‘very ordinary’ and was named man of the match, said that he and his team-mates had never been able to let up. In the scrum we had to have a big performance and I believe we won in that area.
“We had to play till the last minute because Scotland play with all their heart.”
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.Two burqa-wearing robbers have held up a French post office using a handgun concealed beneath an Islamic-style full veil, court officials said.
Officials said postal office staff let the pair through the security double doors of the banking branch near Paris, believing them to be veil-wearing Muslim women.
Once inside, the pair flipped back their head coverings and pulled out a gun.
Police have opened an investigation.
They made off with 4,500 euros ($7,100) seized from the staff and customers of the branch in Athis Mons, just south of Paris, according to the online edition of Le Parisien newspaper.
President Nicolas Sarkozy’s right-wing party has already presented a bill to make it illegal for anyone to cover their faces in public on security grounds.
France is seeking to restrict use of the head-to-toe Islamic veil on the grounds it is incompatible with French values, after a parliament report called for a ban in schools, hospitals, government offices and public transport. .
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According to the interior ministry, only around 1,900 women wear the burqa in France, which is home to Europe’s biggest Muslim minority
.The United States was the only team to take a lead after Fed Cup World Group first round ties, where Serbia’s Ana Ivanovic continued her woeful form.
The Americans are a win away from April’s semi-finals after racing to a 2-0 advantage over nervous host France, while defending champion Italy was level at 1-1 with World Group debutant Ukraine in their best-of-five encounter.
Russia’s Svetlana Kuznetsova swatted aside Ivanovic 6-1, 6-4 but Serbia drew level thanks to Jelena Jankovic.
American Bethanie Mattek-Sands gave last year’s runner-up the lead when she edged out an anxious Alize Cornet 7-6 (7-5), 7-5.
Czech Republic and Germany had also won one match each in their tie ahead of the reverse singles and doubles. I guess I take things too much to heart.
“I was really nervous when coming on the court. I felt like I was petrified by the stress,” France’s Cornet said.
Former world number one Ivanovic, who lost in the second round at the previous month’s Australian Open, has tumbled down to 23 in the rankings and was never in the match against Kuznetsova.
The US, again without the Williams sisters, went further ahead with Melanie Oudin’s 6-4, 6-4 win over Pauline Parmentier.
Jankovic levelled matters with a dogged 4-6, 6-4, 6-0 win over Alisa Kleybanova in the second rubber.
Despite the support of the Belgrade crowd, Ivanovic produced 21 unforced errors in the first set alone before world number four Kuznetsova comfortably closed out the second set.
The Ukrainian world number 26 cruised through the first set on the hard court in Kharkiv before 18th-ranked Schiavone fought back to go 3-1 up in the second.
Italy started badly with Alona Bondarenko crushing Francesca Schiavone 6-1, 6-4 in exactly an hour-and-a-half. .
Powerful Bondarenko then increased the tempo and retook the initiative with a series of booming shots, sealing victory when the Italian went wide with a forehand.
Germany’s Anna-Lena Groenefeld confidently beat Czech 23-year-old Lucie Safarova 6-2, 6-2 in Brno but the home team levelled the tie at 1-1 thanks to Petra Kvitova’s battling 6-4, 6-4 win over Andrea Petkovic.
Pennetta, who struggled with the partisan crowd, often struck the net in an unconvincing victory.
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In World Group II, where the winners play off against the World Group losers in April, Australia was level at 1-1 with Spain, Estonia led Argentina 2-0, Slovakia was 2-0 up against China and Belgium was drawing 1-1 in Poland
.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
.A major earthquake has hit impoverished Haiti, killing possibly thousands of people as it toppled the presidential palace and hillside shanties alike and left the Caribbean nation appealing for international help.
Following are some of the efforts by foreign governments and aid agencies to help:
- United States - The US military is sending a ground assessment team and one of its P3 aircraft has been doing aerial reconnaissance, a Pentagon spokesperson said. US Navy ships at bases along the East Coast have been told to be prepared to leave for Haiti and the US could also begin using C-130 aircraft to fly supplies to Haiti later on Wednesday.75 million) from its central emergency response fund and mobilising an emergency response team, expected to be on the ground shortly, to help coordinate aid efforts.
- United Nations - is immediately releasing $US10 million ($10.
UN World Food Program head Josette Sheeran said the agency was already flying in additional food that would provide more than 500,000 emergency meals. UN aid officials expect to issue an international appeal for funds and other assistance in the next few days, once needs have been assessed. The children’s agency UNICEF is dispatching two planes and a ship laden with tents, as well as food and other supplies designed for women and children.7 million) of fast-track funding for the international effort and could pledge more in coming days, a spokeswoman said.
- European Union - The EU’s executive European Commission approved three million euros ($4.
- Japan - has pledged $US5 million in aid a foreign ministry spokeswoman said.
Countries including Belgium, Sweden and Luxembourg had offered assistance via an EU emergency assistance coordination mechanism, with offers ranging from a water purification unit to tents.
- Netherlands - The Foreign Ministry said it would send an urban search and rescue team to Haiti, consisting of 60 people as well as sniffer dogs, to help find people hidden under the rubble.
- France - is sending two planes and a field hospital as well as rescue services, said Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner. It said the team is part of a coordinated international rescue action led by the UN. It said the team is part of a coordinated international rescue action led by the UN. A 20-person reconnaissance team is going to see what aid is needed, and two rescue helicopters could be sent.2 million) to help provide emergency shelter, medical services, food, relief items, water and sanitation services.
- Iceland - sent a search and rescue team of 37 specialists.
- Germany - is sending one million euros in immediate aid, said Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle.
- Inter-American Development Bank - The Inter-American Development Bank said it would provide $US200,000 in immediate aid.
- Britain - a four-person field assessment team is en route to Port-au-Prince to determine priorities for urgent assistance and Britain also sending a search and rescue team of 64 people with dogs and heavy rescue equipment.
- Aid agencies -
Many aid agencies were scrambling to provide help. The World Bank planned to send a team to help assess damage and plan a recovery.
- Telecoms Sans Frontieres, a humanitarian group that helps set up communications during disasters, deployed an emergency team from Managua to provide vital support in emergency telecommunications. .
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