Two a penny

.Ninety-six shoe addicts have signed up for Friday’s Stiletto Championship, which takes place after office hours on an indoor track in the old stock exchange building in central Paris.
The only rule is to be perched on heels at least eight centimetres high. The prize is boxes and boxes of shoes.
“Walking on heels is no piece of cake.
“The finalists are training very seriously,” said Caroline Gentien, who works for the online shoe sale site that came up with the idea.
“We came up with the idea just two years ago.”
The finalists hail from all over France and made it into the glam challenge after a series of regional races. This year, 400 candidates signed up for the regional races,” Ms Gentien said.
The race, being run at 9:30pm (local time), is a three-part relay over 180 metres involving 32 teams of three with names such as “Yes We Can”, “Sexpistols” and “Superwoman”.
The prize is 3,000 euros worth of shoes.
Winners of the 2008 race will be competing again this year – a TV journalist, a psychologist, and a lawyer competing under the name “Talk To My Foot”.
Volunteers from the Red Cross will be standing by in case of accident, but last year’s competition wound up without a single twisted ankle.
“The only training we do is running to catch a train or a bus every day.
“We all love shoes and we love having fun,” said journalist Dorothee Kristy, 29.”
Also taking part in the race is stiletto school “Talons Academy”, a private business that doles out tips on how to walk in heels without hurting one’s back or ankles.”
Also taking part in the race is stiletto school “Talons Academy”, a private business that doles out tips on how to walk in heels without hurting one’s back or ankles. They go to a rendezvous in flat shoes and put their stilettos on at the last minute,” she added.
“Or else they cheat.”
The trick for Friday’s contestants, she says, is “mastering the half-turn.
“It’s true that it is harder to find your balance on heels. You have to get it right for each foot. .”
–

. Stilettos is all about technique

.The 16 nations of the Eurozone have officially grown their economies by 0.4 of a per cent, meaning the zone is officially out of recession.
The new figure means that on average Eurozone countries have emerged from recession faster than earlier predicted, but the powerhouse nations of Germany and France have recorded a recovery below expectations.7 per cent and France just 0.
The German economy grew by 0.
The Spanish economy is trailing and is still in recession.2 per cent.
Though not in the Eurozone, Britain too is lagging behind other European countries and is still in recession after recording six consecutive quarters of negative growth. .
It is Britain’s worst result since quarterly figures were first gathered in 1955

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REUTERS – The body of Mehdi ben Barka, an opponent of Morocco King Hassan II who was abducted in Paris in 1965, was burnt in Essonne, south of the French capital, author Georges Fleury told the newspaper Le Journal du Dimanche.

Fleury was given secret police documents on the Mehdi ben Barka affair 25 years ago, the former marine commando told the paper in an interview to be published on Sunday.

In any case, for me, that is what happened, I believe a lot in this lead.

The person who handed over the dossier was convinced that his body was incinerated in Essonne, Fleury said.

Mehdi ben Barka, a hero for the international left, was kidnapped in broad daylight in front of the smart Lipp restaurant in the heart of Paris and his fate remains unknown. Was it looked into at the time? Can it be verified today? I ask myself the question, Fleury was quoted as saying.

The case has been a cause celebre for Moroccan advocates of greater political freedom in the kingdom, but it remains politically sensitive in Rabat, where Hassan son Mohammed succeeded him as king in 1999. French investigators believe he was tortured and killed. 2 for four Moroccans over the abduction but later suspended them, citing a request for information from Interpol, the international police organisation.

France issued international arrest warrants on Oct.

Fleury said he had since lost contact with his source and was ready to had over the documents in his possession to prosecutors if they asked him.

.French authorities have arrested an engineer working at an international nuclear research laboratory on suspicion of having links with the Al Qaeda militant network.
Officials connected with the case say the Algerian man worked at the CERN nuclear laboratory on the border with Switzerland.
Police arrested the man and his brother after following internet exchanges between the two and other people believed to have links to extremist groups.
It is believed the older man was planning attacks in France.
Computers, USB drives and hard drives were removed from the brothers’ home.
– BBC

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.California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger says movie director Roman Polanski should be treated like anyone else if he came to the United States to face sentencing for having unlawful sex with a 13-year-old girl in 1977.
Asked if he would consider pardoning Polanski, the actor-turned-governor told CNN: “I would not treat his situation any differently than everyone else’s.”
Schwarzenegger would have the authority as California governor to grant Polanski a pardon, if asked, once the Chinatown director is extradited from Switzerland where police arrested him this weekend on a US warrant.
He served 42 days in a prison, but left the country when he believed a judge would sentence him to years behind bars despite having made a plea agreement for time already served.
Polanski, who has dual French and Polish nationality, fled the United States in 1978 after pleading guilty in a California court to unlawful sex with a minor. .
His lawyers have said he will fight extradition.
He told CNN’s Wolf Blitzer in an interview; “It doesn’t matter if you are a big-time movie actor or a big-time movie director or producer.
“But nevertheless, I think he should be treated like everyone else. I think that he is a very respected person, and I am a big admirer of his work. Was there something done wrong? You know, was injustice done in the case?”
Lawyers for Polanski sought and failed earlier this year to have the case against him dismissed as a result of alleged judicial misconduct in 1977. And one should look into all of the allegations, not only his allegations but the allegations about his case.
The arrest of Polanski, who won an Oscar for his 2002 movie The Pianist, caused a furor in France but industry reaction in Hollywood has been much quieter.
A Los Angeles judge ruled that Polanski would first have to return to California before he would consider a dismissal of the 1977 charges.
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AFP – France Telecom’s embattled chief executive won support Thursday from the government, which declared that Didier Lombard would see the company through a crisis over workplace suicides.

Opposition politicians called on Lombard to resign after a 51-year-old father of two jumped to his death from a highway overpass on Monday, becoming the 24th France Telecom employee to commit suicide in 20 months.

But after meeting the chairman and CEO, Economy Minister Christine Lagarde issued a statement asserting her full and complete confidence in Didier Lombard to lead the company through this difficult and painful period.

Union leader Patrice Dochet has denounced work conditions at the France Telecom branch in Annecy as unbearable.

Unions have blamed France Telecom management for the suicides and called on staff to stage a walkout on Thursday during funeral services for the employee who worked in the southeastern city Annecy. Unions say it has caused widespread stress.

A former state monopoly, France Telecom has undergone several major reorganisations in recent years.

The French state still owns 27 percent of the company, which employs 100,000 people in France. .

While the suicide rate among France Telecom staff is lower than for the general population, many of the victims killed themselves at work or have left letters blaming work conditions for their despair. He survived. Two days earlier, a male worker stabbed himself in the stomach during a meeting.

A group of shareholder employees on Thursday called on France Telecom to take decisive measures to tackle the suicide crisis such as halting the payment of dividends that it said was bleeding the company dry.

Lombard last month vowed to end the spiral of death at the firm by setting up a distress line, offering more psychological counseling and putting a freeze on all personnel transfers until October 31.

The ADEAS group, which holds a four-percent stake in France Telecom, said they wanted capitalism with a human face at the company.

The ADEAS group, which holds a four-percent stake in France Telecom, said they wanted capitalism with a human face at the company

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An employee at France Telecom jumped off a bridge on Monday morning, bringing the number of suicides at the French group since February 2008 to 24, the company management confirmed. .

The action plan included delaying any relocation plans until October 31 and an internal inquiry into the suicides which have shocked France.

Further reading

&raquo Focus on the string of suicides at France Telecom
&raquo State intervenes as suicides mount at France Telecom
This latest death comes just over a fortnight after a suicide on September 11, after which the company, which employs around 100,000 people in France, bowed to governmental pressure, and agreed to adopt more humane methods of management.

Once entirely state-owned, France Telecom is now semi-privatised, though the state is the group majority shareholder.

Unions in France are demanding an end to site closures, redundancies and forced relocations, but the company chief executive, Didier Lombard, has said that the company’s big restructuring programme – brought on by the economic crisis – will continue.

France – suicide – telecommunication

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AFP – Three French soldiers were killed in a lightning storm during a nighttime operation targeting Taliban bomb squads in a valley east of Kabul, the French military said Sunday.

One man was killed by lightning and two others drowned, said Admiral Christophe Prazuck, spokesman for the French armed forces general staff, taking the toll among the French military in Afghanistan to 34.

The joint French and Afghan operation, taking place by night in the Afghanya Valley some 50 kilometres (30 miles) from Kabul, was suspended after a first soldier was struck dead by lightning, according to Prazuck.

They were part of a 250-troop operation hunting fighters responsible for planting roadside bombs in Kapisa Province east of Kabul, the spokesman said.

The pair were found drowned at dawn, said Prazuck.

Another soldier was swept off a footpath by a flooding river while medics attended to the lighting victim, and a third was carried off as he tried to rescue his comrade.

All three were stationed at the Nijrab forward operating base in Kapisa Province, where their bodies were evacuated by helicopter, said a French military spokesman in Kabul.

The victims were a flight sergeant and a corporal of the 13th parachutist special forces regiment, and an airman of the 3rd marine infantry regiment. He offers them his sad condolences.

President Nicolas Sarkozy’s office issued a statement saying the head of state shares in the pain of the families and their loved ones.

Defence Minister Herve Morin, who visited the Nijrab base earlier this month, voiced his great emotion at the men’s deaths.

They paid with their lives to honour France’s commitment to bring peace and security to the Afghan people, said the statement, stressing France’s determination to work to restore peace and development in Afghanistan.

Paris pulled out most of its special forces from Afghanistan in 2006, but around 60 operatives remain stationed in the country on commando training and intelligence missions, Prazuck said.

France has now lost 34 soldiers in Afghanistan, where it has 2,900 French troops in the NATO-led coalition battling Taliban guerrillas and training Afghanistan’s national security forces. .

Afghanistan had been hit hard by a renewed Taliban insurgency, which has paralysed a Western-backed reconstruction drive, cost the lives of thousands of people, and bogged NATO and US troops down in a close toly eight-year conflict.

Afghanistan – French military – ISAF – NATO
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A British soldier was killed in a roadside explosion while patrolling in southern Afghanistan, the Ministry of Defence said Sunday, a day after NATO announced the death of four US soldiers in two attacks in Afghanistan’s southern Taliban stronghold

.World powers have adopted a landmark resolution seeking to rid the planet of nuclear weapons.
The resolution was adopted unanimously at a rare United Nations Security Council meeting of presidents and prime ministers, the first to be chaired by a US president.
The 15 members have agreed to renew long-stalled efforts to curb nuclear weapons.
It comes as Iran’s suspected nuclear weapons program has once again been thrust into the spotlight.
US President Barack Obama is also calling on world powers to enforce Security Council resolutions on Iran and North Korea. . It is about standing up for the rights of all nations who do live up to their responsibilities,” Mr Obama said.
“This is not about singling out individual nations.”
The resolution does not contain any new sanctions against Iran or North Korea, but British Prime Minister Gordon Brown certainly supports them.
“The world must stand together and we must demonstrate that international law is not an empty promise and that treaties will be reinforced.
“And as evidence of its breach of international agreements grows, we must now consider far tougher sanctions together.
“Iran must not allow its actions to prevent the international community from moving forward to a more peaceful era,” Mr Brown said.
“They pay no attention whatsoever to what the international community has to say.”
But French President Nicolas Sarkozy has pointed out that Iran has flouted five Security Council resolutions, while North Korea has been defying Security Council decisions since 1993.
“Now, how can we accept this? What conclusions are we to draw?”
Russian President Dmitry Medvedev has told the Security Council that a major security threat is the danger of terrorists getting nuclear components. Better yet, they continue to test their ballistic missiles,” Mr Sarkozy said.
Mr Obama says he harbours no illusions about the difficulty of bringing about a world without nuclear weapons.
Chinese President Hu Jintao, meanwhile, says the countries with the largest nuclear arsenals – the US and Russia – have to make drastic reductions in their nuclear weapons.
“But there will also be days like today that push us forward.
“We know there are plenty of cynics and that there will be setbacks to prove their point,” Mr Obama said.

.”
The Security Council meeting comes just a week before the United State, Russia, China, Britain, France and Germany are due to have talks with Iran’s top nuclear negotiator

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AFP – US President Barack Obama marked the end of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan Saturday with his administration stressing the commonality between American culture and the values of Islam.

As Muslims in the United States and around the world complete the month of Ramadan and celebrate Eid-ul-Fitr, Michelle and I would like to extend our personal greetings on this joyous occasion, Obama said in a statement.

Even on this festive occasion, Muslims remember those less fortunate, including those impacted by poverty, hunger, conflict, and disease, he added.

In her own message, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton stressed that Eid celebrations at the White House, pioneered by her husband Bill Clinton in 1996 when he was president, ensured that all faiths have a home here in the United States.

Obama highlighted Muslims’ commitment to collecting and distributing charity and said his administration was working to ensure that Muslims are able to fulfill their charitable obligations not just during Ramadan, but throughout the year.

We know there is more that unites peoples of faith than divides us.

This time of self-reflection reminds us that the values of Islam — charity, community, cooperation, compassion — are values which we hold dear as Americans and which have contributed so much to American culture, Obama’s top diplomat said. So as Ramadan draws to a close, let us hold on to that spirit of community throughout the year to achieve our common goals of peace, prosperity, and stability.5 billion Muslims in Cairo in June.

Obama, who has Muslim heritage on his father’s side of his family, vowed to forge a new beginning for Islam and America in a landmark speech to the world’s 1.