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

.A man jailed in France for plotting to bomb an Australian nuclear power reactor could come up for early release next year, his lawyer said.
Convicted in 2007, Willie Brigitte received a nine-year jail sentence, of which six years was a fixed term. . With three years served before his conviction, the fixed part expires in November 2010.
Mr Durimel said that for early release, Brigitte would have to have a record of good behaviour and a guarantee of work in France, where he would have to remain for a probationary period.
But he stressed that “nothing was decided”, playing down Australian media reports that Brigitte, 41, could be freed next year for good behaviour.
Brigitte, a Muslim convert from the French Caribbean island of Guadeloupe, was jailed in France for plotting to blow up a nuclear power plant in Australia and other possible targets.
During his jail term so far, “to my knowledge he has had no disciplinary incidents, so he is behaving quite correctly”, the lawyer said.
Mr Durimel argued at the time that there was a lack of proof to convict Brigitte, who was jailed on charges of “criminal conspiracy in relation with a terrorist enterprise”.
He was accused of setting up a terrorist cell in Australia on the orders of a Pakistani extremist group.
This catch-all offence, used in almost all terrorism cases in France, gives judges wide-ranging powers of arrest and detention without the need to prove that an attack was imminent.
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.Hopes for a new global climate pact have risen after rich nations at the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) in Trinidad and Tobago offered to help poorer countries bear the costs of implementing any deal.
Commonwealth countries are home to two billion people, or a third of the planet’s population - including major global players like Britain and India, and smaller island states like Nauru and the Maldives.
The United Nations secretary-general Ban Ki-moon, French President Nicolas Sarkozy and Danish Prime Minister Loekke Rasmussen joined 53 Commonwealth leaders to work on the issue of climate change ahead of next month’s conference in Copenhagen.
He and Danish Prime Minister Lars Loekke Rasmussen praised a move by Britain and France to launch a multi-billion-dollar fund for developing nations.
“Success in Copenhagen is in sight,” UN chief Ban Ki-moon told the summit.
But he stressed the deal to be hammered out by some 87 leaders including US President Barack Obama must include “commitments, numbers and precise language”.
Mr Rasmussen said it was now “realistic” to expect Copenhagen to result in the framework for a treaty to succeed the Kyoto Protocol which expires in 2012.
Mr Ban, who has led the push towards Copenhagen, agreed it must not become just another talking shop, saying, “We will come out with a very concrete foundation for a legally binding treaty.
“The Commonwealth can be proud of the fact that in each of its six decades it has shaped the international response to emerging global challenges,” she told the gathered leaders.”
The need to address a changing climate was a point reinforced by Queen Elizabeth at this morning’s opening ceremony. .
“And on this, the eve of the UN Copenhagen summit on climate change, the Commonwealth has an opportunity to lead once more.
- Canada singled out -
Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper faced growing international pressure to take action, with some activists even calling for Canada to be suspended from the Commonwealth.
“The threat to our environment is not a new concern but it is now a global challenge which will continue to affect the security and stability of millions for years to come,” she said.
Mr Ban singled out Canada at the Commonwealth summit, saying Ottawa should act as soon as possible to create an ambitious target to cut greenhouse gas emissions.
Mr Ban singled out Canada at the Commonwealth summit, saying Ottawa should act as soon as possible to create an ambitious target to cut greenhouse gas emissions.
Mr Harper has now reversed his earlier position and says he will attend the climate talks in Copenhagen.
The International Energy Agency ranks Canada alongside Australia in the world’s top 5 per cent of polluters, per capita, yet Ottawa still has no policy to combat climate change.
The two European leaders proposed to compensate developing countries for the economic disadvantages they would face in cutting carbon emissions.
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Much of the new momentum for a climate deal stemmed from a joint overture by British Prime Minister Gordon Brown and Mr Sarkozy.
For the first time, India’s Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said he was willing to commit his country to ambitious global carbon emission cuts, provided others shared the burden.
“Poorer countries must have an understanding that the richer countries will help them adapt to climate change and make the necessary adjustments in their economies,” Mr Brown said on his website.
“Australia is of the view that such a fast-start fund can assist in bringing about a good outcome at Copenhagen, but most critically, assist those most vulnerable states dealing with adaptation challenges now,” he said.
Prime Minister Kevin Rudd also welcomed what he called “a fast-start fund”.
Reporting by Hayden Cooper in Trinidad and Tobago, Dan Karpenchuk in Toronto and wires

.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

.Battling Rafael Nadal has moved into the Paris Masters quarter-finals with a 6-3, 3-6, 7-5 win over Tommy Robredo, underlining his threat to unseat Roger Federer as world number one by the end of the season.
With Federer a shock loser to Frenchman Julien Benneteau, a win for Nadal in the final would leave him just 305 points adrift of his arch rival with the season-ending ATP World Tour Finals to come in London later this month.
Nadal ended Federer’s long reign as world number one after winning the Beijing Olympics last year, but Federer bounced back to regain the top spot in July after winning both the French Open and Wimbledon titles.
Robredo even served for the match at 5-4 in the deciding set, but once again Nadal produced his best with his back to the wall to pull through by winning the final three games of the match.
Nadal needed to save five match points to get past Spanish compatriot Nicolas Almagro in a second round marathon of over three hours, and he wobbled again against Robredo, another countryman and a player he had beaten in straight sets in all five of their previous encounters.
The Scot, who won a season-best sixth title in Valencia last weekend, was taken to 1:45am (local time) the night before in defeating James Blake 6-3, 6-7 (5-7), 7-6 (7-4).
Joining Federer on the sidelines though was fourth seed Andy Murray, who found two matches in one day too much to handle as he lost 1-6, 6-3, 6-4 to Radek Stepanek of the Czech Republic.
“I said last night it was going to be difficult to come back and feel 100 per cent.
“But you still come out and you try to give it your best shot. It’s obviously limited recovery after a long match,” he said.”
Nikolay Davydenko meanwhile became the seventh player to qualify for the eight-man London Tour Finals, despite losing 6-3, 3-6, 6-4 to Sweden’s Robin Soderling in another third round match. [I] wasn’t good enough.
But then Spain’s Fernando Verdasco, who was holding on to the eighth and final slot, lost 3-6, 6-3, 6-4 to Marin Cilic of Croatia.
Placed seventh in the standings coming into Paris, the loss briefly left the Russian at the mercy of the four other players in with a chance of playing in London from November 22-29.
His defeat meant that Davydenko was assured of finishing the week no lower than eighth, which stamped his ticket for London.
His defeat meant that Davydenko was assured of finishing the week no lower than eighth, which stamped his ticket for London.
The match was evenly poised, with Gonzalez having taken the first set 7-6 (8-6), before Del Potro hit back with an identical scoreline in the second set.
Chilean Fernando Gonzalez dropped out of the race when he pulled out injured in his third-round match against Argentine Juan Martin Del Potro.
Next up for him, with a place in the semi-finals at stake, will be third seed Novak Djokovic, who cruised past French qualifier Arnaud Clement 6-2, 6-2 in 75 minutes.
Soderling, who reached the French Open final the last time he was in Paris in June, will still have to at least reach the final at Bercy to have any chance of making it through to London.
He is also eager to win his first Masters Series title of the year, having lost in four finals.
The 2008 Australian Open champion from Serbia, last year’s Tour Finals winner, is seeking to lift back-to-back titles following his win in Basel last week, where he beat Federer in the final.
“He is a big server and is having the best year of his career.
“Robin has a chance to qualify for the Masters Cup so he will give his best in the quarter-finals,” Djokovic said.”
Benneteau, who said his win over the world number one Federer was the best moment of his career, failed to carry his form through, losing 6-4, 6-3 to compatriot Gael Monfils. .
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.Russia’s Nikolay Davydenko and Spain’s Fernando Verdasco have moved closer to spots at the World Tour Finals in London with contrasting second-round wins at the Paris Masters.
World number seven Davydenko, who would make sure of entering the November 22-29 season finale with a semi-final appearance, brushed aside German Benjamin Becker 6-2, 6-1.
The Spaniard’s win meant Czech Radek Stepanek and Croatia’s Marin Cilic dropped out of the race, leaving just five players fighting for the two remaining tickets to the London event featuring the world’s top eight players, with Davydenko and Verdasco first in line.
Verdasco, the world number eight, who will a book a trip to London if he wins the title but could qualify earlier depending on how other contenders fare, needed over two hours to move past Italian Andreas Seppi 6-7, 6-4, 6-4.
World number nine Tsonga, who retired from his first-round match against Russia’s Mikhail Youzhny in Valencia last week because of a wrist injury, looked as fit as ever, outclassing Spaniard Albert Montanes 6-1, 7-5 in a second-round match.
The other three are Swede Robin Soderling, Chilean Fernando Gonzalez and France’s Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, the defending champion in Paris.
“I love it here.
“I felt really good from the start,” Tsonga said.”
Eighth seed Tonga, who had a first-round bye like all seeded players, will next face compatriot Gilles Simon, who ousted Croatia’s Ivan Ljubicic 6-3, 3-6, 7-6 in dramatic fashion in the day’s last match. I feel light, I feel there are no constraints and I’m just happy to go to the stadium every morning.
After receiving treatment, he appeared unable to move properly but still managed to force a tiebreak which he took 7-4 when Ljubicic hit a return long on the second match point.
Simon, seeded 11th, was leading 3-2 in the decisive set when he hurt his right knee.
“Every year it’s the same, whether I’m in (the World Tour Finals) or not depends on how I play in Paris, and I’m always in,” Davydenko said.
Davydenko, 28, who won in Paris in 2006 and is seeded sixth this year, will now meet Soderling or Croatia’s Ivo Karlovic.
“Making the World Tour finals is a big motivation,” the Spaniard said.
Seventh seed Verdasco, 25, next faces Cilic or Poland’s Lukasz Kubot. .
“I know if I win all my matches, I’ll qualify, whatever the others do, so that’s my goal.
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World number one Roger Federer and number two Rafael Nadal will get started on Wednesday, against Frenchman Julien Benneteau and Spaniard Nicolas Almagro respectively

.Kangaroos stalwart Petero Civoniceva admits the Australian pack needs to step up if it is to walk away with the silverware from the Four Nations final on November 14.
While the Kangaroos still need to beat winless France in Paris this weekend to confirm a spot in the Elland Road decider, Civoniceva says the tournament favourites have failed to impose themselves up front against either New Zealand or England.
New Zealand intimidated the Australian forwards with some brutal defence in their drawn tournament opener, while the Kangaroos struggled to contain the much bigger English pack when they started to get a bit of ball in the second half of Saturday’s 26-16 win in Wigan.
Those two sides will battle it out on Saturday for the other final berth.
“They had all the momentum and probably if the game went a little bit longer it could have got a bit scary.
“Those latter stages it started to get a bit hairy, but full credit to the boys for hanging in,” he said of the England game, when the hosts came back from 26-0 down at half-time.
“To a man we all knew we probably let ourselves down with what happened against the Kiwis. .”
The match was only the second Civoniceva has played since late June after damaging his toe in Queensland’s Origin II win in Sydney.
“We weren’t too far off the mark, but physically they certainly set the standard and we had to come out and match England up front where they’re very strong.
The France game would normally be one where the elder statesman of the Kangaroos pack would be expected to get the night off.
The 33-year-old admitted to struggling with his fitness late in the game, a factor which will probably see him get another run against France in Toulouse before the final.
“I’ll definitely put my hand up [to play against France] - if the results were a bit more dominant I might have got a rest,” he said.
But the need for match fitness is likely to be the deciding factor - plus the fact the 38-Test veteran needs to play to be able to break Johnny Raper’s record for most appearances in the green and gold by a forward.
“We were on the back foot, we were defending back to back sets but overall I was pretty happy.
“I probably hit the wall a little bit [against England].”
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.French President Nicolas Sarkozy has been accused of spending $400,000 of taxpayers’ money on a luxury shower that was never used. .
A spokesman for the French government said the $400,000 was spent on renovating more than just the shower.
It was custom-built for Mr Sarkozy, with power and massage jet buttons and surround-sound radio.
The French Court of Accounts put the total cost at $280 million.
The French European Union presidency, which ran from July to December 2008, was one of the most expensive in history.