Two a penny

.French captain Thierry Henry has escaped being punished for his infamous handball in the 2010 World Cup finals play-off against Ireland, FIFA announced.
France was losing 1-0 to Ireland at the Stade de France on November 18, having won the first leg 1-0, when Henry teed up William Gallas in extra-time for what proved to be the decisive goal after illegally controlling the ball with his hand.
“On December 2, 2009, the FIFA executive committee asked the FIFA disciplinary committee to analyse the handling offence committed by Thierry Henry during the France v Republic of Ireland match on November 18, 2009, and to consider the possible disciplinary consequences,” read the statement from the committee.
FIFA’s disciplinary committee said, however, that they were powerless to punish the 1998 World Cup-winning striker because their rules forbade them to do so if the original misdemeanour had not been seen by the match officials.
“There is no other legal text that would allow the committee to impose sanctions for any incidents missed by match officials.
“At its meeting on January 18, 2010 , the disciplinary committee reached the conclusion that there was no legal foundation for the committee to consider the case because handling the ball cannot be regarded as a serious infringement as stipulated in article 77(a) of the FIFA disciplinary code.
“Thierry Henry not being punished is not astonishing, it is logical,” he said.”
Bernard Escalettes, president of the French Football Federation (FFF), said he hoped this finally drew a line under the episode.
“I hope that this is the end of the story, I hope so with all my heart.
“There is nothing in the FIFA rules permitting a punishment, and FIFA are bound by their rules.
“I had a phone conversation with Thierry Henry,” said Blatter at the time.”
The meeting of the 21-man disciplinary panel, an independent body chaired by the Swiss Marcel Mathier, was announced by FIFA president Sepp Blatter in Cape Town on December 2 following an extraordinary executive committee meeting. It was a conversation between sportsmen.
“We didn’t talk about guilty or not guilty.”
Blatter’s diplomacy can be explained by the lack of precedent regarding retrospective punishments meted out to players. I didn’t say that he would be punished, I said he’d be the subject of an investigation.
Blatter, meanwhile, has raised the possibility of awarding “moral compensation” to the Irish team.
Any punishment meted out would have been purely a symbolic one as FIFA’s rules do not explicitly address incidents of such a nature and a heavy punishment would have created an unwelcome precedent for world football’s governing body. .
“That could be a special trophy or a prize, we’ll have to see,” he said

.The niece of a British government minister went on trial Monday in Versailles, accused of murdering a young Frenchman by slitting his throat after she picked him up in a bar.
Jessica Davies contacted police in the early hours of a Sunday in November 2007 to say she had stabbed the 24-year-old man at her apartment in the chic Saint-Germain-en-Laye suburb west of Paris, judicial officials said.
Davies, who is being held in Versailles women’s prison, claimed to remember nothing of the stabbing, only that she had met Olivier Mugnier in an Irish pub close to her flat a few hours before his death.
Police found the now 30-year-old niece of Britain’s multi-millionaire junior defence minister Quentin Davies so drunk that she could not be brought before a judge until the evening, sources said at the time. .
The trial by jury is expected to last two days, with a verdict likely on Tuesday.
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.Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi has taken a break from the rough and tumble of Italian politics, shopping for nudes on the French riviera. .
Art gallery spokesman Loic Deltour described the works as “sensual nudes” worth “several tens of thousands of euros”.
Witnesses said security was visibly tight around Mr Berlusconi during his shopping trip.
The billionaire media magnate, 73, has been mostly out of the public eye since December 13, when a man, said to have a long history of psychiatric troubles, hit him in the face with a miniature model of Milan cathedral.
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.New York has become the latest of the world’s major cities to ring in the New Year with spectacular fireworks displays and massive parties against a backdrop of tightened security.
Snow, freezing temperatures and a terrorism threat did not stop more than a million people gathering in New York’s Times Square to celebrate the arrival of 2010 with the traditional dropping of the crystal ball at midnight.
Security in the city had been ramped up since last week’s attempted bombing of a Detroit-bound passenger jet. .
Revellers were checked with metal detectors and were not allowed to carry backpacks into Times Square.
Earlier, more than 120,000 Russians crowded into Moscow’s Red Square to toast 2010 as President Dmitry Medvedev thanked his nation for bearing with the economic crisis.
Up to 80,000 people also turned out in Edinburgh for the annual Hogmanay outdoor street party, some sporting furry horned tartan helmets against the bitter cold as they gathered to watch fireworks by Edinburgh Castle.
“The past year was not a very easy one for our country, and I want to thank you all for bearing up together,” he said in his traditional New Year address.
In Australia, about 1.
Party-goers in the South Pacific were the first to raise their glasses to 2010, leading the world into a new decade after one scarred by war, terror attacks, natural disaster and financial turmoil.
Thousands of people also crammed into Hong Kong’s harbour, where 9,000 fireworks were unleashed from the city’s tallest skyscraper as well as other buildings in a display that lasted nearly five minutes.5 million people crowded the Sydney Harbour foreshore to watch a vast array of fireworks burst into the night sky at midnight, launched from the iconic Sydney Harbour Bridge and four barges on the water.
In Paris, about 70,000 people gathered near the Eiffel Tower for a multicoloured light show, while more than 8,000 police were deployed across the city and suburbs where 1,100 cars were burned last New Year’s Eve.
Such spectacles were banned in Thailand after fireworks caused a New Year’s Eve blaze at a Bangkok nightclub a year ago, killing 65 people.
The filling of portable containers at petrol pumps was banned, as were glass bottles and fireworks on the Champs Elysees, the Parisian avenue where another 200,000 people gathered to see in the New Year.
The filling of portable containers at petrol pumps was banned, as were glass bottles and fireworks on the Champs Elysees, the Parisian avenue where another 200,000 people gathered to see in the New Year.
In Spain, which took over the rotating presidency of the EU at midnight, thousands of people attended a light and sound show at the central Puerta del Sol square where a giant image of the EU flag was projected onto a building.
In Berlin, more than 1 million revellers gathered on the boulevard leading to the Brandenburg Gate, the symbol of German unity, with live bands and DJs cranking up the party. Now I am going to work on my first hangover of 2010,” said Gerry Shalloe, a 32-year-old English teacher from Ireland who lives in Madrid and who attended the countdown with friends.
“This is the best street party in the world.
Ukraine’s President Viktor Yushchenko, seeking re-election on January 17, assured his countrymen in a New Year’s message that they would become part of the European Union and NATO.
In Poland, around 90,000 people brought in the New Year at a concert in Warsaw in memory of Michael Jackson attended by the late singer’s sister La Toya.
– Increased security –
In New York, a downpour of confetti at midnight marked the traditional mass celebration in Times Square in the heart of Manhattan.
But the fiercely pro-Western leader looked unlikely to be in charge for much longer with opinion polls putting him far behind pro-Russian opposition leader Viktor Yanukovich and Prime Minister Yulia Timoshenko.
“It will be a full-fledged deployment of resources,” city police Commissioner Raymond Kelly said.
But after security jitters rekindled by the Christmas Day bomb plot, undercover police, surveillance cameras and radiation and biological detection equipment monitored the crowds.”
The US embassy in Indonesia, meanwhile, said it had received a warning of a possible attack on the resort island of Bali, the scene of multiple bombings targeting Westerners, but local authorities denied knowledge of any alert.”
The US embassy in Indonesia, meanwhile, said it had received a warning of a possible attack on the resort island of Bali, the scene of multiple bombings targeting Westerners, but local authorities denied knowledge of any alert.
In Pakistan, where the Taliban’s bloody campaign rebounded in 2009, spirits were dampened in the city of Karachi by a deadly suicide attack during a holy Shiite Muslim ceremony on Monday that killed 43 people.
In neighbouring Afghanistan, soldiers maintained their alert after two deadly militant attacks claimed the lives of eight Americans and five Canadians, while two French journalists were reported kidnapped by Taliban.
For Cyprus, New Year’s Eve was the last chance to smoke in pubs, clubs and cafes with a new anti-smoking law in force from January 1.
And in South Africa, President Jacob Zuma used his New Year message to rally for unity for the 2010 football World Cup– the first to be held in Africa.
New Year’s Eve also presented the world with a Blue Moon, the name for a second full moon in one single month, for only the second time in nearly 20 years.
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.France has warmed up for their clash against New Zealand by crushing Samoa 43-5 in a one-sided rugby international at Stade de France.
Coach Marc Lievremont largely revamped the side that upset world champion South Africa 20-13 last week in Toulouse, but that did not stop France from running in seven tries, four of which were converted by scrum half Morgan Parra. I’am also happy to be spoilt for choice before naming the 23-man squad that will face the All Blacks,” he said.
“I’m very happy with our performance tonight.
“This France team will become a great team when it reaches the status of favourite against the best teams in the world and vindicates it by a series of wins. .”
Samoa, which came close to upsetting Wales last week, losing 17-13 at the Millennium Stadium, was never in contention this time, although it resisted bravely in the second half.
“I hope it will come very quickly, but we are not there yet and we know the All Blacks will put forward a very strong challenge next Saturday in Marseille.
France: 43 (F Trinh-Duc 2, D Szarzewski, V Clerc, Y Jauzion, T Dusautoir, B Fall tries; M Parra 4 conversions.
France, which was far too fast, powerful and clever for the visitors, will face a tougher task against the All Blacks next weekend in Marseille.
Samoa: 5 (I Tekori try)
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.World number one Roger Federer has sunk to an embarrassing 3-6, 7-6 (7-4), 6-4 second-round defeat against unseeded Frenchman Julien Benneteau in the ATP Paris Masters.
The Swiss ace looked on course for the third round after cruising through the first set, but came unstuck in the second as uncharacteristic errors begin to creep into his game.
Benneteau, the world number 49, was roared on by his home crowd and secured the result of his life with an ace after bringing up match point by rattling a crosscourt backhand past the 15-time major-winner.
“Even in the second set, I don’t think I had a break point.
“He was very strong at the end,” said Federer of his 27-year-old opponent, who has never won an ATP title. It wasn’t a bad performance.
“I can definitely play better but I can also play much worse.
“Julien went out and got the victory.”
Second seed Rafael Nadal, meanwhile, admitted that he was “very lucky” after edging a titanic struggle with Spanish compatriot Nicolas Almagro 3-6, 7-6 (7-2), 7-5 in three hours and 14 minutes. I had chances and missed them.
“I played great tennis in only one moment, but in the rest of the match I didn’t play well,” Nadal said in reference to his comeback from 5-6 and 0-40 down in the second set.
Nadal was a set and 5-6 down against Almagro, who had not taken a set from him in four previous meetings, and survived five match points before battling back to set up a third-round tie with 14th-seeded countryman Tommy Robredo. That’s the truth.
“I am very lucky to be in the (next) round. I played bad but I won, which is the one positive thing. I played bad but I won, which is the one positive thing. .
British fourth seed Murray saw off America’s James Blake 6-3, 6-7 (5-7), 7-6 (7-4) in a match that finished at 1:46am local time to set up a match with Czech 13th seed Radek Stepanek.
“This day will be where all the memories of my career will stay, all in one box.
“This day will stand out for a long time, until I pass into a different world,” Safin, a three-time winner here, told the crowd at the Bercy arena during a special post-match ceremony.
“I didn’t feel that great on the court,” Djokovic said.”
Third seed Djokovic, who beat Federer in the Basel final last weekend, overcame Argentina’s Juan Monaco 6-3, 7-5. But I got a victory and that’s what matters most.
“It was probably a long week in Basel that affected that.”
Djokovic will now face French qualifier Arnaud Clement, a 5-7, 6-3, 7-6 (10-8) winner over German 16th seed Tommy Haas, with Del Potro to play Chilean 10th seed Fernando Gonzalez.
“Generally speaking, I’ve picked up great form in the last two months.
Soderling is one place outside the eight qualifying berths for the year-end event but needs to at least reach the final to stand any chance of securing one of the last two available spots.
Soderling is one place outside the eight qualifying berths for the year-end event but needs to at least reach the final to stand any chance of securing one of the last two available spots.
He will meet Russian Nikolay Davydenko, currently seventh in the race to London, in the next round.
Gael Monfils, the 15th seed, set up an encounter with Benneteau by beating fellow Frenchman David Guez 6-4, 7-5, with 12th seed Marin Cilic set to face Spain’s Fernando Verdasco after coming from behind to beat Polish qualifier Lukasz Kubot 6-7 (3-7), 6-4, 6-2.
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.Sydney Roosters wing Sam Perrett bagged a hat-trick to help New Zealand ultimately thrash France 62-12 overnight as the Kiwis record their first Four Nations win.
New Zealand raced into a 10-point lead through skipper Benji Marshall and Perrett before France hit back thanks to Sebastien Martins’s maiden try.
But Perrett, Jared Waerea-Hargreaves and Frank-Paul Nuuausala led a succession of second-half tries to eventually put the underdogs to the sword as the world champions, held 20-20 by Australia last week, proved too strong.
World Cup hero Lance Hohaia and France’s Australian-born James Wynne exchanged scores either side of the break as the hosts kept their hopes alive.
Yet they started the brighter and when former Newcastle Knights man Wynne broke the tackle and fed the ball wide, Nicolas Piquemal came within inches of touching down. .
Within three minutes of the re-start Marshall was probing again and after Frank Pritchard and Fuifui Moimoi were denied, Nathan Fien chipped the ball into the corner for Perrett to collect and score.
But French hopes looked dashed in the first New Zealand attack when hooker Thomas Leuluai burst clear to lay-off for skipper Marshall to wander over and put the first points on the board.
Undeterred, Wynne, a former understudy to Australia half-back Andrew Johns, combined with New Zealand-born Kane Bentley to send Martins over for his first French try in the 23rd minute.
Bryson Goodwin dragged his first conversion attempt wide but managed to curl his second inside the posts to put the Kiwis 10-0 up.
The hosts produced three consecutive sets of six inside the New Zealand 22 but after Wynne was halted five-yards short of the line, Isaac Luke scampered clear and World Cup hero Hohaia grabbed his eighth Kiwi try.
Thomas Bosc converted to reduce the score further and after Perrett knocked-on over the line the French could smell an upset.
Yet any hopes they had of pulling away in the final 40 minutes appeared to be dashed when Bosc’s kick was fumbled in defence and Wynne downed the ball.
Goodwin made no mistake with the conversion to send the world champions in 16-6 up at the break.
New Zealand eventually turned up the heat and after a sustained period of pressure Hohaia and Fien combined to send Perrett in at the corner in the 53rd minute.
Bosc slotted over the extras from in front of the posts to peg the Kiwis back at 12-16.
With its hopes of a famous win snuffed out, France began to cave in and Nuuausala drove over before Hohaia sprinted the full length of the field to score on the hour.
Goodwin converted and after collecting the kick-off Perrett dug the ball out just short of the line to allow Waerea-Hargreaves to cross within two minutes.
Perrett did then grab his third try of the night before Goodwin and Waerea-Hargreaves rounded off the scoring.
Goodwin converted both tries before Perrett flicked the ball unselfishly out the back of his hand for Junior Sa’u to extend the lead.
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Police have arrested two men who allegedly stopped a car in Waikato and beat and kidnapped the driver for cash.

The victim was driving on Gordonton Rd, towards Hamilton on October 1, when he crashed into a car that did an illegal U-turn front of his vehicle, Detective Inspector Russell Le Prou said.

When he checked if the occupants of the other car were hurt he was set upon by a group of men armed with softball bats.

The victim was told the group took the money as a form of reparation or “anger money” before they released him, Mr Le Prou said.

They beat him, took his ATM cards, then held him at a close toby property while others drove off to take $1300 from his bank account.”

Officers from the armed offenders squad executed two search warrants in Taupiri and Morrinsville, because of the need to stamp out serious, unprovoked, violent behaviour, Mr Le Prou said.

“They seem to have been quite brazen about it, even informing their victim there were no hard feelings and that they were in the business of selling car parts should he want to repair his vehicle. .

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Further arrests and charges were likely, Mr Le Prou said

.The Church of Scientology has been convicted of organised fraud in France and fined almost $1 million.
A Paris court fined the church $980,000 but stopped short of taking up the prosecutor’s suggestion that the group’s activities be banned.
Four leading French Scientologists were also given suspended sentences.
The Church of Scientology is not recognised as a church in France, it is classified as a cult, and for the past 14 years the French government has kept it under strict surveillance.
The case centred on the claims of former Scientologists who say they were cajoled into spending hundreds of thousands of dollars on personality tests, vitamin cures, sauna sessions and counselling.
Four leaders of the church were found guilty and given suspended sentences of between 10 months and two years.
When a Paris court was asked to investigate claims of fraud among prominent French Scientologists, prosecutors took the opportunity to demand a ban on the group’s activities in France.
The group as a whole was fined but a loop hole in the law prevented the judge from shutting their operations down.
“This is the first time in France that Scientology has been condemned for organised fraud and we are extremely satisfied with this decision,” he said.
Lawyer Olivier Morice, who represented one of the victims in the trial, says it is an historic decision.
Catherine Picard is the president of the national union of associations in defence of families and individual victims of cults.
The investigating judge criticised what he called Scientologists’ obsession with financial gain.
On its website, scientology justifies the cost of its sessions by saying they could be compared to courses in a school or university.
“Once again, I think justice has delivered a blow to this organisation of crooks,” she said.
So-called auditing sessions are said to help members literally seek immortality, which they say is priceless.
So-called auditing sessions are said to help members literally seek immortality, which they say is priceless.
“We will win in appeal or we will win in the European Human Rights Court for sure.
“There has been a lot of political pressure and for sure we will go to appeal because we don’t agree at all with that,” he said. .”
The Church of Scientology was founded in 1954 by science fiction writer L Ron Hubbard.

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Oscar-winning Canadian film maker Paul Haggis quit the Church of Scientology overnight citing what he called the organisations tolerance of gay bashing

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The Government is giving people the chance to “kick the tyres” of the MMP electoral system although it is working well, Prime Minister John Key says.

Justice Minister Simon Power announced today there would be a referendum at the same time as the 2011 general election, asking voters whether they want to retain MMP.

If they don’t, they can tick one of several alternative voting systems that will be set out on the same paper.

It will be a run off between MMP and the alternative that was given the most votes in the first referendum.

A second referendum will be held at the same time as the 2014 general election if a majority want a change.

“But we promised New Zealanders on the campaign trail they would have an opportunity to kick the tyres.

“I think we’ve proved in close toly a year in government that the system is working well,” Mr Key told reporters.”

Mr Key said he didn’t believe voters would be likely to choose to go back to the old first-past-the-post system, which MMP replaced in 1996. .

Mr Power told there was a widespread expectation at the time MMP was introduced that there would be a chance for another say on the system.

If a majority of voters prefer the alternative voting system to MMP, the 2017 general election will be held under the chosen alternative.

Cabinet was yet to make decisions around wording of the questions and the alternate electoral systems to be offered.

It was also cheaper than other options, although holding two referenda would still cost $23 million.

Mr Power said holding a referendum alongside a general election ensured a good turnout, which was important if the referendum was to be legitimate.

Mr Power said the Government was determined to ensure there would be a strong public information campaign explaining the different alternatives.

Mr Power said the Government was determined to ensure there would be a strong public information campaign explaining the different alternatives.

“The Government wants to ensure New Zealanders have time to consider all the issues fully before making their decision.

“If a majority of voters opt for a change from MMP, there will be plenty of time for public discussion on the merits of MMP versus the preferred alternative voting system, before the second referendum,” he said. It would include the wording of questions and the options to be considered.”

Legislation to allow the first referendum would go to Parliament early next year.

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Input would be considered at the select committee stage