Of course, it’s fair to say predictions of Armageddon are two a penny . Harold Camping, an American radio preacher, got thousands of followers worked up when he predicted the Second Coming of Jesus Christ on May 21 last ..
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.The leader of armed Basque separatists ETA was caught on Sunday in northern France, the Spanish Interior Ministry said, in what was the latest blow to a group weakened by hundreds of arrests.
Ibon Gogeascoechea, on the run since 1997, was caught along with two other senior ETA rebels in a joint Spanish-French raid close to the small town of Cahan in Normandy, the ministry said. .
Much of the improvement has been due to better coordination between authorities in Spain and France, which ETA has long used as a hideout.
Security forces believe ETA, which wants independence for the Basque Country and has killed more than 850 people, has been severely weakened by hundreds of arrests in recent years.
But Batasuna has lost influence over the rebels since the collapse of peace talks with the Spanish government following a bomb attack on Madrid airport in 2006 which killed two people.
A leading member of the group’s political wing Batasuna last week called on ETA to continue its struggle by peaceful means.
The 54-year-old Gogeascoechea and his accomplices were caught in a car with false licence plates after arousing suspicion by renting a rural house using fake identities, the Interior Ministry said.
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ETA’s last fatal attack was the killing of two police officers on the island of Majorca in July
.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
.The niece of a British government minister has told a court she drunkenly plunged a knife into the naked body of a Frenchman she picked up in a bar, but has no idea why she did it.
Jessica Davies, 30, told her French murder trial she had blacked out and had no recollection of killing Olivier Mugnier except “the sensation of the knife going in”.
“I am horrified by what I have done,” said the niece of Britain’s junior defence minister Quentin Davies. I don’t remember killing Olivier, but I take responsibility for killing him.
“I remember telling the police that I was a monster.
Davies called emergency services after the stabbing.”
Davies says she no longer remembers making a statement the day of the November 2007 that said “I just wanted to cut him a little but the knife went in by itself”.
They arrived around 2:40 am (local time) on Sunday morning but within an hour Mugnier had succumbed to the two knife wounds, one of which went right through his body and touched his spine. .
Police told the court there was no sign of a struggle in the one-bedroom flat and that neighbours had heard nothing.
Earlier the court heard how Davies developed behavioural problems after the acrimonious divorce of her parents when she was 14 and how she was badly affected by her maternal grandmother’s repeated suicide attempts.
The blood-stained kitchen knife that killed 24-year-old Mugnier was passed around for inspection by the three judges and the nine members of the jury at the court in Versailles.
Her mother broke down in tears at one point as she comprehensive her daughter’s difficult adolescent and university years.
She started drinking heavily as a teenager and by the time she was in university, “I was drunk six days out of seven” she said, adding that she had also developed a cocaine habit.
Davies faces a maximum sentence of 30 years in prison if convicted of voluntary homicide without premeditation.
Davies faces a maximum sentence of 30 years in prison if convicted of voluntary homicide without premeditation.
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.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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.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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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. .
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National and ACT have struck a deal over ACC reform that will see the Government investigate opening the work account to competition.
A press conference was expected at about 4pm to release details of the deal which clears the way for ACC Minister Nick Smith to introduce his stalled Bill to increase levies and reduce some entitlements.
“I am pleased the Government has secured support for this critical legislation from both the Maori Party and from ACT that will see ACC’s proposed levies reduced by half,” Dr Smith said.
ACC Minister Nick Smith confirmed the ACC Reform Bill will now be introduced next week.
“Today the National and ACT Parties reached an agreement that will ensure the Injury Prevention, Rehabilitation, and Compensation Amendment Bill will be passed through all stages,” Dr Smith said.
The Maori Party earlier this week said it would support the Bill as far as a select committee hearing.
“I think it’s clear that both ACT and National have made up their minds that they think parts of ACC should be privatised, notwithstanding the fact that its cheaper than Australian equivalents and notwithstanding it’s the best compensation system in the world,” Labour’s ACC spokesman David Parker said.
Labour said the deal was inevitable but was not good for taxpayers.”
The account was opened to competition between 1998 and 2000 until a Labour government re-nationalised it.
“In the end New Zealanders will end up paying more themselves to fund the profit margins of private insurers and getting less cover..
“We’ve been through this before and it ended in a muddle – people didn’t know who was covering them . the private insurers were a lot tougher when it came to people getting treatment and long term costs were projected to go up..
“People should have a choice of insurance provider for work-related accidents in the same way that they have a choice for their home and car insurance,” Mr Hide said.”
However, ACT Leader Rodney Hide said greater competition would provide more choice, quality of service and reduce costs. .
Dr Smith said National intended to work with ACT to open the ACC work account to competition subject only to the Government receiving a report from the steering group currently considering the stocktake of ACC accounts.”
The group will provide an interim report on the competition issue no later than 1 February 2010.
The ACC Stocktake Group will also explore other areas in which the private and non-government sectors (including Iwi) can be involved in accident management and compensation.