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Nearly 30 years after an Air New Zealand jet slammed into Mt Erebus in Antarctica, killing all 257 on board, the airline has apologised to families of the dead this morning. .

Hundreds gathered at Air New Zealand headquarters in Auckland today to hearthe apology.

The airline said today’s apology was to takecare of some of the “many of the gaps and failings that occurred in the days, months and years after November 28, 1979″.

He said he hoped that the way the airline dealt with the Perpignan, France, tragedy at the end of last year showed they had learned from the fallout over Erebus.

Air New Zealand chief executive Rob Fyfe acknowledged the families of those who had lost loved ones in the crash, and apologised for the way the companyhad handled the aftermath 30 years ago.

“We cannot bring them back but we can honour and remember those brave and true people and we can learn from our past,” Mr Key said.

Prime Minister John Key, at the headquarters for today’s apology,said: “Both tragedies brought shock, disbelief and mourning to our country”.

A carbon fibre sculpture was also unveiled this morning.

He said the crew of the doomed Perpignan flight died in service to the country. Called Momentum, it was designed to reflect the beauty and fragility of air travel, according to creator Phil Price.

.French President Nicolas Sarkozy says the US warrant issued for Oscar-winning director Roman Polanski on a 32-year-old sex charge was “not a good administration of justice”. .
“But I add that it is not a good administration of justice to do this 32 years after the facts when the person concerned is today 76 years old.
The Polish-French national was arrested on September 26 in Zurich, where he had gone to collect an award at the Swiss city’s film festival.”
Polanksi has been regarded as a fugitive by US authorities since he fled the country in 1978 after admitting to having sex with a 13-year-old girl.
But Mr Sarkozy says his comments were a mistake.
French Culture Minister Frederic Mitterrand labelled Polanski’s arrest “absolutely horrifying”.
“Frederic Mitterrand has recognised that his declaration was an error and that he regretted it.
Mr Mitterrand’s remarks turned the spotlight on himself and his 2005 autobiographical novel. I couldn’t say it any better,” Mr Sarkozy said.
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He was forced to appear on national television last week to deny having ever engaged in paedophile acts

.French authorities have rescued six people who survived in the Mediterranean Sea for more than five hours after their small plane crashed off the coast of Corsica, officials say.
The first two survivors were found thanks to a distress beacon and were plucked from the choppy sea by a helicopter.
They were treated for hypothermia at a beach before being taken to hospital, a medical source said. .
A third person was rescued later by an army helicopter.
The pilot, who is in his 50s, reported engine failure to air control and announced he would try to land in the sea one hour after take-off, officials said.
The plane was flying from Propriano in southern Corsica to the French Riviera city of Cannes when it crashed in the sea in the Gulf of Porto.
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French Minister of the Interior Brice Hortefeux heads to Poitiers on Monday following violent anti-prison demonstrations that erupted on Saturday near a street performance festival.

Hortefeux will meet with local shopkeepers whose properties were harmed in the incidents, which resulted in no injuries.

17 people were placed in custody in the wake of the violence, three of whom are accused of armed assault against policemen.

Several blogs report that the demonstration had been organised to protest the transfer of prisoners from the city old prison to a new one. According to the police, approximately 250 protestors — many of them masked and hooded — descended on the Poitiers town centre Saturday afternoon, breaking about 20 storefront windows and damaging bus stations and telephone booths.

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France Telecom announced the replacement of the group deputy head Louis-Pierre Wenes, whom labour unions claim is the man behind stress-inducing management policies blamed for a tense working climate. The French telecom company has come under fire for the alarming suicide rate among staff members, with 24 employees having taken their lives in the last 18 months alone.

French socialist and communist opposition leaders have been calling for the resignation of both Lombard and Wenes, but the group chief executive enjoys the backing of the French government.

Wenes has been replaced by Stephen Richard, a former cabinet director for French Finance Minister Christine Lagarde, who joined France Telecom on September 1 and was being groomed to replace the group CEO, Didier Lombard, in 2011. According to the website of French weekly Le Point , the finance minister mentioned Richard as a possible replacement for Wenes at that meeting. Lagarde reasserted her full and unwavering support for the troubled CEO after the two met last Thursday. Wenes is symbolic: he was responsible for &lsquoterror management&rsquo tactics.

A concession to unions

News of Wenes&rsquo departure was greeted with satisfaction by employees and union members.

CFDT union member Pierre Dubois told them that Wenes&rsquo ousting was the logical consequence of his perceived insensitiveness to employee suicides. He had to leave, CFE-CGC union member Pierre Morville told AFP.

France Telecom, which had suspended forced transfers until October 31, announced on Monday that the halt was prolonged until December 31. A second sticking point was his refusal to negotiate on the policy of forced transfers, whereby France Telecom managers are required to change postings every three years.

There was never any kind of dialogue with Wenes, Dubois told them. . On September 24, Wenes had told French magazine Le Nouvel Observateur that he would consider himself the victim of a monstrous manipulation if he were to take on the responsibility of employee suicides. He never accepted to meet us, not until we published an open letter calling for his resignation on September 25.

Iin a joint press release, leftwing unions Sud and Solidaires said: The nomination of St&eacutephane Richard, a close collaborator of President Nicolas Sarkozy, has raised concern among employees about the future of France Telecom.

Deontological concerns

Although most unions are hopeful that negotiations will start afresh with Richard, some warn against hasty optimism. Dubois was also cautious: Richard remains a big question mark &ndash we don&rsquot know much about him. We hope he will rapidly shed light on his future role.

Deontological concerns surfaced immediately after Richard nomination. We hope the management style will change, and that he will bring a fresh look to the heart of the issue: restructuring France Telecom. However, it is not altogether clear how Richard is expected to do so, given that the state is one of the company main shareholders. As a former member of government, he has been authorised to join France Telecom on condition that he abstain from any contact with the cabinet of the finance until June 30, 2012 .

France – France Telecom – telecommunication

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AFP – German auto parts maker Continental on Monday announced a breakdown in talks with the Dubai-based MAG group on the possible takeover by MAG of a tyre making plant in France.

The discussions ended by mutual agreement, with no common ground having been found, Continental said in a statement.

MAG vice president Fawaz Sabri said his group would continue to examine the matter.

The two parties had led intensive discussions but finally agreed that it was not possible to reach common ground for further talks. The German group offered MAG additional time when the MAG response was deemed incomplete on September 30.

Continental had given MAG until September 30 to reach agreement on a letter of intent regarding the factory, located in Clairoix, northern France.

Dubai – France – Germany

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AFP – French Culture Minister Frederic Mitterrand was in the spotlight Saturday for standing as character reference for two rapists after a row over his admission of paying boys for sex.

Mitterrand, an urbane television personality and a nephew of former Socialist president Francois Mitterrand adopted a pugnacious tone and threatened legal action over what he said was a new orchestrated campaign of insensitive calumny.

The latest scandal emerged just after Mitterrand managed to retain his job following a fresh furore over his 2005 autobiographical novel La Mauvaise Vie (The Bad Life) in which the hero describes paying Asian boys for sex.

The minister will launch legal action against those who are complicit in the latest ignominy he has suffered, a statement read out at a news conference in the southwestern town of Bordeaux quoted Mitterrand as saying.

I absolutely condemn sexual tourism (and) I condemn paedophilia in which I have never in any way participated, and all the people who accuse me of that type of thing should be ashamed, the 62 year old told TF1 television.

Mitterrand had angrily denied having ever engaged in paedophile acts or condoning sex tourism.

The minister on Saturday said he was godfather to one of the youths, whose mother is a former make-up artist, and underlined that his letter attesting to their good moral character was a gesture of compassion and generosity to a modest family in great distress.

The latest controversy emerged after a French newspaper said Mitterrand had testified to the good character of two youths in the French overseas territory of La Reunion charged with the gang rape of a 16-year-old girl.

Is it not a shame that this letter has found its way in all the Internet networks? he said, calling it an ignominy, a shame, and manipulation.

He underlined that he had met one of the youths three times in (my) life.

The three youths were charged with rape and sentenced to between eight and 15 years in prison.

Le Quotidien de la Reunion newspaper on Friday published a letter that Mitterrand, who was then director of the Villa Medici, the French Academy in Rome, had written to the court.

The controversy over Mitterrand’s book erupted this week after his staunch defence of fugitive film-maker Roman Polanski, arrested in Switzerland on a US warrant on child sex charges. .

Frédéric Mitterrand – French politics – homosexuality – paedophilia – scandal

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An actor has blamed his battle with depression for an incident in which he ended up being shot by police after allegedly ringing to notify them of an armed, agitated man and then dressed up as the man.

Rob Mokaraka, 36, denied reports that the incident in Auckland in July resulted from a custody battle over his child or a perceived lack of work as an actor.

“My depression takes me to dark places,” he told the Herald on Sunday.”

Mokaraka, who is on bail and recuperating in Northland after leaving hospital about two weeks ago, is due back in court on Wednesday.

“I agree depression should be talked about to give others an understanding.

Mokaraka was charged after police said he rang 111 to notify them of an armed, agitated man in the Pt Chevalier area, and then dressed up as the man. .

When police arrived at the scene, he allegedly advanced on them carrying a meat cleaver and two knives, before he was shot once in the chest.

“I am not saying it has stopped, but it’s an ongoing process.

Mokaraka said he was dealing quickly with the emotional scars, “quicker than the physical wounds”.

“There is so much love coming from all over the place,” he said.”

He said he had had plenty of support from family and friends since the incident.”

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“I cannot help but be buoyed by that

.The French military fired on pirates in the Indian Ocean on Saturday to protect two tuna fishing vessels, a spokesman for France’s armed forces said.
The operation at dawn some 350 kilometres from the Seychelles was the first time the French had repelled an attack since a plan was put in place in July for the military to protect boats in the region from Somali pirates.
French soldiers opened fire on two small launches that were trying to approach the vessels bearing the French ensign.
“There were shots .
No one was injured on the tuna ships, which are based at Concarneau, in southern Brittany, the spokesman said… it lasted half an hour and at one point they turned around,” the captain of one of the tuna vessels, Christophe Guyader, told France Bleu Breizh Izel radio.
European fleets have said Somali pirates, which have made millions of dollars from ransoms, are threatening an industry worth up to $US6 billion annually across the Indian Ocean region.
France and Spain base fleets in the Seychelles and haul nearly two thirds of the year’s catch off Somalia between August and November, experts say.
The French military said on Wednesday that one of its naval vessels had repelled a night assault by Somali pirates who apparently believed it was a cargo ship.
Pirates from the lawless Horn of Africa state hijacked a Spanish tuna fishing boat in the Indian Ocean earlier this month.
“It is still too soon to say whether this reduction is due to the actions of the international community .
French armed forces spokesman Christophe Prazuck said pirate attacks had been decreasing, with between 10 and 15 boats on average being held last year compared with four currently.. . We are coming out of the monsoon season, which is not favourable towards the pirates’ small boats,” he added. or the weather.
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AFP – France’s Culture Minister Frederic Mitterrand appeared to have saved his job Friday after an emotional television appearance in which he admitted paying for sex with men but angrily rejected paedophilia charges.

Mitterrand faced calls for his resignation this week over his autobiographical novel The Bad Life which describes paying for boys in brothels in Thailand and Indonesia.

He appeared on French television on Thursday, and denied the book was a defence of paedophilia, insisting the men he met in Asia were consenting adults.

Justice Minister French Michele Alliot-Marie said she found her colleague’s appearance moving and called him a very good minister.

Mitterrand said President Nicolas Sarkozy had given him full support, and the two men were due to make a public appearance together on Friday, suggesting that his job is safe for now. The minister is also a friend of Sarkozy’s supermodel wife, Carla Bruni.

Sarkozy hired Mitterrand in June, delighted to bring the nephew of late Socialist president Francois Mitterrand into his right-wing government.

The controversy over his 2005 book erupted this week after Mitterrand’s staunch defence of fugitive filmmaker Roman Polanski, who is being held in Switzerland on a US warrant for an outstanding conviction for sex with a 13-year-old girl.

I absolutely condemn sexual tourism.

Mitterrand was forced to make the television appearance after left and right wing politicians demanded he respond to the allegations that his own memoir endorses sex tourism.

Mitterrand has previously explained that in his book, which was marketed as a memoir but which he now says its not entirely autobiographical, he had used the term boys to describe all males. I condemn paedophilia, in which I have never in any way participated, and all the people who accuse me of that type of thing should be ashamed, the 62-year-old told TF1 television.

Because I was each time with people who were my age and who were consenting, he said.

Asked if he regretted paying for sex with boys in Thailand, and if he had made a mistake by so doing, he replied that he had committed a mistake, without doubt, a crime, no.

Mitterrand acknowledged that had committed an offence against the idea of dignity, human dignity.

Mitterrand acknowledged that had committed an offence against the idea of dignity, human dignity.

He also warned that one must not confuse homosexuality with paedophilia.

Among all the people who are watching tonight, where is the one who has not at least once in his life made this sort of mistake? said the visibly angry minister.

But now, as a minister in a government that has prosecuted sex tourists, his position is more difficult.

Mitterrand’s defence of his book back in 2005 was broadly accepted and the book was praised for its shocking honesty and literary quality.

The hero describes the mixture of feverish excitement and guilt he feels as he hands over money for sex with boys whose age he does not state.

The passages in The Bad Life that have sparked controversy deal with the hero’s visits to brothels and boy bars in Thailand and Indonesia.

The profusion of attractive and immediately available boys puts me into a state of desire that I no longer need to hide or check.

All the rituals of this market of youths, this slave market, excite me enormously, the book says.

When Polanski, who lives in Paris, was detained in Switzerland last month, Mitterrand called the arrest absolutely horrifying. Money and sex, I am at the heart of my system, he wrote. .

Polanski, 76, fled the United States in 1978 after pleading guilty to unlawful sexual intercourse with a 13-year-old girl.

Frédéric Mitterrand – French politics – homosexuality – paedophilia – scandal