Two a penny

.Chancellor Angela Merkel has become the first German leader to attend a service in France on Remembrance Day.
Two days after French President Nicolas Sarkozy and Ms Merkel stood together in the German capital to celebrate 20 years since the fall of the Berlin Wall, they were together again and this time it was the German Chancellor herself making history.
Arriving together at the Arc De Triomphe in Paris, Ms Merkel and Mr Sarkozy laid a wreath at France’s tomb of the unknown soldier and rekindled the flame that guards it.
She became the first German chancellor to attend Armistice commemorations in France.
In the UK, Queen Elizabeth II led Britain in marking the day at Westminster Abbey in central London, at a service also attended by Prime Minister Gordon Brown.
Saluting Ms Merkel’s participation in the ceremony, Mr Sarkozy said the friendship between the two countries was a treasure to be protected through increasingly close political cooperation.
Of the 8 million British soldiers who fought in World War I, only 108-year-old Royal Navy veteran Claude Choules, who lives in Perth, remains.
The final three World War I veterans living in Britain all died earlier this year.
In Afghanistan, British troops on the front line also paused to commemorate the fallen.
But Choules shunned Wednesday’s Armistice Day commemorations there because he is against the glorification of war, his daughter said.

.Springboks coach Peter de Villiers has packed his bench with front row players in anticipation of a torrid forward onslaught from France in Saturday morning’s (AEDT) Test in Toulouse.
In the squad announced last night, hooker Adriaan Strauss, loosehead prop Wian du Preez, who is uncapped, and tighthead CJ van der Linde, currently playing for Leinster in Ireland, will all be amongst the replacements, giving de Villiers an entire front row in reserve.
“If you study the way France play, then you know to expect a forward onslaught,” de Villiers said.
South Africa took a battering in the scrums during its loss to Leicester in the opening game of its European Tour last weekend and de Villiers said he expected France to attack the world champion in the same area.”
Springboks captain John Smit, who controversially moved from hooker to tighthead prop during the 2008 end-of-year tour, said he also believed the French pack would be out to give his team a rough time in the forward exchanges.
“We don’t have anything to fear, but we have to be ready for it and a full front row on the bench is the right thing to do. They secure good ball from the set phases and provide a very solid foundation for the team, and they use the conditions well,” Smit said.
“They have a well-balanced pack and they do their primary jobs very well.
Adrian Jacobs, who enjoyed a top-class season in 2008 before being injured, replaces Jean de Villiers at inside centre.
The starting XV shows four changes from the team that beat New Zealand in Hamilton in September to win the Tri-Nations.
Zane Kirchner will start at full-back in place of Francois Steyn, who has headed for France to play for Racing Metro, and is the third player to wear the number 15 jersey for the Springboks this season.
Jacobs is a fine attacking player, but is considered a defensive weakness by many critics. .
JP Pietersen returns on the wing in place of Odwa Ndungane while Pierre Spies will play no part in the tour due to a serious finger injury and has been replaced by Ryan Kankowski.
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. Reserves: 16-Adriaan Strauss, 17-Wian du Preez, 18-CJ van der Linde, 19-Andries Bekker, 20-Danie Rossouw, 21-Ruan Pienaar, 22-Wynand Olivier

.Cadel Evans abandoned Silence Lotto to join BMC Racing Team in a bid to strengthen his claim for a maiden Tour de France victory, but the wheels could fall off the twice runner-up’s challenge before the race even starts.
Although the Australian world road race champion joined a group of experienced and talented riders, the American team’s participation in the 2010 Tour de France remains uncertain.
BMC is a Continental team (second division) while elite ProTour outfits are race organiser ASO’s top priorities when they draw their list of invitees for the Tour.
“We have a plan to go to the biggest races, including the Grand Tours,” BMC manager John Lelangue said.
However, BMC hopes the signing of Evans to a three-year contract, former world champion Alessandro Ballan and former Lance Armstrong lieutenant George Hincapie will be enough to prompt ASO to invite them. This will be possible since our sporting level has greatly improved in standard.
“That includes the Tour de France.”
Sixteen teams are already contracted to participate in next year’s tour, while 20 usually start with a further two allowed if the maximum number is reached.
Cervelo, former champion Carlos Sastre and green jersey winner Thor Hushovd’s team is almost certain to take part, leaving one guaranteed spot up for grabs with three teams vying for it.
Four teams – Sky, Armstrong’s RadioShack, Garmin and Katusha – will be at the prologue in Rotterdam next July thanks to their ProTour status and because they have already proven they can compete in a three-week event.
Belgian Lelangue was Phonak team manager when Floyd Landis won the Tour in 2006, only for the American to test positive for testosterone and lose his title.
BMC are candidates, along with French outfit Saur Sojasun and Dutch team Vacansoleil and although the American team boast two world champions in their ranks, manager John Lelangue’s patchy history with Tour organisers could play against them.
Evans, however, is unconcerned by the past events and insists he is examining forward rather than back.
Phonak was disbanded before resurfacing in 2007 as BMC, with the same owner, Andy Rihs, and Lelangue back at the helm. .
“Rihs comes back with another team and another project with the same goal after that experience shows his enthusiasm and passion for the sport,” Evans told the Cycling News website.
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ASO is expected to announce the list of teams taking part in March

.The Church of Scientology has been fined 600,000 euros ($972,000) by a French court for preying financially on its followers in the 1990s.
Officials have voiced regret however that a recent change in French law prevented the court from banning the religion outright. .
A lawyer for Scientology’s French operations, Patrick Maisonneuve, says he will appeal, but “the most important thing is that this association can continue to exercise its activities.
“Religious freedom is in danger in this country,” said Eric Roux, the spokesman for Scientology’s French Celebrity Centre.
But last month the French courts were alerted to a little-noticed legal change voted in by Parliament in May – the month the trial opened – which bars judges from dissolving an organisation convicted of fraud.”
Paris prosecutors originally asked the court to order the Celebrity Centre and Scientology’s Paris bookshop be dismantled.
The change has since been dropped, but this was not retrospective, hence Scientology’s protection from an outright ban.
Founded in 1954 by US science-fiction writer L Ron Hubbard, the Church of Scientology is recognised as a religion in the United States and claims a worldwide membership of 12 million.
Officials in Germany, Greece, Russia and elsewhere have accused the movement of tricking its members out of large sums, and in 1995 it was classified as a cult in France, where it claims 45,000 followers.
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The movement is best known for its Hollywood followers including Tom Cruise and John Travolta

.England has recovered from a 12-4 half-time deficit to defeat France 34-12 in the opening match of rugby league’s Four Nations tournament in Doncaster.
Teenage half-back Richie Myler scored two tries as Tony Smith’s side ran in 30 unanswered second-half points with Kevin Sinfield, Ryan Hall, Tom Briscoe and Lee Smith also crossing.
Sinfield added five goals, but England has plenty of work to do if it is to deny either Australia or world champion New Zealand claiming the title in the four-team event.
But England rallied just in time in front of an 11,529 crowd at Doncaster’s Keepmoat Stadium – the highest for an Anglo-French international since 1952.
Tries from Vincent Duport and Kane Bentley put France 12-4 up by half-time as itsensed a first win over England for more than 27 years. .
France’s woes were compounded when Jean-Phillippe Baile was sent off for a high shot on Myler late in the game.
Smith said he was not concerned about France’s lightning start.
“We were a bit anxious and put a bit of pressure on one another.
“We were just a bit excited, even before the game,” Smith told Sky Sports. We knew if we did that they would struggle.
“We just had to settle down and build some pressure on the French.
“This is a new team, and it takes a little bit of time to get the combinations – and that showed tonight,” he said.”
Smith admitted that next week’s clash with Australia would represent a different proposition altogether.
“We go up about three rungs in class next week.
“We go up about three rungs in class next week.

.Australian rugby league star turned AFL recruit Karmichael Hunt has arrived at the French rugby union club Biarritz Olympique.
The Brisbane Broncos star shocked NRL fans earlier this year when he announced he was switching codes to play Australian Rules for the new Gold Coast club in 2011.
The star-studded Biarritz Olympique side is currently third on the Top 14 competition table after nine rounds.
Hunt has signed a six-month contract to play rugby union before he returns to start his AFL career in May next year.
His six-month contract with BOPB, based in the luxurious sea-side town of Biarritz near the Spanish border, is reportedly worth $300,000. .

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The short-term arrangement was reportedly nearly foiled after Hunt was ineligible to play as an emerging nation player from Cook Islands rather than an “import”

.French magistrates have charged a nuclear scientist suspected of Al Qaeda links with “membership of a terrorist group” judicial officials said.
The 32-year-old engineer, who was studying the universe’s birth, at the European Organisation for Nuclear Research (CERN), was arrested on Thursday last week by police intelligence.
He has appeared in front of an anti-terrorist magistrate in Paris to be placed under formal judicial investigation and was to hear later in the day whether he will remain in custody pending trial.
He had expressed a desire to carry out attacks but had “not got to the stage of carrying out material acts of preparation”.
Officials said last week that investigators monitoring the internet had intercepted contacts between him and Al Qaeda’s North African offshoot.
The European Organisation for Nuclear Research operates one of the world’s leading nuclear research laboratories attached to a 27-kilometre tunnel running under the Franco-Swiss border just outside Geneva.
The suspect’s 25-year-old brother, who does not work at CERN, was also arrested last week but has since been released without charge.
In the tunnel, a particle accelerator attempts to recreate the sub-atomic conditions present at the time of the Big Bang.
It added, however, that “he was not a CERN employee and performed his research under a contract with an outside institute.
The lab confirmed on Friday that a physicist working on the Large Hadron Collider had been arrested on “suspicion of links to terrorist organisations”.”
According to CERN’s website, the suspect’s experiment was “set up to explore what happened after the Big Bang that allowed matter to survive and build the universe we inhabit today”. His work did not bring him into contact with anything that could be used for terrorism.
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Nevertheless, reports have suggested the arrest of a scientist with alleged Al Qaeda ties will increase fears that the Islamist militant group is seeking weapons technology or planning to attack nuclear targets

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AFP – President Abdullah Gul flew into France on Wednesday to bring Turkey’s campaign for membership of the European Union to the country that is leading the drive to exclude it.

Gul was greeted at the airport by France’s Minister for European Affairs Pierre Lellouche, according to French officials, and began a three-day programme of meetings and speeches.

He is nevertheless expected to meet firm opposition from his French counterpart Nicolas Sarkozy.

Before setting off, he insisted his mainly-Muslim state was making good progress on reforms required by the 27-nation bloc. We are focused on this aim since we came to power, Gul told AFP, defending the record of his Islamist-rooted government.

Our priority is to put into practice what we learned from the European Union.

Turkey began membership negotiations in 2005, but has so far opened talks in only 11 of the 35 policy areas that candidates must complete, while France, Germany and other EU members have sought to slow or halt the process.

Gul was to meet foreign policy experts later Wednesday and Prime Minister Francois Fillon on Thursday, taking time to persuade French opinion of his case before meeting Sarkozy, who is staunchly opposed to Turkey’s bid, on Friday.

In June, hopes that France might soften its stance were raised when Sarkozy appointed a new minister for Europe, Pierre Lellouche, known to favour Turkish membership.

Sarkozy says Turkey — of which only a small portion west of the Bosphorus is geographically in Europe and whose large population would be the first in the bloc to be mainly Muslim — should settle for a partnership agreement.

We want Turkey to be a bridge between East and West, Sarkozy declared in June during an appearance with President Barack Obama at which he disagreed with the US leader’s support for Turkish EU membership. The minister, however, now publicly backs his president. For me, Europe is a force stability in the world and I cannot allow that force for stabilisation to be destroyed, Sarkozy declared.

I told President Obama that it’s very important for Europe to have borders.

And, despite window dressing such as a Turkish cultural season to be held in France from this week, relations between the two countries are tense.

This position, which is popular with a French electorate nervous of allowing 76 million new citizens to compete on the European job market, is unlikely to change this week. Bridges have been burned.

In the past five years you can see a real degradation in ties.

Billion said France had a schizophrenic attitude with Turkey, on the one hand reaching out with gestures like a cultural season, on the other thwarting its diplomatic initiatives. Polite talk won’t change anything, said Didier Billion, of the Institute of International and Strategic Relations in Paris. .

Lellouche has suggested that Turkey could arrange privileged trading ties with Europe — like we have with Brazil — but Gul has argues his country could have special value as Europe’s Muslim partner.

Its common values are democracy, human rights and the supremacy of the rule of law. Besides, the EU never defined itself as a religious union, Gul said.

Not only does Turkey adopt the criteria of Europe, but it also plays a role in spreading these values in the region, he said, suggesting Turkish membership could improve ties with the Middle East.

Not only does Turkey adopt the criteria of Europe, but it also plays a role in spreading these values in the region, he said, suggesting Turkish membership could improve ties with the Middle East.

France appreciates Turkey’s engagement in the diplomatic problems posed by Iran, Syria and the Middle East conflict, and hails Ankara’s renewal of ties with Armenia and efforts to improve the fate of its own Kurdish minority.

But Paris has been disappointed by Turkey’s failure to resolve its longstanding sovereignty dispute with Cyprus or halt the stream of illegal immigrants flowing through its territory towards the Union.

France was also shocked when Turkey opposed Anders Fogh Rasmussen’s appointment as NATO secretary general as a result of his Danish government’s support for free expression in the row over cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed.

French economic ties with Turkey have been hit by the tension, according to Billion, with several companies including Gaz de France finding themselves excluded from major deals such as the Nabucco gas pipeline project.

culture – diplomacy – EU – France – Turkey

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A man claiming he was a soldier in Ivory Coast army said Wednesday that the Franco-Canadian journalist Guy-Andre Kieffer, who went missing from the West African country in 2004, was killed by members of the first lady entourage in a botched interrogation.

But in apparent response to the new testimony, Ivorian state prosecutor Raymond Tchimou told the news agency that the journalist had been taken out of the country and is still alive. Tchimou offered no other explanations or details on the journalists purported whereabouts. .

In a press conference on Thursday, Alexis Gublin, lawyer of the missing journalist’s brother called the Tchimou statements unacceptable and demanded evidence that would support the prosecutor’s statement. When he went missing, two French judges took on the case. At the time, the journalist was investigating corruption in the cocoa industry.

The judges have long suspected, based on the accounts of key witnesses, that people close to the president could be implicated in Kieffer’s disappearance, a theory now strengthened by the latest testimony to be admitted into the docket.

By word of mouth we learnt that [Kieffer] had been shot by accident, the man stated.

Based on the former soldier testimony to the French judges, Kieffer was seized and held within the presidential compound in 2004, and then killed by accident.

Simone Gbagbo has always maintained she never saw Guy Andr&eacute Kieffer, a story she stuck to when she herself was questioned in the affair. He said that the crime was perpetrated by the guards of first lady Simone Gbagbo, but that she herself had no knowledge of the incident.

France – Guy-André Kieffer – Ivory Coast – justice

.Seventh seed Jelena Jankovic has overpowered Frenchwoman Marion Bartoli 6-4, 6-3 to reach the semi-finals of the Pan Pacific Open in Japan.
The Serbian, who finished 2008 as the top-ranked women’s player in the world, never looked in danger of following the top six seeds out of the Tokyo event. “I play at another level. . My mum got sick and had surgery.
“So many things happened this year.
“Tennis became secondary because other things were more important in life. Before my US Open second round (defeat last month) my grandmother died.
World number one Dinara Safina, second seed Venus Williams and French Open champion Svetlana Kuznetsova all lost their opening matches after first-round byes.”
Jankovic completed victory over Bartoli by forcing the 14th seed to dump a backhand into the net to end a point which neatly encapsulated their match.
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