Two a penny

.The World Health Organisation and the pharmaceutical industry have been criticised for their handling of last year’s swine flu pandemic.
At a hearing of the Council of Europe - the European Union’s human rights body - the WHO faced accusations that it exaggerated the danger of the virus under pressure from drug companies.
When a pandemic was declared last June, most European countries changed their health priorities to accommodate thousands of expected patients. .
A number of European governments had signed contracts with the drug companies to buy back vaccines, believing a flu pandemic long predicted by health experts would be a virus-like bird flu with a very high death rate.
- BBC

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The organisation denies any conflict of interest

.The Federal Government has ramped up warnings about Microsoft’s web browser Internet Explorer, which has come under attack from hackers.
The Government is warning that people risk having their computers infiltrated and passwords stolen unless they install temporary fixes from Microsoft or use alternative browsers.
The Government says Microsoft has acknowledged all recent versions of the program are vulnerable.
The French and German governments have warned internet users in Europe to avoid Microsoft’s popular web browser.
It also says people should remember to regularly update their security software and change passwords oftenly.
Senior lecturer in network engineering at Melbourne’s RMIT University, Mark Gregory, says industry and governments are not prepared for the changing threats to cyberspace.
The concern follows revelations that hackers used a crack in Internet Explorer to mount an attack on Google and a number of other companies.
“The digital network is like the wild west.
“It is being used in ways that it wasn’t meant to be used and we need to get organisations, companies and governments . It is unregulated,” he said…”
Bill Caelli, from the Information Security Institute at the Queensland University of Technology, says the Government and regulators must step in to protect internet users. focused on taking action to make the digital network more secure for the general public.
“How many builders have put smoke detectors in the new homes and houses? How many people have put fences around their pools to protect children?” he said.
“How many builders have put smoke detectors in the new homes and houses? How many people have put fences around their pools to protect children?” he said.”
The Government says Microsoft has not solved the security glitch and Australians should use alternative browsers. It’s always been driven by regulatory [sic], by society itself, and that’s the role of government.
“There are other browsers that are available that appear to be being targeted less by the hackers and by these organisations than what Internet Explorer is being targeted,” he said. .
“On that basis you’d have to argue that if security was a principal concern then using another browser would be wise until the incidence is reduced.
“I don’t think there was any inference in what they said that Internet Explorer was any more deficient in terms of security than any of the other browsers, just that it was being targeted more.

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Editor’s note (19 January 2010): This story has been amended to reflect the fact that web users can install temporary fixes from Microsoft to reduce their risk

.France captain Thierry Henry’s infamous handball in the World Cup play-off win over Ireland will go under the microscope on Monday (local time) when FIFA’s disciplinary commission assess the incident.
Two months to the day since the Barcelona man’s controversial intervention secured the 1-1 draw that took France to South Africa and ended Ireland’s World Cup dream in the second leg of their play-off tie in Paris, Henry will face up to the possibility of a fine or even a ban.
“I had a phone conversation with Thierry Henry,” Blatter said.
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.
Despite the media storm that followed the match, with the goal dubbed “The Hand of Frog” in the Irish press and Irish prime minister Brian Cowen calling for a replay, Henry is likely to escape lightly.
The disciplinary commission is likely to issue a symbolic penalty, as FIFA’s rules do not explicitly address incidents of such a nature and a heavy punishment would create an unwelcome precedent for world football’s governing body.
Blatter, meanwhile, has raised the possibility of awarding “moral compensation” to the Irish team.
Article 57 of FIFA’s disciplinary code concerns “anyone who insults someone in any way, especially by using offensive gestures or language, or who violates the principles of fair play or whose behaviour is unsporting in any other way” and refers to punishments ranging from warnings to the return of awards.
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 for what proved to be the decisive goal after illegally controlling the ball with his hand.
“That could be a special trophy or a prize, we’ll have to see,” he said.

.A work by French impressionist artist Edgar Degas was stolen from a museum on Wednesday night in Marseille in southern France, the city’s prosecutor said.
The pastel, named Les Choristes (The Chorus), was worth an estimated 800,000 euros ($1. .2 million), the prosecutor said.
“The disappearance of this very expensive painting was discovered when the museum opened on Thursday morning.
The work belonged to the Musee d’Orsay in Paris and had been loaned to Marseille’s Cantini museum for an exhibition that was due to close on January 3.
The Musee d’Orsay, which has been loaning out many works in recent months to raise funds, declined to comment on the theft. There do not seem to be any signs of breaking and entering,” Marseille public prosecutor Jacques Dallest said.
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.Two women have died and 47 others were hurt in a bus crash in the south of England as ice and snow continues to throw the UK’s transport systems into chaos.
Snow and ice on the runways caused many flights to be cancelled.
All 129 passengers were taken off the plane and no injuries were reported.
A Ryanair plane overshot the runway as it landed at Prestwick Airport in the west of Scotland.
Thousands of people left stranded by a three-day Eurostar service cancellation formed long queues at London’s Saint Pancras International Station in the hope of finally getting to the continent.
As snow turns to ice, traffic conditions have become treacherous.
All Eurostar’s trains for Wednesday filled up by lunchtime.
Tempers frayed amid confusion over who would get priority on the reduced number of trains that began running on Tuesday.
Passengers were urged to turn up an hour early. The operator said it would continue to run a modified timetable on Thursday.
Meanwhile, floodwaters drenched most of Venice, as a combination of wind, rain and the lagoon city’s periodic tidal phenomenon saw water levels rise by 143 centimetres, a record for the year, officials said.
Many online shoppers shoppers in the UK have been told not to expect their goods by Christmas after snow stalled deliveries.
Heavy rains closed motorways in southern Spain and Portugal, where power lines were also cut by heavy winds overnight. .
In northern Germany, a seven-year-old boy was stopped by police, driving back to a parking lot having ploughed the snow off the street with his parents’ front loader.
Snowfall also forced school closures in northern Spain.
- ABC/AFP

.Services have returned almost to normal after three days of chaos on the Eurostar rail link between the UK and France.
But many parts of Europe continue to face severe transport disruptions and there have been more deaths as a severe cold snap sweeps the continent.
More than 80 people have died across Europe, including 42 in Poland and another 27 in Ukraine who have frozen to death.
Air, rail and road transport has been severely disrupted across northern Europe where as much as 50 centimetres of snow has fallen with more expected in the coming days.
Another 13 people died in car accidents in Austria, Finland and Germany, where temperatures dropped well below zero.
More freezing fog was expected at Stansted, north of London, and forecasters from Britain’s Met Office also issued severe weather warnings across the country, warning of icy roads and thick snow in eastern Scotland.
But after three days of cancelled services, Eurostar trains began running again between Brussels, Paris and London: an investigation has been launched into the disruption of services.
Britain’s Automobile Association said Monday was their busiest night for 25 years, with about 700 calls received every hour.
“There was no way that I was going to throw customers out into that,” said store managing director Deborah Strazza.
In Buckinghamshire, west of London, about 100 people, including 20 children, spent the night in the John Lewis department store after being snowed in.”

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.Tens of thousands of European travellers have been stranded in rail stations, traffic jams and airports as heavy snow and ice continues to cause massive disruptions at the start of the Christmas holiday season.
A deadly blizzard has also blanketed much of the eastern United States, cutting power to tens of thousands of homes, paralysing air traffic and stranding many motorists amid the worst storms to hit the region in decades.
Another homeless Pole froze to death while sheltering in a doorway in the French Mediterranean port of Marseille, and a Frenchman was found dead in his ice-cold caravan close to the northern town of Arras.
In Poland, at least 15 people have died of exposure, mainly the homeless or careless drunks caught outside in temperatures that plunged to minus 20 degrees Celsius, according to police.6C. .
Forecasters across the continent are expecting more snow and freezing rain over the next couple of days, but with temperatures rising slightly and the outlook gradually improving.
Two more Germans died in road accidents caused by the icy conditions.
The most crippling problems hit cross-Channel transport between Britain and France, amid chaotic scenes after the Eurostar passenger service from London to Paris was shut down for a second day after at least five breakdowns.
Roads and railways have been closed or disrupted by snow drifts, black ice or floods across northern and western Europe, from Portugal to the Netherlands, and flights from London, Brussels and Paris airports were delayed.
The company said it would send test trains along the route to see if they could withstand the sub-zero temperatures in northern France which are believed to have caused trains to break down in the tunnel on Friday (local time).
Eurostar, the operator of the Channel Tunnel passenger trains, admitted it could not say when services would resume, with more than 24,000 passengers attempting to travel ahead of Christmas already affected. They all got through the tunnel OK, but one or two of them showed symptoms of the problem that happened on Friday night,” Eurostar director Richard Brown said.
“We did run two or three trains yesterday.”
More than 2,000 passengers spent Friday night trapped in the undersea tunnel, some without anything to eat or drink.
“We will not start services again until we’re sure that we can get them through safely.
Approach roads to the ports of Dover and Calais were snarled by tail-backs as a result of heavy snow and queues of trucks waiting for delayed shuttle trains through the Channel Tunnel. There were reports of heated rows and some passengers bitterly criticised the company.
- Deadly blizzards -
In the United States, the governors of Virginia, Maryland, West Virginia and Delaware have declared states of emergency following the snowstorms.
At Paris Charles de Gaulle, 40 per cent of flights have been cancelled and the remaining services were leaving an average of one hour late, while the city’s second airport, Orly, was the scene of a strike by security staff.
Officials reported many drivers and passengers had been stranded in their vehicles, some for more than 12 hours.
Three people have died on Virginia roads, with around 3,000 accidents forcing the closure of Virginia interstates for several hours.
In the bull’s eye of the weather, Washington shattered a 1932 December snowfall record, with 40 centimetres covering streets and homes.
Emergency services delivered heated meals and 400 bottles of water for stranded motorists, while others were moved to shelters.
The massive storm at one point stretched 800 kilometres across a dozen states, affecting around a quarter of the US population.
The massive storm at one point stretched 800 kilometres across a dozen states, affecting around a quarter of the US population.
President Barack Obama, after attending the climate change summit in Copenhagen, raced home to avoid the worst of the storm that hammered the East Coast with more than 61cm of snow in some places.
He got back before dawn on Saturday, two days before winter’s official arrival. By Saturday afternoon, the capital region’s three main airports - Reagan National, Washington Dulles International and Baltimore Washington International - had cancelled all incoming and outgoing flights, stranding thousands of passengers.
It was bleak news for millions hoping to drive or fly ahead of Christmas on one of the busiest travel weekends of the year.
With close to white-out conditions forcing many residents to stay home and shopping malls shuttered or closing early, the extreme conditions also looked likely to take a bite out of retail sales.
The major shopping day usually accounts for some $US15 billion of all nationwide sales on the last weekend before Christmas.
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.Paris’s top museums shut on Wednesday (local time) as staff went on strike, protesting against cost cuts that they see as a threat to priceless art.
Museums such as The Louvre, which houses the Mona Lisa at the heart of an art collection spanning millennia, help make France the world’s top tourist destination.
But staff say job cuts and lower subsidies are endangering this status.
The Louvre opened more than an hour late after workers met under its famous glass pyramid to discuss strike options.
“The fewer staff there are, the greater the risk that the museum opens in conditions that are unacceptable in terms of security - be it for the artworks, visitors or building,” said Didier Alaime, spokesperson of the CGT union’s culture section.
Its employees will meet tomorrow morning to decide on further action after talks with culture minister Frederic Mitterrand.
The Musee d’Orsay - home to Edouard Manet’s Olympia, some of Vincent Van Gogh’s most striking landscapes and room after room of sun-dappled impressionist paintings - was closed for the day.
The Rodin museum, which has spearheaded the protest movement, has been closed since last week.
Union workers are particularly angered by a government plan to fill only half the vacancies left by retired officials.
France’s government is restructuring its culture sector as part of broader budget cuts, arguing it is improving quality while controlling costs through audits and other initiatives.
“Today you have to ask yourself whether you should only do commercially successful exhibitions rather than shows that are maybe more narrow, more complicated,” Alaime said. .
France’s museums play a crucial part in pulling in the crowds.
Tourism accounts for around 6 per cent of gross domestic product in France, though the outlook for this year is gloomy as crisis-hit Europeans, Americans and Japanese stay at home.
Last year, more than 80 million people visited France; the Louvre alone sees about 6 million visitors a year.
Last year, more than 80 million people visited France; the Louvre alone sees about 6 million visitors a year

.Thousands of French internet users have flooded video sharing websites to enjoy a lampoon of their glamorous first couple, almost a week after they appeared on the US show, The Simpsons.
Cartoon caricatures of President Nicolas Sarkozy and first lady Carla Bruni starred in an episode of the animated show on November 15 in an episode entitled The Devil Wears Nada.
In the show, bungling paterfamilias Homer Simpson and his colleague Carl Carlson visit Paris and bump into Ms Bruni, a cigarette-smoking femme fatale in a stylish ballgown, at a high-society reception.
Their cameos passed largely unnoticed in France until Friday, when news websites started linking to pirated clips of the episode, creating a buzz which saw more than 117,000 fans linking to the DailyMotion site alone.”
Later, after Carl threatens to have Homer sacked, the hero declares: “You know that woman you’ve been playing hide the baguette with? That’s the first lady of France, Carla Bruni!
“If you fire me I’ll call President Sarkozy and he’ll be all over you like Truffaut on Hitchcock,” Homer warns, in a dig at French cinema’s supposed debt to American models.
After a brief exchange of pleasantries, the Bruni character throws herself into Carl’s arms and declares: “I want to make love, right now. .
When Carl doubts the threat, Homer calls Mr Sarkozy’s office and we see the French leader at his desk with a portion of camembert and his sultry wife.
But while Britain’s former prime minister Tony Blair and Fox network owner Rupert Murdoch recorded their own voices for their appearances and escaped with a gentle ribbing, the harsher Sarkozy parody appeared without their consent.
This is not the first time The Simpsons has mocked the French - the show famously popularised the taunt “cheese-eating surrender monkey” - or leading world figures.
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.Former world number one Marat Safin, in his final tournament before retiring, has squeezed past French qualifier Thierry Ascione 6-4, 4-6, 7-6 in a Paris Masters first-round match.
The gifted but erratic Russian, who has been hampered by injuries in recent years and has dropped out of the top 50, was forced to save three match points.
He eventually went on to take the tie-break 7-3 with a forehand volley on the first match point to seal victory after an hour and 52 minutes of relatively dull tennis.
The 29-year-old Safin, who has lifted the Paris Masters trophy three times but is without a tournament win since the 2005 Australian Open, saved three match points with aces at 5-4 down in the final set. “I always came here to win but this time, frankly, I don’t think I can do that.
“The tennis I’m playing at the moment is not the best of my career,” Safin told reporters.”
One of the world’s most spectacular players when on song, Safin faces a tough task in the second round against US Open champion Juan Martin del Potro.
“I’ll just try to finish on a high note and say goodbye to everybody.
- Traded breaks -
Safin broke in the fifth game before winning the first set in 29 minutes. .
Both men looked equally clumsy in the deciding set until the unseeded Safin stepped up a gear in the closing stages.
The pair traded breaks early in the second before the Russian dropped his serve in the 10th game, losing the set by hitting a forehand long.
Czech Berdych, who won the indoor event in 2005, struggled at times against an opponent ranked outside the top 200.
Earlier, former champion Tomas Berdych recorded a 6-3, 7-6 victory over another French qualifier, Vincent Millot.
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The world number 20 next plays Spaniard Tommy Robredo, seeded 14