.Northern Europe is bracing for what is expected to be the coldest day yet of the big freeze affecting the region.
Conditions have left many people dead and another Eurostar train has been stranded in the Channel Tunnel. .
The Arctic freeze has seen temperatures in central Sweden plunge to between minus 30 and minus 40 degrees Celsius, the coldest weather in more than 25 years.
In Germany, at least nine homeless men have frozen to death.
Around 10,000 schools shut down in Britain and will not reopen until well into next week.
Gas supplies are running low in the UK where the national grid has had to start rationing supplies of energy.
One Eurostar train arrived in London two hours late after breaking down in the Channel Tunnel, while four others were cancelled after snow got into the engines.
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The average weather in Britain recently has been only 2 degrees warmer than the North Pole
.Revellers have started ringing in the New Year across the globe with spectacular fireworks displays and massive parties hosted by world capitals against a backdrop of tightened security.
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, terrorist attacks, natural disaster and financial turmoil.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 Australia, about 1.
Paris’s Eiffel Tower was ready to be transformed into a multicoloured light show for its party while in Berlin more than 1 million revellers were expected on the boulevard leading to the Brandenburg Gate, the symbol of German unity, with live bands and DJs to crank up the party.
Thousands of people crammed into Hong Kong’s harbour, where 9,000 fireworks were unleashed in a display that lasted close toly five minutes, shot off from the city’s tallest skyscraper as well as other buildings
But in Thailand, police banned fireworks after a New Year’s Eve blaze at a Bangkok nightclub a year ago killed 65 people.
In New York, a downpour of confetti was to mark midnight at a traditional mass celebration in Times Square in the heart of Manhattan.
Celebrations in Britain centred on the London Eye, the giant wheel across the River Thames from the Houses of Parliament and Big Ben, the world’s most famous clock.
“It will be a full fledged deployment of resources,” city police Commissioner Raymond Kelly said.
But after security jitters rekindled by a Christmas Day bomb plot against a passenger jet claimed by Al Qaeda, undercover police, surveillance cameras and radiation and biological detection equipment were to monitor the crowds.”
In Finland, a lone gunman chose the last day of the year to kill four people in a rampage in a shopping mall. “We assume here that New York is the number one terrorist target in America.
The US embassy in Indonesia said meanwhile 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. He also murdered a former girlfriend and was later found dead himself. .
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.
For Cyprus, New Year’s Eve was the last chance to smoke in pubs, clubs and cafes, with new anti-smoking law in force from January 1.
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.
“New Year’s Day, the 1st of January 2010, marks the beginning of the most important year in our country since 1994,” Zuma said.
And in South Africa, President Jacob Zuma used his New Year message to call for unity for the 2010 football World Cup – the first ever to be held in Africa. “We have to put the culture of negativity behind us.
“It must be the year in which we work together to make the Soccer World Cup the biggest turning point in the marketing of our country,” he said.
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New Year’s Eve also presented much of the world with a blue moon – the second full moon appearing in a calendar month – for only the second time in close toly two decades
.Veteran French rocker Johnny Hallyday has been released from a Los Angeles hospital where he underwent a back operation earlier this month, his publicists said.
“The doctors judged that Johnny Hallyday’s current state of health has improved and justifies a return home to his family while he continues to receive the medical treatment he needs,” they said.
He will spend Christmas at his home in Los Angeles with his wife Laeticia and two daughters.
He has begun legal action to determine whether the surgeon who performed the operation in Paris was at fault and earlier this week submitted a letter to French judges declaring that he had “come close to death”.
Hallyday, 66, who had been due to resume a concert tour in January, was admitted to the Cedars-Sinai hospital on December 7 suffering complications after an earlier operation in Paris.
His health problems have forced the cancellation of the remainder of his concert tour, prompting widespread speculation about the likely financial impact for insurers and promoters.
Hallyday, one of France’s most popular entertainers in a career spanning almost 50 years, is particularly famous for his energetic live performances.
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.Four Eurostar trains with hundreds of people on board have broken down in the Channel Tunnel between Britain and France.
The trains were on their way from Paris to London when they suffered serious technical failures and rescue locomotives are being sent down the tunnel to get the passengers out.
A Eurostar spokesman says the breakdowns happened when the trains entered the tunnel where temperatures were higher compared to the sub-zero conditions in northern France.
A total of around 1,200 to 1,300 passengers from two of the trains in one tunnel are being evacuated on an empty vehicle shuttle being sent to collect them from the other tunnel, the spokesman said.
“Currently the tunnels are closed,” the spokesman said, calling the situation “unprecedented”.
“At the moment we’re not giving timescales.
The third train, in the other tunnel, is scheduled to be pushed out later. We hope to get this done as quickly as possible,” the spokesman said.
The spokesman said the passengers are safe and well as the heating and electricity systems in the carriages are functioning.
A fourth passenger train had earlier broken down and was pulled to its London terminus. They have been stranded for several hours and its not yet clear when they’ll reach London.
But for the hundreds on board each train it could be a long night.
“Subsequent to that, as the snow stopped falling, we were preparing to run shuttles through with passengers from the UK, and we had a succession of Eurostar breakdowns in the tunnel.
“The weather in France was absolutely appalling and we were cooperating with the French authorities to limit the amount of traffic getting through to the French motorways,” the spokesman said. .
“There are currently three Eurostars broken down blocking both tunnels.
“That’s an awful lot of people to move safely from one train into a service tunnel and then from that service tunnel through on to a shuttle.
“We’re talking about 600 to 700 people on each train.”
– AFP/BBC
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“Nobody’s been transferred, we’re working it through as safely and as smoothly as we can
.A protester who presented himself as an Iraqi journalist in exile has hurled a shoe at the colleague who a year ago found fame by throwing his own footwear at then-US president George W Bush.
Television reporter Muntazer al-Zaidi was in Paris to promote his campaign for the “victims of the US occupation in Iraq” when a fellow Iraqi critic turned the tables on him, shouting: “Here’s another shoe for you.
The shoe was thrown hard at Mr Zaidi’s head, but he managed to dodge it and it bounced harmlessly off a curtain erected behind the speakers by the event’s hosts, the Foreign Press Welcome Centre in Paris.”
The thickset man with an Iraqi accent made a brief speech in Arabic during the question-and-answer session, defending US policy and accusing Mr Zaidi of “working for dictatorship in Iraq”, before throwing his shoe.
“When I used this method, it was against the occupation.
Mr Zaidi’s brother grappled with and slapped the man, whom witnesses later described as an asylum-seeker they know only as Khayat, before venue staff and bystanders separated them and the aggressor was hustled away.
“I always knew the occupier and his lackeys would stop at nothing to get to me. I did not use it against a compatriot,” Mr Zaidi said.
Mr Zaidi, a journalist for Iraq’s Al-Baghdadia television, threw his shoes at Mr Bush during the US leader’s final visit to Iraq, protesting the six-year-old occupation with a cry of: “This is the farewell kiss, you dog.”
Following the commotion, the news conference continued with Mr Zaidi taking questions about his famous assault on Mr Bush on December 14 last year, which was shown around the world and made him a hero in the Arab world.
Asked about the huge sums and even offers of marriage made by admirers during his jail term, Mr Zaidi said he had asked his family to refuse all gifts “until I find a way that they can be passed on to the people of Iraq”. .
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.A second auction of art and furniture once owned by Yves Saint Laurent has raised 8.9 million euros ($14.
The first sale of treasures belonging to Saint Laurent and his companion Pierre Berge raised more than 370 million euros in February in one of the biggest auctions Paris has ever seen.45 million), Christie’s says.
The November 17-20 auction featured almost 1,200 works that used to decorate various properties owned by the couple, including Chateau Gabriel – a 19th century Normandy country house.
Christie’s had estimated the second sale would rake in between 3 and 4 million euros, with all the proceeds going to an AIDS research charity.
Among the objects that saw heavy bidding were a pair of armchairs, made at the start of the 19th century, which eventually sold for 241,000 euros.
Christie’s says 98 per cent of the lots have found a buyer. It was valued at between 300 and 500 euros, but sold for 109,000 euros.
Another unexpected hit was an umbrella holder, which used to stand at the entrance to Saint Laurent and Berge’s Paris apartment.
Berge decided to sell it all after Saint Laurent died last year.
Saint Laurent and Berge built up one of the world’s biggest and most important private art collections over some five decades.
.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.
.The pulse behind Melbourne’s NRL success finally gets to show his wares for Australia, with Saturday’s Four Nations clash with France ending Cooper Cronk’s two-year stint in the representative wilderness.
Despite driving the Storm to four consecutive grand final appearances that yielded two premierships, Cronk’s only senior representative game was a start in Australia’s record 58-0 thumping of New Zealand in Wellington in 2007.
But not Cronk.
Since then the likes of Darren Lockyer, Johnathan Thurston, Scott Prince and even Karmichael Hunt have blocked his path to both Queensland and Test jumpers, a predicament which would exasperate the most patient of men.
“Some things don’t fall in your place and others get things the way they want sometimes.
“Everyone wants to be part of the bigger games and if you’re not a part of it you’re obviously disappointed,” Cronk said.”
It’s a case of back to the future for Cronk, who will reprise a role he once feared he would never shake when he comes off the bench against France.
“The problem is when you start sulking and dropping the bottom lip, that’s when people really start noticing, and you’re probably not going to get picked ever again.
Since then he has blossomed into one of the game’s premier playmakers – with Melbourne making the grand final every year since.
Cronk was the man in the number 14 jumper for the best part of two years at Melbourne, when understudy to starting halves Matt Orford and Scott Hill.
“It was really frustrating,” Cronk said of his bench role at the Storm.
Ironically, Cronk’s utility value now has him in a three-way race with Kurt Gidley and Robbie Farah for a berth on the Australian bench in the Four Nations final in Leeds.
“When you’re a young fella on the scene and someone says you’re playing first grade, you automatically think the world should stop for you .
“The first year I played 12 or 14 games all off the bench, the next year I played 22 and half those were starting at five-eighth…
Kangaroos coach Tim Sheens can not speak highly enough of Cronk’s attitude in camp. you soon find out that’s not how it works.
“That nine, seven, six thing about him – I’m not going to say it’s going to put him in any stronger position than the other utility boys, but it just comes down to who’s going to be fit after this next game,” Sheens said. And his skill and that attitude which have him contending to play a bigger role in the tournament than that of occasional fill-in..
“I’m going to experiment with Cooper . he’s got a chance to impress for the final in the role.. With Hunt having left rugby league to pursue a career in other codes, Cronk knows a Queensland jumper is also up for grabs. With Hunt having left rugby league to pursue a career in other codes, Cronk knows a Queensland jumper is also up for grabs. .
“It probably is a little bit (of an opportunity).
“I’ll be going out there to run hard and tackle hard and two, to play my role in the side.
“If that makes someone stand up and take notice, that’s for them to do that.”
– AAP
.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