Two a penny

.A pay telephone line for French Roman Catholics to confess their sins has drawn criticism from bishops.
“For advice on confessing, press one. To listen to some confessions, press three,” says a soothing male voice, welcoming the caller to “Le Fil du Seigneur”, or “The Line of the Lord” service. To confess, press two.34 euros a minute.
“In case of serious or mortal sins – that is, sins that have cut you off from Christ our Lord, it is indispensable to confide in a priest,” warns the service, which charges 0.”
The service was set up this month at the beginning of the Christian fasting period of Lent by a group of Catholics working for AABAS, a small Paris company that provides telephone messaging services, its creator told AFP.
The Conference of French Bishops warn in a statement that the line has “no approval from the Catholic Church in France.
She asked for her second name not be cited because she had received threats about the service.
The creator, known only as Camille, says it does not offer absolution for sins, which only a priest can provide.
It is believed the line received about 300 calls in its first week.
“The idea is to confess sins which are not capital sins, but minor sins, directly to God,” she said.
The bishops say telephone services have a role to play in lending an ear to the aged, isolated or those with disabilities, but “it is unacceptable to allow confusion over the notion of confession”.
Callers do not talk to a person but are offered an “atmosphere of piety and reflection,” where they can listen to prayers, music and other people’s confessions and can opt to record their own.”
Camille says part of the money received for the calls goes to charity. .
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.Uunseeded Michael Llodra has cruised to his fourth career title, beating fellow Frenchman and doubles partner Julien Benneteau 6-3, 6-4 in the Marseille Open final.
Both men then combined to land the doubles title with a 6-4, 6-3 win against Austrian Julian Knowle and Swede Robert Lindstedt.
Llodra, 29, who lost to Jo-Wilfried Tsonga in last year’s final, never looked in danger on serve against Benneteau, firing 14 aces including one on his first match point.
“After I lost in the final here last year I’m glad I managed to get over it,” Llodra said.
The world number 79 had only two break points in the match and converted both to win in an hour and 10 minutes. .
“I had set myself one aim this year and that was to win a tournament in France at last.
Eighth-seeded Benneteau battled for almost three hours to beat Tsonga in the semi-finals but refused to blame his loss on fatigue. I lost as a result of Michael Llodra,” he said.
“My previous matches have been tough and long but that is not the reason why I lost. I’ve had no break points.
“I can only say ‘hats off to him’ as he served extremely well.
Llodra had luck on his side when he broke serve in the first set thanks to a volley that hit the net before falling behind.
“It’s tough to end a tournament this way but I couldn’t do anything,” added the world number 39, who has yet to win an ATP title.
He looked in total control throughout and a superb backhand passing shot earned him another break in the second set.
He looked in total control throughout and a superb backhand passing shot earned him another break in the second set.
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.Yvo de Boer, head of the UN’s climate change convention, will resign as of July 1, his office announced.
De Boer, executive secretary of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), will join the consultancy group KPMG as global adviser on climate and sustainability and work with a number of universities, the UNFCCC secretariat said.
The announcement came nearly two months after the Copenhagen summit on climate change, seen even by its supporters as a disappointment and by its critics as a chaotic failure. .
The UNFCCC, an offshoot of the 1992 Rio summit, gathers 194 nations in the search for combating the causes of man-made climate change and easing its effects.
“I believe the time is ripe for me to take on a new challenge, working on climate and sustainability with the private sector and academia,” he said.
In a statement Mr de Boer said it had been a “difficult decision” to step down.
“Copenhagen did not provide us with a clear agreement in legal terms, but the political commitment and sense of direction toward a low-emissions world are overwhelming.”
A Dutch national, Mr de Boer was appointed the UNFCCC’s executive secretary in September 2006.
“This calls for new partnerships with the business sector and I now have the chance to help make this happen.
Instead, after nearly two weeks of talks, the summit was only able to yield a general agreement on limiting warming to two degrees Celsius.
He had pinned hopes on a breakthrough in Copenhagen that would unlock a new treaty on climate change that would take effect after 2012, when the Kyoto Protocol’s current pledges expire.
The document did not gain approval at a plenary session of the UNFCCC, and it has so far failed to gain the official endorsement of major developing emitters which helped to craft it.
The accord did not spell out the means for achieving this goal, and the pledges made under it are only voluntary.
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.Leonardo Da Vinci’s remains are to be exhumed to allow scientists to establish whether the Mona Lisa is a disguised self-portrait.
Scientists and historians from Italy’s National Committee for Cultural Heritage have sought permission to open the artist’s tomb in France’s Loire Valley.
They hope to find his skull which they can use to reconstruct his face to discover whether his famed masterpiece, the Mona Lisa, is in fact a self-portrait in disguise.
Scholars have suggested Da Vinci’s presumed homosexuality and love of riddles led him to paint himself as a woman.
Mystery has surrounded the identity of the Mona Lisa for centuries.

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Speculation on the sitter has also ranged from Lisa Gherardini, the wife of a Florentine merchant, to Da Vinci’s mother

.New Manchester City recruit Patrick Vieira says he has a “100 per cent chance” of playing for France at next summer’s World Cup finals, despite having not represented his country since June 2009.
“As I’m an optimist, I’m going to say 100 per cent,” he said in response to a question about his chances of playing in South Africa on the Canal Football Club television show overnight.
“The desire is there, it’s my goal.”
Vieira, who has yet to play for his new club, admitted that he had received “no guarantees” from France coach Raymond Domenech, who he met shortly before Christmas, and conceded that the situation “is not as simple as that”. In my head, I don’t see myself missing the World Cup.
“You have to play, which is the important thing for me.
“But he said that as soon as I’m playing, there’s no reason why I shouldn’t be selected,” said Vieira, whose last France appearance saw him captain Les Bleus to a 1-0 defeat against Nigeria in Saint-Etienne last June. I have five months.
He joined City from reigning Italian champion Inter Milan on January 8.”
Vieira, 33, was a member of the France team that won the 1998 World Cup and the 2000 European Championship and has 107 caps.
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.Former All Blacks winger Jonah Lomu returned to rugby union overnight with French semi-professional side Marseille-Vitrolles.
Once the most feared man in world rugby, the 34-year-old, who played 63 Tests for New Zealand between 1994 and 2002 before his career was cut short by kidney disease, returned in a 63-18 win over Montmelian in the equivalent of the third division.
Playing at centre, the former winger did not really shine and failed to score a try but said he was happy to have played again.
Lomu, who burst into the limelight at the 1995 World Cup, signed a two-year contract for the Marseille side earlier this year.
“I need to feel more confident and be able to communicate with my team-mates better but this was a first match and I wasn’t expecting miracles.
“I’m rather satisfied,” Lomu told reporters.”
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. I did my best

.New evidence has emerged that shows faulty equipment may have caused the Air France crash off the Brazilian coast this year.
The plane took off from Rio de Janeiro bound for Paris, but flew into a thunderstorm three hours later and then plunged into the Atlantic – 228 passengers and crew died.
Three months after Air France flight 447 went down in the Atlantic, relatives of the 228 victims are still searching for answers.
The plane’s manufacturer Airbus has now told the ABC’s Foreign Correspondent program that the onboard weather radar could not detect ice at high altitudes.
“The French families are waiting for explanations about why this tragedy happened, technical explanations and acknowledgements of responsibility from all the companies involved in this crash,” he said.
Christopher Guillot-Noel lost his brother.
Safety expert Captain John Mahon has been independently investigating the crash for a British law firm representing the families.
He is among a group of French families who hope to sue the airline and the plane’s manufacturer Airbus.
“Some of the messages that were transmitted by the aircraft would seem to suggest that faulty pitot tubes or speed sensors were instrumental in this accident,” he said.
He says the disaster could have been prevented.
It is believed they iced-over at high altitudes, sending the wrong information about the flight speed to the pilots.
Before the plane crashed, a routine maintenance message from the plane sent back to France reported the pitots or sensors were not working.
After the crash, Air France pilots threatened to go on strike if the faulty pitots or air speed sensors were not replaced.
Both Air France and Airbus manuals offered advice on how to deal with the faulty sensors, but the pilots union says the advice was contradictory. Now the planes manufacturer Airbus says the onboard weather radar was also not working.
– Equipment fault –
Air France replaced the sensors after the crash.
The vice-president of the flight test division at Airbus, Fernando Alonso, said the Airbus onboard radar could not see ice particles.
This contributed to the series of confusing or false data sent to the pilot..
“You have weather radar which is a very. it’s an equipment which is fitted on every single aeroplane,” he said..”
Rhe black boxes and voice recorders still have not been recovered, making it hard to get an accurate picture of what went wrong.
“I believe the ice could not be detected.
“It’s highly desirable that data is streamed live from the aircraft to the maintenance base,” he said.
“It’s highly desirable that data is streamed live from the aircraft to the maintenance base,” he said.
“It is absurd that air safety depends on black boxes which sometimes cannot be recovered, or if they are recovered then the data cannot be properly transcribed because the boxes are damaged.”
The official investigation into the crash of Air France flight 447 continues.

Watch Foreign Correspondent tonight at 8:00pm (AEDT) on ABC 1.

.Ewen McKenzie, recently sacked by French Top 14 club Stade Francais, has slammed his former employers and accused them of prioritising the recruitment of good-examining players for the club calendar.
“Stade Francais is the best team in the world in terms of marketing,” the Australian told sport daily L’Equipe.
“It’s an international brand. Paris are verging on amateurism. But on the level of their sporting approach some things are shocking.
The popular Stade Francais calendar ‘Dieux du Stade’ (Gods of the Stadium), features nude and semi-nude photographs of team members.”
The new Reds coach went on to accuse club president Max Guazzini of “only seeing two things – his calendar and the (team’s home ground) Stade de France”.
“He has a marketing outlook which is not always in the best interests of sport,” said McKenzie.
“I had players in my squad who I never chose. .
“I had certain players forced on me who, for me, shouldn’t have been in a team targetting the Top 14 title. Others were requested to leave the club because they didn’t want to pose for the calendar any more.
“He has found a job in Australia, and it is imperative for him to justify the reasons why Stade Francais, which is a well known club in Australia, sacked him and all he comes up with are derogatory remarks,” he told French radio station RMC.”
Guazzini reacted later with disdain to McKenzie’s remarks.
“From A to Z, everything he said was rubbish.
“From A to Z, everything he said was rubbish.”
Former New South Wales Warratahs coach McKenzie was recruited in mid-2008 after the departure of Fabien Galthie.
“In terms of recruitment, we did exactly what he asked of us.
McKenzie has since been recruited by Queensland for three Super 14 seasons. He was sacked on September 8 after the club endured a disastrous start to the season.
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.South Sydney second rower Eddy Pettybourne is heading to France to link up with New Zealand for the remainder of the Four Nations.
The Christchurch-born, Sydney-raised 21-year-old was called into the squad hours after the world champions dramatic 20-20 draw with Australia at the Twickenham Stoop on Saturday as cover for second-rower Bronson Harrison, who has a calf injury.
Pettybourne, who becomes the eighth newcomer in the squad, flew out of Sydney earlier Sunday and is set to join the Kiwis in Toulouse ahead of their next match against France on Saturday.
“Greg (Eastwood) missed the match against Australia with a hamstring injury but we’re expecting he will be ready to play again against France.
Kiwi coach Stephen Kearney said: “We need Eddy here to give us cover in the back row,” he said.”
The 103 kg Pettybourne, also qualified for Samoa through his parents, had played his cards close to his chest regarding his representative availability after playing for both the Australian Schoolboys and the Junior Kiwis. .
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The partial defence of provocation should be abolished, a parliamentary committee recommended today.

The justice select committee said the opportunity for a defendant to get a murder charge reduced to manslaughter because they were provoked should be removed from statute and common law.

The committee’s report said that the law change would still allow judges to consider provocation as a mitigating factor in sentencing.

The MPs recommended the Crimes (Provocation Repeal) Amendment Bill should be passed into law.

The MPs said they did not agree with arguments that provocation should remain as a defence for a battered defendant.

This would mean in extreme cases someone found guilty of murder could get less than life imprisonment if the judge believed that sentence was “manifestly unjust”.

They also rejected submissions calling for a defence of diminished responsibility saying limited intellectual capacity was best dealt with by judges when considering sentencing.

“It would be more appropriate for them to rely on self-defence, which could result in an acquittal rather than a manslaughter conviction,” the report said.

Weatherston pleaded guilty to manslaughter but the jury found him guilty of murder.

The partial defence of provocation came under intense debate after Otago University tutor Clayton Weatherston argued he was provoked into stabbing girlfriend Sophie Elliott 216 times.

Mr Brown was beaten with a banjo before the instrument’s neck was rammed down his throat.

In July, Ferdinand Ambach was found guilty of manslaughter rather murder after killing 69-year-old gay man Ronald Brown.

Some supporters of law change said the defence of provocation had generally been used to justify attacks on gay people. It was alleged he made sexual advances to Mr Brown.

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