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. .
-

.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.
-

.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.
-

.France coach Marc Lievremont has forgiven Mathieu Bastareaud for lying about being attacked after a loss to New Zealand last year and named him in a 30-man squad for the Six Nations championship.
The 21-year-old centre had said he was attacked by up to five people as he returned to the team hotel following a 14-10 defeat by the All Blacks in Wellington last June. .
Back in France, after being told CCTV footage showed him entering the hotel uninjured, he admitted lying and said he had fallen in his bedroom because he was drunk.
“Bastareaud deserves to be back because he is performing well with his Stade Francais club and because he has started to do the community service he has been sentenced to.
“The unhappy episode of this summer is forgotten,” Lievremont said.
Half-back Frederic Michalak, winger Cedric Heymans, centre Florian Fritz and full-back Maxime Medard were left out of a squad already without suspended scrum-half Julien Dupuy plus prop Fabien Barcella and centre Damien Traille, who are both injured.”
The France coach also recalled 32-year-old scrum-half Jean-Baptiste Elissalde, fly half Benjamin Boyet, wings Aurelien Rougerie and Julien Malzieu and full-back Clement Poitrenaud. It doesn’t mean they are too old or forgotten or rejected,” Lievremont said.
“There are some players we rely on, we appreciate but who have not performed as well in recent weeks.
France will start its Six Nations campaign against Scotland at Murrayfield on February 7.
Another surprise was the call-up of newcomer Fabrice Estebanez, a 29-year-old former rugby league international, who plays either at centre or fly half with Brive.
Backs: Jean-Baptiste Elissalde, Morgan Parra, Benjamin Boyet, Francois Trinh-Duc, Mathieu Bastareaud, Fabrice Estebanez, David Marty, Yannick Jauzion, Vincent Clerc, Benjamin Fall, Julien Malzieu, Aurelien Rougerie, Alexis Palisson, Clement Poitrenaud.
Forwards: Thomas Domingo, Luc Ducalcon, Sylvain Marconnet, Nicolas Mas, William Servat, Dimitri Szarzewski, Sebastien Chabal, Romain Millo-Chluski, Lionel Nallet, Pascal Pape, Julien Bonnaire, Thierry Dusautoir (c), Imanol Harinordoquy, Alexandre Lapandry, Fulgence Ouedraogo, Louis Picamoles.
-

.The International Automobile Federation (FIA) is to appeal a French court’s decision to overturn the lifetime ban on former Renault boss Flavio Briatore.
Briatore was let off the hook last week by the Tribunal de Grande Instance in Paris which found that the FIA sanction, imposed in September for allegedly ordering Nelson Piquet junior to crash at the 2008 Singapore Grand Prix, was illegal.
New FIA president Jean Todt, however, believes the world governing body has a case against the 59-year-old Italian and that an appeal is in order.
The scandal centred on driver Piquet junior’s claims that the team had ordered him to crash deliberately at Singapore to enable team-mate Fernando Alonso to go on and win.
The decision to appeal means the suspension against Briatore, and the five-year ban handed to the team’s former director of engineering Pat Symonds, remain in force.
He said that the French court’s decision “gives me back my dignity and the freedom which they arbitrarily tried to take away from me.
Briatore has denied all the accusations levelled against him and vowed to fight to clear his name.”
-

.France has deported to Egypt a radical imam who for months had been inciting followers in Paris area mosques to rise up against the West, the government said.
Described as dangerous, Ali Ibrahim Al-Sudani was detained and sent back to Egypt under an emergency deportation order, Interior Minister Brice Hortefeux said in a statement. .
The Egyptian national was the 29th imam or Islamic preacher to have been deported from France since 2001, according to the interior ministry.
Mr Sudani, aged around 27, showed “contempt for our society’s values and incited violence,” he added.
French security agencies had been tracking Sudani since 2008 and found his Jihadist teachings to be “quite hardline,” said an official close to the case.
In all, 129 Islamic radicals have been expelled from French territory, it added.
-

.The European Union has chosen Belgian Prime Minister Herman van Rompuy to be its first president.
The leaders of all 27 EU countries agreed to the choice at a meeting in Brussels.
The new job was made possible because of the recent ratification of the Lisbon Treaty.
Speaking in French and English at a news conference after his appointment, Mr Van Rompuy cited employment and the environment as urgent concerns for Europe.
Mr van Rompuy is known as a consensus builder but has a very low profile outside Belgium.
“Every country has its own history, its own culture, its own way of doing things.
He says he is confident EU member countries will be able to work together successfully. . Without respect for our diversity, we will never build on our unity.
“Denying this would be counter-productive.”
For weeks there had been intense lobbying and speculation about who may end up representing the EU to the world. I will always bear this principle in mind.
The post of the EU’s foreign affairs chief, however, has gone to a Briton, Baroness Catherine Ashton.
Former British prime minister Tony Blair was a frontrunner for the job, but he was eliminated early in proceedings after it was clear neither the French nor German leaders would support his appointment.
Emerging from the meeting, UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown said Baroness Ashton’s appointment proved Britain was still at the heart of the future of Europe despite Mr Blair failing to garner enough support.
Emerging from the meeting, UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown said Baroness Ashton’s appointment proved Britain was still at the heart of the future of Europe despite Mr Blair failing to garner enough support.

.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. .
-

.

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.

.

.An 85-year-old West Australian man has died on an Air France flight from Paris to Singapore after the plane’s air-conditioning failed.
Melbourne passenger Ian Dunn told ABC Radio the plane was “insufferably hot” when they boarded in Paris and the pilot had trouble starting the engine.
He said a passenger became ill and the flight was diverted to Romania.
Mr Dunn says passengers were left to sit in the plane in 35 degree Celsius heat, with no food, before they were allowed to leave.
Attempts to revive the man on board the plane failed. .
“We were there on the plane for a further six hours and this heating situation just took over again, the plane just got hotter and hotter,” he said.
“Eventually after six hours, the pilot announced that fuelling had taken place and we would be off.”
Mr Dunn says the air-conditioner began working once the plane had taken off.
“Then he made several attempts to start the plane and eventually came back to us and said ‘I do not have sufficient power to start the engines’; they were his very words.