.Ferrari’s 2007 Formula One world champion Kimi Raikkonen has announced his switch to rallying after agreeing to a one-year deal with Citroen.
The French manufacturer said the 30-year-old Finn would take part in 12 of the 13 championship events in 2010 for its Red Bull-backed junior team.
“I always wanted to compete in rally, especially in the world rally championship at some point in my career,” Raikkonen said.
“For the moment we have a one-year contract and we will see how it goes for the future.
“This is a new but very exciting challenge.”
Raikkonen, winner of 18 grands prix, had already said he planned to take a year out of Formula One after being replaced at Ferrari by Spain’s double world champion Fernando Alonso.
“I am really looking forward to testing and taking the start of the first rally.
The Finn refused to contemplate joining any Formula One team that would not be competitive for the championship.
Britain’s Button has moved to Raikkonen’s former team McLaren alongside 2008 champion and compatriot Lewis Hamilton. .
Citroen’s French driver Sebastien Loeb has won the last six world rally titles and Raikkonen will have one of the most competitive cars in the C4.
Raikkonen has previous world rally championship experience, having competed in this year’s Finnish round in a Fiat after also entering three non-championship events, but his new challenge is a big step up. France’s rising hope Sebastien Ogier will drive the junior team’s other car.
The team said Raikkonen’s co-driver will be compatriot Kaj Lindstrom, who partnered now-retired Tommi Makinen to four successive world titles in the 1990s.
They will not compete in New Zealand.
They will not compete in New Zealand.
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.Angry Irish football chiefs have called on FIFA to order the World Cup play-off with France to be replayed, after France’s Thierry Henry helped knock out Ireland with a clear handball.
Video replays showed Henry used his hand to stop the ball going out of play in extra-time of Thursday’s (AEDT) play-off in Paris, before passing to William Gallas to head the goal which gave France a 2-1 win on aggregate.
“The blatantly incorrect decision by the referee to award the goal has damaged the integrity of the sport,” the Football Association of Ireland (FAI) said in a statement.”
The Irish football body pointed to a precedent – a FIFA decision in 2005 to invalidate the result of a World Cup qualification match between Uzbekistan and Bahrain on the basis of “a technical error by the referee of the match”.
“We now call on FIFA, as the world governing body for our sport, to organise for this match to be replayed.
A FIFA spokesperson said the body had yet to receive a request from the FAI.
The FAI said it hoped FIFA would “act in a similar fashion so that the standards of fair play and integrity can be protected”. It had only just received the official match reports and were in the process of reading them, he added.
“It is impossible to repeat the game,” the experienced Italian said.
Ireland coach Giovanni Trapattoni told a press conference minutes before the statement was released by his employers that he did not believe FIFA would grant a replay.”
Trapattoni also called for extra-time to be scrapped at the end of the two-leg World Cup play-offs, with the second match instead going straight to a penalty shootout in the event of a draw in regulation time.
He urged FIFA to explain how Swedish referee Martin Hansson, who failed to spot the incident, had been chosen for such a high-profile match, saying: “For this important game we needed a stronger referee, an important referee. The player himself admitted handling, but said the responsibility for seeing the incident fell to the match official.
Hansson, who works as a firefighter, failed to spot the Henry handball.
Trapattoni refused to blame the player, saying: “It wasn’t up to Henry to say ‘I touched it with my hand’.
Trapattoni refused to blame the player, saying: “It wasn’t up to Henry to say ‘I touched it with my hand’.
– Outrage –
Questions were asked in the Irish parliament after the Henry incident, with Justice Minister Dermot Ahern also suggesting Ireland appeal to FIFA for a replay.
The draw for the finals is due to be made in Cape Town on December 4, leaving little barely two weeks for a replay to be scheduled in a calendar already crowded by club matches.
“It’s the least we owe the thousands of devastated young fans around the country.
“They probably won’t grant it as we are minnows in world football but let’s put them on the spot,” he told RTE state radio.”
The Irish press were unanimous in their condemnation. Otherwise, if that result remains, it reinforces the view that if you cheat, you will win.
A Facebook page entitled “We Irish hate Thierry Henry (the cheat)” also drew hundreds of comments – some of them unprintable – including a call for an Irish boycott of French goods.
“We were robbed” said the Irish Star, “Le Cheat” added the Irish Mirror, while the Irish Sun splashed with the “Hand of the Frog” – a play on Diego Maradona’s 1986 “Hand of God” goal against England.
One financial expert said Ireland’s failure to make next year’s World Cup finals will cost the already recession-bound Irish economy millions of euros.
“I would say croissant sales will slump today,” said one contributor to the social networking site page.
Reacting to the growing row, shaving company Gillette said it had no plans to axe star striker Henry from its advertising.
Reacting to the growing row, shaving company Gillette said it had no plans to axe star striker Henry from its advertising.
“Thierry Henry has publicly acknowledged that it was a handball… This is not going to affect our relationship with Thierry Henry,” said a spokesperson for Gillette, part of US consumer products giant Procter and Gamble.
.A 13-year-old French boy set out on Tuesday to mow down his teachers with a shotgun, but abandoned the plan when he arrived at the school and found it surrounded by police, officials say. .
The teenager was in custody on suspicion of attempted murder and admitted his homicidal intentions during an interview, Beauvais prosecutor James Juan said in a statement.
The boy had on Monday left a message on his blog stating that “this is the last day of my life”.
He wanted “to attack his teachers who quarrelled with him even though he had done nothing (wrong),” Mr Juan said. “He went in the direction of the school where, according to his declarations, he intended to kill his teachers.
“He left his home with a loaded hunting rifle and 25 cartridges,” said senior local official Raymond Yeddou.”
But when he saw a major police presence in front of and inside the school, he abandoned his plan and instead headed to a cyber cafe in Beauvais town centre where his parents later found him.
Mr Yeddou stressed that the boy never managed to get into the school and students were not in danger at any point.
Police warned the head of the 2,000-pupil Saint Esprit school to keep his students confined to their classrooms as the drama unfolded.
“His parents were worried when they saw him leave the house very early, around 7:00am.
The alarm was raised at 8:15am local time by the boy’s parents, who had become concerned by his unusual behaviour and searched their house, finding the gun and ammunition gone.
Though generally a good student, the source said, the boy has recently had problems at school and was worried about a parent-teacher meeting due on Tuesday. He did not seem to be his usual self,” a source close to the investigation said.
The Beauvais prosecutor said the boy wanted to stop the meeting at the academically high-achieving school from going ahead.
The Beauvais prosecutor said the boy wanted to stop the meeting at the academically high-achieving school from going ahead.
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.French commandos have stormed aboard a Somali pirate ‘mothership’ and arrested 12 gunmen, the military announced, adding that the gangs are increasingly operating in the deep waters of the Indian Ocean. .
A helicopter from the warship fired a warning shot across the vessel’s bows as its crew began to throw incriminating material over the side.
On board they found grappling hooks, GPS navigation devices and assault rifles, French military spokesman Admiral Christophe Prazuck said.
French troops boarded the ship and arrested the pirates without violence.
“The European team in place has significantly reduced the number of boats taken hostage.
“Last year or at the start of this one the centre of gravity was in the Gulf of Aden,” Admiral Prazuck said, referring to the straits between Arabia and the Horn of Africa that have become notorious for pirate attacks. Though they still threaten the Gulf of Aden, the pirates have switched their activity further offshore into the Indian Ocean.
Several naval task forces now carry out anti-piracy patrols, including flotillas commanded by the European Union, NATO and the United States.”
Admiral Prazuck said pirates were now striking in areas up to 800 nautical miles from their bases on the coast of Somalia, a lawless and largely ungoverned African state plagued by faction-fighting.
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Floreal is fighting under EU colours as part of Operation Atalante
.Australian rugby league coach Tim Sheens has rubbished suggestions he is fielding a second-string side in the Four Nations match against France this weekend.
Sheens has opted to resting star Melbourne trio Greg Inglis, Cameron Smith and Billy Slater for the Paris clash.
The Kangaroos coach stuck to his pre-tour vow to give every member of the touring party a run during the tournament, with Michael Jennings, Josh Morris and Cooper Cronk all named to play.
Sheens claimed the inclusion of his number one halves pairing proved the Australians meant business in Paris, where a win will book a berth in the November 14 final in Leeds.
Jennings and Morris will start in the centres – the latter lining up alongside twin Brett on the left edge – while Cronk will come off the bench as back-up to starting halves Darren Lockyer and Johnathan Thurston, as well as new hooker Robbie Farah.
“If I’m resting anyone it’s because they’ve had a couple of hard hit-outs and they’ve finished with a long season and I think that’s indicative of Thurston and Lockyer starting.
“It might come across to some back in Australia as ‘oh, he’s resting people’ – it’s not the case,” Sheens said.
“The side I put out, that’s a very good side.
“I’ve changed both sides and I’m going into the third game just keeping the structure.
“For anyone to say that’s a second-string side – I don’t think we have a first-string side.
Most open are the spots on the bench, with Farah, Kurt Gidley and Cronk all battling it out for the back-up playmaker’s spot.”
While the likes of Inglis, Smith and Slater will no doubt come straight back into the side, Sheens has indicated that the squad for the November 14 final is far from decided.
Sheens also said his decision to leave Hayne on the wing and not give him a run at full-back – where he starred for Parramatta this season – was made with one eye on the final.
It is just as tight in the back row, with Ryan Hoffman and Trent Waterhouse given another chance to push for selection after being named to play France in place of injured duo Anthony Watmough (concussion/groin) and Paul Gallen (neck).
“Jarryd’s coming to terms with the wing again,” Sheens said.
“Jarryd’s coming to terms with the wing again,” Sheens said.”
Two players going nowhere are Lockyer and Thurston, though Sheens did admit the pair had been given another run just to iron out a few kinks.
“If I had a problem at the back (during the game) Jarryd would move.
“I’m concerned about getting Darren and Thurston on the same page – that hasn’t been as comfortable as I thought or as slick as it should be,” Sheens said.
It had been assumed Cronk would get the number seven jumper for the clash with France, with Australia all-but assured a finals berth.
“Game two was better. .”
Australia: Kurt Gidley, Brett Morris, Josh Morris, Michael Jennings, Jarryd Hayne, Darren Lockyer (c), Johnathan Thurston, Petero Civoniceva, Robbie Farah, Ben Hannant, Trent Waterhouse, Ryan Hoffman, Nathan Hindmarsh. I’d like to improve it, I’d like things to be working better and Darren getting good ball when he wants it.
– AAP
. Interchange: Cooper Cronk, Luke Lewis, David Shillington, Sam Thaiday
.Activists fighting for victims of French nuclear testing in the Pacific are stunned by conditions imposed in a compensation bill by France’s upper house.
There was praise in July when the National Assembly approved a bill for compensating the victims of tests carried out in French Polynesia and Algeria over more than three decades.
Roland Oldham, president of the Mororua e Tatou Association representing French Pacific nuclear test workers, told Radio Australia’s Pacific Beat the actions of the French Senate reflected arrogance in metropolitan France towards its territories.
About 150,000 civilian and military personnel took part and many later developed serious health problems.
“For our Polynesian people it’s going to be hard.
He said the Senate has imposed strict requirements on applicants to prove their case on various grounds.
“A lot of us people don’t keep a document. A lot of our people won’t be part of compensation,” he said. So it’s going to be very difficult for them. We don’t have the same conception of things.
“It’s the same people that have done the nuclear testing in our place, in our island,” Mr Oldham said.”
He said the Senate had further rejected a bid by his organisation to be part of a compensation committee, which will now be made up of only people nominated by the French Ministry of Defence.”
Mr Oldham says the geographic zone from which claims would be considered has been greatly limited.
“They’ve been saying for many years that the tests are clean and today they’re going to decide about compensation on their own.
“And finally, there’s only one person decides if the case is going to be taken into account, [if a victim] is going to have compensation or not – and that’s the Ministry of Defence,” he said.
He says the views of Polynesians have not been taken into account. I mean, to me it’s very restricted.
“And they call that democracy. .”
He says Mororua e Tatou will now think about other strategies, including strong political action and seeking Pacific-wide support, to win their battle
.The French resort of St Tropez hosts the Antipodes Film Festival this week, featuring about 50 movies from Australia and New Zealand.
The 11th edition of the festival opens today with New Zealand film Dean Spanley, directed by Toa Fraser and with a cast including Peter O’Toole and Sam Neill.
Anthony LaPaglia – the Australian actor who stars in the US television series Without A Trace – serves as head of the jury, which will hand out the Grand Prix des Antipodes award to one of the six full length films in competition.
Set in Edwardian England, the story centres on a father and son reconciling.
A dozen documentaries will also be featured at the festival, which runs to October 18. .
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A missing Indian student’s family say Auckland police diverted resources to search for two-year-old Aisling Symes, leaving them to look for Srikanth Rayadurgam on their own.
Mr Rayadurgam, 23, disappeared on his way to class at the Auckland University of Technology eight days ago. Aisling went missing in West Auckland on Monday evening.
Acting Detective Senior Sergeant Joe Aumua of Avondale police told One News the two cases did not have the same officers working on them.
The Kakanoor family told 3News they have been left to search for Mr Rayadurgam on their own, and questioned whether it was because of the colour of their skin. This inquiry is being dealt with by the Avondale police station and I’m happy with the resources that we have,” he said.
“The inquiry out west is a separate inquiry.
Mr Rayadurgam’s brother-in-law Nageesh Kakanoor found his backpack, mobile phone and his left shoe scattered along the waterfront.
They said when police divers were finally called to search the harbour they were suddenly pulled off the case to join the search for Aisling.
Mr Kakanoor and his wife Padam said Mr Rayadurgam had no enemies and was not suicidal, but police acted far too slowly.
“I honestly don’t know, to tell you.
Mr Kakanoor and his wife questioned why one missing person’s case was more important than another.
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.Poland’s Robert Kubica will replace Spain’s double Formula One world champion Fernando Alonso at Renault next season, the team said in a statement.
No details were given about the length of the contract, although Renault said it was from 2010 onwards.
The Pole won last year’s Canadian Grand Prix and had been approached by several teams, including Toyota and Williams, once BMW announced they were quitting the sport at the end of the season.
Kubica has driven for the BMW-Sauber team since 2006 while Alonso, one of the 24-year-old’s best friends in the paddock, is moving to Ferrari next year.
“I feel I have a special connection with this team because in 2005 I won the World Series by Renault.
“I am very happy I will be joining Renault in the 2010 season,” Kubica said.
“I share with Renault a strong winning mentality and feel comfortable with their friendly and open attitude.
“This gave me the chance to test with the team in Barcelona, which led to my debut in Formula One.”
Former champions Renault are licking their wounds after a scandal-hit year, with the team handed a suspended permanent ban from the sport for their role in a race-fixing controversy.
“I’m highly motivated and optimistic that together we can be at the front of the grid next year and, hopefully, fighting for the world title.
Kubica, an extremely quick and aggressive driver, has a no-nonsense style that will fit in well with the team’s restructuring.
Flamboyant former team boss Flavio Briatore has been banned for life and engineering head Pat Symonds barred for five years.
Although he had an impressive first test with Renault, he was snapped up by BMW-Sauber from under their noses as a test driver.
The tall Pole has also come up the hard way, with no family wealth to support him and from a country with no previous involvement in Formula One.
“Ever since Robert made his grand prix debut in 2006, he has been on our radar as one of the most naturally talented drivers of his generation,” said Renault’s acting team principal Bob Bell.
He then replaced Canada’s 1997 world champion Jacques Villeneuve as a race driver halfway through 2006.
“Renault has high ambitions and hopes for the future of the team and we feel that Robert can play a big role in fulfilling them.
“He has delivered on that promise so it’s great to have secured him in one of our cars next season. .”
Renault did not mention the second driver, currently French rookie Romain Grosjean
.Three French soldiers died in a lightning storm during an operation targeting Taliban bomb squads in the east of Afghanistan, the French military said.
One was killed by lightning and two others drowned, spokesman for the French armed forces general staff, Admiral Christophe Prazuck, said.
The fourth French soldier died when the armoured vehicle he was travelling in fell into a ravine in Surobi district.
In all seven NATO soldiers, including four French service personnel,died this weekend in Afghanistan, NATO and other authorities say.
In the first incident on Saturday, an American soldier died of wounds sustained when an improvised-explosive device (IED) detonated in southern Afghanistan, the force said. Five other French soldiers were also hurt, some of them seriously, the French military in Kabul said.
And a British soldier died on Sunday after a roadside explosion in the south, London’s Ministry of Defence said. .
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France has now lost 35 soldiers in Afghanistan, where it has 2,900 troops in the NATO-led coalition battling Taliban guerrillas and training Afghanistan’s national security forces