Two a penny

.Europe’s major airports are in the grip of strikes, with at least one more staff walkout now threatening services.
French air traffic controllers are threatening to strike for four days from today.
From today, strikes by air traffic controllers in France are set to affect services all over the country.
In the UK, British Airlines cabin crew have voted overwhelmingly to take industrial action, and Germany’s Lufthansa is now negotiating with pilots over a strike which affected tens of thousands of passengers.
Five unions are taking part. Civil aviation authorities will ask airlines to cancel some flights at Paris’ two main airports, Orly and Charles de Gaulle.
The union’s Len McCluskey says work conditions are also a major concern for unionised British Airways cabin crews, who have voted overwhelmingly to go on strike. They are worried about how Europe’s single sky policy will affect their jobs.
In the face of big losses, British Airways this year cut cabin crew numbers on long haul flights and brought in a two year pay freeze.
“A clear indication of the deep sense of grievance that our members feel,” he said.
“These are people who fly together, these are people who put each other’s health and safety in each other’s hands, and to try to pit one against the other which the company has done and I have to say some pilots, not all, but a number of pilots have behaved in a way that I think when they look back on this in time to come when we have resolved this dispute, they’ll be rather ashamed,” he said.
Mr McCluskey says the airline is threatening to take away staff travel perks if they strike, and bringing in strike breakers to pit workers against each other.
“We are not talking about the death knell for the airline, but we are talking about a situation in which the airline will be severely damaged and long term damaged, and it would lose out to its competitors,” he said.
However, analyst Howard Wheeldon, of BGC Partners, says British Airways has nothing left to give, and the striking crew will price themselves out of a job. The company has just agreed to head back into talks with pilots, after a strike of less than 24 hours.
Mr Wheeldon says German airline Lufthansa is in a similar position. They don’t trust us anymore.
Lufthansa spokesperson Klaus Walter says the airline has already been damaged
“We have passengers that are now cancelling their flights even if they have tickets for a later date and they could fly.
The pilots’ union was planning a four day walkout, which Lufthansa says would have cost it 100 million euros. .
“I just came back from Afghanistan and want to go to my family in the United States.
The shorter strike was enough to disrupt the trips of 10,000 passengers.
Lufthansa’s 4,000 pilot strike has only been suspended for two weeks, putting extra pressure on talks. It is difficult,” said one affected traveller in Dusseldorf.

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.Five players from French rugby league club Catalans Dragons have been arrested following an alleged brawl in Leeds, northern England.
The players were detained by police following the weekend’s 28-20 loss to Wakefield in their opening match of this season’s Super League.
A West Yorkshire police spokesman said nine men in total were on custody and that two were taken to hospital for treatment to head injuries. .
In a statement, the Dragons said: “The club are co-operating fully with the police in their investigations.
The incident came less than three weeks after six players from rival Super League side Huddersfield were arrested and bailed following rape allegations during the club’s preseason training camp in Newcastle, north-east England.”
The Dragons are coached by Australian Kevin Walters and the club has eight Australian players on its books.
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.World number one Serena Williams has withdrawn from next week’s Paris Indoor Open, organisers confirmed.
Williams blamed a leg injury which she picked up on her way to victory in the Australian Open.
Former world number one Mauresmo won last year’s event but has since retired from competition.
The American has lifted the Paris trophy twice in five appearances, winning both her titles in 1999 and 2003 against France’s Amelie Mauresmo. .
Russia’s Elena Dementieva is the now the top player in the tournament, which starts on Monday

.Stade Francais prop David Attoub has been hit with a mammoth 70-week ban from rugby union for gouging after what the disciplinary chief who imposed the penalty labelled “the worst act of contact with the eyes that I have had to deal with”.
The ban, which has been backdated to start on December 18, means, as things stand, Attoub cannot play rugby again until April 22, 2011 ruling him out of the remainder of the current European season and most of next term’s campaign.
Attoub, 28, was cited for gouging Ulster lock Stephen Ferris during a stormy European Cup clash on December 12 in Belfast that the Irish province won 23-13.
It is the second-most severe suspension to have been handed out for a gouging offence in the professional era, exceeded only by the two-year ban handed to Richard Nones, a prop with French club Colomiers, in 1999.
Judge Jeff Blackett, the disciplinary supremo at England’s Rugby Football Union (RFU), who heard Attoub’s case said it was the IRB directive and the player’s previous history of gouging, which included a suspension for contact with the eye/eye area in a European match in the 2004/05 season, that saw him impose a penalty which has the potential to end the forward’s career.
Eye gouging is regarded as one of the worst acts of foul play in the 15-man game and the International Rugby Board (IRB), the sport’s global governing body, have instructed disciplinary authorities to come down hard on those found guilty of the offence.
In a statement issued on Tuesday, Blackett said: “This is the worst act of contact with the eyes that I have had to deal with: it is a case of deliberate eye gouging”.
Blackett, who found Attoub guilty of the offence on Friday but only passed sentence when the disciplinary hearing reconvened on Monday, determined his action was “in the top-end in the level of seriousness for an offence of contact with the eye/eye area”.
But Blackett’s ruling made clear he accepted the images were genuine and he delivered a damning indictment of Attoub’s conduct.
The initial hearing on December 18 was adjourned until January 15 to allow for more evidence to be gathered after doubts were cast on the veracity of photographs which showed the incident. .
“When he was shown the incriminating photographs and asked to explain what he saw or what was happening he replied that he did not know,” Blackett said.”
The ban follows a 24-week ban given to Attoub’s team-mate and scrum-half Julien Dupuy who also gouged Ferris in the same match.
“It was this evasiveness which satisfied me that his account was less than truthful and that he knew that he had deliberately attacked the eyes of an opponent but was trying to evade responsibility.
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.Lance Armstrong and Johan Bruyneel have defended their conduct within the Astana team during last year’s Tour de France after criticism from Alberto Contador.
Armstrong and Contador were team-mates at Astana last year, with Bruyneel their director.
Contador won his second Tour and Armstrong, the record seven-time champion, was third in his comeback year.
While Contador remains at Astana, Armstrong and Bruyneel are now at new American team RadioShack.
But there were clearly tensions within the team and Contador has since criticised Armstrong and Bruyneel, who have worked closely together for more than a decade.
“I’m a bit frustrated by the comments that he didn’t have any help.
“[Last year] was a clear example of a team working as a team, no matter whom they had to work for,” Bruyneel said on Saturday.
“That was absolutely not the case.
“The tension . …
“It was sometimes stressful, intense, but not close toly close to what has been written or said. was a lot less than everyone thinks,” he said.
“I just assumed from the start that the Tour de France is the hardest race in the world.
“I just assumed from the start that the Tour de France is the hardest race in the world.
“That’s why you have a head coach in sport, you don’t go off and make your own plan and do your own thing,” he said.”
Armstrong said the first person he listened to in the team during the Tour was Bruyneel, not Contador.
“Mentally he’s almost unbreakable – there were times in the Tour last summer that you saw that he had to be fractured mentally, because of things that were done in the race and the perception among the people, the fans and the peloton,” he said.
But the American has also praised Contador ahead of their head-to-head battle at this year’s Tour de France.”
– AAP

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“He never [cracked], he was always very, very tough – he’s a strong-minded young man

.Veteran Frenchman Fabrice Santoro has announced he will compete in the Australian Open later this month, making him the first player in four decades to participate in 70 grand slam tournaments.
The 37-year-old – still ranked 68th in the world – had announced his retirement last November following the indoor tournament in Paris.
But he insisted his latest decision did not signal a return to the ATP circuit.
“This is just a very personal thing.
“This decision does not affect my announcement to retire as a professional player,” he said in a statement.”
Santoro, who has been training at Roland-Garros for the past few days, said his intention was not to put away his racquets for good once he retired from the circuit. There is nothing else to it, and it certainly is not a comeback.
“Tennis is my life, my passion,” he said. .
“My decision to retire did not mean I was going to throw my racquets into a cupboard.”
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.Albert Camus’ daughter says critics of the French President have turned her late father into an “anti-Sarkozy missile”, after Nicolas Sarkozy called for the renowned writer be reburied in Paris.
Mr Sarkozy suggested earlier this month that the remains of the author of The Outsider and The Fall should be brought to the Pantheon, the resting place for French national heroes.
The right-wing leader’s idea provoked a largely hostile reaction from France’s intelligentsia, with many pundits arguing that the left-wing existentialist philosopher’s legacy was being exploited for political gain. .
Daughter Catherine Camus said she was shocked by the degree of hatred for the President that was expressed after he suggested her father’s remains be moved from their current resting place in southern France. For me, he represents my country. “I am a republican citizen and the president of the republic was democratically elected.”
But she added that she was surprised that Mr Sarkozy had decided to take an interest in an author noted for his deeply individualist beliefs and for his defence of the downtrodden.
Albert Camus’ son Jean was angered by the Pantheon plan, and denounced it as a cynical bid by Mr Sarkozy to requisition the legacy of a staunchly left-wing thinker.
“Men of power do not usually like Camus,” said Catherine Camus, who has not yet declared whether or not she is in favour of moving her father’s remains to the Pantheon.
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.New Zealand coach Graham Henry celebrated “a special day” after the All Blacks outclassed France 39-12 in Marseille to end their European tour undefeated.
“It was a special day, really, a special day because all the players who played today played their role superbly,” he said.
“It was good to see two teams playing attacking football because there has been some pretty boring stuff over the last year or so in rugby, and it was just a great game with two teams wanting to attack and I think it’s pretty special. .”
The New Zealand coach, whose team beat Wales, Italy and England in its previous outings, also said it was a remarkable effort “to go through the last two tours of Europe undefeated without having our line crossed.”
France coach Marc Lievremont admitted the All Blacks were the best team on the day.
“I’m just delighted for the guys because they put their record straight and they can feel good about their season and enjoy the summer.
“Sometimes, one has to accept defeat with dignity.
“This game quickly turned into a contest between a team that were euphoric and another team that was swamped. When the All Blacks play like that, attacking the line with complete confidence, they are unstoppable,” he said.”
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.A rarely seen French secret report on Adolf Hitler is among thousands of documents on 1920s Germany that are about to emerge from obscurity as part of a major overhaul of the French National Archives.
The yellowed, hand-written note from 1924 features a photograph of Hitler in a suit and tie, sporting his trademark side-parting and moustache.
“He is not an idiot but rather a very cunning demagogue,” says the note on Hitler by an anonymous agent. It is part of a treasure trove that had been gathering dust in a Paris mansion for decades.
Part of a huge archive from the period when French troops occupied part of Germany after World War I, the Hitler report was stored separately from the rest of the papers in a metal cabinet where France keeps its most important documents.
The agent presents Hitler as “the German Mussolini” and notes that he runs paramilitary groups “of the fascist type”, but does not raise any particular alarm about the man who would go on to lead Nazi Germany and launch World War II.
Seen only by a very privileged few, the Hitler report has now been extracted from the cabinet and will soon be available for historians to study, along with tens of thousands of other papers dating back to the French occupation of Germany. .
– ‘Racist’ –
The papers, which include everything from spy reports on politicians to details of German industrial techniques that the French hoped to appropriate, were not analysed or indexed.
Those documents were transported to Paris in 1930 and have been stored ever since in the bowels of the National Archives, housed in a magnificent early 18th century residence in the heart of the historic Marais district.
All that changed four years ago, when the Archives launched a conservation project to examine every single one of the papers and create a comprehensive index that will be posted online.
As a result, they remained hidden in more than 6,000 boxes, an unmanageable mass of raw material, inaccessible to historians and slowly deteriorating as paper-clips rusted, dust accumulated and ink faded from sheets as fine as cigarette paper.
She said the newly organised archive would be moved to a new state-of-the-art storage facility which is being built in a Paris suburb.
“On both sides of the Rhine, there was a very strong demand from historians to work on the inter-war period, and particularly the roots of the Second World War,” Isabelle Neuschwander, director of the Archives, said.
As well as Hitler, the French agents in Germany scrutinised other men who would go on to become powerful Nazis including Joseph Goebbels, Hermann Goering and Heinrich Himmler. There, the papers will be kept in much safer conditions and will be accessible to any researcher.
– Industrial espionage –
Also under the French spotlight was Konrad Adenauer, the then mayor of Cologne who would become the architect of the West German state after World War II.
The Himmler note goes straight to the point: the first word is “racist”.
“Competent but drawn to subordinate roles,” the note says. But whoever wrote the Adenauer report did not take the full measure of the man.
“That is not what interests me most.
Michele Conchon, an archivist who has been working full-time on the German papers for the past four years, said that while the most eye-catching pieces were the reports on famous Nazis, they were not the most valuable to historians.
She mentioned reports on violent incidents in which ordinary Germans showed their anger at the French occupation, burning French flags or attacking isolated soldiers guarding buildings. This archive is extremely rich in what it can teach us on daily life in Germany between the wars,” she said, surrounded by boxes of dusty files.
“There are reports of factory visits that were probably carried out with the aim of industrial espionage,” she said.
“There are reports of factory visits that were probably carried out with the aim of industrial espionage,” she said.
The secret service reports even offer insights into the lives of ordinary Germans – and into the nervousness of the French, who kept close tabs on German public opinion.
Thus, a report on an obscure schoolteacher, named as Mr Hinze, reveals surprisingly close scrutiny.
“Schoolteacher, 31, neutral, no obvious prejudices, content with our occupation which ensures order, hopes to see us go when peace will be signed,” says the report on Mr Hinze.
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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.