Two a penny

.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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.Any slim hopes Ireland still harboured of competing at the 2010 World Cup were finally snuffed out overnight with FIFA saying there was no way they would take part as a 33rd team.
In a desperate last ditch bid to salvage a place in this week’s draw, the Football Association of Ireland (FAI) approached FIFA several days ago and asked to be admitted as a 33rd team with another side, possibly Costa Rica, being added as a 34th.
FIFA president Sepp Blatter revealed this week that it would be put to an extraordinary meeting of world’s football’s governing body in Cape Town on Wednesday.
“We have to be clear that Ireland will not be invited to play at the 2010 World Cup,” he said at a press conference here ahead of the draw on Friday.
But FIFA secretary general Jerome Valcke made clear there was no way that Ireland would be playing.
“They asked the question but the FIFA president was very clear in saying it was impossible because if we did so then why not Costa Rica and others?
“We told them that because they were making a special request that we would bring it to the attention of the FIFA executive committee members and it is what we will do tomorrow.
“There was a request made by the FAI when we met them in Zurich a few days ago.
“But you can imagine what it would mean, I would not say it’s a nonsense, but it is impossible.”
Irish players launched furious protests when they were eliminated in a play-off with France, after a controversial handball by French captain Thierry Henry led to the decisive French goal. There is no hope at all that there will be more than 32 teams at the 2010 World Cup in South Africa.
Blatter an embarrassment
The way Blatter revealed the Irish request to be a 33rd team to the world’s media was attacked by Ireland assistant manager Liam Brady, who described the FIFA boss as “an embarrassment”.
The play-off was poised at 1-1 on aggregate in the second leg in Paris when Henry controlled the ball with his hand before teeing up William Gallas for the winner.
“He’s a bit of a loose cannon.
Brady said the Football Association of Ireland (FAI) had expected FIFA to consider the matter in private. He’s an embarrassment to FIFA,” he told Britain’s Sky Sports News. He’s an embarrassment to FIFA,” he told Britain’s Sky Sports News.”
The manner of France’s qualification provoked an international outcry with even Henry, who has been pilloried as a cheat around the globe, joining calls for a replay as “the fairest solution. I think my country deserves more recognition from Blatter.
One direct consequence of Henry’s handball could be that matches at the World Cup finals next year are played with two extra officials positioned on goal-lines, a system being tried out in this season’s Europa League. .
The draw takes place on Saturday at 5 am AEST, with the 90-minute ceremony determining not just who plays who, but where they play in a crime-ridden country entrusted with hosting Africa’s first World Cup.
It is expected to be a key issue at FIFA’s meeting on Wednesday.
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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.

.Former champion France has secured its World Cup spot in controversial fashion after a dramatic 1-1 draw with the Republic of Ireland at the Stade de France.
In other qualifiers, Slovenia advanced to only its second World Cup with a 1-0 win over nine-man Russia in their European zone, second-leg play-off tie.
In the African zone, a superb Antar Yahia goal gave Algeria a 1-0 victory over Egypt to secure its own finals berth.
A second-half strike by Raul Meireles was enough to break Bosnian hearts and send 2006 semi-finalists Portugal through to the finals in South Africa, and Greece ground out a 1-0 win over Ukraine in the return leg of their European zone play-off to qualify.
The South American nation won the two-legged playoff tie against North and Central America’s Costa Rica 2-1 on aggregate.
Uruguay qualified for the final spot in the tournament with a 1-1 draw with Costa Rica. Walter Centeno got the equaliser in the 74th.
Sebastian Abreu opened the scoring for Uruguay in the 70th minute.
In the first additional 15-minute spell France had an appeal for a penalty turned down after striker Nicolas Anelka tumbled to the turf under pressure in the eighth minute.
– Contentious victory –
Giovanni Trapattoni’s visitors, beaten 1-0 in Dublin last Saturday in the first leg of their play-off, had taken a shock lead in the 32nd minute through Robbie Keane and the Irish were unlucky not to score more before forcing the match to extra-time.
Henry’s pass, however, came after the ball came off his hand prompting a rash of immediate protests by the Irish players to the match referee, Martin Hansson.
Five minutes later France skipper Thierry Henry, who had moments earlier been denied a free kick after falling to the ground 25 yards out, won the match for the hosts when his angled pass amid a goalmouth scramble was met by the head of William Gallas.
Ireland, especially captain Robbie Keane, had the lion’s share of the chances in regulation time, and it will be kicking itself having last qualified for the 2002 World Cup where it made it to the second round.
Hansson waved away appeals allowing France to qualify and avoid a repeat of its humiliating failure, at the hands of Bulgaria, to qualify for the 1994 World Cup finals. .
– Slovenians ‘immortal’ –
Striker Zlatko Dedic, who plays his club football for Bochum in Germany, scored the only goal just before the break against Russia.
“They are men of merit for continuing the Slovenian football fairy tale,” said Slovenia coach Matjaz Kek.
Russia had won the first leg 2-1 in Moscow on Saturday, but Slovenia’s win this morning meant they qualified on the away goals rule. We were better from the first minute of the game and we earned the right to go to South Africa.
“They have become immortal. We all deserving the success, from the first to the last fan.”
“Our dreams came true.
– Portuguese grind it out –
Portugal, once again without the injured Cristiano Ronaldo, had won a hard-fought first leg 1-0 courtesy of a close-range header by Bruno Alves on Saturday and again had to be on its mettle before Meireles’ effort ensured their place at next summer’s showpiece in South Africa.”
Everton midfielder Diniyar Bilyaletdinov had scored twice in the first match before Nejc Pecnik’s goal two minutes from time gave Slovenia hope for Wednesday’s return leg.
Portuguese coach Carlos Queiroz, whose team limped through the first half of their qualifying program prior to a late rally, had insisted his team plays better away than at home.
Portuguese coach Carlos Queiroz, whose team limped through the first half of their qualifying program prior to a late rally, had insisted his team plays better away than at home.
And 10 minutes after the restart Meireles ensured there would be no shredded nerves for the visitors as he took a pass from Manchester United star Nani and slipped a low, precise shot past Kenan Hasagic in the Bosnian goal.
– Greek break drought –
Panathinaikos striker Dimitris Salpingidis netted the only goal of the match sending Greece, the 2004 European champion, into its second World Cup finals after a 16-year absence.
Greece and Ukraine, which were deadlocked at 0-0 after the first leg in Athens on Saturday, struggled to impose themselves early on in a match played on a rain-soaked pitch of the half-empty, 50,000-seater Donbass Arena.
Ukraine skipper Andrei Shevchenko missed a chance to put his team into the lead in the eighth minute, when he failed to send home a rebound after Greece ‘keeper Alexandros Tzorvas deflected Alexander Aliev’s shot.
Greece replied with a seven-metre header by Celtic forward Giorgos Samaras, which went just inches above the crossbar from a well-struck Giorgos Karagounis free kick.
Just after the half-hour mark Salpingidis gave Greece the lead, beating Ukraine’s defenders on a breakaway and receiving a razor-sharp pass from Samaras to score past goalkeeper Andrei Pyatov.
After the break, the hosts continued to press under the watchful gaze of Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko.
But Greece defended well, stifling the hosts’ attacks into fruitless long-range shots.
– African rivalry –
France-born defender Yahia, who plays for German club VfL Bochum, struck on 40 minutes to settle a play-off necessitated by the bitter North African rivals finishing level on points and goal difference in one of five African groups.
As a lofted through ball landed in the Egyptian penalty area, veteran Abdelzaher al-Saqqa allowed it to drop behind him and Yahia volleyed an unstoppable shot into the net off the underside of the crossbar.
African champions Egypt dominated the second half territorially only to come up against a watertight defence backed by brilliant stand-in goalkeeper Faouzi Chaouchi.
The match at a packed 45,000-seat Al-Merreikh Stadium passed without incident amid tight security after the Algerian team bus was attacked in Cairo last Thursday, leaving three players injured and triggering reprisal attacks.
On Saturday, Emad Moteab scored five minutes into stoppage time to give Egypt a 2-0 win which forced the play-off and raised hopes of a first appearance at the World Cup in 20 years.
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.Sting and Indigenous singer Geoffrey Gurrumul Yunupingu got together in Paris this week to sing Every Breath You Take for French television.
“There’s always something to learn from other musicians,” Sting said in an interview..
“There’s always an exchange . They will surprise you with what they can do or what they can add to your own music..
Gurrumul – the 39-year-old award-winning Aboriginal singer praised for his “voice of an angel” – won a standing ovation at a Paris concert on Wednesday night (local time). Or you can teach them”.
In Britain, The Times said the blind singer’s voice was “as sumptuously soothing as a log fire on a freezing night”.
He is on a maiden European tour taking in Germany, Switzerland, the Netherlands, Belgium, Britain and Ireland.”
Sting was in Paris for the promotion of his new album, If On A Winter’s Night – celebrating the winter season through traditional music and instruments, as well as his own songs.
Former Midnight Oil frontman and Australian Environment Minister Peter Garrett has said the Arnhem Land musician – whose lyrics are mostly delivered in his people’s language – “sings so deeply and sweetly about his connection to family and country, the effect is transcendental.
The broadcast will also feature Gurrumul singing Wiyathul from his first self-titled solo album, which has sold more than 100,000 copies in Australia. .
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.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.

.Springboks coach Peter de Villiers has packed his bench with front row players in anticipation of a torrid forward onslaught from France in Saturday morning’s (AEDT) Test in Toulouse.
In the squad announced last night, hooker Adriaan Strauss, loosehead prop Wian du Preez, who is uncapped, and tighthead CJ van der Linde, currently playing for Leinster in Ireland, will all be amongst the replacements, giving de Villiers an entire front row in reserve.
“If you study the way France play, then you know to expect a forward onslaught,” de Villiers said.
South Africa took a battering in the scrums during its loss to Leicester in the opening game of its European Tour last weekend and de Villiers said he expected France to attack the world champion in the same area.”
Springboks captain John Smit, who controversially moved from hooker to tighthead prop during the 2008 end-of-year tour, said he also believed the French pack would be out to give his team a rough time in the forward exchanges.
“We don’t have anything to fear, but we have to be ready for it and a full front row on the bench is the right thing to do. They secure good ball from the set phases and provide a very solid foundation for the team, and they use the conditions well,” Smit said.
“They have a well-balanced pack and they do their primary jobs very well.
Adrian Jacobs, who enjoyed a top-class season in 2008 before being injured, replaces Jean de Villiers at inside centre.
The starting XV shows four changes from the team that beat New Zealand in Hamilton in September to win the Tri-Nations.
Zane Kirchner will start at full-back in place of Francois Steyn, who has headed for France to play for Racing Metro, and is the third player to wear the number 15 jersey for the Springboks this season.
Jacobs is a fine attacking player, but is considered a defensive weakness by many critics. .
JP Pietersen returns on the wing in place of Odwa Ndungane while Pierre Spies will play no part in the tour due to a serious finger injury and has been replaced by Ryan Kankowski.
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. Reserves: 16-Adriaan Strauss, 17-Wian du Preez, 18-CJ van der Linde, 19-Andries Bekker, 20-Danie Rossouw, 21-Ruan Pienaar, 22-Wynand Olivier

.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

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The Ministry of Education has told schools they will not get extra support for teaching arts, science and physical education next year.

The move was because the Government wanted schools to focus on reading, writing and maths ahead of the introduction of the National Standards, Radio New Zealand reported.The advisory groups would also help with the implementation of the national standards.A letter from the ministry said schools would get no help from advisory groups, provided by six universities, to teach anything other than reading, writing and maths.”With this sector, I can’t win.Education Minister Anne Tolley said she was “damned if I do damned if I don’t”…”With the introduction of national standards next year I have said, that the sector has said to me repeatedly ‘we’re going to need extra help’.if I hadn’t provided them with support I can bet you we’d be having the same conversation about how I’m going to be requiring them to implement national standards with no support. In the future it could be arts or science, Ms Tolley said.”The focus for next year was reading, writing and maths.There was limited money, she said. .”Principals said it sent a “strong message” about the impact the standards would have on the range of subjects taught in schools.”I got an increase of $300 million in education and I have spent that as wisely as I can across the sector.

.Further details on the national standards would be released tomorrow