Two a penny

.Thierry Henry is not a cheat and will get over his handball in France’s controversial World Cup play-off against Ireland, Zinedine Zidane said.
“He is not a cheat, I know him well,” the former France playmaker, who was sent off for headbutting Italy defender Marco Materazzi in the 2006 World Cup final, told French television channel Canal Plus. He made a mistake, like I made a mistake, even if I’m not making any comparisons.
“He will get over this.”
Henry, Zidane said, had apologised by admitting he had handled the ball.
“We all make mistakes.
“I’m not saying it was nothing but it was handball, that’s it.
“The fact he said there was a handball means he has apologised,” Zidane said.
The French Football Federation (FFF) has ruled out a replay, saying world governing body FIFA’s decision that the result should stand is final.”
France captain Henry handled the ball while setting up William Gallas’ extra-time equaliser in the 1-1 draw in Paris which sent France to the World Cup with a 2-1 aggregate win.
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.A marketing company that planned to throw envelopes of cash to passers-by from the top of a bus in Paris had to cancel the publicity stunt for security reasons after thousands of people turned up.
About 5,000 people gathered close to the Eiffel Tower, with groups spilling into neighbouring streets and bursting through crowd barriers before the planned handout of banknotes by the online marketing company.
“Given the serious traffic problems noted in the Champ de Mars area and significant crowd movements, the police requested the organisers not to go ahead with this distribution of money,” a police spokesman said. .
Some people had waited for hours for the cash handout, which had been heavily promoted beforehand.
“We couldn’t anticipate that there would be so many people,” Stephane Boukris, a spokesman for the organisers told France Info radio.
Police in riot gear were called in and there were about 10 arrests.
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.Serbia’s Novak Djokovic has praised his “perfect” performance after outclassing world number two Rafael Nadal 6-2, 6-3 to set up a Paris Masters final against local hope Gael Monfils.
World number three Djokovic, who beat world number one Roger Federer in the Basel final last week, extended a brilliant run of form and will start favourite against Monfils, having won their three previous encounters.
Monfils, seeded 15th, thrilled the 14,000 fans packing the Bercy hall when he knocked out 13th Radek Stepanek of the Czech Republic 6-4, 5-7, 6-4 in the other semi-final, which was a lot tighter and could have gone either way.
“I was hitting winners from all over the court and really trying to keep that momentum going during the whole match,” he added, summing up a spectacular performance.
“There’s not much to say about today’s performance except it was perfect, you know, exactly the way I wanted it,” Djokovic said. .
Djokovic will play his fifth final and chase a first title this year in a Masters 1000 event, while Monfils will feature in a final in the showcase series for the first time.
“I didn’t play badly but he played unbelievable,” said Nadal, who leads 14-6 against Djokovic but has now lost their last two meetings.
The 22-year-old Serb was on top throughout the match, displaying his confidence in the second set when he won the first two games to love and broke Nadal in the second with a forehand winner.
“It’s very difficult for me to beat him when he’s playing that level, especially on a fast indoor court”.
Showman Monfils then alternated amazing winners and clumsy errors before taming Stepanek in a close contest that lasted over two and a half hours.
Nadal, who won the French Open four times on the other side but never this indoor event, could not recover and Djokovic remained in charge until sealing victory with a another superb forehand on the first match point after just 76 minutes.
A third set was needed, in which the pair traded breaks before Monfils managed the telling one in the ninth game to serve for the match.
The acrobatic Frenchman had the crowd on his side but showed signs of nerves, notably when he served for the match, leading 5-4 in the second set, only to be broken.
The fans went wild when Stepanek hit a return long on the first match point.
The fans went wild when Stepanek hit a return long on the first match point. Now I have to live up to it.
“Playing a final in France is a special occasion.”
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.A French magistrate has ordered former president Jacques Chirac to stand trial on embezzlement charges dating back to his time as mayor of Paris, in an unprecedented move against a former French head of state.
A statement from Chirac’s office says he and nine others have been charged with a role in awarding 21 contracts for non-existent jobs.
The statement describes the former president as “serene”.
Mr Marin is likely to appeal the decision by Xaviere Simeoni, a magistrate whose role is to investigate cases and decide whether suspects should face trial.
The retired Chirac, 76, who was mayor from 1977 until 1995 when he was elected president, is not certain to go on trial, as Paris public prosecutor Jean-Claude Marin had previously said there was no case against him.
The charges investigated by Judge Simeoni related to 35 work contracts allegedly awarded by Paris city hall as favours to friends or associates of Mr Chirac’s political camp. .
She concluded that 21 out of the 35 were for non-existent jobs.
Judge Simeoni’s decision is a blow to Chirac, who enjoyed constitutional immunity during his 12 years as president only to be hit by a flurry of legal problems after he stepped down in 2007.
The statement from Chirac’s office says he is “determined to demonstrate to the tribunal that none of the contracts that are still in debate were for non-existent jobs”.
In retirement from political life, Chirac has gained in popularity and has devoted his time to writing his memoirs and launching a charitable foundation.
No former French head of state has faced prosecution for corruption and a trial would be a public humiliation for a man who was a central figure in French politics for four decades.
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Although he has avoided direct involvement in any trial, a number of his former allies and associates have been convicted of corruption, leaving a bitter aftertaste of “the Chirac years”

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REUTERS – The body of Mehdi ben Barka, an opponent of Morocco King Hassan II who was abducted in Paris in 1965, was burnt in Essonne, south of the French capital, author Georges Fleury told the newspaper Le Journal du Dimanche.

Fleury was given secret police documents on the Mehdi ben Barka affair 25 years ago, the former marine commando told the paper in an interview to be published on Sunday.

In any case, for me, that is what happened, I believe a lot in this lead.

The person who handed over the dossier was convinced that his body was incinerated in Essonne, Fleury said.

Mehdi ben Barka, a hero for the international left, was kidnapped in broad daylight in front of the smart Lipp restaurant in the heart of Paris and his fate remains unknown. Was it looked into at the time? Can it be verified today? I ask myself the question, Fleury was quoted as saying.

The case has been a cause celebre for Moroccan advocates of greater political freedom in the kingdom, but it remains politically sensitive in Rabat, where Hassan son Mohammed succeeded him as king in 1999. French investigators believe he was tortured and killed. .

France issued international arrest warrants on Oct.

Fleury said he had since lost contact with his source and was ready to had over the documents in his possession to prosecutors if they asked him.

France – Morocco

.Pope Benedict has canonised five new saints, including a man who dedicated his life to lepers in Hawaii and another considered one of the greatest mystics of the 20th century.
Jozef Damian de Veuster (1840-1889) of Belgium moved to Molokai in Hawaii at the end of the 19th century, where he became known as “the lepers’ apostle” for living on a colony for 16 years until he himself died of the disease.
The pope also canonised Jeanne Jugan (1792-1879) of France, who founded the order of the Little Sisters of the Poor.
De Veuster’s life “invites us to open our eyes to lepers who disfigure the humanity of our brothers,” the Pope said at a St Peter’s basilica mass attended by Belgium’s King Albert II, Polish President Lech Kaczynski and French Prime Minister Francois Fillon.
Jugan “is like a light to guide our societies which have still not rediscovered the place and unique benefits” of elderly people, the pontiff said. By the time she died, her institute had 2,500 workers looking after elderly women in 177 homes around the world.
Also canonised were Polish archbishop Zygmunt Szczesny Felinski (1822-1895) and two Spanish monks – a Dominican, Francisco Coll y Guitart (1812-1875) and a Trappist, Rafael Arnaiz Baron (1911-1938). .
He died from diabetes after preferring to stay at the monastery rather than with his parents, where medical care would have been easier to come by during the upheavals of the Spanish Civil War.
Baron, considered one of the greatest mystics of the 20th century, died aged 27 while he was a member of the Cistercian Order of Strict Observance.
The fifth was Carmelite monk Nuno de Santa Maria Alvares Pereira (1360-1431) of Portugal.
In April, the Pope canonised five people, including Father Arcangelo Tadini (1846-1912), Sister Caterina Volpicelli (1839-1894), theologian Bernardo Tolomei (1272-1348) and Gertrude Caterina Comensoli, (1847-1903), all Italian.
Pope Benedict has canonised 28 new saints since becoming pontiff in April 2005.
Pope Benedict has indicated he intends to slow down the rate of canonisations and of beatifications – a step towards full sainthood – in contrast with the prolific rate of his predecessor, John Paul II.
Beatification, officially the Catholic Church’s recognition that a dead person has entered heaven and can intercede on behalf of those who pray in their name, is a key step towards sainthood. Jean-Paul II canonised 482 new saints and beatified 1,338 during his 26 years in office.
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.Germany’s most popular women’s magazine has banned the use of images of professional models on its pages.
From 2010, Brigitte will only use what it calls “real life women”.
The magazine’s editors complained they were sick of having to retouch pictures of underweight models who bore no resemblance to their readers. He used three plus-size models to showcase his trademark tight knitted dresses.
At his London fashion week show, designer Mark Fast decided that big was the new black. One of his stylists resigned on the spot, refusing to dress what were referred to as bigger girls.
The decision to use size 12s and 14s instead of the standard size zero models led to a very public row between Mark Fast and his creative team.
Bigger girls to some, but at Germany’s most popular women’s magazine, they are simply referred to as normal.
“Of course a model is a real woman too but we are examining for students, DJs, actresses, whatever,” she said.
One of the fashion directors at Brigitte is so fed up with having to photoshop skinny models to make them look fatter and healthier that she has decided to stop using models altogether in favour of real women.
“We will certainly make normal, average women look glamourous,” she said.
Susie Gunlach’s Brigitte sells 700,000 copies a week and she is out to prove that normal women can be beautiful and sell magazines.”
The industry is edging closer to zero tolerance for zero-size models.
“We will have the best photographers we’re employing for this and we will not make this into a boring magazine for the housewife. From 2010 it will be a policy at Brigitte not to hire professional models at all because the current wave are considered to be too thin and too young. From 2010 it will be a policy at Brigitte not to hire professional models at all because the current wave are considered to be too thin and too young.
“It’s not allowed for a young girl or a young boy, teenage age to work in a factory . He has spent the past few days working at Paris fashion week where models are said to weigh around 25 per cent less than normal women…
“There should be kind of minimum age for the girls to start with. but in the fashion world it is allowed for a 14-year-old girl, maybe even sometimes without her parents, travelling through the whole of Europe and making all these hard castings and doing a very, very tough job,” he said. Two years ago Spain passed a law banning underweight models.”
Vogue UK editor Alexandra Shulman recently appealed to major fashion houses to end the size-zero culture. .
Perhaps this is a trend that will last

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&raquo Special Report on France&#039s trial of the decade
&raquo Who&#039s who in the trial
&raquo How a finance trial turned into a major political scandal
&raquo A glossary of terms in the Clearstream saga
&raquo From Ben Barka to Elf, justice turns a blind eye to political elites
General Philippe Rondot , a key witness in the Clearstream trial, testified on Monday that former Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin had been aware since January 2004 that Nicolas Sarkozy name appeared on forged Clearstream client account lists, contradicting de Villepin declarations last week .

According to Rondot, Sarkozy name was mentioned several times in de Villepin presence during a confidential meeting in January 2004. I took notes without understanding, the general told the court in Paris. It true, [former EADS Vice-President ] Jean-Louis Gergorin mentioned a joint account shared by Sarkozy and a certain Bosca. Several notebooks full of his findings and observations have been seized by French magistrates.

The former defence official was reportedly ordered by de Villepin, then France’s interior minister, to conduct an investigation into the French political figures whose name appeared on the client list of Luxembourg clearing house Clearstream.

Rondot also claimed that the fomer prime minister asked him to facilitate the liberation of Imad Lahoud, the man suspected of falsifying the Cleastream client lists. They constitute the most damning piece of evidence in a trial that has otherwise been characterised by contradictory his word against yours testimony. De Villepin has persistently denied ever meeting him or acting in his favour. Lahoud was at the time in prison on separate fraud charges. Last Wednesday, the former prime minister vehemently denied any knowledge of the forged client account lists, let alone accusations of having ordered the forgery himself.

Contradictory reports

Rondot testimony &ndash which comes on his 73rd birthday &ndash could deal a serious blow to de Villepin spirited defence. General Rondot testimony could be very problematic for the former Prime Minister, who has flat out contradicted the content of the infamous notebooks, calling them &lsquopersonal musings&rsquo that can&rsquot be trusted in court. . Gergorin account in turn contradicts that of de Villepin, who maintains complete and total innocence with regard to the forgery.

Rondot testimony may shed light on the widely differing accounts of events offered by former EADS Vice-President Jean-Louis Gergorin, who is thought to have ordered the forgery, and former EADS executive Imad Lahoud, who admitted to committing the forgery at what he claims to be Gergorin behest. Rondot was at the time a close associate of de Villepin.

Incriminating notebooks

A critical entry in Rondot notorious notebook relates to a meeting held on January 9, 2004 at the interior ministry, of which de Villepin was head at the time.

Another of the general’s notebook entries relating to a conversation with de Villepin, dated July 19, 2004, has the former premier saying, If our names appear, the PR [President of the Republic, Jacques Chirac] and I, we are in a lot of trouble. The general says Nicolas Sarkozy name came up at the meeting in the context of the lists, contradicting de Villepin’s claim that he was unaware his rival’s name appeared in the lists.

Clearstream trial – Nicolas Sarkozy
. At his court appearance on Wednesday, de Villepin denied having made the remark, saying that the note was based on impressions and was not an accurate account of the conversation

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The nation’s biggest family-owned group of dairy farms, Crafar Farms, was today placed in receivership.

The receivership covers four companies run by the Crafar’s involving 20 farming properties.

“There is a formal process in place.

MAF began inspecting Crafar Farms last week for animal neglect following the slaughter of cows from one farm. This is not a fire sale,” said Korda Mentha’s Michael Stiassny who along with Brendon Gibson has been appointed receivers.

He said they were getting co-operation from the Crafars: “We are holding discussions.

Mr Stiassny said animal welfare was the priority and the receivership was complicated by the current bad weather conditions hitting the North Island. I think its fair to say at the moment we have common interest around the welfare of animals on the farm and workers on the farm and therefore have co-operation.

Mr Stiassny said he had no information on what prompted the move to put Crafars into receivership but “presumably they have failed to meet their obligations.”

It is understood Crafar Farms owes its banks Westpac, Rabobank and PGG Wrightson Finance around NZ$200 million.

Mr Gibson said there was no view yet on whether the business, involving individual farms across the country, would be broken up and sold piecemeal.”

Crafar Farms was trying to sell its properties as a single group. .

“We will be doing our best to ensure it is business as usual for the farms as we work to assess the situation,” Mr Stiassney said in a statement.

Agriculture Minister David Carter has previously warned publicity over the Crafar farms could damage New Zealand’s reputation.

Agriculture Minister David Carter has previously warned publicity over the Crafar farms could damage New Zealand’s reputation.

Allan Crafar has said that he, his wife Elizabeth, and his brother Frank were being unfairly targeted over issues such as dirty dairying and animal welfare.

MAF was expected to announce this week whether it would prosecute over alleged animal neglect, after more than 100 calves dying of thirst had to be killed on a Waikato dairy farm owned by the Crafars.

– With

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AFP – France Telecom’s chief executive faced calls to stand down Tuesday as a 24th suicide at the firm sparked demands for an inquiry into working conditions blamed for pushing staff over the edge.

A France Telecom worker jumped to his death from a highway overpass on Monday leaving a note blaming pressures at work. The 51-year-old father of two had recently been posted to a call centre in Annecy in the Alps.

Chief executive Didier Lombard responded by announcing a freeze on a policy dubbed Time to Move that sees managers change posts every three years, on top of a promise the previous month to review personnel policies.

Further reading

&raquo Focus on the string of suicides at France Telecom
&raquo State intervenes as suicides mount at France Telecom
Workers for the formerly state-owned telecoms giant staged wildcat strikes Tuesday in Annecy, nearby Grenoble and Lyon and in Bordeaux to demand action over a wave of 24 suicides in the past 18 months.

Rather than stepping up his PR efforts, we believe a responsible business leader should resign.

But opposition lawmakers and unions said he had not gone far enough. That is the only possible outcome to this case right now, said Benoit Hamon, spokesperson for the Socialist Party.

Both Socialist and Communist lawmakers called for an urgent parliamentary inquiry into the suicides.

We need a strong symbolic gesture within the company to get labour relations back on the rails, said Bruno Le Roux, head of the Socialist group in the National Assembly. .

A former state monopoly now competing as a private firm in a deregulated market, France Telecom has undergone several major reorganisations in recent years, leading to widespread complaints of stress.

All managers have to be trained to deal with suffering in the workplace, and to take account of suicide risks, he said.

For the head of President Nicolas Sarkozy’s ruling right-wing party, Xavier Bertrand, Lombard’s resignation is not the issue.

But Sebastien Crozier, whose CFE-CGC union represents executive-level staff, warned that: The company’s image has been damaged.

But Sebastien Crozier, whose CFE-CGC union represents executive-level staff, warned that: The company’s image has been damaged.

According to a local trade unionist, the latest suicide, identified only as Jean-Paul, was singled out as emotionally fragile before being posted to the Annecy call centre where work conditions were described as unbearable.

They are no longer credible, agreed Patrick Ackermann of the Sud-PTT union.

France – suicide – telecommunication
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The victim’s wife told RTL radio he spoke about the restructuring all the time in the run-up to his death