Two a penny

.France’s political elite has rallied to the defence of Roman Polanski, calling on Switzerland to free the 76-year-old filmmaker rather than extradite him to the United States.
Artists and fellow filmmakers are also urging the release of Polanski – who faces charges of having sex with a 13-year-old girl in 1977. .
“I think this is awful and totally unjust,” French Culture Minister Frederic Mitterrand told reporters.
Polanski was due to receive a prize for his life’s work at the Zurich Film Festival on Sunday (local time), but was arrested on a 1978 US arrest warrant after arriving in Switzerland on Saturday.
The Culture Ministry said French President Nicolas Sarkozy was following the case closely and wanted the swift release of Polanski, while Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner said he had expressed his concerns to his Swiss counterpart.
“Just as there is an America which is generous and which we like, so there is an America which is frightening – and that is the America which has just revealed its face,” he said.
Polanski holds French citizenship and is married to French singer and actress Emmanuelle Seigner.
Robert Harris, a British novelist who said he had been working with Polanski for much of the past three years writing two screenplays, expressed outrage over the arrest.
He has spent much of his life there since fleeing the US in 1978, but regularly visits countries where he does not expect extradition woe.
“It is hard not to believe that this heavy-handed action must be in some way politically motivated,” he said.
“I am shocked that any man of 76, whether distinguished or not, should have been treated in such a fashion,” he said in a statement, adding that Polanski had often visited Switzerland and even had a house in the resort of Gstaad.
His mother died in a Nazi concentration camp, but Polanski avoided capture and spent his youth in Poland before moving to the West.
Born in Paris, Polanski moved to Poland with his Jewish family when he was still a toddler shortly before World War II.
His ties with Poland are still strong and Polish Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski said he might appeal directly to the United States over the case.
His ties with Poland are still strong and Polish Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski said he might appeal directly to the United States over the case.
“We do not understand why the Swiss invited Polanski to a film festival, where he was to have received a life’s achievement award, and then arrested him,” said association president Jacek Bromski.
Poland’s filmmakers association has also risen to Polanski’s defence.”
–

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“We regard that as a scandalous situation and an example of incomprehensible overzealousness

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AFP – French President Nicolas Sarkozy came under fire Thursday for describing ex-prime minister Dominique de Villepin and four others on trial for allegedly slandering him as guilty.

Villepin’s lawyer called the comment scandalous and said the former prime minister would file suit against Sarkozy for violating his right to presumption of innocence.

After a two-year investigation, two independent investigating judges ruled that the guilty parties should be tried before a criminal court, said Sarkozy during an interview Wednesday with French television.

&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
Opposition politicians said Sarkozy’s remarks made on French television were a revealing slip of the tongue that showed he was not impartial in the case involving his long-time rival, Villepin.

Mister Sarkozy has declared in front of all of France that Mr de Villepin is guilty, because he was ordered to stand trial, said Villepin’s lawyer Olivier Metzner.

Several politicians and lawyers said the comment was a blunder given that the justice system in France, like that in other major democracies, consider the accused innocent until proven guilty.

The so-called Clearstream trial opened Monday with Villepin and four others in the dock for allegedly taking part in a plot hatched in 2003-2004 to smear Sarkozy and torpedo his bid for the presidency.

This is a scandalous violation of fundamental principles, said co-defence lawyer Henri Leclerc.

The case centres on a list — later found to have been fabricated — of account holders at the Clearstream financial clearing house in Luxembourg who allegedly took bribes from the sale of French warships to Taiwan.

Villepin and Sarkozy were at the time locked in a fierce struggle for the governing right-wing party’s nomination to succeed president Jacques Chirac.

Bythem A tale of two rivals (21 September)But Villepin’s camp and politicians on the left have called on Sarkozy to pull out of the case, given his status as president.

Sarkozy has registered as a civil plaintiff in the case, saying he wants the trial to reveal the truth about the bogus list and how his name ended up on it.

Sarkozy is a civil plaintiff, that is he has filed a complaint as a victim and also the guarantor of justice, the prosecutors’ top superior in the hierarchy, he said.

Mister Freud would say that this was a revealing slip, revealing of the ambiguity of Nicolas Sarkozy’s position in this affair, said Francois Bayrou, leader of the centrist Democratic Movement (MoDem) party.

This was his subconscious speaking, said opposition Socialist deputy Pierre Moscovici, who called the comment extremely shocking.

This situation is abnormal and shouldn’t be accepted in a republic that has principles, Bayrou told RTL radio.

The 55-year-old Villepin faces up to five years in jail and a 45,000-euro (66,000-dollar) fine if convicted.

Former Socialist leader Francois Hollande said Sarkozy’s choice of words was all the more disturbing because the president is a trained lawyer who understands the importance of using precise language.

Clearstream trial – Dominique de Villepin – France – Nicolas Sarkozy
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.French politicians want to stamp a “health warning” on photographs of models that are altered in order to make them more appealing – part of a campaign against eating disorders.
French parliamentarian Valerie Boyer, a member of President Nicolas Sarkozy’s UMP party, and some 50 other politicians have proposed the law to fight what they see as a warped image of women’s bodies in the media.
Under the proposed law, all enhanced photos would be accompanied by a line saying: “Photograph retouched to modify the physical appearance of a person.
“These images can make people believe in a reality that often does not exist,” Ms Boyer said in a statement, adding that the law should apply to press photographs, political campaigns, art photography and images on packaging as well as advertisements.
Luxury brands and fashion magazines have also been accused of digitally making models look thinner, enhancing their breasts, whitening teeth, lengthening legs and erasing wrinkles.”
Digitally enhanced photographs have been at the centre of a string of scandals in France – most recently Paris Match was caught out after having altered a photo of Mr Sarkozy to remove chubby love handles.
Breaking the law would be punished with a fine of 37,500 euros ($63,700), or up to 50 per cent of the cost of the advertisement.
Ms Boyer says being confronted with unrealistic standards of female beauty could lead to various kinds of psychological problems, in particular eating disorders.

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&raquo Hosni is opposed to the barbaric acts perpetrated by Israel, not to the Israeli people who want to live in peace with their neighbours – Ahmed Gamal el-Din Mohammed, communications worker, Cairo
Reuters – Egyptian Culture Minister Farouk Hosni, who said last year he would burn Israeli books, won a comfortable lead in the first round of voting in UNESCO election of a new director-general on Thursday.

Hosni bid for the United Nations culture agency top post has stirred a political storm, with accusations of anti-Semitism and press censorship in Egypt.

With 22 votes out of 57 expressed, he did not carry the majority needed to win in the first round so voting will go to a second round on Friday.

The Bulgarian candidate Irina Gueorguieva Bokova finished second with eight votes. There was one abstention.

All nine candidates are allowed to run in the second, third and fourth rounds but if it goes to a fifth round there must only be two. Austrian EU Commissioner Benita Ferrero-Waldner, and the Russian and Ecuadorean candidates got seven votes each.

There is no clear cut candidate tonight so there will be a second round tomorrow, said UNESCO spokeswoman Sue Williams.

Apology

If we don&rsquot bring in the Muslim world, it will be understood as a signal against them, and that will be difficult for us, Sishir Das, a member of the Malaysian delegation, told Reuters in the UNESCO foyer.

Earlier on Thursday at UNESCO headquarters in Paris, backers hailed Hosni as a man of peace who would improve ties with Muslim countries.

Asked last year about Israeli books in Egyptian libraries, Hosni was quoted as telling a member of parliament: Let burn these books if there are any, I will burn them myself before you. He has never been controversial, he has always been considered a man of peace.

Other activists have since piled into the row, accusing Hosni of colluding in censorship and violation of press freedom in Egypt, and pressuring UNESCO members not to vote for him.

Hosni this year apologised for the comment and some prominent activists such as French Nazi hunter Serge Klarsfeld have accepted his regrets and supported him.

Hosni is culture minister in a country that doesn&rsquot respect freedom of speech, Jean-Francois Julliard, secretary-general of media watchdog Reporters Without Borders, told Reuters.

Hosni is culture minister in a country that doesn&rsquot respect freedom of speech, Jean-Francois Julliard, secretary-general of media watchdog Reporters Without Borders, told Reuters. UNESCO declined to comment on the case.

Egypt delegation at UNESCO said Hosni would not comment until after the vote.N.

Horse-trading

The outcry creates a difficult situation for governments who like to use top U.

France is backing Egypt, a key ally in its drive for a Mediterranean Union. posts in diplomatic horse-trading.

The United States is reportedly working behind the scenes to prevent Hosni from winning the vote. Other European countries such as Germany have refrained from taking sides. .

A painter who has served as culture minister for two decades, Hosni was long viewed as a front-runner.

In 1979, Egypt became the first Arab country to sign a peace treaty with Israel, but it has resisted warmer relations.

In 1979, Egypt became the first Arab country to sign a peace treaty with Israel, but it has resisted warmer relations.

anti-Semitism – Egypt – elections – UNESCO

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AFP – A French court on Tuesday blocked a decision to allow a Qatari prince to modernise a pristine 17th-century mansion, one of the gems of historic Paris, a lawyer for a residents’ group said.

Locals went to court to block the work by Prince Abdullah Bin Abdullah Al-Thani, brother of Qatar’s emir, who bought the Hotel Lambert on the Ile Saint Louis, an island on the River Seine and a UNESCO heritage site, in 2007.

Built in the 1640s at the eastern tip of the island, not far from Notre Dame Cathedral, the Hotel Lambert was designed for a rich financier by the architect Louis Vau, who went on to oversee a major expansion of the Chateau de Versailles for Louis XIV.

The judge agreed to suspend the permit given to the prince in June by the culture ministry to turn the delapidated mansion into a family residence, said Michel Huet, lawyer for the Paris Historique association fighting the plans.

Prince Abdullah acquired the hotel from the Rothschild banking family for some 60 million euros (86 million dollars) in 2007, and with his son Hamad Bin Abdullah Al-Thani commissioned French architects to restore and convert it.

Rich with history, the mansion’s uses over the years ranged from a hideaway for the 18th-century philosopher Voltaire and his lover, to a political headquarters for Polish exiles in the following century.

But even then, critics feared the proposals — which still involved destroying a staircase, putting in new elevators and an underground car park — would wreck one of Paris’ best-preserved mansions.

His plans for the building were watered down after months of talks between the French state, Paris city hall and heritage defence groups before approval was granted in June. .

Tuesday’s ruling does not challenge the restoration part of the prince’s plans, which plans for key rooms to be renovated in keeping with the original, but it blocks the wider 40-million-euro plan to modernise the building.

But it is still considered one of the finest examples of mid-17th-century domestic French architecture, complete with mural paintings by Charles Le Brun and other masters of the day.

France – French culture – justice – UNESCO

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Some 23 employees at France Telecom have committed suicide in the past 18 months.

On Friday, a 32-year-old worker threw herself to her death from her office window. Two days earlier another employee attempted suicide after hearing he was being downgraded to a position of less responsibility.

On Saturday, Darcos said factors at work that have an impact on mental health must be better dealt with, adding that he will be sending the government’s chief work inspector to France Telecom’s next health and safety committee meeting.

French Employment Minister Xavier Darcos is due to meet France Telecoms’s CEO Didier Lombard on Tuesday to discuss the issue. .

French Finance Minister Christine Lagarde also called for an emergency meeting of France Telecom’s board of directors. There needs to be a strong message sent out to all the employees, followed by specific instructions across the hierarchy so that these issues can be taken properly into account.

And Didier Lombard said Thursday that negotiations would begin with unions on stress issues at France Telecom, and said 100 new human resources employees would be recruited so that management could be closer to employee issues.

France Telecom’s human resources director Olivier Barberot has acknowledged that the organisation’s restructuring programme had led to employees suffering.

Unions have lambasted the company’s obsession with profits and called for radical solutions to prevent further suicides.

Unions fired up

The latest suicide has fired up unions, who called over the weekend for the state, which remains a major shareholder in the organisation, to take greater responsibility for France Telecom’s employees.

The issue of restructuring, which unions blame for employee discontent, remains unresolved.

France Telecom is undergoing a huge restructuring programme in order to keep pace in an increasingly competitive internet and mobile communications market.

Olivier Barberot, in an article for the Journal de Dimanche Sunday newspaper, said that halting the restructuring programme was unimaginable, while promising to improve support measures for those employees who lose their positions.

Olivier Barberot, in an article for the Journal de Dimanche Sunday newspaper, said that halting the restructuring programme was unimaginable, while promising to improve support measures for those employees who lose their positions.

France – suicide – telecommunication – Xavier Darcos

.French President Nicolas Sarkozy has launched plans for a carbon tax to encourage industry and households to cut energy consumption.
The levy, initially set at 17 euros ($29) per tonne of carbon dioxide emissions, will translate into a rise in the price of fuel for cars, domestic heating and factories.
“The gravest challenge that we face is climate change.. .
In the works for months, the tax has caused a political furore in France, with disagreements within the ruling party on how exactly it would work and objections from opposition critics who say it will hurt the poor at a time of economic hardship. Every one of our compatriots must feel concerned,” Mr Sarkozy said in a televised speech aimed at winning over a sceptical public.
The government has been under suspicion of seeking ways to increase its revenues in a year when fiscal income has plunged as a result of the recession, causing the budget deficit to balloon.
Those households too poor to pay income tax would receive “green cheques” from the state to compensate them for higher energy bills.
Mr Sarkozy rejected that criticism, pledging that the carbon levy would not increase the burden on households because the rise in fuel bills would be offset by cuts in income tax. An opinion poll by Ifop for the magazine Paris Match, published this week, found that 65 per cent of people were hostile to the tax.
Mr Sarkozy faces an uphill battle to convince voters to accept the plan.
The system will differentiate between people who live in urban areas with good public transport and those who live in rural areas and are more dependent on cars.
“The aim of ecological fiscal policy is not to fill state coffers but to incite French people and companies to change their behaviour,” Mr Sarkozy said, adding that households that keep energy consumption low could end up better off financially. The rural households will get more money back from the state, he said. The rural households will get more money back from the state, he said. Mr Sarkozy argued that with 80 per cent of electricity produced in France coming from nuclear plants which have low emissions, it would make no sense to increase the price of power.
A notable exception will be electricity.
Starting at 17 euros per tonne of CO2, the tax will rise over time, Mr Sarkozy said, though he did not say by how much or by when.
“What would be the point of, on the one hand, encouraging French people to acquire electric cars or solar panels and on the other hand to tax them more for those?” he said.
Some Nordic countries introduced similar carbon taxes in the 1990s and have reported that the measures helped cut emissions without crippling growth. It will be introduced in the 2010 budget, he said.
–

. France will be the biggest European economy so far to adopt such a system

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AFP – The upcoming trial of former French prime minister Dominique de Villepin took a new twist Sunday with fresh revelations that the top politician knowingly plotted to smear President Nicolas Sarkozy.

Villepin goes on trial on September 21 on charges of conspiring to slander Sarkozy in the so-called Clearstream affair, a complex case dating back to 2004 when the two men were locked in a bitter rivalry for the French presidency.

The former prime minister and foreign minister, who led the charge against the US invasion war of Iraq at the United Nations, has denied any wrongdoing and struck back, accusing Sarkozy of meddling.

Lahoud told French investigators in December that he had added Sarkozy’s name to a bogus list of Clearstream account holders who had allegedly received kickbacks from arms sales to Taiwan, the Journal du Dimanche reported.

But a leading newspaper at the weekend quoted an affidavit from a key defendant, Imad Lahoud, as saying that Villepin was behind the conspiracy targeting Sarkozy.

Lahoud said he knew that Villepin was in contact with former EADS vice president Jean-Louis Gergorin, a key player in the scandal who has admitted to leaking the false Clearstream list to investigators in 2004.

By doing this, I was contributing to sidelining Nicolas Sarkozy, Lahoud, a former employee of European aerospace giant EADS, told investigators, according to the report.

I knew that Jean-Louis Gergorin was in contact with Dominique de Villepin and that the conspiracy against Nicolas Sarkozy was planned with Dominique de Villepin’s knowledge, said Lahoud.

It is rather odd to take such interest in the testimony of a man who often changes his story, Metzner said.

Responding to the revelations described as a small bombshell by the newspaper, Villepin’s lawyer Olivier Metzner noted that Lahoud’s deposition took place in December, a month after the case was closed and sent to trial.

If convicted, Villepin faces a sentence of up to five years in jail.

The trial before a Paris criminal court is shaping up as a clash between Sarkozy loyalists and supporters of Villepin, who was former president Jacques Chirac’s protege — within France’s ruling right-wing UMP party. Sarkozy is a civil plaintiff in the case.

In the runup to his trial, Villepin has floated the idea of challenging Sarkozy for the party nomination for the 2012 presidential vote and has become one of his most vocal opponents. .

Villepin, Lahoud, Gergorin and two other defendants are to stand trial in the case, with hearing scheduled to last until October 21

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REUTERS – Suspected Salvadorean gang members killed French filmmaker Christian Poveda, whose 2008 film La Vida Loca crudely depicts the hopeless lives of members of the infamous Mara 18 street gang, local police said on Wednesday.

Poveda, 53, was shot on a road 10 miles (16 km) north of the capital of San Salvador, as he drove back from filming in La Campanera, a poor, overcrowded suburb and a Mara 18 stronghold.

La Vida Loca (The Crazy Life) closely followed the lives of several heavily tattooed gang members, some of whom were jailed or killed during the shooting of the film.

President Mauricio Funes said in a statement on Wednesday night that he was shocked by Poveda’s murder and ordered a thorough investigation.

Poveda first came to El Salvador in the early 1980s to cover the civil war that ravaged the poor Central American for over a decade.

The late filmmaker Christian Poveda spoke to them about shooting La Vida Loca in June.

The Mara 18 and rival Mara Salvatrucha gangs make up a huge criminal network that runs from Los Angeles, where a diaspora of Salvadoreans lives, down through chunks of Central America. .7 million people.

Authorities estimate there could be as many as 30,000 so-called mareros, who sell drugs, rob illegal migrants or extort businesses in the tiny country of just 5.

assassination – cinema – El Salvador – shootings

.The men’s singles formbook continued to be strictly respected at the US Open with fourth seed Novak Djokovic and seventh seed Jo-Wilfried Tsonga both cruising into the second round.
There were straight-sets wins too for 10th seed Fernando Verdasco, 11th seed Fernando Gonzalez and for 17th seed Thomas Berdych as, for once, most of the day’s drama was being played out in the women’s tournament.
The 2008 Australian Open champion revealed afterward that he had reached agreement with retired American player Todd Martin to join his coaching team for Flushing Meadows.
Djokovic, the fourth-seeded Serb who lost to Roger Federer in the 2007 final, was too powerful for a fading Ivan Ljubicic of Croatia, winning at a canter 6-3, 6-1, 6-3.
“He always looks for positives and that is exactly what I need. .
The 24-year-old from Le Mans failed to get past the third round in his two previous appearances at Flushing Meadows, but he won the boy’s title here in 2003 and he is the only player to defeat Roger Federer since May.”
Tsonga was even more expedient, defeating American wildcard Chase Buchanan 6-0, 6-2, 6-1 in a mismatch out on the Grandstand Court.
– Knock out blow –
The Frenchman, runner-up to Djokovic in the 2008 Australian Open, wrapped up the first set in just 23 minutes and it was the second game of the set before Buchanan opened his account by holding serve.
That came in the quarter-finals at the Montreal Masters, where he remarkably won from 1-5 down in the deciding set.
Tsonga will next play Jarkko Nieminen of Finland, who defeated Fabio Fognini of Italy 7-5, 7-6 (8-6), 6-4 with a quarter-final against Rafael Nadal in prospect further down the line if the seeding goes according to plan.
That was but a brief respite for the home player though as Tsonga powered away again losing just two more games as he went through in 78 minutes.
“It will be tough against Nieminen as he is just coming back from injury and will be hungry to do well.
“I didn’t know what to expect of him (Buchanan) and I was wary as I remember when I was younger and had his ranking I was convinced I could beat anyone, anytime,” he said.”
Spain’s Verdasco served up 12 aces and hit 36 winners on the way to a 7-5, 6-4, 7-5 win over Benjamin Becker of Germany, while Berdych of the Czech Republic, seeded 17, saw off Wayne Odesnik of the United States 7-5, 6-4, 6-4.
“But I am in good shape and playing well, so why not.
The only slight diversion from the script came from American qualifier Jesse Witten, a former collegiate stand-out, who stunned 29th-seeded Russian Igor Andreev 6-4, 6-0, 6-2.
Gonzalez, whose best showing at the US Open was a quarter-final appearance in 2002, defeated Nicolas Massu 6-3, 6-3, 6-3 in an all-Chilean clash.
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