Two a penny

.Three European tourists have been detained in Sudan for acquiring the remnants of a rare meteorite that hit a remote region in 2008, their lawyer said. .
Mr Ahmed says the trio were “just tourists, who had no intention of committing a crime”.
“They were arrested two weeks ago in Abu Hamad and were transferred on Sunday to the Bahri prison,” he said.
Sudan’s interior ministry previously released a statement confirming French and Belgian tourists had been arrested “for acquiring .
A Western diplomat confirmed the arrest of the three, without giving further details…
The meteorite, named 2008 TC3, struck north Sudan in October 2008, close to the Egyptian border. the remains of meteorites, which constitutes an offence” under Sudan’s laws governing archaeological activity.
The arrests come in the context of tense relations between Sudan and France, which is harbouring Abdel Wahid Nur, the exiled leader of a key Darfuri rebel group.
Space rocks that make it through the Earth’s atmosphere can be extremely valuable and this rare example has been the object of research by Sudanese and United States scientists.
But Mr Ahmed says the case is criminal, not political.
Paris is also a fervent supporter of the decision in March by the International Criminal Court to issue a warrant for the arrest of Sudan’s President Omar al-Beshir on charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity in Darfur.
He added the Sudanese authorities still had to determine the nature of the rocks in their possession.
“They are doing well, they are being well treated, they have been able to speak to their families, and I hope to be able to secure their release tomorrow,” he said.
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.Some of the world’s toughest laws to fight internet piracy have come in to effect in France.
The laws were passed after a close vote in the French parliament and faced strong opposition from groups against internet restrictions.
Those who ignore two warnings risk being fined and or disconnected from their internet service. .
It is expected that 95 per cent of people who receive a second written warning will stop engaging in illegal internet downloads.
Supporters of the law, including President Nicolas Sarkozy, say it is a model for other countries around the world that want to protect their creative industries and make clear to ordinary web users that not everything is free.

.More than 1,100 soldiers, including 800 French legionnaires as well as US and Afghan commandos, launched a major operation east of the Afghan capital Kabul, military officials said.
Five US special forces soldiers were wounded in the fighting in the Uzbeen Valley, a Taliban stronghold where 10 French soldiers were killed in an ambush in August 2008, the officials said.
It was one of the biggest military deployments by the French army in Afghanistan since the fall of the Taliban regime in 2001.
The operation, codenamed Septentrion, was aimed at “reaffirming the sovereignty of Afghan security forces in the north of the Uzbeen Valley,” Colonel Benoit Durieux of the French Foreign Legion said. .
An official said three of the Americans were seriously wounded, and that the injured had been evacuated by helicopter to the nearby Bagram air base.
At least one militant was killed and three wounded in the fighting, Lieutenant-Colonel Herve Wallerand, who led the operation, said. Another one had his artery cut,” a US special forces officer at camp Rocco, the army’s advance outpost in the valley said. Jets also hit Taliban positions.
Attacked by the insurgents with rocket-propelled grenades, mortars and heavy machine gun fire, the French troops responded with shells, backed up by French and US attack helicopters.
US President Barack Obama has pledged an extra 30,000 troops to bolster an international force of 113,000 already fighting a Taliban-led insurgency that has become more virulent and deadly over the past year.
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.Iran’s President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has denied that a second nuclear enrichment plant that his country disclosed only yesterday was a secret.
Iran revealed the existence of the plant to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) just hours before it was made public by US President Barack Obama.
The plant is not yet operational as it is still under construction. .
Mr Obama said the facility is close to the city of Qom and that building it started several years ago.
He said the existence of the second enrichment plant deepens a growing concern that Iran is refusing to live up to its international responsibilities.
US officials say Mr Obama went public with the explosive new allegation after the Iranians discovered Western intelligence had breached their security.
He said the plant must now be opened to inspectors.
Mr Brown said it was more evidence of Iran’s “serial deception of many years”.
“We expect the IAEA to immediately investigate this disturbing information and to report to the IAEA board of governors,” Mr Obama said, calling the new plant a “direct challenge” to international non-proliferation rules.
Mr Sarkozy said the Iranians had until December to come clean or face much tougher sanctions.
“The international community has no choice today but to draw a line in the sand,” he said.
“Everything must be put on the table now.
“We cannot let Iranian leaders gain time while the motors are running,” he said.”
Prime Minister Kevin Rudd says the revelations that Iran has been secretly building a nuclear power enrichment plan are highly disturbing.”
Prime Minister Kevin Rudd says the revelations that Iran has been secretly building a nuclear power enrichment plan are highly disturbing.
“It’s troubling that Iran continues to be unwilling to meet its obligations under the IAEA requirements and the relevant UN Security Council resolutions.
“This, in our view, represents a challenge to the core of the nuclear non-proliferation regime.
He denied it was a secret, saying the plant was constructed within the framework of the IAEA.”
Mr Ahmadinejad confirmed the plant existed but claims it will not be functional for 18 months.
“We have no secrecy, and we work within the framework of the IAEA, and based on specific regulations and pre-determined time frames, we disclose information about our operations and facilities to the IAEA - not that anyone forces us to,” he said.
In an interview with Time magazine, he said Iran is not obliged to inform Mr Obama of every facility it has.
“They wanted to set up a sort of media game, take the stage to sort of set up the upper hand,” he said.
He accused the Western countries of trying to stack the table against Iran before an October 1 meeting between Iranian and Western negotiators on the nuclear issue..
“This is not nice . this kind of behaviour goes back to what was done in the past. this kind of behaviour goes back to what was done in the past.”
- ABC/BBC/AFP/

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French President Nicolas Sarkozy on Wednesday rejected an Iranian offer to release a French national detained in Tehran in exchange for the release of Iranian prisoners held in France, calling the offer blackmail. .

Sarkozy response was unequivocal. This is blackmail. There will be no exchange, Sarkozy told French television. An extradition request for Kakavand is under review at the French courts.

Although Ahmadinejad did not mention any names with respect to Iranian prisoners in France, officials believe he was referring to Ali Vakili Rad, imprisoned in France for the 1991 Paris murder of Shapour Bakhtiar, who served as Iran prime minister under the deposed Shah, and Majid Kakavand, detained at the behest of the United States for allegedly purchasing sensitive technology on the Internet.

France rejects any comparison between Reiss and the Iranian prisoners held in French jails.

French foreign ministry spokeswoman Christine Fages said there is no comparison between the situation of Clotilde Reiss and these people.

Do you think I would be ready to swap Shapour Bakhtiar assassin for a young student whose only crime was to speak the Iranian language and love Persian civilisation? Sarkozy asked. These are prisoners who also have a family, they also have a father and a mother &hellipUnfortunately, we have seen no action by the French government in favour of these prisoners.

Some Iranians have been in prison in France for years, Ahmadinejad told France 2 television on Tuesday, when asked about Reiss.

How these latest diplomatic salvos will translate into action remains to be seen.

Speaking through a translator, Ahmadinejad told the channel: If we wanted to blackmail anyone, there would be simpler ways than that. It not clear how and if [these] verbal attacks between Tehran and Paris will affect the [Reiss] verdict, says correspondent Aresu Eqbali, reporting for them in Tehran. It not clear how and if [these] verbal attacks between Tehran and Paris will affect the [Reiss] verdict, says correspondent Aresu Eqbali, reporting for them in Tehran.

French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner has been vocal about his outrage over the affair, telling the French media on July 7 that Reiss sent photos, just like hundreds &ndash thousands &ndash of photos were sent, pictures taken by mobile phone&hellip That is not spying.

She was charged as part of a mass trial of protesters on August 8 and accused of collecting information and provoking rioters, according to Iran state-run media, allegedly for taking photos of the demonstrations with her cell phone.

Clotilde Reiss trial - Iran - Nicolas Sarkozy
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Reiss was released from Tehran Insein prison on August 16 but is required to remain at the French embassy pending a verdict

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AFP - Eighty-three-year-old former French president Valery Giscard d’Estaing has brightened his long retirement by writing a steamy romantic novel about a French leader’s affair with a British princess.

The Princess and the President recounts the secret and passionate love of two characters clearly modelled closely on both Giscard himself and the late Diana, Princess of Wales, according to Monday’s edition of the daily Le Figaro.

Recast as President Jacques-Henri Lambertye and Princess Patricia of Cardiff, the pair meet at the closing dinner of a G7 summit after the young British royal has been left miserable by her princely husband’s adultery.

The newspaper said Giscard’s book rises above the level of a well-written romantic novel as a result of the wealth of detail he is able to supply about the French and British characters and the palaces in which they meet.

I kissed her hand and she gave me a questioning look, her slate grey eyes widening as she tilted her head gently forward, the presidential first-person narrator recounts, according to an excerpt published in Le Figaro. .

As befits a member of the prestigious Academie Francaise, the president also alludes to the literary classics, such as Alexandre Dumas’ tales of the love between French princess Anne of Austria and the Duke of Buckingham.

According to Le Figaro, the book opens with the phrase Promise kept and ends with: ‘You asked me for permission for you to write your story,’ she told me.. ‘I give you it, but you must make me a promise .’..

Princess Patricia shares Diana’s passion for charity work with children with AIDS and campaigns as she did against anti-personnel mines.

While marketed as a novel, there is little doubt that the characters are closely modelled on real life figures from recent history.

A fortnight before my marriage, my future husband told me that he had a mistress and was determined to continue his relationship with her, Patricia tells her French lover, according to the leaked extract.

A fortnight before my marriage, my future husband told me that he had a mistress and was determined to continue his relationship with her, Patricia tells her French lover, according to the leaked extract.

Giscard lost the vote in May 1981, costing him the chance of representing France two months later when Diana Spencer married Prince Charles, and thus the pair were never simultaneously the Princess and the President.

While the fictional Lambertye wins a second term with a comfortable 56 percent, the real Giscard was turfed out of office in 1981 after being accused of corruptly receiving diamonds from Emperor Bokassa of Central Africa. Some warned he risked tainting his legacy.

Nevertheless, some commentators said that Giscard had left himself open to ridicule by penning a book even hinting at an affair — he was 55 years old in 1981, Diana was 19. As the guy who legalised abortion? Who gave 18-year-olds the vote? Who brought female ministers into government?

By talking about Diana, Giscard is remaking himself the great inventor of the celebrity presidency.

How does he want posterity to remember him? demanded the magazine Marianne on its website.

Diana died in a road accident with her boyfriend Dodi Fayed in Paris in August 1997. A low-brow gossip president who needs the skills of a psychoanalyst to understand history, it stormed.

The Princess and the President will be released in Paris in French on October 1 by publishers Fallois-Xo. Her life and loves were a target of massive media attention both before and after her death, and books about her continue to sell extremely well.

literature - Valery Giscard d&#039Estaing

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The “Fight of the Century” is ready to live up to its billing and set records as New Zealand’s hottest and most expensive sporting ticket.

But the marks set by next month’s David Tua v Shane Cameron “grudge” heavyweight boxing contest at Hamilton’s Mystery Creek may not last long, with promoters admitting they’re likely to be dwarfed by revenues that will be generated for the Rugby World Cup in 2011.In the meantime, Tua-Cameron on October 3 looks set to take the title as not only the most hyped sporting contest of the Kiwi sporting year, but the most expensive ticket to a New Zealand event.Already 6000 of the capacity 8000 seats have been sold and Higgins was confident he would have around 150 corporate tables and a general admission crowd of around 6500 for the big fight.The highest priced “VIP Ringside” corporate tables at the fight have all been snapped up at $16,545 for a group of 10 and event promoter David Higgins said the evening was on track to set some pretty lofty records interms of revenue generated.In terms of the level of pricing for corporate tables, Higgins was confident the premium spots at Tue-Cameron, which are selling for prices between $10,545 and $16,545, are the most expensive for a New Zealand sportingevent. That number is flexible with an inability to fit in as many corporate tables as there is appetite for.”The only event I can think of that I was involved in was the President Clinton visit in 2006, and a corporate table for that was around $14-15,000.”To be ringside at a once-in-a-generation boxing fight is definitely one of those sought-after events. But that’s a very different type of event,” said the Duco Events promoter from Brisbane, where he is drumming up interest in the night. Mundine-Green was the pinnacle in Australia, and imagine being at Tyson-Holyfield in the mid-’90s, image being at the Rumble in the Jungle between Ali and Frazier . Each country has its own example. . .”Those were big, big events.”Those were big, big events. It’s a very hot ticket for sure. It’s a very historic event, there’s fever-pitch interest in it. I’d say they will surpass even this for some options.”The Rugby World Cup is coming up, and I’m sure that too will be a very hot ticket.Higgins was not keen to talk about figures in terms of likely revenue generated, but simple maths tells you they should clear $3 million from the sale of general admission tickets ($99-$399) and corporate tables alone.”With stand tickets for the RWC final tipped to run up to $1400, and corporate packages likely to be well over $2000 on a per-head basis, the 65,000-strong crowd at Eden Park are likely to generate a revenue record that will stand for a long, long time.5-$2 million that is generated from an All Blacks rugby test. Not bad for an indoor event and certainly it compares favourably with around $1.”I think we are where we want to be financially,” he said.Then there’s the revenue from the pay-per-view audience which Higgins is tipping will shatter the New Zealand record. I expect it to be the New Zealand record without doubt. I expect it to be the New Zealand record without doubt. The initial feedback from the broadcaster isvery encouraging. At $39.95, it is a very good price.”Higgins shrugged off any likely criticism from fans disappointed they will either have to shell out for the fight, or find a friend that has.”Of course people would love to see it free-to-air but they’ve got to understand for the best calibre fights, which this very much is, one of the major revenue streams for funding the purse is pay-per-view.”Frankly the big matchups won’t happen any other way.”Not that Higgins is figuring on the price putting too many people off once the weekend of the October 3 fight rolls around.”Come fight day, and the weigh-in before, there will be such a fever pitch people won’t be worrying about the $39.95 - they’ll be worrying about how the hell are we going to see it.”He is also confident that the fight is accessible to all types of fans.”Yes, ringside is $15,000 a head, but you will still have a very, very good view - and we’ve got eight big screens in there - further back at $99. .Higgins is adamant that the grudge match between the two Kiwi heavyweights will live up to its hype.”Cameron’s style of fighting is to come forward and trade, and David Tua’s style of fighting is to come forward. The antagonism between them is real.”You combine that with the public interest and the fact that so much is at stake - Tua’s legacy is involved, similarly Cameron, and for the winner there’s potentially a top-five ranking and a shot at the title in the nextyear or two.”Mix all those ingredients and this suggests it will be a very exciting fight. There’s no other sport quite like it. When the main event happens and the guys walk into the arena, you can feel the atmosphere.”When Tua and Cameron enter that ring for round one, the atmosphere in that venue will be . . . electric. It will be like no other event.”This fight’s built up for four or five years, it’s in the back of people’s minds that they’re witnessing something that’s built up that long, and that it’s a one-off event, and that sort of feeds off each other to create this amazing atmosphere.”Higgins confirmed that Independent Liquor had been signed as the events naming rights sponsor, and that they would be promoting it under their Woodstock brand.In terms of the fight’s place in history, he suggested you had to go back a long way - at least half a century - when this sort of interest has been generated by an all-Kiwi matchup.And it’s fair to say that no punch-up has ever seen this much cash flowing into the coffers.

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AFP - France will invest more than seven billion euros (10 billion dollars) to develop freight transport by rail and reduce road traffic, Ecology Minister Jean-Louis Borloo said Wednesday.

At the crossroads between northern and southern Europe, France plans to nearly double freight transport by 2022, in particular through a system of rail highways for truck-carrying trains.

It is indispensable that we increase the share of rail freight against air and road transport, Borloo told a news conference where he unveiled the plan.

Aside from expanding the rail network, a new port freight service will be set up in Le Havre and La Rochelle. .

Last week, Sarkozy announced a new carbon tax on businesses and individuals that will come into force in 2010 to encourage consumers to cut down their use of oil, gas and coal.

The scheme is part of President Nicolas Sarkozy’s ‘green plan’ for France that aims to reduce greenhouse gas emissions blamed for global warming.

environment - Jean-Louis Borloo - transport

.French police have released all 11 people arrested two days ago over death threats and bullets sent to President Nicolas Sarkozy and other politicians, a judicial source said. .
Since then, similar letters have sporadically appeared in mail rooms at politicians’ offices.
A first batch of brown envelopes containing 9mm cartridges and letters with threats like “You are all dead men walking” was sent to Mr Sarkozy, two ministers, the mayor of Bordeaux and other centre-right politicians in March.
The letters were signed by an unknown group calling itself “Fighters from Cell 34″. The latest, meant for Mr Sarkozy, was intercepted by postal services in Montpellier, south-west France, in August.
The judicial source said one was a well-known local political activist who had campaigned against plans to erect wind turbines close to a small town.
The 11 people arrested on Thursday (local time) were shopkeepers, former soldiers and members of a shooting club who all live in villages close to Montpellier.
However, a police source said searches at the suspects’ homes had not yielded convincing evidence. The mayor of the town was one of those who received letters. The man was briefly detained and released without charge.
Police had arrested a man in March on suspicion of sending the letters after he was denounced by his wife.
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AFP - A French soldier was killed and nine others wounded when a booby trap exploded against their armoured personnel carrier as they carried out reconnaissance in Afghanistan, officials said Friday.

Several soldiers were seriously wounded in the blast in the Showki region north of the Afghan capital Kabul, President Nicolas Sarkozy said in a statement in which he expressed condolences to the victims’ families.

According to Sarkozy, the soldiers were members of the 3rd Marine Infantry Regiment, which is based in the port of Vannes in Brittany.

France has some 2,900 troops in the NATO-led international coalition battling Taliban guerrillas and attempting to train Afghanistan’s national security forces to take the lead in the eight-year-old conflict.

The president . They were attacked in an area between the coalition bases in Nijrab and Bagram…

France has now lost 30 soldiers in Afghanistan since 2001. strongly condemned this blind violence and expressed France’s determination to continue to work to re-establish peace and development in Afghanistan, a statement said.

The IED (improvised explosive device) hit one of the seven VAB armoured personnel carriers in the convoy. .

The year 2009 has already been a record-breaking year for foreign soldiers killed in Afghanistan since the US-led bid to oust the Taliban began following the September 11, 2001 attacks on the United States. The nine wounded, four of them in a serious condition, were taken by helicopter to Bagram and Kabul, he said.org, more than 300 coalition soldiers have lost their lives since the beginning of the year, up from 294 in 2008.

According to the independent Internet site icasualities.

Afghanistan - French military - ISAF - NATO - security - Taliban