Two a penny

.Filmmaker Roman Polanski won more damages on Tuesday (local time) from French publications that printed photographs of him at his Swiss home where he is confined pending extradition proceedings in a child sex case.
A Paris court convicted the magazines VSD and Voici and the weekly newspaper Journal de Dimanche of breaching Polanski’s privacy by publishing zoom-lens pictures of him and his children without permission.
Polanski is under house arrest while Swiss authorities consider a demand by the United States to deport him to face charges of having unlawful sex with a 13-year-old girl in California in 1977.
It ordered them to pay a total of 16,000 euros ($24,700) in fines, costs and compensation to him and his wife, French actress Emmanuelle Seigner.

.French world number 10 Jo-Wilfried Tsonga has pulled out of the season-opening ATP event in Doha starting Monday with a wrist injury, organisers said Friday.
“I am really disappointed not to be able to participate in this tournament owing to a wrist injury. . I hope to be able to play in the future (in Doha) but for now I hope the tournament goes off well – Happy New Year to everyone,” Tsonga said in a statement.
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Murray has this season switched his opening week focus to Perth, Australia, as he bids for Hopman Cup glory alongside fellow Briton Laura Robson

.New Zealand has filed an official complaint with the International Rugby Board after prop Tony Woodcock suffered abrasions around his eyes during Saturday’s 39-12 win over France in Marseille.
All Blacks assistant coach Steve Hansen says the team had asked the citing commissioner to investigate an incident late in the match.
“We asked the citing commissioner to have a look at it and we’ll leave it in his hands.
“There’s no doubt Tony got a facial, that’s how he described it,” he said.
–

.”
The officer has 48 hours to decide whether any player has a case to answer, but Woodcock says television footage of the incident was inconclusive and is happy to let the matter rest

.Sudanese journalist Lubna Ahmed Hussein says she has donned a full Islamic veil to sneak out of Sudan and travel to France, two months after she was freed from jail for wearing trousers.
On a visit to Paris to promote her new book, Ms Hussein accused Khartoum of trying to block her departure and said she was determined to exercise her right to travel freely.
“They wanted to prevent me from leaving; I resorted to the niqab and managed to leave,” said Ms Hussein, who was jailed for a day in September for violating Sudan’s clothing decency laws by wearing trousers.
“I did not flee Sudan.
“I requested documents to be able to leave, to be able to travel, and this is the only means I found to be able to leave Sudan,” she said. . I am a Sudanese citizen.
Ms Hussein faced a punishment of 40 lashes when she was convicted in July for wearing her green trousers in public.
After she refused to pay the fine, Ms Hussein served a one-day jail sentence.
But a Sudanese court in September ordered her to pay a fine instead, while 10 of the 12 other women arrested with her at a Khartoum restaurant on July 3 were lashed.
The Paris welcome for Ms Hussein came as France was debating measures to prohibit women from wearing the full Islamic veil, which President Nicolas Sarkozy has said is a symbol of women’s subservience.
More than 43,000 women were arrested last year in the Khartoum region by police tasked with enforcing Sudan’s laws on indecent clothing for women.
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.The world’s largest airliner, an Air France A380, touched down in New York after completing the superjumbo jet’s first Atlantic crossing from Europe to the United States.
The Airbus plane, carrying 538 passengers, left Paris earlier in the day and landed on Friday at 1:07pm (local time) at JF Kennedy Airport, several minutes ahead of schedule, under crisp blue skies.
Air France is the first European airline to put the giant aircraft into service, but the fourth worldwide after Singapore Airlines, Gulf-based Emirates and Qantas.
Two fire engines met the plane with a watery salute from their hosepipes as it taxied to its gate.
Air France will launch regular A380 flights across the Atlantic on November 23.
Passengers included 380 people who bought their tickets in an Air France auction to benefit disadvantaged children.
But major production and delivery delays mean the commercial success of the A380, the pride of Airbus and parent company EADS, has yet to be secured. The fleet of 12 huge planes will also serve Johannesburg, starting in February, and then Tokyo.
“A fantastic flight,” said one passenger, Bernard Boluvi. . You hardly feel the take-off and landing. “It’s a very quiet and stable plane.
“It doesn’t feel like one big cinema, because the plane is well divided into different sectors,” he said.”
Michel Schmitt, 45, also praised the lack of noise aboard and said the double-decker felt more roomy than other jumbos.
“Air France chose the most dense configuration,” he said.
But Gerard Jouany, 64, a journalist specialising in aviation, said he found the plane rather cramped and emphasising the bus aspect of Airbus.
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.Melbourne Storm lock Dallas Johnson has accepted an offer “too good to refuse”, signing a three-year contract with Super League club Catalans Dragons.
The Storm reluctantly agreed to grant the two-time NRL premiership-winning forward an early release from his contract, which had been due to run until the end of the 2011 season.
“This was without doubt the toughest decision of my career.
“The Storm, as a club, has meant so much to me,” said Johnson, 26, who played in the last four State of Origin series for Queensland. .
“I made my debut in Storm colours, represented Queensland and Australia while playing for them, and have made some life-long friends.
“The opportunity to continue my rugby league career with the security of a long-term deal and in such a beautiful part of the world was one that I couldn’t refuse.
“But there are other areas of life I want to explore and living abroad and travelling is absolutely up there on the list.
“For a guy his size, to do what he does on the field, week after week, is simply incredible,” Bellamy said.”
Storm coach Craig Bellamy, who made his debut as coach on the same night Johnson played his first NRL game, described the hard-hitting lock as the toughest rugby league player he had seen.
“He’s a popular guy amongst the players and he will be missed by all.
“He’s the toughest player I have ever seen.”
– AAP

.New evidence has emerged that shows faulty equipment may have caused the Air France crash off the Brazilian coast this year.
The plane took off from Rio de Janeiro bound for Paris, but flew into a thunderstorm three hours later and then plunged into the Atlantic – 228 passengers and crew died.
Three months after Air France flight 447 went down in the Atlantic, relatives of the 228 victims are still searching for answers.
The plane’s manufacturer Airbus has now told the ABC’s Foreign Correspondent program that the onboard weather radar could not detect ice at high altitudes.
“The French families are waiting for explanations about why this tragedy happened, technical explanations and acknowledgements of responsibility from all the companies involved in this crash,” he said.
Christopher Guillot-Noel lost his brother.
Safety expert Captain John Mahon has been independently investigating the crash for a British law firm representing the families.
He is among a group of French families who hope to sue the airline and the plane’s manufacturer Airbus.
“Some of the messages that were transmitted by the aircraft would seem to suggest that faulty pitot tubes or speed sensors were instrumental in this accident,” he said.
He says the disaster could have been prevented.
It is believed they iced-over at high altitudes, sending the wrong information about the flight speed to the pilots.
Before the plane crashed, a routine maintenance message from the plane sent back to France reported the pitots or sensors were not working.
After the crash, Air France pilots threatened to go on strike if the faulty pitots or air speed sensors were not replaced.
Both Air France and Airbus manuals offered advice on how to deal with the faulty sensors, but the pilots union says the advice was contradictory. Now the planes manufacturer Airbus says the onboard weather radar was also not working.
– Equipment fault –
Air France replaced the sensors after the crash.
The vice-president of the flight test division at Airbus, Fernando Alonso, said the Airbus onboard radar could not see ice particles.
This contributed to the series of confusing or false data sent to the pilot..
“You have weather radar which is a very. it’s an equipment which is fitted on every single aeroplane,” he said..”
Rhe black boxes and voice recorders still have not been recovered, making it hard to get an accurate picture of what went wrong.
“I believe the ice could not be detected.
“It’s highly desirable that data is streamed live from the aircraft to the maintenance base,” he said.
“It’s highly desirable that data is streamed live from the aircraft to the maintenance base,” he said.
“It is absurd that air safety depends on black boxes which sometimes cannot be recovered, or if they are recovered then the data cannot be properly transcribed because the boxes are damaged.”
The official investigation into the crash of Air France flight 447 continues.

Watch Foreign Correspondent tonight at 8:00pm (AEDT) on ABC 1.

.South Sydney second rower Eddy Pettybourne is heading to France to link up with New Zealand for the remainder of the Four Nations.
The Christchurch-born, Sydney-raised 21-year-old was called into the squad hours after the world champions dramatic 20-20 draw with Australia at the Twickenham Stoop on Saturday as cover for second-rower Bronson Harrison, who has a calf injury.
Pettybourne, who becomes the eighth newcomer in the squad, flew out of Sydney earlier Sunday and is set to join the Kiwis in Toulouse ahead of their next match against France on Saturday.
“Greg (Eastwood) missed the match against Australia with a hamstring injury but we’re expecting he will be ready to play again against France.
Kiwi coach Stephen Kearney said: “We need Eddy here to give us cover in the back row,” he said.”
The 103 kg Pettybourne, also qualified for Samoa through his parents, had played his cards close to his chest regarding his representative availability after playing for both the Australian Schoolboys and the Junior Kiwis. .
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The New Zealand dollar surged higher against the US dollar today, rising above US76c.

The kiwi hit a new 15 month high earlier today, starting the day at US76.23c, up from US74.

According to Radio New Zealand, Reserve Bank Governor Alan Bollard told Parliament’s Finance and Expenditure Select Committee yesterday that the kiwi’s strength against its US counterpart was being driven by the greenback’s weakness and there was little the central bank could do to bring the currency down.97c at 5pm yesterday.5 percent.

The Reserve Bank will review the official cash rate next Thursday and is expected to leave it unchanged at 2.

Against the Australian dollar the NZ dollar edged higher, trading at A81.21c yesterday.81c, up from A81.

But ANZ said it appeared the market was reading too much into the comments.

ANZ bank said momentum continued overnight after comments from Reserve Bank governor Alan Bollard that a higher NZ dollar was not necessarily an impediment to raising interest rates provided the kiwi with a “big kick” yesterday. .

“Rather than a sign that rate hikes are just around the corner, we suspect the comments are more an acknowledgement that the RBNZ can do little about the high levels of the kiwi, and with rate hikes already priced in, actually delivering one shouldn’t actually impact the currency.

-with

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AFP- Former French Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin confronted the star witness in his smear trial on Wednesday and angrily rejected charges that he plotted to damage Nicolas Sarkozy’s bid for the presidency in 2007.

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Villepin denies any wrongdoing but evidence offered on Monday by General Philippe Rondot, a former senior intelligence official, suggested that he was more involved in the case than he had previously admitted.0pt”Times New Roman”}

&raquo Special Report on France&#039s trial of the decade
&raquo Reporter&#039s notebook from the court
&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
The confrontation came on the ninth day of the mammoth Clearstream trial, in whichVillepin is accused of conspiring to defame Sarkozy by using falsified documents to implicate him in a corruption case.

The whole history of my relations with Nicolas Sarkozy shows that not only did I never try to get revenge but that I overlooked blows that were struck against me, he said.

The silver-haired Villepin, a bitter rival of Sarkozy when the two served in government together under former President Jacques Chirac, dismissed suggestions that he had been motivated by their mutual enmity.

I don’t mind people accusing me of a lot of things but rivalries, underhand blows, no.

The trial is based around a falsified set of lists that first surfaced in 2004, purportedly detailing accounts held at the Luxembourg-based securities clearing house Clearstream by dozens of prominent individuals, including Sarkozy. History shows it.

PLOT

The lists were later shown to be faked but Villepin, who was foreign and then interior minister at the time, is accused of having them passed anonymously to a magistrate investigating kickbacks on an arms sale even though he knew them to be bogus.

They were brought to Villepin’s attention by Jean-Louis Gergorin, a former executive of aerospace group EADS who had close links to intelligence services and who suggested that they might be linked to corruption and organised crime.

He says he asked Rondot to investigate the lists in January 2004 but that there was no suggestion that they might drag Sarkozy into any investigation.

Villepin, who risks five years in prison if found guilty of conspiring to use falsified documents to defame his rival, has said he was not initially aware that Sarkozy’s name was on the lists and did not at first realise they were faked.

However Rondot’s evidence on Monday suggested that, contrary to Villepin’s assertions, he was aware Sarkozy’s name was in the documents well before they were passed to the magistrate.

However Rondot’s evidence on Monday suggested that, contrary to Villepin’s assertions, he was aware Sarkozy’s name was in the documents well before they were passed to the magistrate. .

Rondot’s evidence was especially damaging because, unlike other evidence from prosecution witnesses, it was backed up by copious notes of his meeting with Villepin in January 2004.

I did not ask General Rondot to come that day with his notebooks and his little pencil to a meeting of conspirators.

You don’t plot, you don’t get involved in defamation when you are a politician on the basis of a request for an investigation to General Rondot, he said.

Clearstream trial – Dominique de Villepin – France
. That is not my conception of the Republic