Two a penny

.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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.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

.Cadel Evans abandoned Silence Lotto to join BMC Racing Team in a bid to strengthen his claim for a maiden Tour de France victory, but the wheels could fall off the twice runner-up’s challenge before the race even starts.
Although the Australian world road race champion joined a group of experienced and talented riders, the American team’s participation in the 2010 Tour de France remains uncertain.
BMC is a Continental team (second division) while elite ProTour outfits are race organiser ASO’s top priorities when they draw their list of invitees for the Tour.
“We have a plan to go to the biggest races, including the Grand Tours,” BMC manager John Lelangue said.
However, BMC hopes the signing of Evans to a three-year contract, former world champion Alessandro Ballan and former Lance Armstrong lieutenant George Hincapie will be enough to prompt ASO to invite them. This will be possible since our sporting level has greatly improved in standard.
“That includes the Tour de France.”
Sixteen teams are already contracted to participate in next year’s tour, while 20 usually start with a further two allowed if the maximum number is reached.
Cervelo, former champion Carlos Sastre and green jersey winner Thor Hushovd’s team is almost certain to take part, leaving one guaranteed spot up for grabs with three teams vying for it.
Four teams – Sky, Armstrong’s RadioShack, Garmin and Katusha – will be at the prologue in Rotterdam next July thanks to their ProTour status and because they have already proven they can compete in a three-week event.
Belgian Lelangue was Phonak team manager when Floyd Landis won the Tour in 2006, only for the American to test positive for testosterone and lose his title.
BMC are candidates, along with French outfit Saur Sojasun and Dutch team Vacansoleil and although the American team boast two world champions in their ranks, manager John Lelangue’s patchy history with Tour organisers could play against them.
Evans, however, is unconcerned by the past events and insists he is examining forward rather than back.
Phonak was disbanded before resurfacing in 2007 as BMC, with the same owner, Andy Rihs, and Lelangue back at the helm. .
“Rihs comes back with another team and another project with the same goal after that experience shows his enthusiasm and passion for the sport,” Evans told the Cycling News website.
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ASO is expected to announce the list of teams taking part in March

.The Church of Scientology has been fined 600,000 euros ($972,000) by a French court for preying financially on its followers in the 1990s.
Officials have voiced regret however that a recent change in French law prevented the court from banning the religion outright. .
A lawyer for Scientology’s French operations, Patrick Maisonneuve, says he will appeal, but “the most important thing is that this association can continue to exercise its activities.
“Religious freedom is in danger in this country,” said Eric Roux, the spokesman for Scientology’s French Celebrity Centre.
But last month the French courts were alerted to a little-noticed legal change voted in by Parliament in May – the month the trial opened – which bars judges from dissolving an organisation convicted of fraud.”
Paris prosecutors originally asked the court to order the Celebrity Centre and Scientology’s Paris bookshop be dismantled.
The change has since been dropped, but this was not retrospective, hence Scientology’s protection from an outright ban.
Founded in 1954 by US science-fiction writer L Ron Hubbard, the Church of Scientology is recognised as a religion in the United States and claims a worldwide membership of 12 million.
Officials in Germany, Greece, Russia and elsewhere have accused the movement of tricking its members out of large sums, and in 1995 it was classified as a cult in France, where it claims 45,000 followers.
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The movement is best known for its Hollywood followers including Tom Cruise and John Travolta

.England has recovered from a 12-4 half-time deficit to defeat France 34-12 in the opening match of rugby league’s Four Nations tournament in Doncaster.
Teenage half-back Richie Myler scored two tries as Tony Smith’s side ran in 30 unanswered second-half points with Kevin Sinfield, Ryan Hall, Tom Briscoe and Lee Smith also crossing.
Sinfield added five goals, but England has plenty of work to do if it is to deny either Australia or world champion New Zealand claiming the title in the four-team event.
But England rallied just in time in front of an 11,529 crowd at Doncaster’s Keepmoat Stadium – the highest for an Anglo-French international since 1952.
Tries from Vincent Duport and Kane Bentley put France 12-4 up by half-time as itsensed a first win over England for more than 27 years. .
France’s woes were compounded when Jean-Phillippe Baile was sent off for a high shot on Myler late in the game.
Smith said he was not concerned about France’s lightning start.
“We were a bit anxious and put a bit of pressure on one another.
“We were just a bit excited, even before the game,” Smith told Sky Sports. We knew if we did that they would struggle.
“We just had to settle down and build some pressure on the French.
“This is a new team, and it takes a little bit of time to get the combinations – and that showed tonight,” he said.”
Smith admitted that next week’s clash with Australia would represent a different proposition altogether.
“We go up about three rungs in class next week.
“We go up about three rungs in class next week.

.Australian rugby league star turned AFL recruit Karmichael Hunt has arrived at the French rugby union club Biarritz Olympique.
The Brisbane Broncos star shocked NRL fans earlier this year when he announced he was switching codes to play Australian Rules for the new Gold Coast club in 2011.
The star-studded Biarritz Olympique side is currently third on the Top 14 competition table after nine rounds.
Hunt has signed a six-month contract to play rugby union before he returns to start his AFL career in May next year.
His six-month contract with BOPB, based in the luxurious sea-side town of Biarritz near the Spanish border, is reportedly worth $300,000. .

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The short-term arrangement was reportedly nearly foiled after Hunt was ineligible to play as an emerging nation player from Cook Islands rather than an “import”

.French magistrates have charged a nuclear scientist suspected of Al Qaeda links with “membership of a terrorist group” judicial officials said.
The 32-year-old engineer, who was studying the universe’s birth, at the European Organisation for Nuclear Research (CERN), was arrested on Thursday last week by police intelligence.
He has appeared in front of an anti-terrorist magistrate in Paris to be placed under formal judicial investigation and was to hear later in the day whether he will remain in custody pending trial.
He had expressed a desire to carry out attacks but had “not got to the stage of carrying out material acts of preparation”.
Officials said last week that investigators monitoring the internet had intercepted contacts between him and Al Qaeda’s North African offshoot.
The European Organisation for Nuclear Research operates one of the world’s leading nuclear research laboratories attached to a 27-kilometre tunnel running under the Franco-Swiss border just outside Geneva.
The suspect’s 25-year-old brother, who does not work at CERN, was also arrested last week but has since been released without charge.
In the tunnel, a particle accelerator attempts to recreate the sub-atomic conditions present at the time of the Big Bang.
It added, however, that “he was not a CERN employee and performed his research under a contract with an outside institute.
The lab confirmed on Friday that a physicist working on the Large Hadron Collider had been arrested on “suspicion of links to terrorist organisations”.”
According to CERN’s website, the suspect’s experiment was “set up to explore what happened after the Big Bang that allowed matter to survive and build the universe we inhabit today”. His work did not bring him into contact with anything that could be used for terrorism.
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Nevertheless, reports have suggested the arrest of a scientist with alleged Al Qaeda ties will increase fears that the Islamist militant group is seeking weapons technology or planning to attack nuclear targets

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AFP – President Abdullah Gul flew into France on Wednesday to bring Turkey’s campaign for membership of the European Union to the country that is leading the drive to exclude it.

Gul was greeted at the airport by France’s Minister for European Affairs Pierre Lellouche, according to French officials, and began a three-day programme of meetings and speeches.

He is nevertheless expected to meet firm opposition from his French counterpart Nicolas Sarkozy.

Before setting off, he insisted his mainly-Muslim state was making good progress on reforms required by the 27-nation bloc. We are focused on this aim since we came to power, Gul told AFP, defending the record of his Islamist-rooted government.

Our priority is to put into practice what we learned from the European Union.

Turkey began membership negotiations in 2005, but has so far opened talks in only 11 of the 35 policy areas that candidates must complete, while France, Germany and other EU members have sought to slow or halt the process.

Gul was to meet foreign policy experts later Wednesday and Prime Minister Francois Fillon on Thursday, taking time to persuade French opinion of his case before meeting Sarkozy, who is staunchly opposed to Turkey’s bid, on Friday.

In June, hopes that France might soften its stance were raised when Sarkozy appointed a new minister for Europe, Pierre Lellouche, known to favour Turkish membership.

Sarkozy says Turkey — of which only a small portion west of the Bosphorus is geographically in Europe and whose large population would be the first in the bloc to be mainly Muslim — should settle for a partnership agreement.

We want Turkey to be a bridge between East and West, Sarkozy declared in June during an appearance with President Barack Obama at which he disagreed with the US leader’s support for Turkish EU membership. The minister, however, now publicly backs his president. For me, Europe is a force stability in the world and I cannot allow that force for stabilisation to be destroyed, Sarkozy declared.

I told President Obama that it’s very important for Europe to have borders.

And, despite window dressing such as a Turkish cultural season to be held in France from this week, relations between the two countries are tense.

This position, which is popular with a French electorate nervous of allowing 76 million new citizens to compete on the European job market, is unlikely to change this week. Bridges have been burned.

In the past five years you can see a real degradation in ties.

Billion said France had a schizophrenic attitude with Turkey, on the one hand reaching out with gestures like a cultural season, on the other thwarting its diplomatic initiatives. Polite talk won’t change anything, said Didier Billion, of the Institute of International and Strategic Relations in Paris. .

Lellouche has suggested that Turkey could arrange privileged trading ties with Europe — like we have with Brazil — but Gul has argues his country could have special value as Europe’s Muslim partner.

Its common values are democracy, human rights and the supremacy of the rule of law. Besides, the EU never defined itself as a religious union, Gul said.

Not only does Turkey adopt the criteria of Europe, but it also plays a role in spreading these values in the region, he said, suggesting Turkish membership could improve ties with the Middle East.

Not only does Turkey adopt the criteria of Europe, but it also plays a role in spreading these values in the region, he said, suggesting Turkish membership could improve ties with the Middle East.

France appreciates Turkey’s engagement in the diplomatic problems posed by Iran, Syria and the Middle East conflict, and hails Ankara’s renewal of ties with Armenia and efforts to improve the fate of its own Kurdish minority.

But Paris has been disappointed by Turkey’s failure to resolve its longstanding sovereignty dispute with Cyprus or halt the stream of illegal immigrants flowing through its territory towards the Union.

France was also shocked when Turkey opposed Anders Fogh Rasmussen’s appointment as NATO secretary general as a result of his Danish government’s support for free expression in the row over cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed.

French economic ties with Turkey have been hit by the tension, according to Billion, with several companies including Gaz de France finding themselves excluded from major deals such as the Nabucco gas pipeline project.

culture – diplomacy – EU – France – Turkey