Two a penny

.Former French midfielder Zinedine Zidane is glad he was sent-off for his head-butt in the 2006 World Cup final because he has not had to live with regret over escaping punishment.
Zidane received a red card for head-butting Italy defender Marco Materazzi in the 2006 final, the last match of his career, which Italy won 5-3 on penalties after a 1-1 draw.
“It [the sending off] was a very good thing,” the former Real Madrid and Juventus playmaker told France Football magazine. I don’t know how I could have lived with it had France become world champions and I had stayed on the pitch.
“It’s good that [Italian keeper Gianluigi] Buffon signalled what I had done to the referee because it was not pretty.
“Many people outside football got involved, people who love you when you lift trophies and let you down when things go wrong.”
Zidane, who helped France lift the World Cup in 1998, thought there had been an over-reaction to Thierry Henry’s handball that led to France beating Ireland in November and securing a 2010 World Cup place. .”
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.Former French president Jacques Chirac has been placed under formal investigation for misuse of public funds while he was mayor of Paris.
There are now two judicial cases hanging over Mr Chirac.
The first and larger of these cases will go to trial next year.
Both concern his long period as mayor of Paris from 1977 to 1995 and both centre on claims he paid senior members of his political party the RPR with funds that belonged to city hall. That means a trial in this case is more likely.
Now Mr Chirac has been told he is under formal investigation in the second. .
Mr Chirac has long protested his innocence in both affairs and he says he will be happy to explain his side of the story before a judge

.A man jailed in France for plotting to bomb an Australian nuclear power reactor could come up for early release next year, his lawyer said.
Convicted in 2007, Willie Brigitte received a nine-year jail sentence, of which six years was a fixed term. . With three years served before his conviction, the fixed part expires in November 2010.
Mr Durimel said that for early release, Brigitte would have to have a record of good behaviour and a guarantee of work in France, where he would have to remain for a probationary period.
But he stressed that “nothing was decided”, playing down Australian media reports that Brigitte, 41, could be freed next year for good behaviour.
Brigitte, a Muslim convert from the French Caribbean island of Guadeloupe, was jailed in France for plotting to blow up a nuclear power plant in Australia and other possible targets.
During his jail term so far, “to my knowledge he has had no disciplinary incidents, so he is behaving quite correctly”, the lawyer said.
Mr Durimel argued at the time that there was a lack of proof to convict Brigitte, who was jailed on charges of “criminal conspiracy in relation with a terrorist enterprise”.
He was accused of setting up a terrorist cell in Australia on the orders of a Pakistani extremist group.
This catch-all offence, used in almost all terrorism cases in France, gives judges wide-ranging powers of arrest and detention without the need to prove that an attack was imminent.
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.Hopes for a new global climate pact have risen after rich nations at the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) in Trinidad and Tobago offered to help poorer countries bear the costs of implementing any deal.
Commonwealth countries are home to two billion people, or a third of the planet’s population - including major global players like Britain and India, and smaller island states like Nauru and the Maldives.
The United Nations secretary-general Ban Ki-moon, French President Nicolas Sarkozy and Danish Prime Minister Loekke Rasmussen joined 53 Commonwealth leaders to work on the issue of climate change ahead of next month’s conference in Copenhagen.
He and Danish Prime Minister Lars Loekke Rasmussen praised a move by Britain and France to launch a multi-billion-dollar fund for developing nations.
“Success in Copenhagen is in sight,” UN chief Ban Ki-moon told the summit.
But he stressed the deal to be hammered out by some 87 leaders including US President Barack Obama must include “commitments, numbers and precise language”.
Mr Rasmussen said it was now “realistic” to expect Copenhagen to result in the framework for a treaty to succeed the Kyoto Protocol which expires in 2012.
Mr Ban, who has led the push towards Copenhagen, agreed it must not become just another talking shop, saying, “We will come out with a very concrete foundation for a legally binding treaty.
“The Commonwealth can be proud of the fact that in each of its six decades it has shaped the international response to emerging global challenges,” she told the gathered leaders.”
The need to address a changing climate was a point reinforced by Queen Elizabeth at this morning’s opening ceremony. .
“And on this, the eve of the UN Copenhagen summit on climate change, the Commonwealth has an opportunity to lead once more.
- Canada singled out -
Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper faced growing international pressure to take action, with some activists even calling for Canada to be suspended from the Commonwealth.
“The threat to our environment is not a new concern but it is now a global challenge which will continue to affect the security and stability of millions for years to come,” she said.
Mr Ban singled out Canada at the Commonwealth summit, saying Ottawa should act as soon as possible to create an ambitious target to cut greenhouse gas emissions.
Mr Ban singled out Canada at the Commonwealth summit, saying Ottawa should act as soon as possible to create an ambitious target to cut greenhouse gas emissions.
Mr Harper has now reversed his earlier position and says he will attend the climate talks in Copenhagen.
The International Energy Agency ranks Canada alongside Australia in the world’s top 5 per cent of polluters, per capita, yet Ottawa still has no policy to combat climate change.
The two European leaders proposed to compensate developing countries for the economic disadvantages they would face in cutting carbon emissions.
- Momentum builds -
Much of the new momentum for a climate deal stemmed from a joint overture by British Prime Minister Gordon Brown and Mr Sarkozy.
For the first time, India’s Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said he was willing to commit his country to ambitious global carbon emission cuts, provided others shared the burden.
“Poorer countries must have an understanding that the richer countries will help them adapt to climate change and make the necessary adjustments in their economies,” Mr Brown said on his website.
“Australia is of the view that such a fast-start fund can assist in bringing about a good outcome at Copenhagen, but most critically, assist those most vulnerable states dealing with adaptation challenges now,” he said.
Prime Minister Kevin Rudd also welcomed what he called “a fast-start fund”.
Reporting by Hayden Cooper in Trinidad and Tobago, Dan Karpenchuk in Toronto and wires

.After 94 years of research and historical writing, you might expect that we would know everything there is to know about the Gallipoli landings.
But the State Library of New South Wales has just proven that there is more to learn, especially on a personal level.
He describes his predicament as hell on earth but he also takes time to poke some fun and get in strife.
The library took possession of a digger’s diary, largely penned in the trenches by a young soldier from Sydney called Charles Hardy. If killed, please inform my sister, Mrs M Lawson, Newtown, Sydney,” an excerpt from the diary reads.
- ‘No toy soldier’ -
Private Charles Hardy it seems was a character, one with a gift for telling it like it was:
“Landed at Anzac 21st of August 1915 at rear of firing line. No more a toy soldier.
“Ammunition was issued today. Corporal Wilson got his head blown off. 18th Battalion got cut up.
Keeping diaries was forbidden but he did it anyway in a pocket-sized book, mostly written at Anzac Cove.”
The 21-year-old blacksmith served with the 19th Battalion in France, Egypt and Gallipoli. I waited for about 10 minutes before I fired at an old Turk to make sure of him.
“November 16. I sneaked out at night time and cut one of his Turkish buttons off,” another excerpt reads. I took deliberate aim and then bang! Over he went and never moved on.
The library’s manuscript curator, Tracy Bradford, says it is the personal, uncensored nature of the diary that makes it so valuable.
- Uncensored memories -
The 90-page tome was in private hands for decades but was just bought by the State Library of New South Wales for $5,000.
Charles Hardy was not an angel.
“His diary is very matter of fact, it’s very poignant in places, it gives a real honest view of what life was like,” Ms Bradford said.
In his diary he teaches himself French and Greek and enjoys observing the foreigners around him:
“The French troops are very funny. He describes spending three days in the clink as he calls it, for going AWOL in Cairo. I don’t care for it. They don’t get any jam so they come up and say ‘jam Johnnie jam’.
“Visited the Indian camp.
“Visited the Indian camp. Had some chap patty and curry. They think terrible lot of the Australian soldiers.
“Greeks are kicking up the devil because they are going to war soon. I think they talk too much.”
“I think that really speaks to people because it’s the unofficial history, it’s not glossed over, it’s sort of bureau speak, it’s very, very personal,” Tracy Bradford said.
“The Turks are very cheeky. We threw them some bully beef and they returned it full of slops. .
“Shooting Turks is fun to the boys but it’s death and sorrow on the Turks’ side today. In all, thousands of them killed.”
- War-inspired wordsmith -
Amid the horror, Charles Hardy tried some poetry:
“A flash and the sudden whistle of a cordite-driven ball. A sob in the clinging darkness and Private’s dead, that’s all.”
The burden of war can be felt growing heavier as the diary goes on:
“May 15. Hell on earth. My nerves are shattered. Just about dead with thirst and hunger, my God I will never forget the flies and the sand.
“November 20: I’m 22 years old and have never had such a miserable birthday. It’s terrible cold and windy. I’d sooner sell peanuts than be a soldier again.
“August 16: Went and looked at Graveyard at Lemnos Island. Was surprised to see so many poor chaps buried without any names. Nobody knows who they are. Mostly all Australians.”
Somehow Charles Hardy avoided that fate. He was injured in France and discharged.
He returned to Sydney where he married.
Government records show he was still alive in the late 60s, but little else is known.

.President Nicolas Sarkozy awarded US actor and director Clint Eastwood one of France’s top honours, hailing him as a cinema legend and a symbol of the type of America that the French adored.
It is unusual for a foreigner to be elevated to the rank of commander of the French Legion of Honour but Eastwood, who went from playing tough guy roles like Dirty Harry to directing highly praised films, said he saw France as his second home.
“My wife chastised me saying if that was true, why don’t I speak French,” he told friends and officials gathered at the Elysee Palace for the ceremony, promising to take lessons.
“As a commander of the arts and letters, I think I will go out on the streets of France today and throw my weight around,” said Eastwood, 79, who recently finished making supernatural thriller Hereafter in France. .
“When one loves the cinema of a people, one loves the people,” the president said.
Mr Sarkozy said French admiration for US cinema helped transcend any problems the two countries might have had in the past - a veiled reference to France’s fierce opposition to the US-led invasion of Iraq in 2003.
He called Eastwood - whose line “Come on, make my day” from Dirty Harry became a global catchphrase - “a myth, a giant, an example of the admiration we have for American culture”.
“You, you have never let us down,” he added.
He added that problems between the two countries had only arisen “when America was not as big as we would have liked in our dreams”.
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.Rafael Nadal has silenced a partisan crowd by knocking out local favourite and Paris Masters title holder Jo-Wilfried Tsonga 7-5, 7-5 with an impressive performance to reach the semi-finals.
World number two Nadal, who has won the French Open on the other side of town four times but never this event at the Bercy hall, will meet Novak Djokovic for a place in Sunday’s final.
Gael Monfils, seeded 15th, later made sure there would be a French presence in the last four by recovering from a set down to oust 12th seed Marin Cilic of Croatia with a 3-6, 6-4, 6-4 win.
The Serbian world number three earlier ruined Robin Soderling’s hopes of making the World Tour Finals in London by beating the Swede 6-4, 1-6, 6-3.
Czech Stepanek, the 13th seed, qualified the easy way when US Open champion Juan Martin del Potro, who was hampered by an abdominal strain and was trailing 4-0, retired.
The gifted but erratic Monfils worried his fans at first with clumsy errors, but then stepped up a gear and thrilled a raucous 14,000 crowd with astonishing winners to set up a semi-final against Radek Stepanek.
Spaniard Nadal, who still has an outside chance of finishing the year as number one, had the crowd against him and faced a strong challenge from the powerful Tsonga, who loves fast indoor courts.
Argentine Del Potro, the world number five who had survived seven match points before Chilean Fernando Gonzalez retired in their third-round match, clearly struggled to move around the court before quitting.
“I played a lot better today,” said Nadal, who struggled in his previous two matches, saving five match points in the first. But he showed more composure when it mattered. This is positive and gives me a lot of confidence.
“I was really focused all the time and played well at important moments.
The energetic Spaniard underlined his determination by winning his last game to love and finishing with a service winner, putting Tsonga out of the race for the Nov.”
Nadal made very few unforced errors and seized his chances, managing breaks with perfect timing in the 11th game of each set.
World number 10 Soderling’s defeat by Djokovic means the French Open runner-up, like Tsonga, will not go to London and Spaniard Fernando Verdasco grabs the last ticket to the finals. 22-29 season finale featuring the world’s top eight players.
“It looked tense because physically I didn’t really feel 100 per cent there,” Djokovic said.
Djokovic, who beat world number one Roger Federer in the Basel final last week, looked tired at times, notably in the second set, which Soderling took in just 28 minutes.”
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.Kangaroos stalwart Petero Civoniceva admits the Australian pack needs to step up if it is to walk away with the silverware from the Four Nations final on November 14.
While the Kangaroos still need to beat winless France in Paris this weekend to confirm a spot in the Elland Road decider, Civoniceva says the tournament favourites have failed to impose themselves up front against either New Zealand or England.
New Zealand intimidated the Australian forwards with some brutal defence in their drawn tournament opener, while the Kangaroos struggled to contain the much bigger English pack when they started to get a bit of ball in the second half of Saturday’s 26-16 win in Wigan.
Those two sides will battle it out on Saturday for the other final berth.
“They had all the momentum and probably if the game went a little bit longer it could have got a bit scary.
“Those latter stages it started to get a bit hairy, but full credit to the boys for hanging in,” he said of the England game, when the hosts came back from 26-0 down at half-time.
“To a man we all knew we probably let ourselves down with what happened against the Kiwis. .”
The match was only the second Civoniceva has played since late June after damaging his toe in Queensland’s Origin II win in Sydney.
“We weren’t too far off the mark, but physically they certainly set the standard and we had to come out and match England up front where they’re very strong.
The France game would normally be one where the elder statesman of the Kangaroos pack would be expected to get the night off.
The 33-year-old admitted to struggling with his fitness late in the game, a factor which will probably see him get another run against France in Toulouse before the final.
“I’ll definitely put my hand up [to play against France] - if the results were a bit more dominant I might have got a rest,” he said.
But the need for match fitness is likely to be the deciding factor - plus the fact the 38-Test veteran needs to play to be able to break Johnny Raper’s record for most appearances in the green and gold by a forward.
“We were on the back foot, we were defending back to back sets but overall I was pretty happy.
“I probably hit the wall a little bit [against England].”
- AAP

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National and ACT have struck a deal over ACC reform that will see the Government investigate opening the work account to competition.

A press conference was expected at about 4pm to release details of the deal which clears the way for ACC Minister Nick Smith to introduce his stalled Bill to increase levies and reduce some entitlements.

“I am pleased the Government has secured support for this critical legislation from both the Maori Party and from ACT that will see ACC’s proposed levies reduced by half,” Dr Smith said.

ACC Minister Nick Smith confirmed the ACC Reform Bill will now be introduced next week.

“Today the National and ACT Parties reached an agreement that will ensure the Injury Prevention, Rehabilitation, and Compensation Amendment Bill will be passed through all stages,” Dr Smith said.

The Maori Party earlier this week said it would support the Bill as far as a select committee hearing.

“I think it’s clear that both ACT and National have made up their minds that they think parts of ACC should be privatised, notwithstanding the fact that its cheaper than Australian equivalents and notwithstanding it’s the best compensation system in the world,” Labour’s ACC spokesman David Parker said.

Labour said the deal was inevitable but was not good for taxpayers.”

The account was opened to competition between 1998 and 2000 until a Labour government re-nationalised it.

“In the end New Zealanders will end up paying more themselves to fund the profit margins of private insurers and getting less cover..

“We’ve been through this before and it ended in a muddle - people didn’t know who was covering them . the private insurers were a lot tougher when it came to people getting treatment and long term costs were projected to go up..

“People should have a choice of insurance provider for work-related accidents in the same way that they have a choice for their home and car insurance,” Mr Hide said.”

However, ACT Leader Rodney Hide said greater competition would provide more choice, quality of service and reduce costs. .

Dr Smith said National intended to work with ACT to open the ACC work account to competition subject only to the Government receiving a report from the steering group currently considering the stocktake of ACC accounts.”

The group will provide an interim report on the competition issue no later than 1 February 2010.

The ACC Stocktake Group will also explore other areas in which the private and non-government sectors (including Iwi) can be involved in accident management and compensation.

.The only surviving Union Jack from the Battle of Trafalgar has sold at auction in London for close toly $700,000 after being found tucked away in a drawer in a Sydney home.
The battle-scarred flag, which was flown from the mast of HMS Spartiate during the battle, was given to Lieutenant James Clephan by his crew mates 204 years ago as a reward for his bravery during the fighting.
Lieutenant Clephan’s relatives moved to Australia in the 1960s and the flag was tucked away in the bottom drawer of a home in Castle Hill, Sydney for safe-keeping.
The 1805 naval engagement pitted the British fleet under Lord Nelson against the combined French and Spanish fleets, and the ensuing British victory was seen as a turning point in the Napoleonic Wars.
During a fierce bidding war the price climbed more than 30 times the original estimate, setting a new world record for a British flag.
Overnight a London auction house was stunned when the flag sold for a world record of 384,000 pounds ($687,774). .
The buyer is an American collector who wants to remain anonymous.
“So this is a passion I’ve had for history and many of these artefacts people often do not keep the story and the history together.
“I’m a collector and I’ve been collecting flags for over four decades, and I work on keeping the story and the relic together,” he said.
“In the United States it would have a nice home and if we’re not able to work something out with the British government, we of course will give it a good home in the US.
“We understand the concern people may have in the United Kingdom about the flag going to America, but we’re working on a plan to work with the British government to accommodate that concern.”
The buyer says he finds the story of Lieutenant Clephan “intriguing”, which is what attracted him to the flag. I’m sure it will be on view in the US for people to see.
“We’re familiar with the history of the lieutenant who was given the flag at the time right after the battle.
“It’s one of the most historical flags, certainly in the Western world, that’s well documented from a historical event,” he said.”

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“This is a man who worked himself up through the ranks of the British Navy and became one of only 16 captains to do that in the history of the Royal Navy