Two a penny

.The 16 nations of the Eurozone have officially grown their economies by 0.4 of a per cent, meaning the zone is officially out of recession.
The new figure means that on average Eurozone countries have emerged from recession faster than earlier predicted, but the powerhouse nations of Germany and France have recorded a recovery below expectations.7 per cent and France just 0.
The German economy grew by 0.
The Spanish economy is trailing and is still in recession.2 per cent.
Though not in the Eurozone, Britain too is lagging behind other European countries and is still in recession after recording six consecutive quarters of negative growth. .
It is Britain’s worst result since quarterly figures were first gathered in 1955

.French anthropologist Claude Levi-Strauss, who helped shape Western thinking about human civilisation, has died at the age of 100.
Levi-Strauss died on Friday and was buried at a private service in the Burgundy village of Lignerolles, where he had a house, senior colleagues said.
“Two years ago he broke his hip and he had been very tired ever since.
Trained as a philosopher, Levi-Strauss shot to prominence with his 1955 book Tristes Tropiques (A World on the Wane), a haunting account of travels and studies in the Amazon basin and one of the 20th century’s major works. He died at a grand old age,” said Philippe Desacola, his successor as head of the social anthropology laboratory at the College of France research institute.
The French leader described him as a “very great scholar, always open to the world, who created modern anthropology and raised the reputation of French human and social sciences to its highest level.
Paying tribute, French President Nicolas Sarkozy gave “homage to a tireless humanist, a curious academic who was always in search of new knowledge, to a man free of any sectarianism or indoctrination”.”
Levi-Strauss was a leading proponent of structuralism, which sought to uncover the hidden, unconscious or primitive patterns of thought believed to determine the outer reality of human culture and relationships.
French academia and the cultural elite marked his 100th birthday last year, paying homage to Levi-Strauss with a program of films, lectures and reflection on his contribution to modern thinking.
Structuralism was also, Levi-Strauss liked to say, “the search for unsuspected harmonies”.
He was the oldest member of France’s prestigious Academie of leading intellectuals, a respected but retiring figure, who had said he no longer felt at home on an overpopulated planet.
Among the more striking conclusions of his work was the idea that there is no fundamental difference between the belief systems and myths of so-called “primitive” races and those of modern Western societies.
“What I see are the current devastation, the frightening disappearances of living species, be they plants or animals.
– No longer at home –
In a 2005 television interview, Levi-Strauss expressed worry about ending his days in “this world that I do not love”. Because of its current density, the human species is living in a type of internally poisonous regime. Because of its current density, the human species is living in a type of internally poisonous regime.
He studied the lives of the tribes of the Mato Grosso and the Amazonian rainforest, collecting material for theories on the underlying structures of human relationships and myths shared by various cultures. He studied philosophy and in 1935 went to Brazil, where he became a professor at the University of Sao Paolo.
He was given the chair in social anthropology at the College de France in 1959, where he worked until retirement in 1982.
Returning to France in 1939 he was conscripted, but after the Nazi invasion he was, as a Jew, forced to flee to the United States, where he taught while awaiting his chance to return home and restart his career.
“He had an ecological approach to the world and to individuals that was ahead of its time.
“Straddling the worlds of philosophy and science, his work is essential for any attempt to reflect on our society and how it works,” said Denis Bertholet, one of Levi-Strauss’ biographers.
–

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.There is fresh evidence about the potential cause of an Air France Airbus crash which killed all 228 people on board when it plunged into the Atlantic while flying from Rio de Janeiro to Paris.
The Airbus A330 disappeared on June 1, when it flew into a notoriously stormy area of the South Atlantic.
One of the biggest problems for investigators has been their failure to find the all important black box flight data and voice recorder.
But before the plane crashed it did send a routine maintenance message back to France.
It stopped transmitting a location signal a few days after the plane crashed and is now on the bottom of the ocean, probably four kilometres down.
They read the outside air pressure and convert it to measure the all important speed of the plane.
The message indicated a failure of the aircraft’s air speed indicators, known as pitots. .
As it headed into the stormy area, known as the inter-tropical convergence zone, it is possible the radar which is designed to pick up water droplets was blinded.
The kind of pitots used on Air France flight 447 were known to have problems icing up, particularly at the super cold high altitudes where modern jets like the Airbus fly to save fuel.
He said the Airbus had weather radar which picked up a lot of information.
Airbus vice-president of the flight test division, Fernando Alonso, admitted to Foreign Correspondent that the Airbus onboard radar could not “see” ice particles.”
If the plane did fly into an ice storm, blocking the pitots and giving a false air speed indication, it is possible the Airbus stalled.
But when asked if it was correct to say that the ice could not be detected as easily by the radar as rain, he said: “I believe that the ice could not be detected.
According to Air France pilots, the pilot would have had to wrestle not just with the plane, but contradictory advice on how to deal with a stall warning from the aircraft.
According to Air France pilots, the pilot would have had to wrestle not just with the plane, but contradictory advice on how to deal with a stall warning from the aircraft.

Watch Foreign Correspondent tonight at 8:00pm (AEDT) on ABC 1.”
Shortly after the crash the pilots threatened to strike if Air France did not change the pitots and they did, the next day.

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Butcher Leon Russell thinks the brazen thief who pinched a Breast Cancer Foundation collection box from his Lower Hutt shop is “bloody low”.

Security footage from the Mad Butcher in-store camera shows a man sliding the distinctive pink box off the counter into a supermarket trolley and walking out.

“It’s pretty disappointing, bloody low to steal from a charity,” Mr Russell said. . “It probably had about $100 in it already.

The incident, which happened about 2pm on Wednesday, has been reported to police.

He had paid for some meat, then moved to the other cash register, which was unattended, and waited until the shop assistant was busy with another customer before stealing the box.

Suzanne McNicol of the Breast Cancer Foundation said it was the first time to her knowledge that a collection box had been stolen.

.French authorities have arrested an engineer working at an international nuclear research laboratory on suspicion of having links with the Al Qaeda militant network.
Officials connected with the case say the Algerian man worked at the CERN nuclear laboratory on the border with Switzerland.
Police arrested the man and his brother after following internet exchanges between the two and other people believed to have links to extremist groups.
It is believed the older man was planning attacks in France.
Computers, USB drives and hard drives were removed from the brothers’ home.
– BBC

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.World powers have adopted a landmark resolution seeking to rid the planet of nuclear weapons.
The resolution was adopted unanimously at a rare United Nations Security Council meeting of presidents and prime ministers, the first to be chaired by a US president.
The 15 members have agreed to renew long-stalled efforts to curb nuclear weapons.
It comes as Iran’s suspected nuclear weapons program has once again been thrust into the spotlight.
US President Barack Obama is also calling on world powers to enforce Security Council resolutions on Iran and North Korea. . It is about standing up for the rights of all nations who do live up to their responsibilities,” Mr Obama said.
“This is not about singling out individual nations.”
The resolution does not contain any new sanctions against Iran or North Korea, but British Prime Minister Gordon Brown certainly supports them.
“The world must stand together and we must demonstrate that international law is not an empty promise and that treaties will be reinforced.
“And as evidence of its breach of international agreements grows, we must now consider far tougher sanctions together.
“Iran must not allow its actions to prevent the international community from moving forward to a more peaceful era,” Mr Brown said.
“They pay no attention whatsoever to what the international community has to say.”
But French President Nicolas Sarkozy has pointed out that Iran has flouted five Security Council resolutions, while North Korea has been defying Security Council decisions since 1993.
“Now, how can we accept this? What conclusions are we to draw?”
Russian President Dmitry Medvedev has told the Security Council that a major security threat is the danger of terrorists getting nuclear components. Better yet, they continue to test their ballistic missiles,” Mr Sarkozy said.
Mr Obama says he harbours no illusions about the difficulty of bringing about a world without nuclear weapons.
Chinese President Hu Jintao, meanwhile, says the countries with the largest nuclear arsenals – the US and Russia – have to make drastic reductions in their nuclear weapons.
“But there will also be days like today that push us forward.
“We know there are plenty of cynics and that there will be setbacks to prove their point,” Mr Obama said.

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The Security Council meeting comes just a week before the United State, Russia, China, Britain, France and Germany are due to have talks with Iran’s top nuclear negotiator

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Three New Zealand soldiers will be sent home for passing on a photo featuring a bomb plastered with an energy drink sticker and the words “dear Taleban, enjoy this”.

In the photograph the three soldiers are seen with what is thought to be a 2000-pound bomb of the type which can be fired from an F-16 fighter jet, and is used in airstrikes which have claimed civilian lives.

The photographs were sent to Demon Drinks, which runs competitions for consumers to send in humourous photos, and became widely distributed on email.

The bomb is plastered with the Demon energy drink’s “no limits, no laws” slogan. A subsequent investigation found two of the three soldiers guilty of an offence under the Armed Forces Discipline Act, and those soldiers were punished. .

“Irrespective of the investigation into whether the acts contravened military law, the NZDF sets and expects very high levels of professionalism and behaviour from its people – this is especially the case in an operational theatre where the protection of information is vital to the overall security of New Zealand interests and activities.

“The return home of these three personnel was a command decision,” said Commander Joint Forces NZ Air Vice Marshal Peter Stockwell.”

“Let me be very clear that this is not about a group of young soldiers just taking a photograph of themselves; soldiers have been doing this since the availability of cameras. On this occasion those standards have not been met and as a consequence these three soldiers will be returned to New Zealand at the earliest opportunity. These three are returning to New Zealand as a result of a series of actions and errors of judgment on their part that did not meet the standards we expect of our people.”

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The French school year has got off to a chaotic start, with schools closing in the Paris region, Alpes-Maritimes, Ari&egravege, Lot and Aude, due to students reporting symptoms of the A(H1N1) virus.

SNPDEN, the main union for secondary school heads in France, pushed for pedagogical continuity in classes closed as a result of the virus.

Officials are calling for calm.

France received its first batch of the newly developed influenza A vaccine on Thursday, Health Minister Roselyne Bachelot has reported. Marc Gentilini, Professor of Tropical and Infectious Disease at the Piti&eacute-Salp&ecirctri&egravere hospital, said, We’re going to end up with a country at a standstill – watch out we’re making too big of a deal out of it. It was the island third such death. .

The World Health Organization (WHO) said Friday that more than 2,800 people had died from the A(H1N1) virus worldwide.

France – INFLUENZA A (H1N1)
. The virus, which originated in the Americas, has been detected in nearly every country in the world

.French oil group Total has moved expatriate staff and their families from Gabon’s industry hub Port Gentil to the capital Libreville as a result of post-election violence.
Port Gentil has been hit by riots, looting and attacks on Total facilities and the French consulate since Ali Ben Bongo was declared the winner on Thursday (local time) of a presidential election denounced as fraudulent by opposition leaders.
Protesters burnt down a sports and social club owned by Total in Port Gentil overnight, a spokeswoman at the oil company’s offices in Paris said, adding that no one was injured in the fire. .
The radio station quoted Gabon’s interior minister Jean-Francois Ndongou as saying the dead were looters who were shot by a house owner.
French state radio station France Info reported two people had been killed during the night in the city, where looting broke out and protesters torched cars and buildings.
French state television showed images of French families with children disembarking from boats in Libreville.
“Some Total employees and their families have been transferred from Port Gentil to Libreville in a temporary move for their safety,” the Total spokeswoman in Paris said.
–

. One mother, who did not give her name, said she had wanted to leave Port Gentil because the situation there was frightening

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France’s ruling UMP party has decided to no longer call its annual summer gathering a school, but rather a campus, with the emphasis shifting to its supposedly more hip-sounding youth branch, the Jeunes Pop. As for the traditional round-table discussions, they give way to chats. At a time when President Nicolas Sarkozy seeks closer ties with nationalist and traditionalist parties, the UMP will also seek to cast itself as the party unity.

With these semantic peculiarities, France ruling party hopes to dissociate itself from the kind of old-school political lexicon it says is intrinsic to the opposition Socialist Party, which recently wrapped up its annual summer gathering in the city of La Rochelle .

No fewer than 33 UMP ministers will travel to the Landes region in a show of force intended to contrast with the Socialist opposition’s many internal divisions.

What happened in La Rochelle is a warning for us to continue on the path of reform, said Jean-Francois Cop&eacute, who heads the UMP group in the National Assembly. . A speech by Prime Minister Fran&ccedilois Fillon will cap the gathering on Sunday.
France’s ruling party will also be keen to showcase the latest high-profile defection from the left, Fr&eacuted&eacuteric Mitterrand, a nephew of former Socialist president Fran&ccedilois Mitterrand. The latter issue promises to give rise to the most heated debates, the parliamentary majority having already expressed its opposition to plan backed by President Sarkozy.

Bayrou promises ‘clarifications’

Livelier discussions are expected to take place in the south-eastern city of Grande-Motte, which is hosting the MoDem party summer meeting. Appointed minister for culture in Sarkozy’s recent cabinet reshuffle, Mitterrand is expected to address the crowd of Jeunes Pop.46% of the vote for what was meant to be France third-way party), and since the party vice-president Marielle de Sarnez sparked controversy by attending a meeting with senior members of the Socialist Party in August. The party leader and former presidential candidate, Fran&ccedilois Bayrou, will address supporters for the first time since the MoDem’s poor showing in European elections (a mere 8. Many of his supporters would be uncomfortable with the party leaning either to the left or to the right.

Bayrou has promised clarifications on the prickly subject of alliances. But after this meeting I think people will understand, at least that’s my goal, said the centrist leader. When you redraw the lines, you naturally raise questions, you change the frame of reference, people no longer recognise the landscape.

French politics – MoDem Party – UMP