.The French government has passed a radical affirmative action plan that will force publicly-listed companies to hire more women in their boardrooms.
At the moment women hold fewer than 10 per cent of boardroom seats in publicly-listed companies, but the new laws will see that figure rise to 40 per cent.
Women hold a certain place in French society - they are famed writers, musicians and supermodels.
Avivah Wittenberg Cox, the CEO of 20-first, one of Europe’s leading gender consultancies, has welcomed the new legislation.
Men adore them in the bedroom, but not, it seems, in the boardroom.
“What we’ve had until now, I would suggest, is actually a pretty established millennium of affirmative action in favour of masculine leadership styles, networks and norms.
“I think this is the beginning of what we might actually consider true meritocracy,” she said. . It too recently introduced a similar, though voluntary, scheme.”
In Spain, women fill just 4 per cent of board seats.
According to the Norwegian government, the quota is not simply a strike for equality - it makes sound economic sense in a country that has weathered the economic storm better than most.
In 2003 Norway became the first country to pass a law requiring boards to have at least 40 per cent of seats occupied by women.
“From my perspective, in a country where 50 per cent of the population is women, where they have had 50 per cent of the students in higher education for decades, there was no reason to keep them out of the boards,” he said.
The minister of trade and industry in the Norwegian government at the time, Ansgar Gabrielsen, says the quota system ensures women are no longer disadvantaged.
“What is the reason that only 6 per cent of the members of the board are women? I have been in the business world, so I know how it works, how they elect people to the boards and how they elect friends, how they elect people from the same schools, from the same hunting or fishing club or golf club or whatever, there was no reason to go on with that.
“What is the reason that only 6 per cent of the members of the board are women? I have been in the business world, so I know how it works, how they elect people to the boards and how they elect friends, how they elect people from the same schools, from the same hunting or fishing club or golf club or whatever, there was no reason to go on with that.”
. It will change all over the world, I’m sure
.Stade Francais prop David Attoub has been hit with a mammoth 70-week ban from rugby union for gouging after what the disciplinary chief who imposed the penalty labelled “the worst act of contact with the eyes that I have had to deal with”.
The ban, which has been backdated to start on December 18, means, as things stand, Attoub cannot play rugby again until April 22, 2011 ruling him out of the remainder of the current European season and most of next term’s campaign.
Attoub, 28, was cited for gouging Ulster lock Stephen Ferris during a stormy European Cup clash on December 12 in Belfast that the Irish province won 23-13.
It is the second-most severe suspension to have been handed out for a gouging offence in the professional era, exceeded only by the two-year ban handed to Richard Nones, a prop with French club Colomiers, in 1999.
Judge Jeff Blackett, the disciplinary supremo at England’s Rugby Football Union (RFU), who heard Attoub’s case said it was the IRB directive and the player’s previous history of gouging, which included a suspension for contact with the eye/eye area in a European match in the 2004/05 season, that saw him impose a penalty which has the potential to end the forward’s career.
Eye gouging is regarded as one of the worst acts of foul play in the 15-man game and the International Rugby Board (IRB), the sport’s global governing body, have instructed disciplinary authorities to come down hard on those found guilty of the offence.
In a statement issued on Tuesday, Blackett said: “This is the worst act of contact with the eyes that I have had to deal with: it is a case of deliberate eye gouging”.
Blackett, who found Attoub guilty of the offence on Friday but only passed sentence when the disciplinary hearing reconvened on Monday, determined his action was “in the top-end in the level of seriousness for an offence of contact with the eye/eye area”.
But Blackett’s ruling made clear he accepted the images were genuine and he delivered a damning indictment of Attoub’s conduct.
The initial hearing on December 18 was adjourned until January 15 to allow for more evidence to be gathered after doubts were cast on the veracity of photographs which showed the incident. .
“When he was shown the incriminating photographs and asked to explain what he saw or what was happening he replied that he did not know,” Blackett said.”
The ban follows a 24-week ban given to Attoub’s team-mate and scrum-half Julien Dupuy who also gouged Ferris in the same match.
“It was this evasiveness which satisfied me that his account was less than truthful and that he knew that he had deliberately attacked the eyes of an opponent but was trying to evade responsibility.
-
.Lance Armstrong and Johan Bruyneel have defended their conduct within the Astana team during last year’s Tour de France after criticism from Alberto Contador.
Armstrong and Contador were team-mates at Astana last year, with Bruyneel their director.
Contador won his second Tour and Armstrong, the record seven-time champion, was third in his comeback year.
While Contador remains at Astana, Armstrong and Bruyneel are now at new American team RadioShack.
But there were clearly tensions within the team and Contador has since criticised Armstrong and Bruyneel, who have worked closely together for more than a decade.
“I’m a bit frustrated by the comments that he didn’t have any help.
“[Last year] was a clear example of a team working as a team, no matter whom they had to work for,” Bruyneel said on Saturday.
“That was absolutely not the case.
“The tension . …
“It was sometimes stressful, intense, but not close toly close to what has been written or said. was a lot less than everyone thinks,” he said.
“I just assumed from the start that the Tour de France is the hardest race in the world.
“I just assumed from the start that the Tour de France is the hardest race in the world.
“That’s why you have a head coach in sport, you don’t go off and make your own plan and do your own thing,” he said.”
Armstrong said the first person he listened to in the team during the Tour was Bruyneel, not Contador.
“Mentally he’s almost unbreakable - there were times in the Tour last summer that you saw that he had to be fractured mentally, because of things that were done in the race and the perception among the people, the fans and the peloton,” he said.
But the American has also praised Contador ahead of their head-to-head battle at this year’s Tour de France.”
- AAP
.
“He never [cracked], he was always very, very tough - he’s a strong-minded young man
.A major earthquake has hit impoverished Haiti, killing possibly thousands of people as it toppled the presidential palace and hillside shanties alike and left the Caribbean nation appealing for international help.
Following are some of the efforts by foreign governments and aid agencies to help:
- United States - The US military is sending a ground assessment team and one of its P3 aircraft has been doing aerial reconnaissance, a Pentagon spokesperson said. US Navy ships at bases along the East Coast have been told to be prepared to leave for Haiti and the US could also begin using C-130 aircraft to fly supplies to Haiti later on Wednesday.75 million) from its central emergency response fund and mobilising an emergency response team, expected to be on the ground shortly, to help coordinate aid efforts.
- United Nations - is immediately releasing $US10 million ($10.
UN World Food Program head Josette Sheeran said the agency was already flying in additional food that would provide more than 500,000 emergency meals. UN aid officials expect to issue an international appeal for funds and other assistance in the next few days, once needs have been assessed. The children’s agency UNICEF is dispatching two planes and a ship laden with tents, as well as food and other supplies designed for women and children.7 million) of fast-track funding for the international effort and could pledge more in coming days, a spokeswoman said.
- European Union - The EU’s executive European Commission approved three million euros ($4.
- Japan - has pledged $US5 million in aid a foreign ministry spokeswoman said.
Countries including Belgium, Sweden and Luxembourg had offered assistance via an EU emergency assistance coordination mechanism, with offers ranging from a water purification unit to tents.
- Netherlands - The Foreign Ministry said it would send an urban search and rescue team to Haiti, consisting of 60 people as well as sniffer dogs, to help find people hidden under the rubble.
- France - is sending two planes and a field hospital as well as rescue services, said Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner. It said the team is part of a coordinated international rescue action led by the UN. It said the team is part of a coordinated international rescue action led by the UN. A 20-person reconnaissance team is going to see what aid is needed, and two rescue helicopters could be sent.2 million) to help provide emergency shelter, medical services, food, relief items, water and sanitation services.
- Iceland - sent a search and rescue team of 37 specialists.
- Germany - is sending one million euros in immediate aid, said Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle.
- Inter-American Development Bank - The Inter-American Development Bank said it would provide $US200,000 in immediate aid.
- Britain - a four-person field assessment team is en route to Port-au-Prince to determine priorities for urgent assistance and Britain also sending a search and rescue team of 64 people with dogs and heavy rescue equipment.
- Aid agencies -
Many aid agencies were scrambling to provide help. The World Bank planned to send a team to help assess damage and plan a recovery.
- Telecoms Sans Frontieres, a humanitarian group that helps set up communications during disasters, deployed an emergency team from Managua to provide vital support in emergency telecommunications. .
-
.
-
.Eric Rohmer, a pioneer of French New Wave cinema, has died aged 89.
In a career spanning half a century, Rohmer made some 50 films, first gaining international acclaim for Ma Nuit Chez Maud (My Night At Maud’s) which was nominated for an Oscar for best screenplay in 1969.
Le Genou De Claire (Claire’s Knee) of 1970 won the San Sebastian Film Festival top honour, while L’Amour l’Apres-Midi (Love In The Afternoon) two years later secured Rohmer’s position as a master of the intense portrayal of the cerebral and the sensual.
Rohmer was born Jean-Marie Maurice Scherer in Nancy, eastern France, in 1920.
His work divided the film world - critics were quick to denounce his movies as desperately tedious, while his fans hailed him as an aesthete who laid bare the human soul.
He was later editor-in-chief of Cahiers Du Cinema - the bible of the New Wave movement, which shunned the constraints of classical cinema to create a more edgy, improvised style. .
Regarded by many as a conservative, Rohmer did not follow fashion.
“[He makes] films that deal with foibles and relationships of realistic if self-absorbed people.
“Rohmer’s films never contain any obvious attention-getting devices such as violence, unusual camera angles or even musical scores,” wrote biographer Terry Ballard.
Gene Hackman as a character in the 1975 film Night Moves says of Rohmer: “I saw one of his films once.”
His movies were not to all tastes.”
Rohmer made his first feature film, Le Signe Du Lion (The Sign Of Leo), in 1959. It was like watching paint dry.
He did not become famous for a further 10 years, but worked tirelessly during this period.
He did not become famous for a further 10 years, but worked tirelessly during this period.
“You can say that my work is closer to the novel - to a certain classic style of novel which the cinema is now taking over - than to other forms of entertainment, like the theatre.
“What I call a ‘conte moral’ is not a tale with a moral, but a story which deals less with what people do than with what is going on in their minds while they are doing it,” Rohmer wrote in 1971.
A man with a reputation for zealously guarding his privacy, Rohmer started his third series of films at the age of 70, naming them after the four seasons and beginning with Conte De Printemps (A Tale Of Springtime).”
In the 1980s, Rohmer began his second series of films under the banner Comedies And Proverbs which were supposed to be lighter in tone to the earlier “literary” movies.
Rohmer received a coveted Golden Lion for his life achievements at the Venice Film Festival in 2001.
In 1999, his Conte D’Automne (Autumn Tale) won him strong critical success at the age of 79.
-
.
His last movie as director, Les Amours D’Astree Et De Celadon (Romance Of Astree And Celadon), came out in 2007
.Eric Rohmer, a pioneer of French New Wave cinema, has died aged 89.
In a career spanning half a century, Rohmer made some 50 films, first gaining international acclaim for Ma Nuit Chez Maud (My Night At Maud’s) which was nominated for an Oscar for best screenplay in 1969.
Le Genou De Claire (Claire’s Knee) of 1970 won the San Sebastian Film Festival top honour, while L’Amour l’Apres-Midi (Love In The Afternoon) two years later secured Rohmer’s position as a master of the intense portrayal of the cerebral and the sensual.
Rohmer was born Jean-Marie Maurice Scherer in Nancy, eastern France, in 1920.
His work divided the film world - critics were quick to denounce his movies as desperately tedious, while his fans hailed him as an aesthete who laid bare the human soul.
He was later editor-in-chief of Cahiers Du Cinema - the bible of the New Wave movement, which shunned the constraints of classical cinema to create a more edgy, improvised style. .
Regarded by many as a conservative, Rohmer did not follow fashion.
“[He makes] films that deal with foibles and relationships of realistic if self-absorbed people.
“Rohmer’s films never contain any obvious attention-getting devices such as violence, unusual camera angles or even musical scores,” wrote biographer Terry Ballard.
Gene Hackman as a character in the 1975 film Night Moves says of Rohmer: “I saw one of his films once.”
His movies were not to all tastes.”
Rohmer made his first feature film, Le Signe Du Lion (The Sign Of Leo), in 1959. It was like watching paint dry.
He did not become famous for a further 10 years, but worked tirelessly during this period.
He did not become famous for a further 10 years, but worked tirelessly during this period.
“You can say that my work is closer to the novel - to a certain classic style of novel which the cinema is now taking over - than to other forms of entertainment, like the theatre.
“What I call a ‘conte moral’ is not a tale with a moral, but a story which deals less with what people do than with what is going on in their minds while they are doing it,” Rohmer wrote in 1971.
A man with a reputation for zealously guarding his privacy, Rohmer started his third series of films at the age of 70, naming them after the four seasons and beginning with Conte De Printemps (A Tale Of Springtime).”
In the 1980s, Rohmer began his second series of films under the banner Comedies And Proverbs which were supposed to be lighter in tone to the earlier “literary” movies.
Rohmer received a coveted Golden Lion for his life achievements at the Venice Film Festival in 2001.
In 1999, his Conte D’Automne (Autumn Tale) won him strong critical success at the age of 79.
-
.
His last movie as director, Les Amours D’Astree Et De Celadon (Romance Of Astree And Celadon), came out in 2007
.Muslim women who wear the full Islamic veil in France will face a possible 750 euro ($1,170) fine, according to a draft bill unveiled by the leader of the parliamentary majority.
Jean-Francois Cope, who heads the governing UMP party in the National Assembly, told Le Figaro newspaper’s weekly magazine that men who force their wives to wear the burqa or niqab could face an even heavier fine.
“The law will address an issue of security,” Mr Cope said in an interview with the magazine.”
The draft legislation will be presented in the next two weeks and should come up for debate in parliament after the March regional elections, he said.
“The proposed measure would prohibit the covering of the face in public places and on the streets, with the exception of special cultural events or carnivals.
“We can measure the modernity of a society by the way it treats and respects women,” he said.
The majority leader, who is also openly campaigning to succeed President Nicolas Sarkozy as the right-wing candidate for the presidency in 2017, said the burqa must be banned to defend women’s rights. .
Many politicians from the left and right have cautioned that a draconian law banning the head-to-toe veil would be difficult to enforce and probably face a challenge in the European rights court.
The burqa debate has heated up ahead of the release at the end of the month of a much-awaited report by a parliamentary panel that has conducted six months of hearings on the issue.
Critics argue that a specific law enacted to ban the full veil would be tantamount to using a sledgehammer to swat a fly.
Mr Sarkozy himself has said that the burqa is not welcome in France but has not stated publicly whether legislation should be enacted.
In the interview, Mr Cope argued that a law would act as a deterrent by sending a “clear message” that France will not allow women to fully cover themselves. Only 1,900 women wear the full veil in France, according to the interior ministry.
-
.A cattle disease that has been a curse for millennia is likely to be declared eradicated next year thanks to a global vaccination campaign, the world’s paramount veterinary agency said on Thursday. .
“We are very close to wiping out rinderpest around the world,” the OIE’s director-general, Bernard Vallat, said, comparing the achievement in veterinary terms to the eradication of smallpox among humans.
But an arduous effort to vaccinate animals against the virus that causes the disease is bearing fruit, the head of the World Organisation for Animal Health, known by its French acronym of OIE, said in Paris. It has been around since the dawn of time,” Mr Vallat said.
“This disease has been a historic curse for humanity.
Assessments are underway for these remaining countries, of which Somalia is the most problematic, but hopes are high that the OIE will be able to declare the disease eradicated at a meeting in 2011, he said.
In 2000, close toly half of the OIE’s rollcall of 175 countries still had rinderpest, a tally that has fallen in 2010 to 17.
“Two or three” high-security reference laboratories are being considered, he said.
Vallat said a key question was where virus samples would be stored, to be used for research purposes and as a source for vaccines if the disease ever rebounded.
“Hopefully, it won’t be the same for rinderpest,” said Mr Vallat.
Samples of smallpox virus continue to be held in US and Russian labs, raising fears in some quarters that they could be stolen or used to make a bioterror weapon.
Sheep and goats are susceptible to the virus but are much less affected by it compared to cattle.
The pathogen that causes rinderpest is a member of the paramyxoviridae family of virus. There is no risk for humans.
The symptoms among animals are fever, diarrhoea and dehydration, often leading to death within 10 to 15 days.
-
.Eurostar cancelled four trains on Wednesday due to bad weather and expects more problems just three weeks after powdery snow turned its rail link between Britain and France into a pre-Christmas undersea travel trap.
Snowstorms sweeping across southern England and northern France brought road and rail chaos, with Eurostar warning travellers of the same problems that left thousands stranded in the Channel Tunnel last month.
Management decided on Tuesday night to cancel two trains linking Paris and London and two between London and Brussels, a spokeswoman said, adding that snow prevented many passengers reaching the stations.
“Due to bad weather, certain services could be delayed or cancelled at the last minute,” Eurostar said in a statement.
A similar big chill gripped northern France in December and brought Eurostar trains to a three-day standstill, with the first breakdown leaving passengers stuck on the trains overnight for up to 16 hours.
Travellers were encouraged to swap their Wednesday bookings for another date.
It reported that the failure was caused as trains moved from cold air outside into the warmer tunnel.
Eurostar, operated by French rail company SNCF, its Belgian counterpart SNCB and British government-owned LCR, then said it was modifying its fleet to cope with powdery snow.
France’s government has said it doubted cold was the sole reason and ordered an investigation. .
-
.Former Renault boss Flavio Briatore had his life ban from Formula One overturned overnight when a French court ruled that the punishment was illegally imposed by the sport’s governing body.
The flamboyant Italian was banned in September by the International Automobile Federation (FIA) for a plot to rig the outcome of the 2008 Singapore Grand Prix by staging a deliberate crash.
“The court ruled the sanction was illegal,” said a judge at the Tribunal de Grande Instance.58 million) as well as demanding the sentence be lifted, was awarded 15,000 euros in compensation.
Briatore, a multi-millionaire businessman who had also sought damages of 1 million euros ($1.
He did not know whether Briatore, who did not attend the hearing, would try to come back to the sport where he won championships with both Benetton and Renault in a career spanning more than two decades.
“It is almost exactly what we had asked for, this is obviously an exceptional outcome for Mr Briatore,” his lawyer Philippe Ouakrat told reporters.
“Mr Briatore wanted to be free to do what he wants and he did not want to be imposed an outrageous sanction taken in his absence and without being able to defend himself,” said Ouakrat. He declined to make any further comment.
FIA appeal
The FIA’s lawyer Jean-Francois Prat told the FIA would “very likely” appeal the decision.
He said he had done so to bring out the safety car and help his Spanish team-mate Fernando Alonso, the double world champion who has now joined Ferrari, win the race.
Brazilian driver Nelson Piquet triggered one of Formula One’s biggest scandals when he was dropped by Renault in July and then told the FIA that he had been ordered to crash deliberately at the 2008 Singapore Grand Prix.
Former champions Renault were handed a suspended permanent ban while engineering head Pat Symonds, who left the team at the same time as Briatore, was banned for five years. Alonso has been cleared of any knowledge of the plan.
The court overturned Symonds’s sentence and awarded the Briton 5,000 euros in compensation. .
-