Security meeting to focus on Iran

Controversy surrounding Iran's nuclear programme is expected to dominate a security conference in Munich.

The meeting of defence ministers and MPs is to be addressed by Iran's chief nuclear negotiator, Ali Larijani.

Mr Larijani said he believed Iran's dispute over its nuclear programme could be resolved through negotiations.

On Saturday Russian President Vladimir Putin told the meeting the United States exerted "almost uncontained" use of force around the world.

The United Nations has set a deadline later this month for Iran either to stop enriching uranium or face broader economic sanctions.

'No way around'

The conference, founded in 1962, has become an annual opportunity for world leaders to discuss the most pressing issues of the day.

Earlier, German chancellor Angela Merkel told delegates the international community was determined to stop Iran getting nuclear weapons.

There was "no way around" the need for Tehran to accept demands from the UN nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), she said.

"What we are talking about here is a very, very sensitive technology, and for that reason we need a high degree of transparency, which Iran has failed to provide, and if Iran does not do so then the alternative for Iran is to slip further into isolation," she said.

Mr Larijani has been repeating Iran's position that it wants nuclear power, not nuclear weapons.

"We believe the Iranian nuclear dossier is resolvable by negotiation," Mr Larijani was quoted by Reuters news agency as saying on the sidelines of the conference.

European diplomats are hoping to hold informal talks with Mr Larijani at the two-day summit.

It would be their first meeting since the collapse of talks last year and the imposition of limited UN sanctions on Tehran for its failure to stop the enrichment of uranium.

Washington's "very dangerous" approach to global relations was fuelling a nuclear arms race, Mr Putin said on Saturday.

Correspondents say the strident speech may signal a more assertive Russia.

The White House said it was "surprised and disappointed" by the Russian president's comments.
Source: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/6351137.stm

High school remembers Anna Nicole -- barely

Nikki Hart stares out of the Mexia High School's 1985 year book, an attractive but unsmiling young woman with a sullen look.

Long-time teachers in this small Texas town -- population 6,563 -- vaguely recall the unspectacular student who grew up to be tabloid queen Anna Nicole Smith, Playboy Playmate and billionaire's widow who died on Thursday at the age of 39.

"I remember her but she went by Nikki Hart then. I really remember her more as the girl who worked at the fried chicken restaurant in town," said math teacher Glenn McGuire.

It's not like we're proud, you don't see signs when you come into town saying 'This is the home of Anna Nicole Smith,'" he said.

Born Vickie Lynn Hogan in Houston, Nikki Hart was one of the many names Smith acquired over the course of a tumultuous and tragic life that saw her outlive her son but not survive long enough to lay undisputed claim to the estate of her late husband, billionaire J. Howard Marshall.

And contrary to popular belief, it seems that she did not actually grow up in Mexia and only attended school there briefly. The perception of small-town girl who made it big was one she cultivated, her mother Virgie Arthur said on ABC's Good Morning America show.

Teachers at Mexia High School said transcripts showed that she had transferred there from a Houston school, attended at least one semester of ninth grade in Mexia, but did not complete a whole term of tenth grade.

At Jim's Krispy Fried Chicken -- a popular local take-out place -- locals said she found work and as a teenager married cook Billy Smith, who fathered her son Daniel.

Daniel died, possibly of a drug overdose, last year in the Bahamas in a hospital room at the age of 20, three days after Smith gave birth to a daughter.

The town she left behind -- a friendly but nondescript place set in flat cattle and natural gas country -- has mixed feelings about its famous former resident.

"There are better things to be known for. It is not a path that I would recommend to our students," Mexia High School Principal Johnnie Cotton said.

That path included stints as a stripper, a model and actress.

But much of her notoriety sprang from her 1994 marriage to the tycoon Marshall, when she was 26 and he was 89.

Marshall, who was worth $1.6 billion, died 14 months later and Smith spent much of the following decade battling his family over the estate. Marshall's family called her a gold digger and the tangled legal fight remains unresolved.

" Some people in this town 80 miles south of Dallas gave her credit for doggedly pursuing her goals.
Some people have it that she disgraced this town," said Alan Campbell, a burly trucker in the local natural gas industry.

"But I don't think that she did. She had a goal and she did it," he said as he tucked into lunch at a Mexia restaurant.

Source: http://www.reuters.com/article/domesticNews/idUSN0930103120070210?pageNumber=3

French unions wage war on words

French trades unions have discovered a new enemy to protest against: the English language.

Leading the charge of the French language brigade in its latest skirmish against the invading Anglo-Saxon force is French MP Jacques Myard.

Unusually for an MP on the right of the political spectrum, the troops following him into battle are French trades unionists and language pressure groups, united in a new French Resistance.

They argue that the English language has colonised French screens, large and small, infiltrated French music, and is now conquering the French workplace as well, in e-mails or "les e-mails", and on "le web" or "l'internet" and even on "les news".

'Respect people'

All this has to stop, insists Monsieur Myard. "I think this is very dangerous, because the French language is the spirit of France and of every Frenchman," he says.

"So it would be a big mistake for enterprises who want to do business in France to impose their own culture. We French were imperialists long before them, so we know how it works."

Delivering his defence of the French language in perfect English, Mr Myard continues: "It is time for us to react and say to businesses - stop your nonsense! Respect people. Learn French. Learn German, learn Chinese and Arabic, as well as English."

The French have already legislated against the English language encroaching too much in songs on the radio by means of a quota limiting English pop, rock and rap, but the language just keeps creeping back in via other routes.

According to a survey brandished by the French trades unions at their press conference in Parliament today, 7% of French firms already use English as their main language, while multi-nationals routinely send e-mails to their French workers in English regardless of whether they understand them.

Jean-Loup Cuisiniez of the CFTC trade union says the trend towards using English in the workplace here is both dangerous and insulting to French workers.

"A French manager at Areva, the French nuclear firm, sent an e-mail to his French workers informing them of the death of a colleague - in English. Why? There is something wrong when that happens," he says.

Monsieur Cuisiniez also believes that safety, as well as efficiency, could be compromised if workers do not understand instructions given to them in a foreign language.

He himself speaks five languages including English, Spanish and Japanese, but worries that monoglot French workers in factories and offices may feel unable to admit to their lack of English.

"They might not want to confess that they don't understand instructions, and that could be very dangerous," he says, "especially if workers fear that they could be sidelined if management discover their lack of English."

He himself refused to use English-language software for his computer at work, eventually forcing his company to back down and provide it in French.

French decline

Yet Pierre Kosciusko-Morizet, CEO of the French internet company priceminister.com, believes that this rearguard action against the infiltration of English comes too late.

His firm, based in trendy loft-style offices in northern Paris, does business in several languages including English and now Spanish, and he too speaks fluent English.

"I wish that French were the global language of business," he sighs. "Because my French is better than my English. But it isn't. English has become the international language. And I don't believe that the right way to go about things is by banning a language - that is not how English became a global language."

Recently, the new American head of a merged Franco-American telecoms firm was reported to have announced that she had no plans to learn French before coming to meet her colleagues, much to the chagrin of her French staff.

All this has made some in France fear that the decline in the use of the French language - both in international diplomacy and business - goes hand in hand with the decline of French influence on the world stage and its importance as a global power.

However, few French are yet willing to admit defeat on the language front, even as "les businessmen" and "les managers" continue to help the enemy's sneaky advance into French territory.
Source: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/6344475.stm

Paternity row over model's baby

Three men who claim to have fathered Anna Nicole Smith's five-month-old daughter, are threatening legal action.

Her partner and lawyer, Howard K Stern; ex-boyfriend Larry Birkhead; and Zsa Zsa Gabor's husband, Prince Frederick von Anhalt, say they may be the father.

The child could inherit millions in the long-running court battle over her mother's former billionaire husband.

An initial post-mortem examination has failed to find what caused the former top model's death on Thursday.

But medical examiner Joseph Perper said he had not ruled out an overdose as a cause, and was waiting for the results of chemical analysis.

There was "no evidence" to suggest that Ms Smith's death was the result of a crime, a police spokesman said, adding the inquiry would remain open until medical tests were complete.

Custody battle

Ms Smith died only five months after the birth of her daughter, Dannielynn.

Three men are now claiming to be the father of the child, who is potentially heir to a multi-million dollar fortune.

Ms Smith married Texas oil billionaire J Howard Marshall II in 1994, not long after being named Playboy's Playmate of the Year. She was 26 and he was 89.

He died 14 months later, setting the stage for a battle over his estate that pitted Ms Smith against Mr Marshall's son.

The case has not yet been resolved, even though Mr Marshall's son died last year.

Ms Smith's own son Daniel died in September, leaving her daughter as her only surviving offspring.

Ms Smith said her lawyer and partner, Howard K Stern, was the father, but ex-boyfriend Larry Birkhead was demanding DNA testing before Ms Smith died.

The husband of Zsa Zsa Gabor, Prince Frederick von Anhalt, also says he may be the father.

A judge has ordered that Ms Smith's body be preserved until a paternity hearing later this month.
Source: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/6349281.stm

Italy mystery of prehistoric hug

Archaeologists in Italy have unearthed two skeletons thought to be 5,000 to 6,000 years old, locked in an embrace.

The pair from the Neolithic period were discovered outside Mantua, about 40km (25 miles) south of Verona.

The pair, almost certainly a man and a woman, are thought to have died young as their teeth were mostly intact, said chief archaeologist Elena Menotti.

The burial site was discovered on Monday during construction work for a factory building.

Hugging

"It's an extraordinary case," said Ms Menotti. "There has not been a double burial found in the Neolithic period, much less two people hugging - and they really are hugging," she told Reuters news agency.

Flint tools, including arrowheads and a knife, were also found alongside the couple.

Scientists will now study the skeletons and artefacts to work out how and when the two people died, Ms Menotti said.

"I must say that when we discovered it, we all became very excited," she said.

"I've been doing this job for 25 years. I've done digs at Pompeii, all the famous sites, but I've never been so moved because this is the discovery of something special," she said.

Source: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/6338751.stm

EU to get tough on 'green crimes'

Plans to turn environmental offences over to the criminal courts across the EU are set to be unveiled by the European Commission.

It marks an extension of the EU's powers, following a landmark ruling by the European Court of Justice in 2005.

It is one of the first times the EU would have the power to make criminal law and set penalties.

Most offences covered by the draft directive relate to the dumping, transport or treatment of waste.

This includes both nuclear material and radioactive substances.

Heavy fines

A draft of the proposal, leaked to the BBC, said "environmental crime often has a transboundary nature...offenders are therefore currently in a position to exploit the existing differences between member states".

The directive also takes in the illegal trade in endangered species, the "unlawful significant deterioration to a protected habitat", and the unlawful use of ozone-depleting substances.

Most of the offences would be punishable by one to three years in prison. However, that could rise to five years if there was negligence or if the offences caused death or serious injury.

And for offences committed intentionally, the maximum penalty foreseen is 10 years in prison. Fines could go as high as 750,000 euros (£500,000).

The environmental pressure group Greenpeace welcomes the plan but says it does not go far enough.

"It will make it easier for member states to prosecute criminal gangs, individuals and companies that make a business out of shady practices such as the trade in endangered species and in ozone-depleting substances," says Katherine Mill from Greenpeace.

But she says the fines are "minimal", compared with the penalties in EU internal-market cases.

"In comparison, 1.5m euros is the recommended starting fine for the release of radioactive material which causes death. This is peanuts for a large company."

The commission appears to agree with the principle, if not the criticism of the fines.

The draft says: "Only criminal penalties will have a sufficiently dissuasive effect...administrative or financial sanctions may not be dissuasive in cases where the offenders are impecunious or, on the contrary, very strong."

But that has set alarm bells ringing among those who fear the EU is taking over the powers of member states.

"It's a significant transfer of power to the commission," says Timothy Kirkhope, leader of the British Conservatives in the European Parliament.

"The decision on whether or not to criminalise offences in Britain should be a matter for Britain, not for the EU. We all support penalties against environmental vandals but this sets an alarming precedent."

Effective laws?

Britain supported earlier proposals to criminalise environmental offences, but on a different legal basis. This would have left it to the member states to set the penalties.

But that framework decision by the EU Council of Ministers was overturned by the European Court of Justice last year. Judges ruled that the EU's competence on environmental law overruled the member states' powers on criminal justice.

In their ruling, judges said: "The European Community has the power to require the member states to lay down criminal penalties for the purposes of protecting the environment."

But how effective would these new laws be? And are they really necessary?

One case recently in the spotlight is that of the Probo Koala. The tanker, chartered by Trafigura, a company based in the Netherlands, left Amsterdam in August, carrying a load of chemical waste.

The waste was offloaded in Ivory Coast by a local contractor. Most of it was dumped in open-air sites. The Ivorian government says 10 people died and tens of thousands needed medical attention. The public outcry forced the cabinet to resign.

Trafigura denies any wrongdoing, and says it is "distressed by the deaths and illnesses which have occurred in Abidjan".

'Normal' waste

It says the slops from the Probo Koala were made up of "spent caustic soda, gasoline residues and water.

"They resulted from normal maritime gasoline trade operations during June and July 2006 and were, as is usual, held in separate waste tanks aboard the ship."

Dutch lawyer Bob van der Goen is working together with British and French lawyers on a claim for damages for hundreds of Ivorians who say their health was damaged by the waste.

He says there are already laws which would cover the case of the Probo Koala, but they are not being properly enforced.

"There is a lot of window-dressing going on," he says. He believes it is a lack of political will, and not a gap in the legislation, which is the biggest barrier to punishing environmental offenders.
Source: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/6344849.stm

Italy may recognise unwed couples

The Italian government has approved a bill to grant legal rights to unmarried couples, including same-sex partners.

The highly controversial move came after months of heated debate in the broad, ruling coalition and fierce opposition from the Vatican.

If parliament passes the package, unmarried couples will get greater health and social welfare benefits.

But partners will enjoy inheritance rights only if they have been living together for at least nine years.

The bill, approved on Thursday evening, does not go as far as the civil unions now protected by law in some other European countries.

But Franco Grillini, a Democrats of the Left parliamentarian, said "it still contains important elements, beginning with the recognition of rights for same-sex couples". He is honorary president of Italy's main gay rights association, Arcigay.

Equal Opportunities Minister Barbara Pollastrini, a co-author of the bill, said: "This draft law, which is a mark of respect and coherence, recognises rights but also duties."

The legislation - promised in the centre-left manifesto of Prime Minister Romano Prodi last year - divided the government, which includes centrist Christian Democrats and Communists.

The cabinet vote was boycotted by Justice Minister Clemente Mastella, a devout Catholic.

He said he opposed the bill because "it seeks solutions and guarantees which imitate marriage".

Pope Benedict XVI has campaigned against legal recognition of unmarried couples, saying the traditional Christian marriage of man and woman must not be undermined.

Same-sex civil unions already exist in France, Spain and Britain.

Source: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/6345729.stm