Ban Ki-moon and Norway lead calls for Israel to hand over tax revenues withheld over Palestinian reconciliation agreement Israel is under pressure to release tax revenues belonging to the Palestinian Authority (PA) which it has blocked in response to the reconciliation agreement between Fatah and Hamas . The UN secretary general, Ban Ki-moon, and an umbrella group of countries that make donations to the PA have urged the Israeli government to hand over a sum of around 300m shekels (£53.1m). The income is used to pay the salaries of PA employees and to provide services. The EU announced an extra €85m (£74.3m) in aid to the Palestinians after a request from the prime minister, Salam Fayyad, to cover salaries and welfare payments. “This decision renews our commitment to support the most vulnerable among Palestinians,” said the EU foreign policy chief, Catherine Ashton. “It is important that access to essential public services remains uninterrupted and the right to social services is respected.” Norway, which chairs the committee of donor states to the PA, has made an official request to Israel to unblock the tax funds. It has offered to form a “firewall” to ensure that the money does not reach Hamas. The funds come from VAT and customs revenues due to the PA, which are collected by Israel under the Oslo accords, amounting each year to around 3.6bn shekels (£630m). Israel has blocked tax revenues to the PA in the past, once during the second intifada and again after Hamas won parliamentary elections in 2006. After the resulting government collapsed, Israel forwarded the funds with interest. After the reconciliation agreement was signed last week, Israel raised concern at the prospect of the Islamist party Hamas forming a government with the more moderate Fatah. The Israeli government spokesman, Mark Regev, said: “It’s Palestinian money but we can’t transfer it to a terrorist organisation.” He said a monthly meeting to authorise the transfer had been postponed. “No decisions have been taken but there have been preliminary discussions,” Regev said. Israel’s defence minister, Ehud Barak, opposed withholding the funds. “These funds belong to [the PA] according to international agreements,” he was quoted in the Israeli press as saying. Twenty-nine US senators have written to Barack Obama demanding that aid to the PA be frozen if Hamas members join the government. Such a move, they said, “threatens to derail the Middle East peace effort”. The US is scheduled to give $550m (£335m) to the PA this year. Binyamin Netanyahu, Israel’s prime minister, is expected to revise a speech he is due to deliver to the US Congress later this month in the light of the Palestinian unity agreement. He is preparing to say there is no chance of any peace deal with the Palestinians unless Hamas recognises Israel and renounces violence, according to Israeli media reports. Israel Palestinian territories Hamas Fatah Ban Ki-moon United Nations Middle East Harriet Sherwood guardian.co.uk
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Claim comes as four women shot dead by security forces in first use of violence against an all-female demonstration Iran is playing an increasingly active role in helping the Syrian regime crack down on pro-democracy protesters, according to western diplomatic sources in Damascus. The claim came as Syrian security forces backed by tanks intensified operations to suppress anti-regime unrest in three new flashpoint towns on Sunday and it was confirmed that four women had been shot dead in the first use of force against an all-female demonstration. A senior western diplomat in Damascus expanded upon assertions, first made by White House officials last month, that Iran is advising President Bashar al-Assad’s government on how to crush dissent. The diplomat pointed to a “significant” increase in the number of Iranian personnel in the country since protests began in mid-March. Mass arrests carried out by door-to-door raids, similar to those that helped to crush Iran’s “green revolution” in 2009, have been ramped up in the past week. Human rights groups suggest more than 7,000 people have been detained in total since the uprising began. More than 800 people are said to have died, up to 50 of them during last Friday’s “day of defiance”. “Tehran has upped the level of technical support and personnel support from the Iranian Republican Guard to strengthen Syria’s ability to deal with protesters,” the senior western diplomat said, adding that the personnel were not involved in any physical operations on the ground and numbered in the few hundreds. “Since the start of the uprising, the Iranian regime has been worried about losing its most important ally in the Arab world and important conduit for weapons to Hezbollah [in Lebanon],” the diplomat said. Last month White House officials made similar allegations about Iranian assistance for the regime, particularly in terms of intercepting or blocking internet, mobile phone and social media communications between the protesters and with the outside world. But the officials did not provide hard evidence to support their claims. Activists and diplomats claim Iran’s assistance includes help monitoring internet communications such as Skype, widely used by a network of activists, methods of crowd control and the provision of equipment such as batons and riot police helmets. Syria has denied seeking or receiving assistance from Iran to put down the unrest. In a statement issued on Friday, Iran’s foreign ministry stressed Syria’s “prime role” in opposing Israel and the US, and urged opposing forces inside the country to agree a compromise on political reform. US policy towards Syria was based on “opportunism in support of the Zionist regime’s avarice,” it said. The Assad family, from the Shia Muslim minority Alawite sect, is likely to be nervous about being seen to be being helped by its Shia-dominated ally to crush protesters drawn from the 75 per cent Sunni population. Regime forces backed by tanks were in action over the weekend in Homs, in the town of Tafas north of Deraa, and in the coastal city of Banias, activists said. Violence was also reported in the Damascus dormitory town of Zabadani. Along with arbitrary detentions, shootings have continued. Razan Zeitouneh, a lawyer in the capital who is monitoring the protests, said four women were shot dead in the village of Merqeb, close to Banias, and six men were shot dead in Banias on Saturday. The women, who were protesting in the nearby village of Merqeb, were named as Ahla Houska, Layla Taha, Layla Sahoun and Marwa Aabas. Women have so far not taken to the streets in great numbers, some citing fear on the part of their male relatives. Residents of Tafas, in the predominantly agricultural south-western Hauran plain said troops entered the town during the night. Tanks and troops also stormed two main neighbourhoods in Homs on Saturday night – the first incursion into residential areas of Syria’s third city. The protesters, who lack a national leader and organisation, are demanding political freedoms, an end to corruption, and Assad’s resignation after 41 years on Baath party rule. Assad has said the protesters are part of a foreign conspiracy to cause sectarian strife, plotted by “armed terrorist groups”. The US and the EU have imposed limited sanctions on leading regime figures in a bid to halt the repression and encourage reform. But they have stopped short of calling for Assad’s departure. Both the government and protesters claimed victory after Friday’s confrontation. Thousands took to the street, despite a heavy security and military clampdown, but the protests have not grown to the critical tipping point seen in Egypt and Tunisia. Many in the capital express support for Assad, blaming the violence on his brother Maher and security chiefs. The government has reached out to some opposition figures amid unconfirmed rumours in the capital that it is planning a national dialogue conference and the announcement of some reforms. Statements by the regime and the protesters are often impossible to verify independently, in part because Syria has banned most foreign media and reporters. Syria Middle East Iran Arab and Middle East unrest Bashar Al-Assad Protest Simon Tisdall guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …When corrosion thinned the pipes that circulate cooling water in Exelon Corporation’s nuclear reactors outside Chicago, the company had a simple solution—it kept lowering the minimum thickness it considered safe. The Nuclear Regulatory Commission did not notice for eight years, and when it did discover the safety violation—after…
Continue reading …More trouble for the post-Mubarak government: Nasty clashes broke out last night between Muslims and Christians in a poor Cairo neighborhood, leaving 10 people dead and 186 injured, reports the BBC . Two Christian churches were set afire in the melee. Egypt’s prime minister called off a trip to the Gulf…
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• Click on auto-refresh for all the latest action • Ping your emails towards barry.glendenning@guardian.co.uk • Follow Barry on Twitter Half-time discussion: “Why isn’t David Chamberlain asking the pretty girl sitting next to him on the bus to Birmingham to explain the offside law?” asks Peter Hillmore. “A perfect chatup line, I would have thought.” Half-time: Carlo Ancelotti ambles down the touchline with a face like thunder after Howard Webb brings the curtain down on a massively entertaining first half with three shrill blasts of his whistle. With Manchester United two goals to the good, ity’ll be interesting to see how Ancelotti shuffles his deck at half-time. Luiz is having a shocker, Ivanovic is a red card waiting to happen and he’s going to have to bring on Fernando Torres sooner rather than later if the reigning champions are to have any hope of pulling this one out of the fire. 45+2 min: I really wouldn’t like to be David Luiz right now. He’s just made another mistake, prompting Carlo Ancelotti to give turn the serious stink-eye on him once again. The Chelsea centre-half is going to get the mother and father of all rollockings during half-time interval. 45+1: A Park Ji-sung cross from the left has too much welly on it and wafts over the heads of all waiting for it in the Chelsea penalty area and out of play. 44 min: Michael Essien’s just been booked; I’m not sure why because I didn’t see whatever it is he’s supposed to have done. There’ll be three minutes of added time in the first half. 43 min: Antonio Valencia goes close for Manchester United. No cigar. 41 min: Is anyone else wondering how things are going between David Chamberlain and the pretty girl sitting beside him on the bus to Birmingham? Assuming the bus isn’t full, I’d imagine she’s now moved to a different seat and is wondering whether or not she should call the police. 40 min: Branislav Ivanovic is very lucky to avoid a second yellow card for a late, intentional trip on Wayne Rooney. Instead of dismissing the Chelsea right-back, Howard Webb takes Chelsea skipper John Terry to one side and orders him to have a word with his team-mate. 38 min: Wayne Rooney gets booked for a foul that leaves David Luiz on the floor nursing a hip injury. If I was him I’d stay down and pray for a merciful release from my afternoon’s embarrassment. 36 min: “A pretty girl next to me on the coach to Birmingham is also refreshing this page,” writes David Chamberlain. “Can you tell her to take her headphones out and say hello?” Hey, you, pretty girl on the bus to Birmingham – take out your headphones and say hello to David Chamberlain, who is sitting next to you. Then email me and let us know how you get on. 35 min: The camera cuts to Carlo Ancelotti, who looks very morose in his technical area. 32 min: Another free-kick for Chelsea, 30 yards from the Manchester United goal, a mite left of centre. Didier Drogba steps up again, but fails to get his shot on target. If he had he’d almost certainly have scored, because Edwin van der Sar looked rooted to a spot that was nowhere near the ball’s flight-path. 30 min: Chelsea win a free-kick about 30 yards from the Manchester United goal. Didier Drogba gets the ball up over the wall and down, forcing Van der Sar to dive low to his left to bat it clear. With assorted Chelsea players charging in to capitalise on the rebound, it breaks kindly for United and John O’Shea hacks clear. 26 min: This match is a belter – so action-packed I’m scarcely getting time to do it justice. The contribution of Giggs in their second goal can’t be over-stated. He played a corner shortish, ran out of the quadrant to take the return pass, then jinked his way to the byline, from where he put in a cross so sublime that even I could have scored from it. Prio to the goal, Park Ji-sung had brought a smart save out of Cech with a long-range effort from the edge of the penalty area after cutting in from the left touchline. His opportunity presented itself after United had won a free-kick in Rooney territory, that the England striker strangely elected not to shoot from. 24 min: Chelsea almost pull one back from a corner of their own. The ball came in from the left, Kalou won the header and brought a decent save out of Van der Sar, who could only flap the ball towards his right upright. Ivanovic tried his luck with an acrobatic overhead kick, but the angle was too narrow and he could only find the side-netting. GOAL! Manchester United 2-0 Chelsea (Vidic 23) Ivanovic gets caught flat-footed as Ryan Giggs sends in a cross from the left after jinking past a defender, allowing Nemnja Vidic to nod the ball home at the far post from five yards out. 20 min: “Luiz is having a mare!” writes Jonny Mac. “It’s going to be long afternoon for Chelsea back four … when they decide to start the game of course.” He is having a shocker alright – he’s just got his second bollocking from Carlo Ancelotti, whose left eyebrow now has gone so skywards it’s created a sort of impromptu Wembley-style arch over Old Trafford. 18 min: Edwin van der Sar is forced to leap high in the air Aussie Rules style to punch a cross from deep clear, but doesn’t make much contact with the ball. He falls awkwardly Aussie Rules style too and while still on the ground, the ball drops to Malouda on the right-hand side of the penalty area. He shoots goalwards, but his effort is blocked by a defender. 17 min: Frank Lampard and Florent Malouda combine well through the centre, but a promising looking Chelsea sortie into Manchester United territory breaks down when Dider Drogba attempts to curl the ball towards Salomon Kalou in the penalty area, only to send his pass straight towards the head of Nemanja Vidic. 14 min: On a lightning fast counter-attack, Antonio Valencia gallops up the inside right position with the ball at his feet, before squaring it to Wayne Rooney a couple of yards outside the Chelsea penalty area. With what seems like all the time in the world at his disposal, the Manchester United striker looks up, takes aim and fires … a low drive a couple of feet wide of the left upright. First half possession stats thus far: Manchester United 60% Chelsea 40%. 13 min: Branislav Ivanovic gets booked for a desperate lunge on Wayne Rooney. 10 min: Hernandez goes close again. From the aforementioned free-kick, the ball is played to Park on the edge of the area, right hand side. He sends in a curling cross to the far post, where Javier Hernandez is lurking. The cross gets the faintest nick off David Luiz, which is enough to take it past Hernandez, who could and probably should have bundled it home from about four yards out. 9 min: Chelsea are all over the place here. Their midfield is being over-run and now John Obi Mikel is forced to concede a free-kick by fouling Park after failing to get to a misplaced pass by Michael Essien. 7 min: Petr Cech keeps his side in the contest, diving low to his right to save a sensational Wayne Rooney strike from 25 yards that was heading for the bottom left-hand corner. Slack defending by Florent Malouda and John Obi Mikel allowed the Manchester United striker to shoot; they were very slow to close him down, with each seeming to presume the other would take care of him. 6 min: Bloody hell, is there really only six minutes gone? It seems like a lot longer – this is real death or glory stuff. Didier Drogba fires off a shot despite the whistle having been blown. He doesn’t get booked, probably because the atmosphere at Old Trafford is so raucous, it’s probably difficult to hear the whistle. 4 min: According to Sky’s man on the touchline, Geoff Shreeves, Carlo Ancelotti is holding David Luiz responsible for that goal. As soon it was scored, he summoned him for a bollocking, telling him to just get rid of the ball next time it came near him. Sideshow Bob proceeded to argue with him and now Ancelotti has ordered Alex to start warming up. He’ll hardly subject his young centre-half to the indignity of being substituted this early, will he? 3 min: What a sensational start for Manchester United, who have Chelsea on the ropes already. It was a marvellous goal, with Giggs and Park combining to eviscerate Chelsea down the middle, before sending Hernandez galloping clear past David Luiz, who is himself no slouch. GOAL! Manchester United 1-0 Chelsea (Hernandez 1) Javier Hernandez’s prayers are answered within 30 seconds after Ryan Giggs plays a ball through the centre to Park Ji-sung, who helps it on its way past David Luiz, who was dumped on his backside, and into the path of the Mexican. Hernandez slots the ball past Petr Cech, into the bottom left-hand corner. 1 min: Little Pea Javier Hernandez kneelks in the centre-circle and gazes heavenwards for a quick pre-match pray, then Manchester United kick off playing away from the Stretford End. Within seconds, Chelsea win a free-kick for, I presume, an offside. Click-clack, click-clack,click-clack: The time for staring intently ahead, clapping hands and shouting “C’mon boys!” is over. The teams march out on to the Old Trafford sward and line up wearing the colours with which they’re readily associated. Office sweepstake: I’ve drawn fifth official and Chelsea skipper England’s Brave John Terry to score the first goal. Go JT! *gets a little sick in mouth* Not too long now. With the sound of Swing Low, Sweet Chariot ringing around the stands of the Britannia Stadium, Stoke RFC have just put Arsenal to the sword in the second of this afternoon’s preliminaries. If the main event is as entertaining as the two Premier League clashes that preceded it (Wolves 3-1 West Brom being the other one), we should in for a real treat. Team news: Fernando Torres is on the bench, with Didier Drogba in attack rather than their £50million Spaniard. United line up without left-back Patrice Evra, who is sidelined by a thigh injury. Sir Alex Ferguson retains only three members of the starting line-up that swept Schalke aside in midweek, with Fabio occupying one full-back berth, John O’Shea the other and Javier Hernandez in attack. Man Utd: Van der Sar, Fabio Da Silva, Ferdinand, Vidic, O’Shea, Valencia, Carrick, Giggs, Park, Rooney, Hernandez. Subs: Kuszczak, Anderson, Berbatov, Smalling, Nani, Scholes, Evans. Chelsea: Cech, Ivanovic, Terry, David Luiz, Cole, Mikel, Lampard, Essien, Kalou, Drogba, Malouda. Subs: Turnbull, Ramires, Torres, Benayoun, Ferreira, Alex, Anelka. Referee: Howard Webb (S Yorkshire) Good afternoon all. With Chelsea just three points behind Manchester United with three games to go , this match is very much a potential title-decider. Should Chelsea lose, the jig is almost certainly up as far as Carlo Ancelotti’s tilt at consecutive Premier League titles is concerned. Win and they’ll leapfrog Manchester United to go top of the table on goal difference with two matches left to play: Newcastle at home and Everton away (after today’s clash, Manchester United’s remaining fixtures are away at Blackburn and at home to Blackpool). Picking a team to side with this afternoon is a puzzling dilemma for the neutral, what with there being plenty to dislike about both clubs, but a Chelsea win would certainly put the cat amongst the pigeons and go a long way towards ensuring the title race won’t be decided until the final day of the season, possibly by goal difference. The boys from Stamford Bridge will have their work cut out this afternoon, however, as Manchester United have only dropped two points at home all season and beat Chelsea at home and away in their recent Champions League quarter-final. They’re 11-5 outsiders to win the game, with Manchester United favourites at 5-4 and the draw priced up at 23-10. Match pointers • No opposition player has scored a first-half goal at Old Trafford in the League since Joe Cole did so in this fixture in March 2010 • Chelsea have won their last three Premier League games against United – Liverpool (between December 2000 and January 2002) are the only side to have beaten them four times in a row • United need to win their final two home games to equal the record of 55 points (P19 W18 D1 L0) set by Chelsea during the 2005-06 campaign • Howard Webb has awarded United a penalty in three of the last four games he has officiated at Old Trafford Premier League Chelsea Manchester United Barry Glendenning guardian.co.uk
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Inspired by British satire In The Loop, first French film to tell story of a serving president breaks last taboo It threatens to be so true to life that it’s more like a documentary than a feature film. “I’m surrounded by cretins!” shouts a stack-heeled, would-be French president at his terrified advisers. “Remember, I’m a Ferrari. When you open the bonnet, you use white gloves.” When the Cannes film festival opens next week, it will break the last taboo in French film. La Conquête, a scathing portrait of Nicolas Sarkozy’s rise to power – the first French feature film brave enough to tackle a serving president – will be shown on La Croisette after a row over whether officials wanted to sideline it to spare the Elysée’s blushes. Inspired by the merciless British satire In the Loop, and subtitled “The man who won the presidency, but lost a wife”, it hopes to skewer Sarkozy’s rage, ambition and problems with women. But it faces the same problem as Italian director Nanni Moretti’s Berlusconi-inspired The Caiman: how do you parody a man who has already become a parody of himself? This year’s Cannes is already displaying an unprecedented Sarkozy theme. The first lady, Carla Bruni, will appear in Woody Allen’s Midnight in Paris, while the French director Pierre Schoeller’s L’Exercice de l’Etat fictionalises the personal sacrifices of a government minister. Sarkozy, record-breakingly unpopular one year before a tough battle for re-election, cannot risk appearing on the red carpet himself, nor can Bruni. It would send the wrong message about lavish partying to cash-strapped France. But the Elysée is already on a damage-limitation offensive over La Conquête. In recent days, Sarkozy has been brandishing a three-page handwritten letter from the actor who plays him. Denis Podalydès is one of France’s biggest theatre stars, a leftwinger whose line in Shakespearean figures like Richard II has set him up well for playing right-winger Sarkozy’s 2007 rise to power. He recently wrote to Sarkozy explaining his role in the film, which the president has taken as an admission that the film isn’t too cruel. But the Elysée is clearly irked by the film. Several Sarkozy advisers have dismissed the trailer as “a ridiculous charicature”. Producers said French TV channels self-censored and refused to contribute funding for the “dangerous and risky project” and the script was leaked, perhaps reaching as high as the Elysée. Rachida Dati, the former Sarkozy protégée and minister, reportedly tried to contact the actor playing her, but was brushed off. This week Carla Bruni admitted she was “worried” about the film, which depicts Sarkozy’s split from his previous wife, Cécilia. She said: “It’s a period that I experienced like everyone else, observing the presidential candidates from the outside. I would really like to watch this film with that same sense of distance, but I’m not sure I can.” Even the film poster has made the political class cringe. Designed by the English team who worked on In the Loop, it shows a pair of short legs in stacked heels, dangling off a high stool, echoing a scene in the film where the diminutive Sarkozy throws a tantrum that his chair is too high. Podalydès has described his Sarkozy character as both “endearing and insufferable”, “mature and immature”, someone totally “animal” who cares little about philosophy. He recently met Sarkozy at the Elysée and said the president told him: “I don’t like power, but I like exercising it.” The script is based on an analysis of Sarkozy by the political historian and documentary maker, Patrick Rotman. But French critics have warned they want more than just accurate Sarkozy-mimicry and hunger for a piece of fiction that explores the president’s narcissistic yet unfathomable personality. Le Figaro’s Sebastien Le Fol said he wanted the emotional resonance of British films like The Queen or the Tony Blair-Gordon Brown drama, The Deal. “La Conquête will only win us over if it allows us to enter the unconscious of a man of state and reveal the workings of power.” Other key Cannes films The Tree of Life The reclusive American film-maker Terrence Malick’s family drama with mysterious cosmic element. It’s only his fifth feature in 40 years. Melancholia A sci-fi, apocalyptic wedding drama, from the Danish maverick director Lars Von Trier who shocked Cannes with the film Antichrist in 2009. This Must Be The Place Sean Penn plays a 50-year-old ex-rocker who travels across the US on the trail of a Nazi war criminal. The Skin I Live In Spanish director Pedro Almodovar’s creepy revenge saga about a plastic surgeon. Death of a Samurai Japanese director Takashi Miike’s honour and revenge story is billed as the first 3D film to be shown at Cannes. We Need To Talk About Kevin Lynne Ramsay’s family drama based on the novel about middle-class parents struggling to make sense of a high-school massacre is Britain’s competition hope. France Europe Cannes 2011 Cannes film festival Nicolas Sarkozy Angelique Chrisafis guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …Inspired by British satire In The Loop, first French film to tell story of a serving president breaks last taboo It threatens to be so true to life that it’s more like a documentary than a feature film. “I’m surrounded by cretins!” shouts a stack-heeled, would-be French president at his terrified advisers. “Remember, I’m a Ferrari. When you open the bonnet, you use white gloves.” When the Cannes film festival opens next week, it will break the last taboo in French film. La Conquête, a scathing portrait of Nicolas Sarkozy’s rise to power – the first French feature film brave enough to tackle a serving president – will be shown on La Croisette after a row over whether officials wanted to sideline it to spare the Elysée’s blushes. Inspired by the merciless British satire In the Loop, and subtitled “The man who won the presidency, but lost a wife”, it hopes to skewer Sarkozy’s rage, ambition and problems with women. But it faces the same problem as Italian director Nanni Moretti’s Berlusconi-inspired The Caiman: how do you parody a man who has already become a parody of himself? This year’s Cannes is already displaying an unprecedented Sarkozy theme. The first lady, Carla Bruni, will appear in Woody Allen’s Midnight in Paris, while the French director Pierre Schoeller’s L’Exercice de l’Etat fictionalises the personal sacrifices of a government minister. Sarkozy, record-breakingly unpopular one year before a tough battle for re-election, cannot risk appearing on the red carpet himself, nor can Bruni. It would send the wrong message about lavish partying to cash-strapped France. But the Elysée is already on a damage-limitation offensive over La Conquête. In recent days, Sarkozy has been brandishing a three-page handwritten letter from the actor who plays him. Denis Podalydès is one of France’s biggest theatre stars, a leftwinger whose line in Shakespearean figures like Richard II has set him up well for playing right-winger Sarkozy’s 2007 rise to power. He recently wrote to Sarkozy explaining his role in the film, which the president has taken as an admission that the film isn’t too cruel. But the Elysée is clearly irked by the film. Several Sarkozy advisers have dismissed the trailer as “a ridiculous charicature”. Producers said French TV channels self-censored and refused to contribute funding for the “dangerous and risky project” and the script was leaked, perhaps reaching as high as the Elysée. Rachida Dati, the former Sarkozy protégée and minister, reportedly tried to contact the actor playing her, but was brushed off. This week Carla Bruni admitted she was “worried” about the film, which depicts Sarkozy’s split from his previous wife, Cécilia. She said: “It’s a period that I experienced like everyone else, observing the presidential candidates from the outside. I would really like to watch this film with that same sense of distance, but I’m not sure I can.” Even the film poster has made the political class cringe. Designed by the English team who worked on In the Loop, it shows a pair of short legs in stacked heels, dangling off a high stool, echoing a scene in the film where the diminutive Sarkozy throws a tantrum that his chair is too high. Podalydès has described his Sarkozy character as both “endearing and insufferable”, “mature and immature”, someone totally “animal” who cares little about philosophy. He recently met Sarkozy at the Elysée and said the president told him: “I don’t like power, but I like exercising it.” The script is based on an analysis of Sarkozy by the political historian and documentary maker, Patrick Rotman. But French critics have warned they want more than just accurate Sarkozy-mimicry and hunger for a piece of fiction that explores the president’s narcissistic yet unfathomable personality. Le Figaro’s Sebastien Le Fol said he wanted the emotional resonance of British films like The Queen or the Tony Blair-Gordon Brown drama, The Deal. “La Conquête will only win us over if it allows us to enter the unconscious of a man of state and reveal the workings of power.” Other key Cannes films The Tree of Life The reclusive American film-maker Terrence Malick’s family drama with mysterious cosmic element. It’s only his fifth feature in 40 years. Melancholia A sci-fi, apocalyptic wedding drama, from the Danish maverick director Lars Von Trier who shocked Cannes with the film Antichrist in 2009. This Must Be The Place Sean Penn plays a 50-year-old ex-rocker who travels across the US on the trail of a Nazi war criminal. The Skin I Live In Spanish director Pedro Almodovar’s creepy revenge saga about a plastic surgeon. Death of a Samurai Japanese director Takashi Miike’s honour and revenge story is billed as the first 3D film to be shown at Cannes. We Need To Talk About Kevin Lynne Ramsay’s family drama based on the novel about middle-class parents struggling to make sense of a high-school massacre is Britain’s competition hope. France Europe Cannes 2011 Cannes film festival Nicolas Sarkozy Angelique Chrisafis guardian.co.uk
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‘Phoenix four’ disqualified from directorships after paying £42m in bonuses while running car firm into the ground Four former MG Rover directors, who paid themselves millions as they ran the car manufacturer into the ground, have been banned from acting as company directors for a combined total of 19 years. The so-called ” Phoenix four ” of Peter Beale, John Towers, Nick Stephenson and John Edwards acquired Britain’s last remaining volume car producer from BMW for a nominal £10 in 2000, with the enthusiastic backing of the then Labour government. They then spent the next five years pocketing huge awards before the company collapsed in 2005, owing £1.3bn to creditors and putting thousands of people out of work. Edward Davey, the business minister with responsibility for corporate governance and company law, said: “These disqualification undertakings represent a successful conclusion to a lengthy and complex investigation into the collapse of MG Rover. The outcome of this case serves as an important reminder that unacceptable conduct by company directors can result in lengthy periods of disqualification.” From 17 May, Beale will not be able to work as a director for six years, Towers and Stephenson for five and Edwards for three. When MG Rover collapsed in April 2005 with the loss of 6,500 jobs, the Phoenix four and former MG Rover chief executive Kevin Howe had paid themselves a total of £42m . Howe has not been banned. The disqualifications follow a government report into the financial affairs of MG Rover and its associated companies that found that the conduct of the Phoenix four made them unfit to be company directors. It added that the directors manipulated the assets and income streams through the use of companies in which they, rather than the creditors of MG Rover had an interest, allowing them to benefit through large salaries, dividends and profits. The quartet described the report as a “witch-hunt” and a “whitewash” . Rover Automotive industry Simon Goodley guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …‘Phoenix four’ disqualified from directorships after paying £42m in bonuses while running car firm into the ground Four former MG Rover directors, who paid themselves millions as they ran the car manufacturer into the ground, have been banned from acting as company directors for a combined total of 19 years. The so-called ” Phoenix four ” of Peter Beale, John Towers, Nick Stephenson and John Edwards acquired Britain’s last remaining volume car producer from BMW for a nominal £10 in 2000, with the enthusiastic backing of the then Labour government. They then spent the next five years pocketing huge awards before the company collapsed in 2005, owing £1.3bn to creditors and putting thousands of people out of work. Edward Davey, the business minister with responsibility for corporate governance and company law, said: “These disqualification undertakings represent a successful conclusion to a lengthy and complex investigation into the collapse of MG Rover. The outcome of this case serves as an important reminder that unacceptable conduct by company directors can result in lengthy periods of disqualification.” From 17 May, Beale will not be able to work as a director for six years, Towers and Stephenson for five and Edwards for three. When MG Rover collapsed in April 2005 with the loss of 6,500 jobs, the Phoenix four and former MG Rover chief executive Kevin Howe had paid themselves a total of £42m . Howe has not been banned. The disqualifications follow a government report into the financial affairs of MG Rover and its associated companies that found that the conduct of the Phoenix four made them unfit to be company directors. It added that the directors manipulated the assets and income streams through the use of companies in which they, rather than the creditors of MG Rover had an interest, allowing them to benefit through large salaries, dividends and profits. The quartet described the report as a “witch-hunt” and a “whitewash” . Rover Automotive industry Simon Goodley guardian.co.uk
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‘Phoenix four’ disqualified from directorships after paying £42m in bonuses while running car firm into the ground Four former MG Rover directors, who paid themselves millions as they ran the car manufacturer into the ground, have been banned from acting as company directors for a combined total of 19 years. The so-called ” Phoenix four ” of Peter Beale, John Towers, Nick Stephenson and John Edwards acquired Britain’s last remaining volume car producer from BMW for a nominal £10 in 2000, with the enthusiastic backing of the then Labour government. They then spent the next five years pocketing huge awards before the company collapsed in 2005, owing £1.3bn to creditors and putting thousands of people out of work. Edward Davey, the business minister with responsibility for corporate governance and company law, said: “These disqualification undertakings represent a successful conclusion to a lengthy and complex investigation into the collapse of MG Rover. The outcome of this case serves as an important reminder that unacceptable conduct by company directors can result in lengthy periods of disqualification.” From 17 May, Beale will not be able to work as a director for six years, Towers and Stephenson for five and Edwards for three. When MG Rover collapsed in April 2005 with the loss of 6,500 jobs, the Phoenix four and former MG Rover chief executive Kevin Howe had paid themselves a total of £42m . Howe has not been banned. The disqualifications follow a government report into the financial affairs of MG Rover and its associated companies that found that the conduct of the Phoenix four made them unfit to be company directors. It added that the directors manipulated the assets and income streams through the use of companies in which they, rather than the creditors of MG Rover had an interest, allowing them to benefit through large salaries, dividends and profits. The quartet described the report as a “witch-hunt” and a “whitewash” . Rover Automotive industry Simon Goodley guardian.co.uk
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