Mid Day International News |
| Sarkozy hides in cafe as eggs fly Posted: The French president was forced to take refuge from hundreds of angry protesters who threatened to beat him up during a campaign trip French President Nicolas Sarkozy was forced to hide in a bar after a mob of protesters threatened to beat him up.  French President Nicolas Sarkozy begins his campaign in Bayonne amid unhappy protesters. However, it was all fine till he was suddenly pelted with eggs. The 57-year-old French president, who is standing for re-election in April, was campaigning in the south west of the Basque country. Pelted Eggs and stones were thrown at the 5.5 feet head of state who at one stage looked as though he would disappear under a crowd of people in the city of Bayonne.  As soon as the eggs and stones were hurled at him, Sarkozy's guards hovered around him trying to protect him from the abuse. His security staff instead ushered him into a bar, where the teetotaller president had to drink coffee for more than hour while riot police dispersed the protesters. "The protesters said they wanted to beat him up -- they said they wanted him to resign," said an eye-witness.  A security guard opened an umbrella to protect the 5.5 feet head of state and escorted him to a nearby cafe where he had to wait for an hour while protesters were brought under control. pics/AFP "He looked very concerned indeed. Sarkozy is used to angry crowds, but this one was very threatening." 'Hooliganism' When Sarkozy emerged from the Bar du Palais after around an hour he appeared shaken, describing those who had baited him as 'hooligans'. Many were Basque separatists who resent having to abide by laws from Paris. Sarkozy denounced 'the violence of a minority and their unacceptable behaviour'. He added: "Here, we're in France, on the territory of the French Republic. The President of the Republic will go where he likes, and if that doesn't please a minority of troublemakers, too bad for them." Opinion polls regularly show that Sarkozy is by far the most unpopular head of state in the history of modern France. He is widely expected to lose the election to Socialist candidate Francois Hollande. Jostled by protesters Nicolas Sarkozy claimed a political goal on Thursday after securing investment to restart an idled steelmill that has become symbolic of France's industrial decline, but he was later jostled by militants while campaigning.
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| Posted: A tiny Spanish town has voted to lease land for growing marijuana as a source of desperately needed revenue A tiny Spanish country town believes it has found a way to make unemployment, debt and economic crisis disappear in a puff of smoke -- by leasing out its land for marijuana plantations. The town hall of Rasquera in Catalonia has voted to sign a 1.3 million (Rs 8.5 crore) agreement with a cannabis users' association in nearby Barcelona to plant marijuana for its 5,000 members. It will allow the association to plant on a seven-hectare stretch of town hall land -- roughly the size of 10 football pitches. "This is a chance to bring in money and create jobs," said mayor Bernat Pellisa, of the Catalan Republican Left party, as older townsfolk worried he was turning Rasquera into a drugs mecca. Pellisa said he had sought legal advice that the scheme, part of a set of "anti-crisis" measures passed at a packed town hall meeting, did not break Spain's ambiguous cannabis laws. "The produce will only go to members of the association and it won't all be cannabis," he said. "There will be crop rotation with cereal and sugar beet." The Barcelona Personal Use Cannabis Association, part of a growing movement of private marijuana clubs in Spain, will pay the town 650,000 (Rs 4.2 crore) a year for the right to grow its annual supply there. "Growing for oneself is not illegal, but this is a delicate issue," lawyer Oriol Casals said. Pellisa said the deal would create up to 40 jobs and allow the town hall to pay off its 1.3 million debt in two years. Not everyone in the town, however, likes the idea. "This makes us the laughing stock of Catalonia," said secondary schoolteacher Joan Farnos. "It will lead our grandchildren to perdition," one elderly woman said.
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| Man sues Google for urination image Posted: Frenchman takes the search giant to court over a streetview image of him relieving himself in his garden A man is suing Google after its Street View cameras caught him urinating in his garden in western France. The 50-year-old villager claims neighbours have recognised him in the online images and have made him a laughing stock. The unnamed man said he thought he was hidden from view by his closed gate as he relieved himself in November 2010.  No laughing matter: The villager says neighbours have recognised him and made him a laughing stock. Representation Pic But he was caught in the act by a passing Street View camera, which are mounted atop cars. His lawyer Jean-Nokl Bouillaud said, "My client was caught in the privacy of his own home with the gate closed. But he discovered the image while looking at images of his own house, and then realised other people in the village had seen the picture too. It's a small village and everyone recognised him. He has become a laughing stock." Bouillaud did not explain why the man had chosen to urinate outside at his home in the village with a population of 3,000 in the Maine-et-Loire region, in France's Loire Valley. But he added, "Everyone has the right to a degree of secrecy. In this particular case, some may say it's more amusing than serious. But if he had been caught kissing a woman other than his wife, he would have had the same issue." The man was demanding that Google remove the photo from the Internet and pay him �8,000 (Rs 6.30 lakh) in damages for invasion of his private life and illegal use of his image, Bouillaud said. Google's French lawyer Christophe Bigot asked a court in the city of Angers to declare the complaint null and void on the grounds that Google Maps is owned by the company's US headquarters, and not by Google France. Bigot added, "Besides that, Google Street View has a mechanism in place where people caught on camera can blur out their own image with a few simple clicks of the mouse." The court is due to make a ruling on the case on March 15. Streetview controversies * In 2010, Google streetview captured images of two dead bodies in Brazil only days after it was launched in the country. One image showed a body covered by black plastic on a street corner, whereas the second picture showed a body lying at the edge of a major avenue in Rio de Janeiro as cars drove past. Both the images were taken down later. * Later in November, streetview showed a photograph of a naked man in his car trunk in Germany
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