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Monday, 18 February 2008 |
The French government is pushing hi-tech industry in
France in a big way, with numerous pôles de compétitivité
set up to channel government money for factories and
universities.
Policy makers must be worried that the effort may not be
as profitable for the country as they hope when they look at
the huge loss made by one of the biggest hi-tech businesses
in the country, the computer chip maker STM
microelectronics.
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Monday, 18 February 2008 |
The merger between Gaz De France and Suez has been
delayed again. Unions at GDF have expressed their
opposition to the deal which will effectively privatise the
company.
In order for the deal to go ahead, the unions have to give
their formal advice on the project. Claiming that they cannot
do so because they have not been given enough information
about the consequences of the merger on jobs, the unions
have waged a successful court battle. Attempts to take the
matter to the streets have, by contrast, only met with a
lukewarm response.
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Monday, 18 February 2008 |
The ‘Érika oil spill trial sets a legal precedent, to the delight of environmentalists.
The court handed out heavy fines in January to
those judged responsible for the massive
‘Érika’oil spill. In 1999, the tanker ‘Érika’ broke up
in heavy seas in the Bay of Biscay, polluting
400km of coast with 20,000 tons of
heavy oil.
The ship, registered in Malta, was chartered by
the oil-company Total, and deemed sea-worthy by
Rina, an Italian maritime certification company.
Total and Rina, along with the ship’s captain and
manager, were all found responsible. The ship was
shown to be seriously corroded, and had received
inadequate repair and maintenance, though experts
called to the witness box were unable to claim that
these were the only factors in the ship’s sinking.
Environmental groups have hailed as a triumph
the fines imposed on the guilty parties. Total is
ordered to pay €375,000 and a share of the €192
million awarded in damages to the civil claimants.
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Monday, 18 February 2008 |
After winning a long legal battle, Jacques Cousteau’s widow can revamp his boat, Tim Finan reports from Concarneau.
The troubled history of the
‘Calypso’, Jacques
Cousteau’s famous vessel,
looks set to have a happy
ending. For 40 years,
Commandant Cousteau sailed
the world’s oceans in her,
making underwater films which
thrilled the world.
The ‘Calypso’ sank a year
before Jacques Cousteau died at
the age of 87. She was salvaged
and towed to La Rochelle where
she remained for a decade
rusting in dry dock. Meanwhile,
Cousteau’s widow Francine was
embroiled in a bitter legal
wrangle involving the Guinness
family and her stepson over her
ownership.
The legal owner of the boat
was Mr Guinness junior, of the
brewing and banking family,
whose grandfather of the same
name bought the ship, a former
minesweeper built in 1942, after
the end of World War II.
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Monday, 18 February 2008 |
National TV channel France
2 is already in court over
disputed reporting from
Palestine. Now Philippe
Karsenty, the defendant in a
defamation suit against F2,
has drawn attention to
another strange report by
their Japanese correspondent
Philippe Rochot. In January
2005, he caused a stir by
reporting a mass suicide
among computer game fans
on the French national news.
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