Bordeaux's doors open for Henry

Paris:  Bordeaux coach Willy Sagnol said that the French football club has it's doors open for former Arsenal and Barcelona striker Thierry Henry.

The 37-year-old legendary forward, a former French teammate of Sagnol, is now playing for Major League Soccer's New York Red Bulls and his four-year contract with the United States club runs out by the end of this year, reports Xinhua.

Henry has 52 goals from 128 appearances for the Red Bulls in the past four years.

"He deserves a statue in France! He's at the same level as Fontaine, Michel Platini, Zidane," commented Sagnol Friday.

"If he wants to give a helping hand to our attackers and share his experience, he's welcome! Bordeaux's door is certainly open!"

Early last month, there were reports of Henry returning to Ligue 1 after his switch to New York in July 2010, and linking him with a loan move to big-spending Paris Saint-Germain and Monaco.

Sagnol, however, would love to see Henry joining Bordeaux, not just as a player but maybe in a coaching role.

"I saw in an interview that he still wasn't sure what he was going to do with the rest of his life," he said. "I take this opportunity just to get a message across: If he wants to train and become a coach, he is welcome."

Henry, having formerly played for English Premier League's Arsenal and La Liga's Barcelona, was a member of France's 1998 World Cup and Euro 2000 winning squad.

Petitioners Village' -- the price for seeking justice in China

Beijing: More than two hours away from the centre of Beijing is the "petitioners village", a group of huts that belong to citizens demanding justice in China and who are unable to find work or decent housing as they have been blacklisted by the regime.

Wang, 60, lives on a plot of six square metres along with her husband and hides a small latrine under the mattress for emergencies.

Her options are limited: go the open fields to relieve herself or walk for 20 minutes to the nearest public washroom.

"I step out to get vegetables, but only when it gets dark. I'm embarrassed to be seen," Wang tells Efe news agency, sobbing.

Wang was the chief economist of a big company who ended up being demoted and fired with an extremely low compensation package.

"They want to set someone up. I tried to claim through all means and the only thing I got was the torture of the camps (extrajudicial prisons) and social exclusion," says Wang.

Wang, as well the other people gathered in her hut, are victims of the same problem: the rampant corruption in their localities and the lack of an independent judiciary that could provide them a way out.

In such a situation, they have no option but to turn to the government in Beijing to intervene, but all they have been met with is repression.

In most of the cases, the authorities locked them up in the recently abolished prison camps or gulags for four years without a trial. All this, just for asking for justice.

Once released, they are "tarnished" forever.

"My identity card says that I am mentally sick so no one employs me," explained Wang, as she shows Efe the more than 1,000 letters she has sent to the Bureau of Letters addressed to Chinese President Xi Jinping asking him for help, all without receiving any response.

Jia, 55, also marked, says that she gets nervious every time a guard comes close.

"They stop us every now and then so at the time of the (recent Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation) leaders summit I hid in the mountains," she says quiveringly, giving details about how they were beaten with electric rods in the "camps".

"The petitioners are like wandering ghosts. Once thay have been marked in the national system, many of their rights are denied, if not all, including the option of staying in a guesthouse, get a job or even use the subway in Beijing," explains Wendy Lin, Hong Kong coordinator for the China Human Rights Defenders non-governmental organisation.

Hence, they end up in a place they call "petitioners village" where almost everyone has undergone some sort of tragedy or the other and experienced first hand the human rights violations that are committed in the world's second largest economy.

Once in a while, the police pay a visit to this inhospitable area which, despite the poor infrastructure, is riddled with surveillance cameras and where searches are carried out without a court order.

According to some experts, the new judicial reform launched by the government in October will help reduce such situations with measures that exert pressure on local courts to accept more cases, including those involving the authorities.

Kerala's rival fronts go into assembly's winter session on back foot

Thiruvananthapuram:  The winter session of the Kerala assembly beginning here Monday will see the rival fronts - the ruling Congress and the CPI(M) -led opposition - entering the house on the back foot.

This peculiar situation has risen because there are issues plaguing both and despite their best efforts, a solution to their ills is not yet forthcoming and hence none appears to have an edge over the other.

The Left opposition could have easily floored the Oommen Chandy government over what was probably the biggest opportunity it got last month when whistleblower bar owner Biju Ramesh alleged that Finance Minister K.M.Mani was given Rs.1 crore as the first instalment of bribe for allowing to open 418 bars that have shut this fiscal.

Mani's party, the Kerala Congress (Mani), is the third biggest ally of the Chandy government and has nine legislators.

But things did not go the way they should have for the opposition as the majority faction of the powerful CPI-M group, led by state secretary Pinarayi Vijayan, had a soft corner for 81-year-old Mani, who has been a legislator since 1967 and was eyeing the chief minister's post. This is the single post that has eluded him and he was aiming to finish off his political career in style.

Mani, for all practical purposes, had got the tacit support for his long-term ambition and for that Vijayan was willing to back him, provided he broke from the Chandy government.

But things did not go the way Mani wanted to. With the allegation surfacing in a big way, thanks to the media, the beleaguered Mani who was always seen in public with his head held high, went into a huddle and people in Kerala were shocked to see him appear before the media with folded hands and say that he does not have any ambition and was happy where he was.

In the Left front, things have reached a point of no return with the bickering between the CPI-M and the CPI spilling over to the streets. This reached its pinnacle last week with the two top leaders of these parties taking on one another.

The CPI was unhappy with Vijayan extending an olive branch to Mani and on this issue, the two communist party organs are having a field day with each trying to outwit the other, by taking on one another.

Another feature of the upcoming session would be the absence of Speaker G. Karthikeyan, known for his smooth handling of any situation. He is not in the best of his health and the entire proceedings of the house would be handled by his deputy, Sakthan Nadar.

On Wednesday, he had called a meeting of leaders of all the parties in the assembly at his house and sought the cooperation of all.

Karthikeyan told IANS that his presence during the session will be minimal.

With the rival fronts on the back foot due to their own creation, all eyes would be on the manner in which the "bargate" allegation is raked up by the Left opposition. It would be interesting to see how Chandy and Mani react to it, besides the way the CPI takes this up.

Oil pipeline in Mathura tapped illegally, plugged

Mathura: A "specialists gang" operating with high precision tools managed to drill a hole and fix a valve in the crude oil pipeline coming from Gujarat to the Indian Oil Corporation's Mathura Oil Refinery to siphon off crude oil.

IOC official Ajay Pal Singh told media persons Friday evening that a case had been registered and investigations were on. The owner of the field where the theft was detected, in Shershah village under Farah thana, is missing.

It took more than 30 hours for the refinery engineers to detect the hole after pressure in the pipeline was recorded low for the past several days. On examining the entire "low pressure area" they found the underground pipeline exposed and a valve fitted into the line. The punctured pipeline has now been fixed and covered.