Mountain death crash

The families of two of the competitors who died during last weekend’s Grand Raid Mercantour have started legal proceedings against the organisers. Two men and a woman, all in their fifties, died of hypothermia after falling during the 106 kilometre long event across the Mercantour mountains. Their families say the deaths could have been prevented if organisers had halted the event when weather conditions turned bad.

Counterfeit gang cracked

Gendarmes in Nice claim to have cracked an international racket selling counterfeit machinery. The electric generators, were made in China, and allegedly sold in France by the Italian mafia. A man from Naples, a couple from Antibes, and four other people from Nice have been arrested. 300 of the illegal machines were also seized. The operation involved 400 gendarmes, police and customs officers.

Monaco black-out

More than 2-thousand people, including shops in the Metropole commercial centre, were without electricity for over an hour yesterday. The black-out, just after 11 o’clock in the morning, was caused by a workman who accidentally severed a 20-thousand volt line in the avenue de Grande-Bretagne.

Show jumping elite

The International Show Jumping event gets underway today in the Monaco port. Among the competitors in the event will be Princess Caroline’s daughter, Charlotte Casiraghi, riding G.I. Joe. The top 30 show jumpers of the world will also be in action over three days.

Cannes Lions festival

The Cannes Lions advertising festival continues this week. Yesterdays highlights were the author of a new book called “The death of PR and the growth of advertising,” Stefan Engeseth announcing he would give away 10,000 copies of his book which talks about PR not producing results in today’s world. A study of the world’s biggest brands shows they have not cut back on spending in 2009 as they want to win more market share. Apple was voted best brand. Steve Ballmer CEO of Microsoft was the big highlight of the day, he talked about the fact that when we use search engines like Google only 50% of people find what they looked for. His big message was the world is becoming more digital, the big decline in newspapers and print is set to continue. The festival will continue until Saturday.

Sarko's Israel advice 

French President Nicolas Sarkozy yesterday asked Israeli premier Benjamin Netanyahu to impose a "total freeze" on Jewish settlements in the West Bank. However, the hawkish leader, on his first visit to Europe since taking office in April, replied that "normal life" goes on amid international pressure for direct talks with the Palestinians. Netanyahu flew into Paris from Rome for one-on-one talks with Sarkozy lasting more than an hour, amid reports of a fall-out with Washington over Jewish settlements in the occupied West Bank.

SPORT

Tennis - Roger Federer is through to the 3rd round of Wimbledon but Maria Sharapova is out. So The 5 times Wimbledon champion is through to the last 32 without any problems. Following his victory in the second round Federer said that he hadn’t expected such an easy match. 

Football - The United States have reached the final of the Confederations Cup following an unexpected semi final win over the European Champions Spain. Jozy Altidore and Clint Demsey scored the goals as the U.S won 2 nil. They’ll play either Brazil or South Africa in Sunday’s final. 

Formula One - An agreement has been reached between the F.I.A and the teams to prevent a breakaway series. The two parties had been engulfed in row over budget caps and technical changes for next season but a resolution has been found. As part of the deal the President of the F.I.A Max Mosley has agreed not to stand for re-election in October and will now step down from the post. The Formula 1 boss Bernie Ecclestone said that he was very happy that common sense had prevailed.