Gerard Depardieu has been banned from driving for six months and fined 4,000 Euros for drink driving.
The ban follows an incident in November last year when the actor, 64, fell off his scooter and was taken to a police station drunk.
Depardieu’s lawyer, Eric de Caumont, said he planned to appeal Friday’s ruling. He said his client, who was not at the hearing, was in Moscow filming.
The Frenchman has publicly feuded with France’s Socialist government over high taxes and has accepted a Russian passport offered by Vladimir Putin.
Agence France-Presse reported that when police arrived at the scene and tested Depardieu, he showed a blood alcohol level of 1.8 grams per litre, well above the French limit for driving of 0.5.
In 1998 the actor was involved in a motorcycle crash when his blood-alcohol level was five times over the legal limit. He escaped with leg and face injuries.
The party of jailed former Ukrainian Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko is asking the German government to arrange for her to be flown to Germany for treatment for a back problem.
Tymoshenko ally Arseniy Yatsenyuk asked German Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle Friday to help send her to Germany. The move is seen as an initial face-saving measure acceptable to both Western governments and President Viktor Yanukovych, whose relations have been strained by Tymoshenko’s imprisonment.
Tymoshenko is serving a seven-year sentence on charges of abuse of office, which Western countries have condemned as politically motivated. The European Union has warned it will not sign a long-awaited cooperation agreement with Ukraine until it resolves what the EU calls issues of “selective justice.”
New Yorkers don’t have a reputation as being the friendliest people, but that didn’t deter photographer/artist Joy Mckinney from choosing it as the location for her project to invade people’s personal space.
In her new photo series ‘The Guardian’, Mckinney photographed herself going up to 74 total strangers and touching them in the face.
According to Mckinney her experiment was about ‘breaking down social norms’ and connecting with people in a ‘real and meaningful way’.
She admits she was initially worried about how people would react to her unusual request – especially given the common perception of New Yorkers as guarded and anti-social.
Instead Mckinney found that the majority of people she asked were willing to participate, even if they usually wanted to find out more about what she was planning to do to them.
Mckinney uses photography and video to explore contemporary social and cultural attitudes towards gender and race.
According to Mckinney the underlying message of ‘The Guardian’ series is that all people need to be more open to engaging in different experiences.
‘The more we engage and the more we share with each other the more we can become connected,’ said Mckinney. ‘That was my ultimate goal. What I wanted to do with my photographic work was to explore how we can break through those social boundaries.’
The Clerodendrum genus is a large group of plants that contains many interesting specimens which are suitable for indoor growth. The exact number of plants in the Clerodendrum genus is a matter of some confusion—some references list only 200 species, while others go up to 400 or 500. Originally, Clerodendrum were native to tropical Asia and the Eastern hemisphere, although they have since been acclimated throughout the world. Although there is wide variation in the genus, these are typically fast-growing, semi-woody shrubs of between two feet and eight feet in height. They often have large, very beautiful foliage and spectacular clumps of flowers that rise above the leaves in a showy display. In very warm, almost tropical conditions, the plants will bloom year-round, but it’s more likely in temperate growing conditions they will only bloom in the summer growing season. Some species of Clerodendrum produce suckers at the base of the mother plant that can be used for propagation.
Growing Conditions:
Light: Light requirements vary by species. Some require full sun to bloom and perform well; some prefer dappled sunlight. The most common varieties generally prefer slightly strong light. Water: Ample and regular water during the growing season. If your winters are warm enough, continue watering well throughout the winter. If the winters are cooler, reduce watering in the winter. Soil: A rich, peat-based potting soil with excellent drainage is beneficial. Fertilizer: Feed with a weak liquid fertilizer throughout the growing season. Cut fertilizer back to once a month or so in the winter.
Propagation:
Clerodendrum can be propagated by seed, stem-tip cuttings, and removing suckers on more mature plants. To take a stem-tip cutting, remove a portion of the stem several inches long, dip into rooting hormone and place into a fresh pot with potting soil. To root a sucker, it’s best to remove the stem during repotting and include some of the roots with it, then pot it up into a fresh pot.
Repotting:
Repot in the early spring for perennials. Many people grow Clerodendrum as annuals, especially indoors, where they are fast growing enough to provide a lovely display, including their magnificent flowers, but can be tricky to get through a long winter. When you repot, keep in mind that your plant might naturally want to be seven feet tall, so step up the pot size slowly to reduce its growth rate.
Varieties:
There are many, many species of Clerodendrum available to the trade, mostly sold as outdoor annuals or perennials, depending on your climate. Some of the most common ones include:
C. paniculatum. Commonly known as the pagoda flower, a flowering shrub that grows to 8 feet tall and has been planted for decades throughout the American South. Features orange-red tubular flowers.
C. japonicum. A 5- to 6-foot shrub with large, felt-covered leaves and red flowers. Does best in dappled sunlight.
C. bungei. Commonly known as the pink glower bower, a shrub of about 4 feet in height that blooms in the winter and early spring.
Grower’s Tips:
The ideal situation for a Clerodendrum is probably to keep the plant outside on your patio or balcony throughout the summer, then move it inside during the winter months to coax it through cold weather. When you move inside, watch out for pests such as mealybugs, aphids, and mites. Signs of infestation include tiny webs on plants, clumps of white “powdery” residue, or visible insects on the plant. Treat infestations as soon as possible to prevent them from spreading to the rest of your collection. As always, start with the least toxic treatment option first, only progressing to more serious chemicals if your initial efforts fail.
Desperate to shed its image as one of the world’s rudest cities, Paris has embarked on a campaign to improve its reputation and better cater to the needs of tourists.
Waiters, taxi drivers and sales staff in the French capital all too often come off as impolite, unhelpful and unable to speak foreign languages, say local tourism chiefs, who are handing out a manual with guidelines on better etiquette.
A six-page booklet entitled ‘Do you speak Touriste?’ contains greetings in eight languages including German, Chinese and Portuguese and advice on the spending habits and cultural codes of different nationalities.
‘The British like to be called by their first names,’ the guide explains, while Italians should be shaken by the hand and Americans reassured on prices.
Of the Chinese, the fastest-growing category of tourists visiting the city, the guide says they are ‘fervent shoppers’ and that ‘a simple smile and hello in their language will fully satisfy them’.
France is the world’s top destination for foreign tourists, with Paris visited by 29 million people last year.
The Paris chamber of commerce and the regional tourism committee have warned, however, that growing competition from friendlier cities such as London meant Paris needed to work harder to attract visitors, especially from emerging market countries.
Some 30,000 copies of the handbook on friendly service are being distributed to taxi drivers, waiters, hotel managers and sales people in tourist areas from the banks of the Seine river up to Montmartre and in nearby Versailles and Fontainebleau.
Gerard Depardieu has been banned from driving for six months and fined 4,000 Euros for drink driving.
