A round-up of other world news in brief
Judge to assess heiress's faculties
PARIS – A French judge will examine whether the elderly heiress to the L’Oreal fortune, Europe’s richest woman, should be stripped of the right to manage her own affairs after showering gifts worth close to €1 billion on a friend.
Liliane Bettencourt (87) says she was in full possession of her wits when she lavished cash, artworks and life insurance on photographer and socialite François-Marie Banier (62) but her daughter disagrees and has taken her objections to the courts.
Lawyer Olivier Metzner, who represents the daughter, said he had launched a civil procedure to try and have Ms Bettencourt declared irresponsible and placed under the authority of a court-designated tutor.
The move is in addition to a separate criminal case in which the daughter, Françoise Bettencourt-Meyers, is pressing charges against Mr Banier. – (Reuters)
UN's charity appeal to major football leagues
The United Nations is launching an appeal to Fifa and five major European football leagues to place a small levy on sponsorship revenues that would help get two million children in poor countries into school.
On the eve of the World Cup draw in South Africa, Unesco says a “Better Future” levy of just 0.4 per cent on all broadcast and sponsorship revenues from next year’s World Cup and the five main European leagues between 2010 and 2015 would raise €30 million a year between now and the following World Cup in 2014.
That sum would put half a million children in poor countries into school every year, of whom 140,000 could be financed by the Premier League’s contribution. Commercial revenues from the 2010 World Cup are projected to reach €560 million. Annual revenues for the major leagues in Europe range from €1 billion in France, to about €1.5 billion in Spain, Italy and Germany and €2.3 billion in England.
– ( Guardianservice)
New York says no to gay marriage
NEW YORK – New York state lawmakers voted against legalising gay marriage yesterday, dashing hopes of gay rights activists that it would become the sixth US state to allow same-sex couples to wed.
The New York state senate voted down the legislation 38 votes to 24.
Governor David Paterson, a Democrat who supports gay marriage, had said he would sign the Bill into law if it were passed. Iowa, Connecticut, Massachusetts, New Hampshire and Vermont have legalised gay marriage, while 40 US states have specific laws that ban gay marriage. Last month voters in Maine chose to repeal a law that had legalised gay marriage.
– (Reuters)