95c | ISSUE 15 | OCTOBER 2012
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NEWS, WHAT’S ON INFO FOR AUDE, GARD, HERAULT, LOZERE, PYRENEES-ORIENTALES
RESIDENTS of a small Aude village have become the unin tended centre of media atten tion after reports of a neigh bourhood row over a noisy cockerel went nationwide. Reporters from several French news outlets have flocked to Moussan, near Narbonne, to cover the story that villagers are apparently up in arms over an over-noisy cockerel called Titi, which stops them sleeping at night. But some villagers say the affair has been blown out of all proportion and the media are adding to the disturbance. The cockerel’s owner, Jeannine Laguierce, is unre pentant. Titi lives in a hen house in her garden but villag ers are threatening to make coq au vin out of the trouble some bird and some have lodged official complaints. One of Mrs Laguierce’s neighbours, who declined to be named, said: “We don’t really want to talk to the press, this whole thing had been blown out of propor tion, we’ve even had TV crews filming here. “We are at the end of our tether, this has been going on for a year now. It’s not that we have anything against animals, and we used to be friends with Mme Laguierce: we just need our sleep, that’s all.” Turn to page 4
Photo: Incroyables Comestibles
Village in spotlight over noisy cockerel
Top hospital pledges to overcome cash crisis by LOUISE HURREN
fREE FOOD anyone? P7
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A LANGUEDOC hospital that has been named one of the best It’s in everyone’s in the whole of France is bat tling to find solutions to seri interest to find ous cashflow problems. However, management at answers to this Montpellier CHU (Centre funding problem. Hospitalier Universitaire) say that patients will continue to be Salaries are still treated as normal and all staff and suppliers are being paid. being paid and The hospital is one of the so are our country’s centres of medical excellence, coming fifth in the suppliers’ bills latest annual survey by French Guillaume du Chaffaut current affairs magazine Le Point – making it the best in the Hospital spokesman Languedoc. It is also the region’s biggest employer. M Spokesman Guillaume du Chaffaut said Mont pellier’s strongest points were its cancer, endocri nology, paediatrics and ear, nose and throat departments. He said that out of the 64 criteria
assessed by Le Point, Mont pellier gets 11 top-five places, and 24 top-10 rankings. However, he acknowledged that the hospital was suffering financial problems after its credit score was downgraded by ratings agency Moody’s. The CHU had a deficit of e12million last year. He said: “We are LanguedocRoussillon’s biggest employer, and we provide a lot of work for companies in the region, so it’s in everyone’s interest to find answers to this funding prob lem which is caused by the current state of the financial markets. Turn to page 4
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