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PARIS (AFP) - Human activities, notably the building of coastal resorts and the destruction of natural protection, contributed to the enormous loss of life from killer tidal waves that hit the shores of the Indian Ocean after an earthquake, an environmental expert said. Jeff McNeely, chief scientist of the Swiss-based World Conservation Union (IUCN), who lived for several years in Indonesia and Thailand, two of the countries hit by Sunday's disaster, said it was "nothing new for nature" in a geologically active region. "What has made this a disaster is that people have started to occupy part of the landscape...

I have created a public register of "bump lists" here on Free Republic. I define a bump list as a name listed in the "To" field used to index articles. Free Republic Bump List Register

EditorialSecond Thoughts By: William W. Lawrence 11/04/2003Aage Bjerre, the Danish pizzeria owner who refused to serve French and German tourists because of their governments' opposition to our war against Saddam Hussein's tyrannical regime, sent me the following letter. The envelope also contained a picture of a parchment copy of our Declaration of Independence that I had sent him.Mr. Bjerre had it framed and had it hanging in what I believe is his pizzeria.He was fined 5,000 kroner (U.S. $780) for refusing to sell pizzas to German and French tourists, calling them "anti-American."I made a few minor edits to his letter,...

A militant Muslim who reportedly traveled from London to Oregon in 1999 to scout out a possible terrorist training camp has been arrested in Sweden. The arrest yesterday of Oussama Kassir — who authorities say once boasted of being "a hit man" for Osama bin Laden — appears linked to the federal investigation into Abu Hamza al-Masri, the radical London cleric accused of sending Kassir to the United States to help James Ujaama, of Seattle, and others train for jihad. Ujaama pleaded guilty in April to conspiracy to supply goods and services to the Taliban in Afghanistan. As part of...

AN IDEA to replace British place-names such as Waterloo to avoid offending European sensitivities was greeted with derision yesterday. The suggestion came from a 60-year-old Briton who works for a Luxembourg-based bank which provides loans for EU projects. Francis Carpenter wrote in a French newspaper that it would be in the interests of European harmony if "offensive" British names commemorating battles lost by the French were eradicated. Mr Carpenter, employed by the European Investment Bank, suggested that French visitors to London might be "astonished" to find themselves arriving at a railway station called Waterloo. Similarly, Germans and Austrians arriving in...

We are in a cabin deep down below decks on a Navy ship jam-packed with troops that’s pitching and creaking its way across the Atlantic in a winter gale. There is a man in every bunk. There’s a man wedged into every corner. There’s a man in every chair. The air is dense with cigarette smoke and with the staleness of packed troops and sour wool. “Don’t think I’m sticking up for the Germans,” puts in the lanky young captain in the upper berth, “but…” “To hell with the Germans,” says the broad-shouldered dark lieutenant. “It’s what our boys have...

President Vladimir Putin said Thursday Russia could switch its trade in oil from dollars to euros, a move that could have far-reaching repercussions for the global balance of power -- potentially hurting the U.S. dollar and economy and providing a massive boost to the euro zone. "We do not rule out that it is possible. That would be interesting for our European partners," Putin said at a joint news conference with German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder in the Urals town of Yekaterinburg, where the two leaders conducted two-day talks. "But this does not depend solely on us. We do not want...

Baghdad protest turns violentA demonstration by unemployed men in central Baghdad turned into a riot. Police fired in the air, as protesters threw rocks and set cars ablaze. Up to 100 men gathered outside a police station, where they said they had been promised jobs after making payments to police officers. One policeman told Reuters news agency that they opened fire only after demonstrators fired first, and there were unconfirmed reports that several people were wounded. A BBC correspondent who witnessed the incident says it shows that the situation in Baghdad remains extremely volatile, despite coalition claims that security is...

September 26, 2003France writes itself off as arrogant failureby charles brumner New books see a country in declineFRANCE is a nation in decline, blind to its failings and living beyond its means while strutting with empty arrogance on the world stage. That may sound like the standard Francophobe rant from across the Channel or the Atlantic but it is, surprisingly, a view gaining ground in France. Doubts about Gallic supremacy have been a periodic feature of France for centuries. They have now returned, fed by economic gloom and amplified by bestselling books. France, according to the thesis, has been overtaken...

The civil protection agency in Italy says a power cut has left large parts of the country in darkness. A spokesman said that as yet it was not possible to say how many areas were affected, or what the cause of the blackout was. The BBC's David Willey in Rome said he woke to find that there was no power at all, and only battery-powered appliances were working. He says that Rome, the Vatican and Naples are among the areas affected.

WASHINGTON—A Montreal man has emerged as the key figure in a controversy that has dogged Democratic presidential aspirant Wesley Clark during the summer months. Questions have swirled since June when the former NATO commander alleged on national television that he was pressured to link the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks and Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein in a mystery phone call he received. Clark first implied the call, not long after the attacks, might have come from White House, then later said it came from a Middle Eastern think tank in Canada. He has never identified the caller. As Clark kicked...

"Birgitta, six-year-old, lesbian," reads the advert with a photograph of a little girl in a swimsuit and armbands, alongside some childish drawings. "Not all princesses choose a prince," it adds. A campaign by a Swedish gay group to promote awareness that non-heterosexual orientation can start from an early age caused a backlash yesterday from a child protection group that said the sexual depiction of children could encourage paedophiles. Stockholm Pride, a volunteer group that organises an annual gay, lesbian and transsexual festival, launched the campaign on its website and plans advertisements in the mainstream and gay press. Pride's chairman Anders...

Britain to Allow Transsexuals to Marry By Michael Holden LONDON (Reuters) - Britain unveiled plans for a new law on Friday which would allow transsexuals to marry under their adopted sex, ending a long dispute over their legal status. The proposals were given a cautious welcome by campaigners who have been fighting on behalf of Britain's 5,000 transsexuals for over 30 years for a change in the law. However some church groups said they would undermine conventional relationships and family life. "The draft bill will ensure that transsexual people can take up all their fundamental rights including the right to...

WASHINGTON – Consider: In Manchester, England, a radical Muslim who does not even speak English has been elected to the city council, where he needs an interpreter. Consider: According to the German media, secret Shari'a courts appear to be meting out "justice" in Italy. In that country's north a man known to Muslims as a sex fiend recently showed up with a hand missing. It had obviously been amputated as punishment. Italian doctors report treating Muslim women who had evidently been lashed. Consider: In France about 70,000 young women, chiefly Muslim, are being subjected to forced marriages every year, according...

ATTENTION: MAJOR BARF ALERT Here is an article that appeared today on the Palestine Chronicle website written by a leftist anti-semitic perverted American showing his perverted view of what the founders perspective would be today: July 4th: A Founding Fathers’ Perspective Thursday, July 03 2003 @ 04:53 PM GMT By William Hughes at Independence Hall PHILADELPHIA, Pennsylvania (July 4) - President John Hancock: “The Continental Congress is recalled from its 227-years recess for this ‘Extraordinary Session.’ America’s existence is threatened, as it was in 1776, with an emerging menace. Today’s foe is the ‘New World Order.’” The Chair recognized the...

<p>PARIS, France --Flights are expected to be severely disrupted Tuesday in France as air traffic controllers walk off the job to protest government plans to reform the country's pension system.</p> <p>Air France, the country's national carrier, said it would cancel 65 percent of short- and medium-haul flights during the one-day strike, which comes after a series of transport strikes earlier this month that brought much of France to a standstill.</p>

Key decision-makers responsible for shaping Europe's future in space gathered in London yesterday, to discuss how to enhance Europe's leading position in developing space technology. Philippe Busquin, European Research Commissioner, Lord Sainsbury, UK Minister for Science and Innovation, and Antonio Rodotà, Director-General of the European Space Agency, addressed over 350 representatives from government, industry and research. This meeting was part of a series of consultation events on European space policy, following the publication of the EU Green Paper on Space[1]. The consultation will be closed by a major conference in Paris on 23-24 June, paving the way for a White...

<p>WASHINGTON — Matching an effort to modernize the U.S. military at all levels, the Pentagon and its NATO partners have begun reviewing the best locations for U.S. military bases abroad and the ideal force posture for U.S. troops overseas.</p> <p>With the Cold War over and few, if any, military threats in Europe, the United States may pull military bases out of old North Atlantic Treaty Organization (search) countries such as Germany and move them to more friendly countries like Romania and Bulgaria.</p>

France's Teachers Go On Strike Over Minister's Conservatism [Minister Bashes Leftists, Wants Local Control of Schools] By Hugh Schofield in Paris French teachers have embarked on their fourth national strike since the start of the school year in an atmosphere of increasingly bitter recrimination against the country's centre-right government. Teaching unions warn of mounting exasperation To the grievances over funding and jobs that kick-started the movement last autumn are now added anxiety over pensions and opposition to the government's programme of decentralisation. More generally, many in the educational establishment - a body closely aligned with the political left - are...

Sport, sex and celebrity puts Mirror back on trackCiar ByrneMonday April 28, 2003 The Guardian Daily Mirror: first good news for paper since sales fell below 2m earlier this month  More jaw jaw and less war war appears to be the way forward for the Daily Mirror, after a week of "light touch" front page stories gave the tabloid a much-needed circulation boost.A triple whammy of sport, sex and celebrity saw the Mirror put on 31,000 extra sales last Tuesday, according to unofficial industry estimates.It is the first piece of good news for the newspaper since its circulation crashed through...

With a cast of characters including a former prime minister, some of the richest executives in France and Germany, Paris' biggest-ever corporate crime trial continued this week with 37 defendants in the dock. France's largest-ever corporate corruption trial resumed in Paris this week with more drama than your average Mexican soap opera. The case offered further tales of illicit backroom dealing, a €5 million divorce settlement tab picked up by French taxpayers and allegations that a former French prime minister accepted bribes in connection with a string of acquisitions made by the state-owned French oil conglomerate Elf Aquitane in the...

"Dispelling concerns"? These idiots don't realize Hollywood is on the same side as Eurotrash. All is forgiven as Cannes welcomes back Hollywood By LIAM LACEY Dispelling concerns about tense international relations between Paris and Washington over the Iraq war, Cannes Film Festival organizers promised a full complement of Hollywood movie stars for the event next month.These include both Nicole Kidman and her former husband Tom Cruise, with his new love, Penelope Cruz, along with Meg Ryan, Lauren Bacall, Chloë Sevigny, Sean Penn, James Caan and Ewan McGregor. Laurence Fishburne and Keanu Reeves, who will be on hand with the entire...

Threat of switch to Euro currency inspired war April 18, 2003 Dear Editor,Oil has been traded with U.S. dollars since 1971. Other countries must stockpile dollars to be able to purchase oil, which gives America the dominant economy. The only economic bloc to contest America's power is the European Union. Yet, the EU still has to hoard dollars to buy oil, making the Euro's power limited indeed.Iraq switched to the Euro in 1999. Of course, America didn't take this seriously, since the Euro was relatively weak. However, within two years the Euro was gaining on the dollar. Venezuela also has...

France's Islamic heartland by Hugh Schofield The wooded hills of deepest Burgundy are the unlikely setting for a place that could play a key role in the development of a European Islamic identity. The sound of Arabic mingles with the birdsong The unhelpfully-named European Institute for Human Sciences (IESH) is in fact a theological college, which for 13 years has been training up a new generation of indigenous imams for France and the rest of the continent. In the heart of what the French call "La France profonde" (deepest France) - amid the herds of cream-coloured cattle and the breathtaking...

RUSSIA SPIED ON BLAIR FOR SADDAM... // Top secret documents obtained by the Sunday Telegraph in Baghdad show that Russia provided Saddam Hussein's regime with wide-ranging assistance in the months leading up to the war, including intelligence on private conversations between Tony Blair and other Western leaders... MORE...

We didn't think it was possible, but it seems the French are even more degenerate than previously believed: A Paris judge has opened an inquiry into allegations a French company exported HIV-tainted blood to impoverished nations. The investigation into this long-running scandal is prompted by charges filed in November by a Tunisian couple whose son died 14 years ago. The death of 19-year-old Abdelkader Fradi in Sousse, Tunisia was officially blamed on a "cerebral hemorrhage." But the young hemophiliac had in fact contracted the AIDS virus, a taboo subject in Tunisia, his parents say. According to French news reports, the...

EU incenses French perfume makers The European Union now wants perfume makers to reveal the exact contents of their fragrances to alert consumers who might be allergic to some ingredients — but French producers say the idea stinks. Françoise Medgyesi reports. In June, the European Parliament approved a directive aimed at banning the sale of cosmetics tested on animals, but the draft also included a clause requiring fragrance makers to print the components of their scents on the bottle. The move is aimed at helping allergy sufferers to choose aromas that will not cause them harm, but Han Paul Bodifee,...

Guide to French TV channels The French think they have the best TV in the world, just like every nation does - and like everyone else, they're wrong! There's the usual over-abundance of game, talk and variety shows - but in which other country could you find a prime-time programme on culture? This is a guide to the six national terrestrial channels. TF1 This privately-run media is one of the two most popular channels (the other being state-run France 2), and fills up most of its programming with game shows (it bought the rights to Who wants to be...

Middle East - AP Turkish Airlines Flight Hijacked 4 minutes ago ANKARA, Turkey - A Turkish Airlines flight from Istanbul to Ankara was hijacked Friday, the Anatolia news agency reported. The plane was hijacked after takeoff from Istanbul and was now heading toward Greece, private NTV television reported. The plane at first diverted course and began heading toward the Aegean coastal city of Izmir, but later changed course again and began heading toward neighboring Greece, NTV reported. There was no information on the hijackers.

As you all know, as conservatives, we believe it is good sometimes to spank our kids and our wife (ahem), as well as make love to the wife and tickle the children. Why? Because emotions of pleasure and pain etc, have a tendency to hard wire a learned fact. It is called the law of effect, and it is the enemy's strategy that aims at bypassing reason. The left is crude because the left is in a long range process of rewiring what people were taught at birth. They do not go beyond that, yet the scary thing is they...

Home PageArticlesNewsOpen ForumDirectory Peace Think TankIn the NewsIsraeli-Arab ConflictDomestic PoliticsIsraeli-World RelationsReligion/CultureGeneral DiscussionPhotos Forum HomeChange SettingsRegisterFAQSearch Now Do You Understand What Israel Is Up Against?March 25, 2003By ibrodsky So what can the U.S. expect in Iraq once the conventional war ends? Count on a protracted campaign of lies, terrorism, and public gloating over cruelly-inflicted coalition losses. There is no doubt we will win the conventional war with Iraq. But will we win the war of attrition that is certain to follow? (IsraelForum.com) -- Many Americans thought Operation Iraqi Freedom would be a cakewalk. They didn?t expect enemy soldiers dressed like...

Explains the Muslim swing vote in France and Germany and how it influences EU policy Hindu Sitah 3/19/2003 Europe's Muslim Street The continent's assertive new ethnic lobby spells trouble for trans-Atlantic relations. Muslims confront the United States, in the place their votes count most. http://www.foreignpolicy.com/story/story.php?storyID=13576 By Omer Taspinar Islam may still be a faraway religion for millions of Americans. But for Europeans it is local politics. The 15 million Muslims of the European Union (EU) - up to three times as many as live in the United States are becoming a more powerful political force than the fabled Arab street....

A Muslim France? In the early 8th century, about 100 years after Prophet Muhammad had passed away, Arab armies had seized all of North Africa and crossed the straits of Gibraltar into Europe. The Visigothic Kingdom of Spain quickly fell. Next was the land north of the Pyrenees, inhabited by the Franks, a tribal people of Germanic origin. These were the ancestors of the modern French. They were led by Charles Martel, grandfather of Charlemagne, the greatest of all Franks. The Arabs sent a raiding party across the Pyrenees and into France, penetrating into a region not far from Paris....

A superb dissertation which explains the pro-Islam, anti-American attitudes prevalent in France. The Crescent and the Tricolor France today has more Muslims than practicing Catholics, and couscous has arguably become the country's national food by Christopher CaldwellWHEN, two days before Bastille Day in 1998, the French national soccer team upset Brazil 3-0 to win the World Cup, a million people staged an impromptu parade on the Champs-Elysées. Within days it had become a cliché to call it the most important demonstration since the liberation of Paris from the Germans, in 1944. It was a celebration less of French sports than...

BRUSSELS (Reuters) - Electronic bugging devices have been discovered at offices used by France and Germany in the building where European Union leaders are due to hold a summit from Thursday, an EU spokesman said on Wednesday. Dominique-Georges Marro, head of the EU council press service, said these were not the only delegations affected and it was not known who had planted the devices. "I can confirm that in the course of regular inspections, interception devices have been found...which do not only affect France and Germany," Marro told reporters, partially confirming a report in the French newspaper Le Figaro, which...

<p>A new German study reveals a global media bias against the United States.</p> <p>Increasingly negative coverage has given the United States an all-time low image according to Media Tenor, a Bonn-based watchdog group founded in 1993 by investigative journalists and academics to "ensure and protect balanced journalism."</p>

The Sun storms Paris Zut alors! ... The Sun's Paris editionClick pic to enlarge THE Sun is handing out a special edition of the paper on the streets of Paris today. In it we ask the French people if they are ashamed of their spineless President, Jacques 'Le Worm' Chirac: **Translation below** THE SUN, journal lu quotidiennement par dix millions de personnes, présente ses salutations aux parisiens. Nous pensons qu’en menaçant constamment de recourir à son droit de veto pour empêcher toute action militaire destinée à faire appliquer la volonté des Nations Unies en Irak, votre président, Jacques Chirac, est...

Cleric’s rant at space ace By SIMON HUGHES A MUSLIM cleric accused of preaching race-hate yesterday launched an astonishing attack on dead Israeli shuttle hero Ilan Ramon. Bearded Abdullah El-Faisal, 39, was being quizzed at the Old Bailey about a claim he had made that Jews were “naturally deceitful”. Citing what he called “a more splendid example”, he replied: “They were told not to work on the Saturday — that is their law. The Jewish astronaut died trying to go to the skies on a Saturday.” Ilan, 48, died with six crewmates last Saturday when the Columbia disintegrated as...

Public loses faith in the Chancellor By Toby Helm and George Trefgarne(Filed: 31/01/2003) Labour's lead over the Conservatives has been cut to its lowest level since the fuel protests of September 2000, amid clear signs that the Government is losing its hard-won reputation for economic competence.A survey by YouGov put Labour on 36 per cent (down three since December), the Tories on 32 per cent (unchanged) and the Liberal Democrats on 24 (up three).Crucially, Labour and the Tories now stand almost neck and neck on the issue of economic management, the subject on which Tony Blair based much of his...

By Al Kamen Friday, January 31, 2003; Page A25 At the Conservative Political Action Conference, which featured Vice President Cheney as its opening luncheon speaker yesterday, one of the various exhibition booths hawking paraphernalia had some virulently anti-Muslim vinyl bumper stickers, for $3.95, including one that said: "No Muslims -- No Terrorism." rest of the article. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A3956-2003Jan30.html

European investigators have evidence that over the past six months, Islamic militants have been recruiting hundreds of fellow Muslims to carry out attacks in the event of a war against Iraq, according to French and other European antiterrorism experts. A French expert, who requested anonymity, said one threat to Europe came from radical groups who have links with Chechnya and have learned how to make chemical weapons, either at training camps in Afghanistan or while serving in the Soviet Army. He said Chechnya was now a kind of "neo-Afghanistan," a new training ground and staging area for anti-Western terrorists. What...

January 30, 2003 Leader (U.S.) Eight European Leaders Voice Their Support for U.S. on Iraq Letter From Group of Countries Isolates France, Germany, Smooths Path to War By MARC CHAMPION Staff Reporter of THE WALL STREET JOURNALLONDON -- In a broad statement supporting the U.S. in its effort to strip Iraq of weapons of mass destruction, eight European leaders signed an op-ed article publicly calling for unity with the U.S. position, further shifting the global political calculus toward support for war.The article, published in Thursday's Wall Street Journal, was signed by the leaders of Spain, Britain, Italy, Poland, Hungary, the...

January 29, 2003 New union law to crush fire strike By Jill Sherman and Philip Webster Prescott uses emergency powers in historic breach with Labour allies John Prescott is risking Labour civil war by taking powers to end the fire dispute DRACONIAN powers to force unions to bow to the Government's will on pay were announced by John Prescott and Tony Blair yesterday. Mr Prescott's patience with the Fire Brigades Union finally snapped as he declared that he would take emergency powers to impose a pay settlement on the striking firefighters. A Bill will be introduced next month which...

Iraq Report 7 September 2001, Volume 4, Number 28 IRAQI CHEMICAL WEAPONS BUILDUP REPORTED. The "Sunday Telegraph" of 2 September reported that at least 20 specially trained Iraqi soldiers are dead and up to 200 have been hospitalized after taking part in a chemical weapon exercise that went wrong. News of the accident emerged last week amid concerns that Saddam Husseyn has rebuilt his chemical weapons arsenal. Intelligence sources reported that the soldiers were based in the Za'farniya region south of Baghdad. A diplomat said that they were training in the Al-Suwayra and Basmaya camps three months ago. After...

When he became mayor of the sleepy village of Taszar, a community of just 2,100 souls, Tibor Mercz did not think he was taking on an unmanageable task. But with the imminent arrival of up to 5,000 men of Arab origin at Taszar's military base, Mr Mercz has his work cut out. The men, most of them Iraqi exiles living in America and Britain, are to be trained over a six-week period as interpreters for the United States Army for use in the event of a war. Some will be used with Special Forces troops acting as artillery spotters and...

Winter 2003 | Vol. 13, No. 1 Why Feminism Is AWOL on Islam Kay S. Hymowitz Argue all you want with many feminist policies, but few quarrel with feminism’s core moral insight, which changed the lives (and minds) of women forever: that women are due the same rights and dignity as men. So, as news of the appalling miseries of women in the Islamic world has piled up, where are the feminists? Where’s the outrage? For a brief moment after September 11, when pictures of those blue alien-creaturely shapes in Afghanistan filled the papers, it seemed as if feminists...

ZURICH, Oct 4 (Reuters) - Credit Suisse (CSGZn.VX) insisted on Friday it was adequately capitalised, hoping to quash fears it might need to raise fresh capital which sent its ailing shares down over 15 percent to their lowest in over nine years. "Due to the drop in its share price yesterday and today, Credit Suisse Group wishes to announce that it is not aware of any objective reasons prompting this development," Switzerland's second-largest financial conglomerate said in a brief statement. "The group's present capital resources remain adequate, and as stated before, no capital increase of the group is planned," it...

The Space Gen team participated in the Sept 9-12th 2002 UN/ESA Enhancing the Participation of Youth in Space Conference this week in Austria. At that event a number of youth delegates from around the world felt compelled to join together and speak out against the growing inertia in the US to put weapons in space. Here is their declaration: The Graz Declaration For Peace in Space (MS Word RTF format)12 September 2002 The US government is now planning to put weapons in space. This threatens the precious peace of space, and demands a response from the people of the world....

On Aug. 30, a three-judge panel of the World Trade Organization issued its final ruling in a trade dispute that dates back to the Nixon Administration. The international court authorized the European Union to impose penalty tariffs on U.S. exports to Europe by as much as $4 billion a year, by far the largest penalty ever against any of the 144 nations in the Geneva-based trade organization. And the WTO decision represents a complete victory for the Europeans. At the heart of the dispute is a $4-billion-a-year tax break, called the Foreign Sales Corporation [FSC], for U.S. exporters. The panel...

<p>GENEVA — The World Trade Organization on Friday ruled that the European Union can impose trade sanctions of up to $4 billion against the United States in a tax dispute, 20 times the amount levied in any previous WTO spat.</p>