Free Republic

A French Muslim woman has been charged with assault and inciting a riot after she refused a police ID check because she was wearing a banned full-face veil, a police source said Tuesday. The 18-year-old is to appear in court in the northern city of Lille on October 30 charged with assault, insulting police and inciting a riot after police tried to take her to a station for refusing to provide identification. A French law passed in 2011, the first of its kind to be enforced in Europe, banned the wearing of the full-face-covering Islamic veil. ... In a similar...

BERLIN (AP) -- Zinedine Zidane cut short his dazzling World Cup and closed his career with an ugly head butt -- and a loss. The France captain was given a red card for slamming the crown of his bald head into the center of Italy defender Marco Materazzi's chest after the two exchanged words while walking down the field in extra time. The game was tied 1-1 when Zidane was sent off, head bowed, in the 110th minute Sunday. Without their sharpshooting captain, France couldn't unlock Italy's defense and went on to lose in a shootout, 5-3. Zidane's strike was...

PARIS, Oct. 5 (UPI) -- France's top antiterrorist judge has painted a chilling picture of a new generation of Islamists terrorists in the country. They are younger and more malleable. They include women and converts to Islam. And their cause to sow chaos and bloodshed is shaped by one main tinderbox: Iraq. "Never has the radicalization been so strong," said antiterrorist judge Jean- Louis Bruguiere, in an interview published in France's Le Figaro newspaper Wednesday. "We're witnessing, in fact, a transformation of (Islamist terrorist) networks, with much younger new actors, often even minors and therefore much more malleable," said Bruguiere....