Free Republic

NEW DELHI: A turf battle for national highways has erupted with the department of economic affairs (DEA) seeking to take control of the funding for the highway construction programme. After unsuccessfully pushing for corporatisation of the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI), the DEA has proposed changes in the Central Road Fund (CRF) Act to take control of the allotment of fuel cess for infrastructure projects and to decide the priority of expenditure. So far, the road transport and highways ministry is entitled to get the largest share of the CRF, estimated at 41%. The proposal to use 2.5% of...

Francois Fillon, a leading contender in the upcoming French presidential election, suggested Jews do not respect French law. Fillon, a former prime minister who this week won the first round of the presidential primary in France’s center-right Republicans party, made the assertion during an interview Wednesday with Europe1 radio, in which he cited Jews as proof that Muslims may become better integrated. “I think that sectarianism is increasing today within the Muslim community and that the sectarianists are taking that community hostage,” said Fillon. “We need to combat this sectarianism and we need to do it as we have in...

President-elect of France's umbrella of Jewish communities warns of alarming anti-Semitism, vows to fight hard. French Jews are experiencing the most difficult situation they have encountered since the end of World War II, the newly-elected president of France's umbrella of Jewish communities said. Francis Kalifat, 64, said Sunday that his first priority as president of CRIF is to fight against the anti-Semitism that he said was responsible for the situation he described. "The fight against anti-Semitism is our main cause because French Jews are in the most difficult situation they have experience since World War II," Kalifat said during an...

PARIS (Reuters) - As Jews around the world marked Holocaust Day, France has been confronted with the bruising accusation by the head of its Jewish community that it is tolerating a new and pernicious form of anti-Semitism. Roger Cukierman, head of the CRIF umbrella group of Jewish organisations, sparked off a bitter dispute by warning that a "politically correct" anti-Semitism had wormed its way into the far-left amid a rising tide of protest against Israeli policies. He charged on Monday a de facto "brown-green-red" alliance of neo-Nazis, environmentalists and left-wingers in France had started out criticising Israeli treatment of Palestinians...