to move up and down
Protester leaps into the cloud of pepper spray — An opponent to the same sex marriage leaps against police barriers during a demonstration near the National Assembly, on April 23, 2013 in Paris, some hours after the lower assembly adopted a bill legalising same-sex marriages and adoption for gay couples, defying months of opposition protests. In its second and final reading, a majority of lawmakers approved the bill by a vote of 331 to 225. AFP PHOTO / KENZO TRIBOUILLARDKENZO TRIBOUILLARD/AFP/Getty Images
Camel gifted to French president is mistaken for food, made into tagine and eaten for dinner
As if President Francois Hollande of France did not have enough trouble with a stagnant economy and a scandal over his former budget minister’s secret overseas bank accounts, now his camel has been eaten.
Grateful Malian authorities gave the baby camel to Hollande during a triumphant visit to Mali in early February, after French troops intervened to drive back Islamist rebels who had seized the north of the country.
The French president left his baby camel in the care of a family in Timbuktu. The family, evidently misunderstanding the purpose of the custody arrangement, proceeded to slaughter the camel and feast on it. According to local reports, it was fashioned into a tasty tagine. (AFP PHOTO / TIZIANA FABITIZIANA)
18th-century French chateau demolished ‘by mistake’ when builders confuse it with separate building
With its twin outside staircase and arched entrances, the Château de Bellevue was one of the most eye-catching sights in Yvrac, a wine-making village nestling among the famous vineyards of Bordeaux.
Beautiful, but rundown and in need of repair when bought by Dimistry Stroskin, a Russian millionaire, the building received a renovation permit and was due to be restored to its former glory.
Instead, it was razed by a Polish building firm. Workers were supposed to demolish only a separate smaller structure in the estate’s grounds, but that is the only one still standing. Villagers are furious about the “accident” and local authorities have opened an investigation. (domainedebellevue.info // Taris Philippe/Newscom)
French satirical weekly Charlie Hebdo’s nude Mohammad cartoons prompt France to shut embassies, schools in 20 countries
A French magazine ridiculed the Prophet Mohammad on Wednesday by portraying him naked in cartoons, threatening to fuel the anger of Muslims around the world who are already incensed by a film depicting him as a womanizing buffoon.
The French government, which had urged the magazine not to print the images, said it was temporarily shutting down premises including embassies and schools in 20 countries on Friday, when protests sometimes break out after Muslim prayers.
Riot police were deployed to protect the Paris offices of satirical weekly Charlie Hebdo after it hit the news stands with a cover showing an Orthodox Jew pushing the turbaned figure of Mohammad in a wheelchair. On the inside pages, several caricatures of the Prophet showed him naked.
Andrew Coyne: France’s vote against austerity is like a vote to outlaw bad weather
The people of France, Greece and several other European locales, it is reliably reported, have just voted against “austerity.” This is cheering news. In future, I hope they will vote against rain, cold sores and bad sex.
If only it were so easy. Alas, the inability of so many European governments to pay for what they wish to buy out of the taxes their citizens wish to pay remains a reality, whatever anyone might have voted. That shortfall cannot be abolished. It must either be closed, through some combination of spending cuts and tax increases, or governments must borrow the difference.
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Vimy Ridge marked Canada’s birth as a nation, G-G says on 95th aniversary of battle
The Battle of Vimy Ridge marked “the birth of a nation” for Canada, says Governor-General David Johnston.
Johnston and a Canadian delegation of politicians and 5,000 students gathered at the Canadian National Vimy Memorial in France Monday afternoon to commemorate the 95th anniversary of the surprising and striking victory for Canada’s military.
The brutal Easter Monday battle killed more than 3,500 Canadians and wounded scores more, according to Veterans Affairs Canada, but was a turning point for the Allies in the First World War and a key moment in Canada’s military identity.
“In many ways it was the birth of a nation. It was the first time Canadians fought together shoulder to shoulder,” Johnston told Postmedia News Monday from Vimy, France. “Not as a subordinate unit in the British army, but on our own.” (Photos: Pascal Rossignol/Reuters)
French shooter Mohamed Merah jumps to death in a hail of bullets
A self-proclaimed al-Qaeda militant died in a hail of bullets on Thursday as he jumped out of an apartment window at the end of a 32-hour siege in southern France.
Mohamed Merah, the main suspect in a wave of shootings that killed seven people, had tried to blast his way out of the siege in the city of Toulouse after members of an elite force known as RAID entered his flat.
But Interior Minister Claude Gueant said the 23-year-old had been found dead on the ground in a dramatic end to the lengthy standoff.
“He expressed no regret apart from not having had enough time to kill more victims and even boasted of having brought France to its knees.” (Photo: PASCAL PAVANI/AFP/Getty Images)
Odd Christmas photo of the day
Santa Claus feeds a Humboldt penguin at Marineland aquatic park in Antibes, south-eastern France, December 13, 2011. (Photo: Eric Gaillard/Reuters)
Photos of the day
People look at high waves on November 8, 2011, in the southern French city of Nice. (Valery Hache/AFP/Getty Images)
The drunken marathon
So I’m in France to get goon-faced drunk while running a marathon through grape-strewn Bordeaux vineyards. Why not?
I’m competing in the 27th annual Marathon du Medoc, a.k.a. The Drunken Marathon. The race is about to start and, though I’ve been to Carnival in Brazil and Mardi Gras in New Orleans, I’ve never seen a party as crazy as this one.
Every September, more than 8,000 runners, winos, miscreants and other costumed deviants descend on Bordeaux vineyards to taste wine while jogging 42 kilometres through 59 vineyards and dozens of French chateaux.
We’ve gathered in Pauillac, a tiny town in Aquitaine, where the marathon starts and finishes at a leisurely, hiccupping pace. Marathon du Medoc is also nicknamed The Longest Marathon in the World, and by that they mean it’s the slowest.
Think about it: How fast could you run 26 miles if you had to run through 23 wine stations during a race where they serve you fresh-shucked oysters, grilled beef and some of France’s greatest reds? More than 100 of France’s finest wineries are pouring along the route. (Illustration by Steve Murray)
Delegates walk out of the United Nations General Assembly in the midst of the speech by Iran’s President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad at the U.N. headquarters in New York. REUTERS/Jessica Rinaldi
Rugby World Cup
A combination picture shows fans of 15 out of 20 World Cup teams with patriotic face paint. STF/AFP/Getty Images
How a pilot turned Air France Flight 447 into a giant brick
A friend asks if I can shed any light on “this flying puzzle” — meaning Air France Flight 447, which crashed on a stormy night en route from Rio de Janeiro to Paris two years ago. I can’t. The more we learn about the events of the night of June 1, 2009, the more puzzling they seem.
In a preliminary report released last week, the French-Brazilian investigating authorities reveal what the “black” (actually orange) boxes say. Recovered after a painstaking two-year search from a depth of 13,000 feet, the doomed jet’s flight data and cockpit voice recorders show three qualified pilots dropping a seemingly intact airplane with functioning engines from cruising altitude straight into the Atlantic below. The transition from uneventful flight to watery oblivion took Air France’s highly trained crew less than four minutes.
Without saying so, the report hints at pilot error. But something, somehow doesn’t compute.
Photo: A plaque in memory of the victims of the Air France flight 447 that crashed into the Atlantic on June 1, 2009 is seen in Rio de Janeiro, June 1, 2011. (Ana Carolina Fernandes/Reuers)
